Lyrics to
Thrasher

This version of Thrasher was released by Neil Young in 1979.

Our About Neil Young page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Thrasher from 1979 as well as all of the other lyrics from Neil Young that we have in our lyrics database.

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They were hiding behind hay bales,
They were planting
in the full moon
They had given all they had
for something new
But the light of day was on them,
They could see the thrashers coming
And the water
shone like diamonds in the dew.

And I was just getting up,
hit the road before it’s light
Trying to catch an hour on the sun
When I saw
those thrashers rolling by,
Looking more than two lanes wide
I was feelin’
like my day had just begun.

Where the eagle glides ascending
There’s an ancient river bending
Down the timeless gorge of changes
Where sleeplessness awaits
I searched out my companions,
Who were lost in crystal canyons
When the aimless blade of science
Slashed the pearly gates.

It was then I knew I’d had enough,
Burned my credit card for fuel
Headed out to where the pavement
turns to sand
With a one-way ticket
to the land of truth
And my suitcase in my hand
How I lost my friends
I still don’t understand.

They had the best selection,
They were poisoned with protection
There was nothing that they needed,
Nothing left to find
They were lost in rock formations
Or became park bench mutations
On the sidewalks
and in the stations
They were waiting, waiting.

So I got bored and left them there,
They were just deadweight to me
Better down the road
without that load
Brings back the time
when I was eight or nine
I was watchin’ my mama’s T.V.,
It was that great
Grand Canyon rescue episode.

Where the vulture glides descending
On an asphalt highway bending
Thru libraries and museums,
galaxies and stars
Down the windy halls of friendship
To the rose clipped by the bullwhip
The motel of lost companions
Waits with heated pool and bar.

But me I’m not stopping there,
Got my own row left to hoe
Just another line
in the field of time
When the thrasher comes,
I’ll be stuck in the sun
Like the dinosaurs in shrines
But I’ll know the time has come
To give what’s mine.

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Neil Young has released many songs over the years besides Thrasher. Neil Young released songs from 1969 to 2007 spanning across albums like Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Neil Young, After The Goldrush, Harvest, Journey Through The Past, Time Fades Away, On The Beach, Tonight's The Night, Zuma, Long May You Run, American Stars & Bars, Comes A Time, Rust Never Sleeps, Hawks And Doves, Re-ac-tor, Trans, Everybody's Rockin', Old Ways, Landing On Water, Life, This Note's For You, Eldorado, Freedom, Ragged Glory, Harvest Moon, Lucky Thirteen, Sleeps With Angels, Mirror Ball, Broken Arrow, Silver & Gold, Prairie Wind, and Chrome Dreams II. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Neil Young.

If you're a fan of the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1979 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Thrasher by Neil Young

The lyrics to Thrasher are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Neil Young used when the song was created in 1979. The lyrics to Thrasher have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Neil Young and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Thrasher by Neil Young. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Thrasher" means the words set to the music of Thrasher, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Neil Young. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Thrasher and the lyrics to Thrasher are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Neil Young who came here looking just for the lyrics to Thrasher, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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