The Old Laughing Lady Lyrics

Lyric discussion by JimmiP 

Cover art for The Old Laughing Lady lyrics by Neil Young

I think ruarchitect is right on.

The Laughing Lady: What a great symbol of addiction. First it is fun and the lady is laughing with you. Soon though you come to need her and her laughter turns to a taunting laughter at you. Later her laughter becomes a sadistic cackle at what she has done to you.

Verse 1 Pretty Peggy is probable a young addict who has overdosed.

Verse 2 Probablly refers to the homless addict that has lost everything to addiction.

Verse 3 The hopeless addict that will never quit even though they know it will kill them in the end.

Verse 4 The addicted driver who drives home every night, stumbles upstairs in a stuper and fights with their spouse. Eventually shooting or killing them and not even caring as long as they have their drug of choice.

My Interpretation

Hay I can see that, first a car is fun, later you depend on it and think it is the greatest thing in the world, later you find out you had no clue what a real car could do.

@JimmiP I think Pretty Peggy refers to his wife at the time "Peggy". She evidently overcame some kind of addition. "don't call pretty Peggy, she can't hear you no more"