Here's a song. When I was just a little teenager. I used to listen to this song. I used to go to a lake up there on the weekends and try to pick up girls. I was just practicing at that time. I really didn't know how to really screw it up yet. Anyway - Ian Tyson and Silvia Fricker they wrote this song - I think they wrote it together. Of course, they're not together anymore. Neil Young Memorial Hall, Kansas City, Kansas, USA January 12, 1989

This song here was written by Ian Tyson. He's a Canadian. He's living out in Calgary on his ranch right now outside of Calgary. I think the royalties from this song had something to do with his ranch and he was real happy for that. But when I just a kid - sixteen or seventeen years old - I went to this place out near Winnipeg where I grew up and it's called Falcon Lake. It's just one of those first times when you really got away from home and were on your own. I was just kind of feeling it for the first time. There was this little kind of a restaurant place with a jukebox in it that was there. And I used to go there. And I think I spent all my money playing this next song - over and over again. It was the most beautiful record that I've ever heard in my life and I just could not get enough of it. Neil Young Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee, USA August 18, 2005

“Four Strong Winds” by Ian & Sylvia speaks to me always. It occupies part of my heart. There is a feeling in it. I love the prairies, Canada, my life as a Canadian. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

A few weeks after recording our single, Jack Harper and I went on a summer vacation to Falcon Lake, about one hundred miles east of Winnipeg. [...] There was a little place with a jukebox, and I would play “Four Strong Winds” by Ian & Sylvia, over and over, learning all the words and singing along. I loved that song. I had the feeling that it was about my life, and the music touched me deeply. I completely related to it and lived it every time I listened. It was everything to me. There was something about how immersed I was in that song that made me realize I had to get the same quality into my own music. I started singing along, loudly if I was alone and quietly if anyone was near enough to hear me. I knew my voice was high and I could tell that I sang in a different way from real singers, but in my soul, in my heart, I knew I was really singing and it felt right. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

One of my favorite songs from anywhere, this is the song that I had to play over and over on the jukebox until I ran out of coins. I really did that as a young man of maybe 15. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater May 26th, 2020