GW: So many writers just throw away songs...and they're gone forever. NY: It's a unique thing when you start a song at one point and finish it years later. Something happens. You get an original idea and get it going, and something stops you. It could be anything-some distraction that happens and takes your mind away from it. You could be trying too hard. These things happen, and you don't finish the song. "Powderfinger" took a long time; I wrote the first line in 1967 and didn't finish the song until 1975. It was funny to pick up where I left off. Something blocks me once in awhile, and I don't try to force anything to an unnatural end. I just put it away and maybe come back to it later. GW: Is that a discipline you learned over years and years of writing? NY: Sure. I forced things a few times at the beginning, and I realized that if I was working I wasn't playing, so I learned to put things away. Neil Young Guitar World/Gary Graff June 1993