Don't call pretty Peggy, she can't hear you no more
Don't leave no message 'round her back door
They say the old laughin' lady been here before
She don't keep time, she don't count score

You can't have a cupboard if there ain't no wall
You got to move, there's no time left to stall
They say the old laughing lady dropped by to call
And when she leaves, she leaves nothing at all

See the drunkard of the village falling on the street
Can't tell his ankles from the rest of his feet
He loves his old laughing lady 'cause her taste is so sweet
But his laughing lady's loving ain't the kind he can keep

There's a fever on the freeway, blacks out the night
There's a slipping on the stairway, just don't feel right
And there's a rumbling in the bedroom and a flashing of light
There's the old laughing lady, everything is alright


Lyrics submitted by sloop, edited by JackTStripper

The Old Laughing Lady Lyrics as written by Neil Young

Lyrics © Hipgnosis Songs Group

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The Old Laughing Lady song meanings
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    My Interpretation

    The Old Laughing Lady is Shakti - life AND death in the world of form as we experience it. Shakti is locked in eternal relationship with Shiva (pure consciousness - the All; God without form). Many interpretations of this ... it's a model for understanding the nature of our dilemma/gift. We are all embraced by, manifest as, Shakti... the illusion of self is "the cupboard" we can't experience self (this little mortal self we think is us) without the context of Maya - "the wall." If you start with this premise, and the understanding that, what adds the zest and urgency of life, the beauty as well as the angst (you might say potential for terror) is that we perceive our 'selves' as creatures of time, is our mortality, the lyric makes perfect sense. Neil was tapped into, aware of, the other side of the looking glass and its implications, from a very young age... perhaps a gift of his epilepsy.

    MarkofEarthon November 08, 2009   Link

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