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.
It Will Come To Pass
Willie Nelson Lyrics
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And bring the seasons to their fruitful end
And little men and trains will crawl
And snake their way around the timeless bend
And rivers, too, will course their way to find the hungry Mother Sea at last
And love will grow, it will come to pass
The sun will blaze its scorching path
And men with charts will scan the skies
In quest of life on some forgotten shore
And in the quiet womb the sleeping seed
Will stretch its arms and grow at last
And love will grow, it will come to pass
It will come to pass
Though men and minds and times will change
Still pinioned they by fears of growing old
Though scalpeled hands will plumb the deepest corners
None will find the soul
Yet bearded men in sandwich boards will tell the sinful streets
"He's Come At Last", and love will grow, it will come to pass
In the song "It Will Come To Pass", Willie Nelson is singing about the cyclical nature of life and how everything changes but ultimately comes full circle. He describes how the turning earth brings about the changing of the seasons and how little men and trains crawl around the bends of time. He also talks about how rivers flow to find the sea, and how love grows and will come to pass.
Nelson then goes on to sing about the repetitive nature of the sun's path across the sky and how men will always search for life beyond their own planet. He also sings about the growth of life, from the sleeping seed in the quiet womb to love, which he believes will come to pass.
Despite the changes that occur in society and humanity as a whole, Nelson believes that love will always endure. He touches on the idea that people will always have fears of growing old and that some will try to find the soul through science or religion, but ultimately, it is love that will prevail.
Overall, "It Will Come To Pass" is a song about hope and the cyclical nature of life. Nelson seems to be encouraging listeners to believe in the power of love and to trust that things will always come full circle in the end.
Line by Line Meaning
The turning earth will raise its wand
The earth will continue to rotate and bring different seasons.
And bring the seasons to their fruitful end
The changing seasons will perform their natural ending cycles.
And little men and trains will crawl
People and trains, small in the grand scheme of things, will continue their journey.
And snake their way around the timeless bend
The path will be long and bendy, but things will still progress.
And rivers, too, will course their way to find the hungry Mother Sea at last
The rivers will flow and eventually reach the ocean.
And love will grow, it will come to pass
Love will grow and develop over time.
The sun will blaze its scorching path
The sun will continue to do its part and blaze its path.
Across the sky a million times or more
The sun rises and sets every day, for many many years.
And men with charts will scan the skies
Scientists will continue to study the skies.
In quest of life on some forgotten shore
Scientists search for possible extraterrestrial life.
And in the quiet womb the sleeping seed
A new beginning starts with a small seed in a quiet environment.
Will stretch its arms and grow at last
The small seed grows up to develop new life.
Though men and minds and times will change
People and their thoughts will change over time.
Still pinioned they by fears of growing old
People worry about aging and death.
Though scalpeled hands will plumb the deepest corners
Surgeons may search the human body to its deepest corners.
None will find the soul
The human soul is difficult to understand or locate physically.
Yet bearded men in sandwich boards will tell the sinful streets
Religious people will preach to the streets, especially to those who have sinned.
"He's Come At Last", and love will grow, it will come to pass
They will proclaim God's arrival, and love will still continue to flourish despite the events that may occur.
It will come to pass
Everything will eventually work out or come to be, even if it may be later than people want it to be.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: BAIRD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind