Neil Young – A Letter Home [2014]
(Third Man records 2014)
1. A Letter Home intro
2. Changes (Phil Ochs)
3. Girl from the North Country (Bob Dylan)
4. Needle of Death (Bert Jansch)
5. Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot)
6. Crazy (Willie Nelson)
7. Reason to Believe (Tim Hardin)
8. On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)
9. If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot)
10. Since I Met You Baby (Ivory Joe Hunter)
11. My Hometown (Bruce Springsteen)
12. I Wonder If I Care as Much (Don Everly)
A Letter Home intro
If you’re traveling in the north country fair
Where the winds hits heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
‘Cause she once was a true love of mine
If you’re goin’ when the snowflakes storm
When the rivers freeze and the summer ends
Please see for me she has a coat so warm
To keep her from the howling wind
Please see for me if her hair hangs long
If it rolls and flows all down her breasts
Please see for me if her hair’s hanging long
That’s the way I remember her best
I’m a-wondering if she remembers me at all
Many times I’ve often prayed
In the darkness of my night
In the brightness of my day
If you’re traveling in the north country fair
Where the winds hits heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
‘Cause she once was a true love of mine
Changes (Phil Ochs)
When sadness fills your heart
And sorrow hides the longing to be free
When things go wrong each day
You fix your mind to âscape your misery
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
How strange, your happy words
Have ceased to bring a smile from everyone
How tears have filled the eyes
Of friends that you once had walked among
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
One grain of pure white snow
Dissolved in blood spread quickly to your brain
In peace your mind withdraws
Your death so near your soul can’t feel no pain
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
Your mother stands a’cryin’
While to the earth your body’s slowly cast
Your father stands in silence
Caressing every young dream of the past
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
Through ages, man’s desires
To free his mind, to release his very soul
Has proved to all who live
That death itself is freedom for evermore
And your troubled young life
Will make you turn
To a needle of death
Girl from the North Country (Bob Dylan)
If you’re traveling in the north country fair
Where the winds hits heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
‘Cause she once was a true love of mine
If you’re goin’ when the snowflakes storm
When the rivers freeze and the summer ends
Please see for me she has a coat so warm
To keep her from the howling wind
Please see for me if her hair hangs long
If it rolls and flows all down her breasts
Please see for me if her hair’s hanging long
That’s the way I remember her best
I’m a-wondering if she remembers me at all
Many times I’ve often prayed
In the darkness of my night
In the brightness of my day
If you’re traveling in the north country fair
Where the winds hits heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
‘Cause she once was a true love of mine
Needle of Death (Bert Jansch)
When sadness fills your heart
And sorrow hides the longing to be free
When things go wrong each day
You fix your mind to âscape your misery
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
How strange, your happy words
Have ceased to bring a smile from everyone
How tears have filled the eyes
Of friends that you once had walked among
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
One grain of pure white snow
Dissolved in blood spread quickly to your brain
In peace your mind withdraws
Your death so near your soul can’t feel no pain
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
Your mother stands a’cryin’
While to the earth your body’s slowly cast
Your father stands in silence
Caressing every young dream of the past
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
Through ages, man’s desires
To free his mind, to release his very soul
Has proved to all who live
That death itself is freedom for evermore
And your troubled young life
Will make you turn
To a needle of death
Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot)
In the early morning rain with a dollar in my hand
And an aching in my heart and my pockets full of sand
I’m a longway from home and I miss my loved one so
In the early morning rain with nowhere place to go
Cut on runway number nine, big 707 set to go
I’m stuck here on the grass, with the pain that ever grows
The liquor tasted good and the women all were fast
Well, there she goes, my friend, she’s rolling down at last
Hear the mighty engines roar, see the silver bird on high
She’s away and westward bound, far above the cloud she’ll fly
Where the morning rain don’t fall and the sun always shines
She’ll be flying over my home in about three hours time
This old airport’s got me down, it’s no earthly good to me
Cause I’m stuck here on the ground, cold and drunk as I might be
You can’t hop a jet plane like you can a freight train
So I’d best be on my way in the early morning rain
Crazy (Willie Nelson)
Crazy
I’m Crazy for feeling so lonely
I’m crazy
Crazy for feeling so blue
I knew
You’d love me as long as you wanted
And then someday
You’d leave me for somebody new
Worry
Why do I let myself worry?
Wonderin’
What in the world did I do?
Crazy
For thinking that my love could hold you
I’m crazy for tryin’ and crazy for cryin’
And I’m crazy, for lovin’ you
I’m crazy for tryin’ and crazy for cryin’
I’m crazy, for lovin’ you
Reason to Believe (Tim Hardin)
If I listened long enough to you
I’d find a way to believe that it’s all true
Knowing that you lied straight faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe
Someone like you makes it hard to live
Without somebody else
Someone like you makes it easy to give
Never thinking of myself
If I gave you time to change my mind
I’d find a way to leave the past behind
Knowing how you lied straight faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe
Someone like you makes it hard to live
Without somebody else
On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)
On the road again
Just can’t wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends
And I just can’t wait to get on the road again
On the road again
Goin’ places that I’ve never been
Seein’ things that I may never see again
And I just can’t wait to get on the road again
On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We’re the best of friends
Insisting that the world keep turning our way and our way
Is on the road again
I just can’t wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends
And I just can’t wait to get on the road again
On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We’re the best of friends
Insisting that the world keep turning our way and our way
Is on the road again
Just can’t wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends
And I can’t wait to get on the road again
And I can’t wait to get on the road again
If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot)
If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
About a ghost from a wishin’ well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
You know that ghost is me
And I will never be set free
As long as I’m a ghost, you can see
If I could read your mind love
What a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel
The kind the drugstore sells
When you reach the part where the heartaches
Come the hero would be me
Heroes often fail
And you won’t read that book again
Because the endings just to hard to take
I’d walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script
Enter number two, a movie queen
To play the scene of bringing
All the good things out in me
But for now love let’s be real
I never thought I could act this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feelings gone and I just can’t get it back
If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
About a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet the story always ends
If you read between the lines
You’ll know that I’m just trying to understand
The feelings that you lack
I never knew I could feel this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feelings gone and I just can’t get it back
Since I Met You Baby (Ivory Joe Hunter)
Since I met you baby, my whole life has changed
And everybody tells me that I am not the same
I don’t need nobody to tell my troubles to
I don’t need nobody to tell my troubles to
Cause since I met you baby, all I need is you
Since I met you baby, I’m a happy man
Since I met you baby, I’m a happy man
I’m gonna try to please you in every way I can
My Hometown (Bruce Springsteen)
I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the busstop
To pick up a paper for my old man
I’d sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He’d tousle my hair and say son take a good look around this is your hometown
Your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown
In ’65 tension was running high, at my high-school
There was a lot of fights between the black and white
There was nothing you could do
Two cars at a light on a Saturday night, in the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed, in a shotgun blast
Troubled times had come, to my hometown
My hometown
My hometown
My hometown
Now Main Street’s white washed windows
And vacant stores
Seems like there ain’t nobody
Wants to come down here no more
They’re closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain’t coming back to your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Last night me and Kate we laid in bed talking about getting out
Packing up our bags maybe heading south
I’m 35, we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up, behind the wheel and said son take a good look around, this is your hometown
I Wonder If I Care as Much (Don Everly)
I wonder if I care as much
As I did before
Last night I cried myself to sleep
For the one that makes me weep
I dried my eyes to greet the day,
And wondered why I had to pay
The tears that I have shed by day
Give relief and wash away
The memory of the night before
I wonder if I’ll suffer more
I wonder if I care as much
As I did before
My pride is made to say forgive
And take the blame for what you did
It’s your mistakes I’m thinkin’ of
I wonder if I’m still in love
My heart can’t thrive on misery
My life it has no destiny
When things get more
Than I can bear
I ask myself, do I still care?
I wonder if I care as much
As I did before
———
Neil Young: vocal, guitar, harmonica, piano
Jack White: vocal, piano – On The Road Again,
Jack White: vocal, guitar – I Wonder If I Care As Much
Recorded at: Third Man Records Nashville, TN
Electro-mechanically engineered by: Joshua V. Smith & Kevin Carrico
Recorded by: Joshua V. Smith
Assisted by: Mindy Watts
Recorded to acetate by: George Ingram
Mastered by: Bob Ludwig for Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME