Born during the Great Depression and raised by his grandparents, Nelson wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band at ten. During high school, he toured locally with the Bohemian Polka as their lead singer and guitar player. After graduating from high school in 1950, he joined the U.S. Air Force but was later discharged due to back problems. After his return, Nelson attended Baylor University for two years but dropped out because he was succeeding in music. During this time, he worked as a disc jockey in Texas radio stations and a singer in honky-tonks. Nelson moved to Vancouver, Washington, where he wrote "Family Bible" and recorded the song "Lumberjack" in 1956. He also worked as a disc jockey at various radio stations in Vancouver and nearby Portland, Oregon. In 1958, he moved to Houston, Texas, after signing a contract with D Records. He sang at the Esquire Ballroom weekly and he worked as a disk jockey. During that time, he wrote songs that would become country standards, including "Funny How Time Slips Away", "Hello Walls", "Pretty Paper", and "Crazy". In 1960 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and later signed a publishing contract with Pamper Music which allowed him to join Ray Price's band as a bassist. In 1962, he recorded his first album, ...And Then I Wrote. Due to this success, Nelson signed in 1964 with RCA Victor and joined the Grand Ole Opry the following year. After mid-chart hits in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Nelson retired in 1972 and moved to Austin, Texas. The ongoing music scene of Austin motivated Nelson to return from retirement, performing frequently at the Armadillo World Headquarters.
In 1973, after signing with Atlantic Records, Nelson turned to outlaw country, including albums such as Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages. In 1975, he switched to Columbia Records, where he recorded the critically acclaimed album Red Headed Stranger. The same year, he recorded another outlaw country album, Wanted! The Outlaws, along with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser. During the mid-1980s, while creating hit albums like Honeysuckle Rose and recording hit songs like "On the Road Again", "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", and "Pancho and Lefty", he joined the country supergroup The Highwaymen, along with fellow singers Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson.
In 1990, Nelson's assets were seized by the Internal Revenue Service, which claimed that he owed $32 million. The difficulty of paying his outstanding debt was aggravated by weak investments he had made during the 1980s. In 1992, Nelson released The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories?; the profits of the double album—destined to the IRS—and the auction of Nelson's assets cleared his debt. During the 1990s and 2000s, Nelson continued touring extensively, and released albums every year. Reviews ranged from positive to mixed. He explored genres such as reggae, blues, jazz, and folk.
Nelson made his first movie appearance in the 1979 film The Electric Horseman, followed by other appearances in movies and on television. Nelson is a major liberal activist and the co-chair of the advisory board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which is in favor of marijuana legalization. On the environmental front, Nelson owns the bio-diesel brand Willie Nelson Biodiesel, which is made from vegetable oil. Nelson is also the honorary chairman of the advisory board of the Texas Music Project, the official music charity of the state of Texas.
Nelson uses a variety of music styles to create his own distinctive blend of country music, a hybrid of jazz, pop, blues, rock and folk. His "unique sound", which uses a "relaxed, behind-the-beat singing style and gut-string guitar" and his "nasal voice and jazzy, off-center phrasing", has been responsible for his wide appeal, and has made him a "vital icon in country music", influencing the "new country, new traditionalist, and alternative country movements of the 1980s and 1990s".
In 1969, the Baldwin company gave Nelson an amplifier and guitar with their "Prismatone" pickup. During a show in Helotes, Texas, Nelson left the guitar on the floor of the stage, and it was later stepped on by a drunk man. He sent it to be repaired in Nashville by Shot Jackson, who told Nelson that the damage was too great. Jackson offered him a Martin N-20 Classical guitar, and, at Nelson's request, moved the pickup to the Martin. Nelson purchased the guitar unseen for $750 and named it after Roy Rogers' horse "Trigger". The next year Nelson rescued the guitar from his burning ranch.
Constant strumming with a guitar pick over the decades has worn a large sweeping hole into the guitar's body near the sound hole—the N-20 has no pick-guard since classical guitars are meant to be played fingerstyle instead of with picks. Its soundboard has been signed by over a hundred of Nelson's friends and associates, ranging from fellow musicians to lawyers and football coaches. The first signature on the guitar was Leon Russell's, who asked Nelson initially to sign his guitar. When Nelson was about to sign it with a marker, Russell requested him to scratch it instead, explaining that the guitar would be more valuable in the future. Interested in the concept, Nelson requested Russell to also sign his guitar. In 1991, during his process with the IRS, Nelson was worried that Trigger could be auctioned off, stating: "When Trigger goes, I'll quit". He asked his daughter, Lana, to take the guitar from the studio before any IRS agent arrived there, and then deliver it to him in Maui. Nelson then concealed the guitar in his manager's house until his debt was paid off in 1993.
Nelson is widely recognized as an American icon. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993, and he received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998. In 2011, Nelson was inducted to the National Agricultural Hall of Fame, for his labor in Farm Aid and other fund raisers to benefit farmers. In 2015 Nelson won the Gershwin Prize, the lifetime award of the Library of Congress. In 2018 The Texas Institute of Letters inducted him among its members for his songwriting. He was included by Rolling Stone on its 100 Greatest Singers and 100 Greatest Guitarists lists.
Darkness on the Face of the Earth
Willie Nelson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
How could I see the sorrow that had found me
And then you laughed and told me that I was in your way
And I turned and ran as heaven fell around me
I stumbled through the darkness my footsteps were unsure
I lived within a world that had no sunshine
But when you left me darling my world came to an end
And the stars fell out of heaven and the moon could not be found
The sun was in a million pieces scattered all around
Why did you ever leave me, you knew how it would hurt
And now there's darkness on the face of the earth
The stars fell out of heaven and the moon could not be found
The sun was in a million pieces scattered all around
Why did you ever leave me, you knew how it would hurt
And now there's darkness on the face of the earth
And now there's darkness on the face of the earth
The lyrics to Willie Nelson's song "Darkness on the Face of the Earth" are clearly about the despair that a person feels when they have been left by someone they love. In the opening lines, the singer describes the day that his lover left him as just "another day," indicating that he had no forewarning and no idea about the emotional trauma that was to come. When his lover laughed and told him that he was in her way, it was like a slap in the face, as he quickly realized that she had been using him, and that he was no longer needed.
The next lines describe the singer's sense of despair, as he stumbles through the darkness, unsure of where his life is headed. He feels as though he is living in a world without sunshine, which is a metaphor for the gloom and misery that he is feeling. The chorus of the song is particularly powerful, as it describes the sense of emptiness and loss that the singer is experiencing. The stars have fallen out of heaven, the moon cannot be found, and the sun has been scattered around in a million pieces. These images suggest that the whole structure of the world has fallen apart for the singer, as he tries to come to terms with his loss.
The final verse is a kind of desperate plea, asking the lost lover why she ever left, and begging her to come back. The final line repeats the title of the song, indicating that the darkness is a metaphor for the despair and hopelessness that is engulfing the singer. Altogether, the lyrics to "Darkness on the Face of the Earth" are a moving description of the pain of unrequited love, and the sense of betrayal that comes when someone abandons us.
Line by Line Meaning
The morning that you left me was just another day
I didn't see it coming when you left me, it was unexpected
How could I see the sorrow that had found me
I was blind to the pain that would follow your departure
And then you laughed and told me that I was in your way
You made it clear that I wasn't important and didn't matter to you
And I turned and ran as heaven fell around me
I couldn't bear the pain you caused and had to escape somehow
I stumbled through the darkness my footsteps were unsure
I was lost and didn't know what to do or where to go next
I lived within a world that had no sunshine
My life was bleak and joyless after you left me
But when you left me darling my world came to an end
Your departure was a catastrophic event that ruined everything for me
And there was darkness on the face of the earth
My life became a bleak and solitary existence without you
And the stars fell out of heaven and the moon could not be found
The tragedy of your departure made the world seem bleak and hopeless
The sun was in a million pieces scattered all around
I felt shattered and broken beyond repair after you left me
Why did you ever leave me, you knew how it would hurt
I can't understand why you would hurt me so deeply, especially when you knew how much it would devastate me
And now there's darkness on the face of the earth
My life has been a joyless and solitary existence since you left me
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Willie Nelson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
tropicwave1
The morning that you left me was just another day
How could I see the sorrow that had found me
And then you laughed and told me that I was in your way
And I turned and ran as heaven fell around me
I stumbled through the darkness my footsteps were unsure
I lived within a world that had no sunshine
But when you left me darling my world came to an end
And there was darkness on the face of the earth
And the stars fell out of heaven and the moon could not be found
The sun was in a million pieces scattered all around
Why did you ever leave me, you knew how it would hurt
And now there's darkness on the face of the earth
The stars fell out of heaven and the moon could not be found
The sun was in a million pieces scattered all around
Why did you ever leave me, you knew how it would hurt
And now there's darkness on the face of the earth
And now there's darkness on the face of the earth
Songwriters: Willie Nelson
Darkness on the Face of the Earth lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Artist: Willie Nelson
Album: And Then I Wrote
Released: 1962
Genres: Classical, Jazz, R&B/soul, Easy listening, Rock, Country, Blues, Pop
Steve Melancon
Lyrics, phrasing, a song writing genius. God bless Willie and God bless Texas.
dorothy watkins
my favorite singer
kcope001
Love it.
Jewel Dotson
This is my favorite Willie Nelson kind of music, I love all his music but the early ones are my favorite,. Loved his music from the first time I heard him back in the lite 50s.
James Miller
The story of my Life written by a man who didn't know me
None better than Willie
Tom Mortensen
Willie Nelson is the king of the (laid back) phrase.
jason hawkins
What are we gonna do when we lose Willie ? Lord help us.
tropicwave1
The morning that you left me was just another day
How could I see the sorrow that had found me
And then you laughed and told me that I was in your way
And I turned and ran as heaven fell around me
I stumbled through the darkness my footsteps were unsure
I lived within a world that had no sunshine
But when you left me darling my world came to an end
And there was darkness on the face of the earth
And the stars fell out of heaven and the moon could not be found
The sun was in a million pieces scattered all around
Why did you ever leave me, you knew how it would hurt
And now there's darkness on the face of the earth
The stars fell out of heaven and the moon could not be found
The sun was in a million pieces scattered all around
Why did you ever leave me, you knew how it would hurt
And now there's darkness on the face of the earth
And now there's darkness on the face of the earth
Songwriters: Willie Nelson
Darkness on the Face of the Earth lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Artist: Willie Nelson
Album: And Then I Wrote
Released: 1962
Genres: Classical, Jazz, R&B/soul, Easy listening, Rock, Country, Blues, Pop
Coleen Crawford
Beautiful written
rancherodave
Well put elmo