Ambulance Blues

Album: On The Beach (1974)
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  • Back in the old folky days
    The air was magic when we played
    The riverboat was rockin' in the rain
    Midnight was the time for the raid

    Oh, Isabela, proud Isabela
    They tore you down and plowed you under
    You're only real with your make-up on
    How could I see you and stay too long?

    All along the Navajo Trail
    Burn-outs stub their toes on garbage pails
    Waitresses are cryin' in the rain
    Will their boyfriends pass this way again?

    Oh, Mother Goose, she's on the skids
    Shoe ain't happy, neither are the kids
    She needs someone that she can scream at
    And I'm such a heel for makin' her feel so bad

    I guess I'll call it sickness gone
    It's hard to say the meaning of this song
    An ambulance can only go so fast
    It's easy to get buried in the past
    When you try to make a good thing last

    I saw today in the entertainment section
    There's room at the top for private detection
    To mom and dad this just doesn't matter
    But it's either that or pay off the kidnapper

    So all you critics sit alone
    You're no better than me for what you've shown
    With your stomach pump and your hook and ladder dreams
    We could get together for some scenes

    Well, I'm up in T.O., keepin' jive alive
    And out on the corner it's half past five
    But the subways are empty
    And so are the cafes

    Except for the farmer's market
    And I still can hear him say
    You're all just pissin' in the wind
    You don't know it but you are

    And there ain't nothin' like a friend
    Who can tell you, you're just pissin' in the wind

    I never knew a man could tell so many lies
    He had a different story for every set of eyes
    How can he remember who he's talking to?
    'Cause I know it ain't me, and I hope it isn't you Writer/s: Neil Young
    Publisher: Hipgnosis Songs Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 4

  • The Driver from TorontoYeah … we’ve always thought Isabella meant Isabella street in Toronto (as it was one of the main streets in the Yorkville area - an area known as a center of music and arts and cultural back when Neil would’ve been hanging around there before leaving for California).
  • Charles Buckley from Memphis TnWho is tive? Pissin in the wind is a diatribe against congress written back at the time when Nixon was president facing impeachment.
  • Garrett from ColumbusI've always thought the ambulance in the verse (as well as the song itself) was a sort of veiled reference to himself as he drove a 1948 Buick Roadmaster hearse in his Toronto days and drove it down to Los Angeles when he moved there.

    An ambulance can only go so fast
    It's easy to get buried in the past
    When you try to make a good thing last
  • Ty from TorontoThe first verse is about Toronto, where Neil grew up (in part), and where he began his career as a folkie. The Riverboat refers to the coffeehouse of the same name on Yorkville Avenue, which was the centre of the folkie scene in Toronto. I've always assumed that "Isabella" refers to Isabella Street, which is downtown and not too far from Yorkville. Maybe Neil lived there for a while. And of course in a later verse, Neil sings "Im up in TO, keeping jive alive." TO is the standard nickname for Toronto.
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