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.
Mountain Dew
Willie Nelson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Where you lay down a dollar or two
You go round the bend and you come back again
With a jug of that good ole mountain dew
They call it that ole mountain dew Lord Lord and them that refuse it are few
I'll hush up my mug if you'll fill up my jug with that good ole mountain dew
The preacher came by with his head high said hi said his wife took down with the flu
Of that good old mountain dew
Well we call it that ole mountain dew
My uncle Mort he's sawed off and he's short he measures bout four foot two
But he thinks he's a giant when you give him a pint of that good old mountain dew
Well we call it that ole mountain dew
Hush up my mug if you'll fill up my jug with that good ole mountain dew
In Willie Nelson's song Mountain Dew, he sings about a popular moonshine that is called "that ole mountain dew". The song talks about going to an old holler tree where you can buy a jug of the mountain dew by laying down a dollar or two. He makes it clear that this drink is not for everyone, only a few refuse it. The preacher comes by asking for a quart of the moonshine because his wife has the flu, and he thinks it would be helpful for her. Nelson then talks about his Uncle Mort, who measures about four foot two and drinks the moonshine, and it gives him a sense of power and makes him feel like a giant.
The song is an example of a classic country-style song that talks about something that is illegal but celebrated in the culture. The song connotes that one can only get the moonshine from far away, hidden places, and that it’s a rare commodity. Though the consequences of producing and consuming moonshine were dire, it was acceptable in rural America. The line "hush up my mug if you'll fill up my jug with that good ole mountain dew" is a classic expression in the country culture that is still celebrated today.
Line by Line Meaning
Now there far from me there's an old holler tree
There is an old holler tree located far away from my current location
Where you lay down a dollar or two
You can pay a small amount of money there
You go round the bend and you come back again
You have to take a turn and then return to the original place
With a jug of that good ole mountain dew
Once you do that, you get a jug filled with good mountain dew
They call it that ole mountain dew Lord Lord and them that refuse it are few
People refer to it as old mountain dew and only a handful of them refuse to drink it
I'll hush up my mug if you'll fill up my jug with that good ole mountain dew
I'll be quiet if you fill up my jug with the good old mountain dew
The preacher came by with his head high said hi said his wife took down with the flu
The preacher came by and greeted us and told us that his wife is sick with the flu
And he thought that we're hard just to give him a quart
He assumed that we would be difficult to give him a quart of mountain dew
Of that good old mountain dew
He was asking for a quart of good old mountain dew
Well we call it that ole mountain dew
We tend to call it old mountain dew
My uncle Mort he's sawed off and he's short he measures bout four foot two
My uncle Mort is very short and measures only about four feet and two inches
But he thinks he's a giant when you give him a pint of that good old mountain dew
But he feels like a giant when you offer him a pint of the good old mountain dew
Hush up my mug if you'll fill up my jug with that good ole mountain dew
I won't say anything if you fill up my jug with the good old mountain dew
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: William York
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind