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.
Stay A Little Longer
Willie Nelson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
'Cause the bridge's washed out
At the bottom of the hill
Big Creek's up and Little Creek's level
Plow my corn with a double shovel
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Don't see why you can't stay a little longer
Sittin' in the window singin' to my love
Slop bucket fell from the window above
Mule and the grasshopper eatin' ice cream
Mule got sick so they laid him on the green
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
Don't see why you can't stay a little longer
Well you ought to see my blue eyed Sally
She lives away down on Shinbone Alley
The number on the gate, number on the door
The next house over is a grocery store
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
Don't see why you can't stay a little longer
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
Don't see why you don't stay a little longer
Don't see why you can't stay a little longer
This song by Willie Nelson, "Stay a Little Longer," is a nostalgic and metaphorical account of life in the countryside, the relationships between people, and the way they work together to overcome the hardships of their surroundings. The first verse, where the refrain of the song is introduced, speaks directly about the challenge of getting home in a rural area where the roads are not always passable, and the bridges may be washed out. Big Creek and Little Creek symbolize the forces of nature that can either support the people living nearby or cause them harm.
The second verse uses playful and vivid descriptions of life in a farming community. From someone sitting in the window singing to his love, to a slop bucket that accidentally falls, to a mule eating ice cream and getting sick while playing with a grasshopper, these descriptions paint a picture of a slower, more relaxed pace of life where people have time to appreciate the small things.
In between these verses, the chorus repeats the invitation for the listener to stay a little longer. This refrain not only serves as an invitation but also as a plea for people to stick around long enough to get to know the people and the place. The song is an anthem for the rural way of life where people are always coming and going, new relationships are formed, and those who stay a little longer are rewarded with new experiences and deeper connections.
Line by Line Meaning
Can't go home if you're goin' by the mill
Unable to go back home if passing beside the mill
'Cause the bridge's washed out
Bridge is damaged due to floods
At the bottom of the hill
Bridge lies at the base of the hill
Big Creek's up and Little Creek's level
Water is high in Big Creek, while Little Creek is even
Plow my corn with a double shovel
Using a double-headed plow to tend to corn plantation
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Requesting the person to stay overnight
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Asking to dance for a longer duration
Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
Removing coat and throwing it in the corner
Don't see why you can't stay a little longer
Questioning why the person cannot stay for longer
Sittin' in the window singin' to my love
Sitting near the window, serenading my beloved
Slop bucket fell from the window above
A bucket of waste fell from the window upstairs
Mule and the grasshopper eatin' ice cream
Mule and grasshopper are eating ice cream together
Mule got sick so they laid him on the green
The mule falls ill, so they lay it on the grass
Well you ought to see my blue-eyed Sally
A person should see my blue-eyed girlfriend, Sally
She lives away down on Shinbone Alley
Sally resides on Shinbone Alley, far away
The number on the gate, number on the door
There are numbers on the gate and door of Sally's house
The next house over is a grocery store
The adjacent house is a grocery shop
Don't see why you don't stay a little longer
Again, wondering why the person can't stay longer
Don't see why you can't stay a little longer
Reiterating the request to stay longer
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Bob Wills, Tommy Duncan
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Pondy Hsu
You can't go home if you're goin' by the mill
'Cause the bridge's washed out at the bottom of the hill
Big Creek's up and Little Creek's level
Plow my corn with a double shovel
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
Don't see why you can't stay a little longer
Sittin' in the window singin' to my love
Slop bucket fell from the window above
Mule and the grasshopper eatin' ice cream
Mule got sick so they laid him on the green
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
Don't see why you can't stay a little longer
******************
Well you ought to see my blue eyed Sally
She lives away down on Shinbone Alley
The number on the gate, number on the door
The next house over is a grocery store
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
Don't see why you can't stay a little longer
*****************
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
Don't see why you don't stay a little longer
Don't see why you can't stay a little longer....
Dovahkiin
Can't go home if you're goin' by the mill
Cause the bridge's washed out at the bottom of the hill
Big Creek's up Little Creek's level
Plow my corn with a double shovel
Stay all night stay a little longer
Dance all night dance a little longer
Pull off your coat throw it in the corner
Don't see why you can't stay a little longer
Sittin' in the window singin' to my love
Slop bucket fell from the window up above
Mule and the grasshopper eatin' ice cream
Mule got sick so they laid him on the green
Stay all night stay
Well you ought to see my blue eyed Sally
She lives away down on Shinbone Alley
Number on the gate the number on the door
The next house over is the grocery store
Stay all night stay
Stay all night stay
Don't see why you can't stay a little longer
Ref Steinsson
this is the ultimate song of uncles and grandpas. willie legit legend
Andrew Smither
My dad sang this to me every night when I was a kid 😔
Oilfield Muscle
Bob Wills is still the King
Pati Teer
Back in the '70's this one of the favorite songs to sing at keggers around the campfires. Still have them.
D Tittle1964
My grandmother (1910-1991) used to sing this and pick my flattop guitar. She was almost legally blind so she would play by feel. A 3rd grade education and she knew more than most college graduates. Especially when it came to common sense and life.
friedmandesigns
Stay all night, or stay eight years...don't see why ya don't stay a little longer. Cheers to amazin' long-livin' grannies who know more about how the world and living really works than the mileage of 500 freshly-baked college grads. 😉
sara akers
Ppoo
Nature's Finest
@Joe Postove I got run over by a jet plane one time...was trying to outrun it on the runway but it didn't end too well.....😭
You
April Petree Me too your folks from around the tug fork ?
StormLaker1975
Seems like I remember hearing this on the radio in the late 70's when I was quite young....but my parents also had a lot of his music around the house. Great version of the song:-)