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Song Origin
The song is autobiographical, but the common folklore about a plane crash isn’t based on any actual event. The “flying machines in pieces on the ground” refers to the breakup of JT’s band, The Flying Machine. A quote from JT in a February 18, 1971 Rolling Stone article sheds more light on it:
“The first verse was a reaction to a friend of mine killing herself. The second verse of it is about my kicking junk just before I left England. And the third verse is about my going into a hospital in Western Massachusetts. It’s just a hard-time song, a blues without having the blues form.”