1.My Country
This is pretty damn close to the way i grew up. the family time
was consumed every night with watching television：my mother in a
chair, dad on the sofa, me lying on the floor and my brother sit
Behind me. that was our family unit, and it's something i was
very comfortable with. when i can get my wife and kids to watch
television with me, i get a sense of comfort - it's like what i
reme
As long as they're watching, i don't have to; i read or
something. but at least we're all there together.
The guy in the song doesn't understand why his kids would come
over to his house. he thinks, 'they have their own tvs; why do
they want to come over and watch mine？ if you have a telev
, why would you go anywhere？' that's where this person lives -
it's his country, televisionland. when i go see my father, he
just wants me to go home so he can watch 'matlock.' bu
E felt the same thing. i'm watching a ball game and one of my
kids threatens to come over, and i say to myself, 'shit.'
hopefully i'm not that bad, but i'm pretty close to it.
2.Shame
That's from the point of view of some old spider in new orleans
who throws all dignity to the wind in pursuit of some
19-year-old girl, with 19-year-old skin. i love the idea of the
power that y
Beautiful people have, the power to crush and maim and destroy.
people with all the money in the world, all the power in the
world - and some 19-year-old can rip 'em up. we can be made
helpless
Amuses me enormously and yet, there's a nervous, painful quality
to this song. it's a type of bad love, no doubt about it.
3.I'm Dead
All these baby-boomer musicians are out there, and no one's
leaving the stage. we're able to stick around because there's
this big bulge of 52-year-olds in the population. people are
still sort
Terested in joni mitchell and bob dylan and me. but it's only
because there's so many of us. until we start to die off,
there's going to be this giant cloud hanging over the rest of
the populati
Ewsweek will start running articles like, 'is sex necessary？'
and 'death, the next step.' i don't know whether artists are
going to have 40-year careers in this field habitua
Attention spans are much shorter now.
4.Every Time It Rains
Michael jackson's people called me to write a song for him, and
this was it, though he didn't record it. it's really the type of
song i don't write - a straightforward love song. but i'm glad i
Chance to get out of myself a little bit and do something like
this. it wouldn't surprise me if 'every time it rains' were the
easiest to take for people who've never heard me before.
There's this web site devoted to me, and the people who go on
there recently voted on what their favorite songs are. and the
songs they like best are the ones like 'marie' [from 1
Good old boys]- 'you looked like a princess the night we met／
with your hair piled up high／ i will never forget.' they like
the romantic me, even the biggest fans i have. but i don'
K in that vein much. it's funny. it's like, why me？ why not like
billy joel？
5.Great Nations Of Europe
I read a book by alfred crosby called european ecological
imperialism. it sounds awful, but it was great. it was about how
everywhere europeans went in the world, their diseases came
along with
And killed the native peoples. 'they got tb and typhoid and
athlete's foot／ diphtheria and the flu.' they got all of them.
except for athlete's foot - i had to contribute something oth
An what was in the book.
I'll admit to a certain anti-imperialism. i've got stock and yet
i root against the stock market every day. i just can't help
myself. i'm constitutionally a cubs fan. i've always rooted for
Underdogs, and usually they lose. you know why？ 'cause they're
the underdog.
6.The One You Love
I'ii probably get accused of misogyny for this one, but i don't
really consider that me in the song. this guy's going on about
how women are so changeable, and he's frightened of some little
gir
Can relate to it, though. my wife and i had a turbulent
courtship, and she scared me half the time. i'd talk to her on
the phone, and maybe when she hung up she'd say, 'okay, bye.'
and
Think, 'uh-oh' - it was a bad goodbye. i was like 48 years old
or something, and a bad goodbye would just kill me.
The whole thing is trying to anticipate another person's needs,
and feeling so superior if you can do it - feeling so smart
because you know what this person is thinking. because sometimes
E don't tell you what's bothering them. but maybe that's because
they don't want you to 'solve' them. i've had more fights with
women that start with her saying, 'what's wrong？＆qu
Nd i say, 'nothing.' but she keeps asking me until i say,
'something is going to be wrong if you keep asking me what's
wrong.' you can drive each other crazy - it's definitel
Ther variety of bad love.
7.The World Isn't Fair
when karl marx was a boy
He took a hard look around
He saw people were starving all over the place
While others were painting the town
The public spirited boy
Became a public spirited man
So he worked very hard and he read everything
Until he came up with a plan
There'll be no exploitation
Of the worker or his kin
No discrimination 'cause of the color of your
Skin
No more private property
It would not be allowed
No one could rise too high
No one could sink too low
Or go under completely like some we all know
If marx were living today
He'd be rolling around in his grave
And if i had him here in my mansion on the hill
I'd tell him a story t'would give his old heart
A chill
It's something that happened to me
I'd say, karl i recently stumbled
Into a new family
With two little children in school
Where all little children should be
I went to the orientation
All the young mommies were there
Karl, you never have seen such a glorious sight
As these beautiful women arrayed for the night
Just like countesses, empresses, movie stars and
Queens
And they'd come there with men much like me
Froggish men, unpleasant to see
Were you to kiss one, karl
Nary a prince would there be
Oh karl the world isn't fair
It isn't and never will be
They tried out your plan
It brought misery instead
If you'd seen how they worked it
You'd be glad you were dead
Just like i'm glad i'm living in the land of the
Free
Where the rich just get richer
And the poor you don't ever have to see
It would depress us, karl
Because we care
That the world still isn't fair
8.Big Hat, No Cattle
There's a book called the duke of deception, written by geoffrey
wolff. it's about his father, who was a tremendous liar, though
he appeared to be completely beyond reproach. he'd created this
w
Parallel identity, pretending to have attended certain
Schools, pretending to have certain businesses. he made a
profession of lying. i'm not talking about an occasional lie -
that does not qualify for 'big hat, no cattle.' i'm talking abo
Ople who base a whole life on lying, people who have cards that
say 'producer,' or 'ceo, cloverdale music.' what does it cost to
have cards printed up with anything you want？
Ing.
9.Better Off Dead
Musically, this one has a sort of overblown, heavenly quality to
it. but lyrically, it's another story of a guy getting himself
into a bad relationship that he can't get out of. he says, 'w
Ou fall in love with someone who doesn't love you／ someone who
treats you so badly it ramifies your head／ someone who doesn't
want you but won't let you go／ someone who thinks you're crazy
and t
You so, over and over and over／ if this happens to you, you're
better off dead.' it's exaggerated, but there's a kernel of
truth there for so many people. you don't know what bad is until
y
El that. i know what i'm talking about because i was once a
woman who loved too much.
I know some critic is going to think i don't know what the word
ramify means, or how to use it. made up an alternate verb form
of it here, like a made-up r＆b word, like the 'puppet
Quot; of love. wanted to say how there would be ramifications
from something that happens to your head in this kind of a
relationship. i should've said 'blamifies' or something to make
Eally obvious i was playing with the word, but i just didn't
give a fuck.
10.I Miss You
Something in me can't be straight about romance. i don't
completely mean this song - i'm not going to move up next door
to my first wife, who lives in idaho. this one reminds me of
that neil you
Ng, 'look out for my love,' which says, 'it's in your
neighborhood,' like, beware. but 'i miss you' is genuine. i love
my ex-wife. my boys told me i better warn her
This song was coming. she knows me, though - she knows i'd sell
anyone out for a song. we were married 18 years and i never
wrote a song about her in all that time. actually, i've never
written
Ng about anyone in my whole life.
11.Going Home
This is a world war i song. world war i fascinates me because it
was such a shock to the world. nothing before or since has come
close. it was a horrible, horrible event. it was modern weaponry
Avalry and then tanks. they fought for four years over a hundred
yards, some ridiculously small amount of ground. it's the
stupidest event in history.
This is one of those songs that i just can't sing - it's right
in one of the cracks in my range. so we did it to approximate
what a recording of that era would sound like. i know mitchell's
G to get blamed in some review for using all these effects, but
we did it because i simply can't sing the thing.
12.I Want Everyone To Like Me
I do want everyone to like me. that's why people get into show
business. there have been times in my life where i wondered
whether i was saying things i really thought or felt or meant,
or wheth
Was saying things to make people like me. i first started
worrying about it when i was in the sixth grade, and i still
don't know the answer.
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