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.
Joy To The World
Willie Nelson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart prepare Him room
And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven and Heaven and nature sing
Joy to the world, the Savior reigns
While fields and rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy
He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of His love
And wonders, wonders, of His love
The first stanza of the song, "Joy to the world, the Lord is come, Let earth receive her King, Let every heart prepare Him room, And Heaven and nature sing" emphasizes the arrival of the Lord, Jesus Christ. The arrival of Jesus could be perceived as a joyous event that should not be taken lightly. The second sentence's words "Let every heart prepare Him room" has a deeper meaning as it highlights that the Lord cannot reside in hardened hearts that are bogged down with materialistic pursuits.
The second stanza's first line, "Joy to the world, the Savior reigns" is an echo of the belief that Christ triumphantly defeated death, and as a result, he is the rightful savior of our beings. The following lines "Let men their songs employ, While fields and rocks, hills, and plains, Repeat the sounding joy" denotes that everyone around the earth should rejoice and celebrate. The use of the natural environments, such as fields and rocks, portrays that creation is also filled with happiness and jubilant behavior at the savior's arrival.
The third and final stanza signifies Christ's rules and manner of governing the world. The first line states, "He rules the world with truth and grace," highlights two critical components of Christ's leadership style, respectively, truth and grace. The phrase "makes the nations prove" denotes that Christ's power is manifested in the actions of nations, and when they do so, they glorify His righteousness. The ending phrase is a direct reference to God's infinite love for humanity; it's wonders are endless.
Line by Line Meaning
Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let us celebrate with great happiness because God has come to this world to bless us.
Let earth receive her King
Every person on earth should welcome the arrival of the King of the world.
Let every heart prepare Him room
We should create a place in our hearts to embrace Him with all of our being.
And Heaven and nature sing
Even Heaven and the rest of nature rejoice and sing in honor of His arrival!
And Heaven and nature sing
Even Heaven and the rest of nature rejoice and sing in honor of His arrival!
And Heaven and Heaven and nature sing
The entire universe is singing and rejoicing in honor of His coming!
Joy to the world, the Savior reigns
We should be happy and celebrate because the Savior has come and is ruling the world.
Let men their songs employ
Let everyone use their voices and sing to praise Him.
While fields and rocks, hills and plains
Even the fields, rocks, hills, and plains join in singing to honor Him.
Repeat the sounding joy
Let us continue to sing and share the joy of His coming for many years to come!
Repeat the sounding joy
Let us continue to sing and share the joy of His coming for many years to come!
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy
Let us keep repeating the joyful songs and keep praising Him.
He rules the world with truth and grace
He governs the world and spreads the truth and grace to every corner of the earth.
And makes the nations prove
He helps the nations to experience and testify His glory.
The glories of His righteousness
He shows us the magnificence of His righteousness.
And wonders of His love
Also, His boundless love is witnessed by us and it fills our hearts with awe and wonder.
And wonders of His love
Also, His boundless love is witnessed by us and it fills our hearts with awe and wonder.
And wonders, wonders, of His love
His love fills us with astonishment and wonder, and we keep talking about it further.
Lyrics © HAL LEONARD LLC, BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Integrity Music
Written by: Isaac Watts, G Handel, Roger Wagner
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind