Welfare Mothers
Here's a song I wrote here in Santa Cruz in a laundromat. Neil Young The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, California, USA February 6, 1984, Early Show

Wayfaring Stranger
NK: Was there a lot of music in the family house when you were growing up? NY: When I was growing up, I remember guys like Frankie Laine. See, around the same time as Elvis, there was also Rawhide and all that cowboy stuff. I loved that stuff. I even covered one of Frankie's songs on the Old Ways album - The Wayward Wind. See, I used to walk by a railroad track on my way to school every day. There was even a real hobo's shack there. The song and the image have always stayed with me. When I hear it, I always think of being five or six walking past that old shack, the railroad tracks gleaming in the sun, on my way to school every day with my little transistor radio up to my ear. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

Don't Be Denied
‘Lookout Joe’ and ‘Borrowed Tune’ were written during my Time Fades Away tour. I never hit ‘Lookout Joe’ the way I wanted to. It was recorded at my ranch during the rehearsals for the Time Fades Away tour just after Danny Whitten O.D.’d. He’d been working on the song with us and after he died we stopped for awhile. When we started playing again, that was the first thing we cut and I wrote ‘Don’t Be Denied’ that day. So ‘Lookout Joe’ one of the oldest songs on the album. Neil Young Creem/Bud Scoppa November 1975

Borrowed Tune
‘Lookout Joe’ and ‘Borrowed Tune’ were written during my Time Fades Away tour. I never hit ‘Lookout Joe’ the way I wanted to. It was recorded at my ranch during the rehearsals for the Time Fades Away tour just after Danny Whitten O.D.’d. He’d been working on the song with us and after he died we stopped for awhile. When we started playing again, that was the first thing we cut and I wrote ‘Don’t Be Denied’ that day. So ‘Lookout Joe’ one of the oldest songs on the album. Neil Young Creem/Bud Scoppa November 1975

Lookout Joe
‘Lookout Joe’ and ‘Borrowed Tune’ were written during my Time Fades Away tour. I never hit ‘Lookout Joe’ the way I wanted to. It was recorded at my ranch during the rehearsals for the Time Fades Away tour just after Danny Whitten O.D.’d. He’d been working on the song with us and after he died we stopped for awhile. When we started playing again, that was the first thing we cut and I wrote ‘Don’t Be Denied’ that day. So ‘Lookout Joe’ one of the oldest songs on the album. Neil Young Creem/Bud Scoppa November 1975

Tired Eyes
What we were doing was playing those guys on the way. We all got that high – not that high, but we got as close as we could, without doing it. I mean, I’m not a junkie and I won’t even try it out to check out what it’s like, But we’d get really high’ – drink a lot of tequila, get right out on the edge, where we knew we were so screwed up that we could easily just fall on our faces, and not be able to handle it as musicians. But we were wide open also at that time – just wide open. Because you know how you feel when you got it. So we’d just wait until the middle of the night and get like that and just do it. We did four or five songs on the first side all in a row one night, without any break. We did ‘Tonight’s the Night’, ‘World on a String’, ‘Mellow My Mind’, ‘Speakin’ Out’, and ‘Tired Eyes’ without any break between ’em, we just changed the order. We’d wait till the vibe hit us. Neil Young Creem/Bud Scoppa November 1975

Speakin' Out
What we were doing was playing those guys on the way. We all got that high – not that high, but we got as close as we could, without doing it. I mean, I’m not a junkie and I won’t even try it out to check out what it’s like, But we’d get really high’ – drink a lot of tequila, get right out on the edge, where we knew we were so screwed up that we could easily just fall on our faces, and not be able to handle it as musicians. But we were wide open also at that time – just wide open. Because you know how you feel when you got it. So we’d just wait until the middle of the night and get like that and just do it. We did four or five songs on the first side all in a row one night, without any break. We did ‘Tonight’s the Night’, ‘World on a String’, ‘Mellow My Mind’, ‘Speakin’ Out’, and ‘Tired Eyes’ without any break between ’em, we just changed the order. We’d wait till the vibe hit us. Neil Young Creem/Bud Scoppa November 1975

Mellow My Mind
What we were doing was playing those guys on the way. We all got that high – not that high, but we got as close as we could, without doing it. I mean, I’m not a junkie and I won’t even try it out to check out what it’s like, But we’d get really high’ – drink a lot of tequila, get right out on the edge, where we knew we were so screwed up that we could easily just fall on our faces, and not be able to handle it as musicians. But we were wide open also at that time – just wide open. Because you know how you feel when you got it. So we’d just wait until the middle of the night and get like that and just do it. We did four or five songs on the first side all in a row one night, without any break. We did ‘Tonight’s the Night’, ‘World on a String’, ‘Mellow My Mind’, ‘Speakin’ Out’, and ‘Tired Eyes’ without any break between ’em, we just changed the order. We’d wait till the vibe hit us. Neil Young Creem/Bud Scoppa November 1975

World On A String
What we were doing was playing those guys on the way. We all got that high – not that high, but we got as close as we could, without doing it. I mean, I’m not a junkie and I won’t even try it out to check out what it’s like, But we’d get really high’ – drink a lot of tequila, get right out on the edge, where we knew we were so screwed up that we could easily just fall on our faces, and not be able to handle it as musicians. But we were wide open also at that time – just wide open. Because you know how you feel when you got it. So we’d just wait until the middle of the night and get like that and just do it. We did four or five songs on the first side all in a row one night, without any break. We did ‘Tonight’s the Night’, ‘World on a String’, ‘Mellow My Mind’, ‘Speakin’ Out’, and ‘Tired Eyes’ without any break between ’em, we just changed the order. We’d wait till the vibe hit us. Neil Young Creem/Bud Scoppa November 1975

Tonight's The Night
What we were doing was playing those guys on the way. We all got that high – not that high, but we got as close as we could, without doing it. I mean, I’m not a junkie and I won’t even try it out to check out what it’s like, But we’d get really high’ – drink a lot of tequila, get right out on the edge, where we knew we were so screwed up that we could easily just fall on our faces, and not be able to handle it as musicians. But we were wide open also at that time – just wide open. Because you know how you feel when you got it. So we’d just wait until the middle of the night and get like that and just do it. We did four or five songs on the first side all in a row one night, without any break. We did ‘Tonight’s the Night’, ‘World on a String’, ‘Mellow My Mind’, ‘Speakin’ Out’, and ‘Tired Eyes’ without any break between ’em, we just changed the order. We’d wait till the vibe hit us. Neil Young Creem/Bud Scoppa November 1975

Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown
Then Elliot put it in a different sequence, because he was doing this Tonight’s the Night Broadway show…there was a script written and everything. We’d listen to the record of these songs, and that’s how we got it finished. He picked out the other songs – ‘Lookout Joe’, ‘Come on Baby, Let’s Go Downtown’, and ‘Borrowed Tune’, – and we put them in with the original nine Tonight’s the Night songs. Neil Young Creem/Bud Scoppa November 1975

Borrowed Tune
Then Elliot put it in a different sequence, because he was doing this Tonight’s the Night Broadway show…there was a script written and everything. We’d listen to the record of these songs, and that’s how we got it finished. He picked out the other songs – ‘Lookout Joe’, ‘Come on Baby, Let’s Go Downtown’, and ‘Borrowed Tune’, – and we put them in with the original nine Tonight’s the Night songs. Neil Young Creem/Bud Scoppa November 1975

Lookout Joe
Then Elliot put it in a different sequence, because he was doing this Tonight’s the Night Broadway show…there was a script written and everything. We’d listen to the record of these songs, and that’s how we got it finished. He picked out the other songs – ‘Lookout Joe’, ‘Come on Baby, Let’s Go Downtown’, and ‘Borrowed Tune’, – and we put them in with the original nine Tonight’s the Night songs. Neil Young Creem/Bud Scoppa November 1975

Chevrolet
After I finished recording Barn, about a year and a half later, I went up to a place that I really like where I used to live in Canada. We went up there and hung out there. And there's a piano there. So I was walking by the piano every day in this old fishing lodge that we had from the turn of the century, the 1900s, that was built by some wild people. It's great, on the water, and the piano's there. So I started writing this song and every day I'd come walking back and forth walking by this and write a song - a very complicated song and a long song. Each verse was like two minutes plus with no repetition. And it was a piano song. So I had written that song - I just had it in my head. Neil Young Zack Sang Show November 18, 2022

Don't Cry No Tears
Here's one of the first songs I ever wrote in my whole life and one of the first songs we ever recorded and this is one of the first songs I'm gonna play tonight. Neil Young Fox Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia, USA November 24, 1976, Early Show

Hitchhiker
Well I don't think we need to get much darker than that. Not right now anyway. [after completing the second ever performance of Hitchhiker] Neil Young Garden State Arts Center, Holmdel, New Jersey, USA June 25, 1992

Will To Love
[After hearing a request for Will To Love] Will To Love. I only sang that once when I recorded it. I was reading it then too. Neil Young HORDE Festival Tent Show Polaris Amphitheatre, Columbus, Ohio, USA July 30, 1997

Ordinary People
[After hearing a request for Ordinary People] She calls out for a song I sang twice like ten years ago that's got 400 verses. You're an obscure crowd. Neil Young HORDE Festival Tent Show Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA July 29, 1997

Change Your Mind
I'm really very happy. I just write these songs, you know, about this other stuff. I still got time to change my mind. Neil Young Bridge School Benefit 8, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California, USA October 1, 1994

Lost In Space
JM: Young had been discussing another movie project, called The Tree from Outer Space, with Dean Stockwell. Stockwell laughed uproariously recalling the idea, which he said was “coming out of After the Gold Rush—flying the ‘silver seed,’ right? It was gonna be a fuckin’ tree and change to a rocket, it was gonna be really bananas—of course, it was too bananas.” Young, Larry Johnson and Russ Tamblyn actually went on an expedition to check out trees. “I believe I introduced Neil to the sequoias, which is not a negligible thing,” said Stockwell, still laughing. “But as a practical matter, ‘The Tree from Outer Space’ wasn’t gonna be a movie.” NY: Started when these guys hypnotized a chicken. And the chicken somehow—somehow he had a vision—that he had to go to this tree. Then the people that hypnotized the chicken started seein’ that they’d have to go to the tree, so they left the chicken behind and they took off. Oh, the tree was great. They decided to go up it by going inside it, and when they got inside, then they found these beds. Envision a big long boat with hammocks hanging in it on the side. So they got in the hammocks and the hammocks started swayin’ and the tree started comin’ out of the ground. And it took off. And the people discovered when they got up there that you didn’t need space suits. They’d go outside, walk around … this guy had a barbershop he opened on top of the tree. People would come out through one of the big holes in the tree and walk down the bark to this barbershop. They’re in outer space and Saturn’s out there ’n everything and they’re gettin’ a haircut. I mean, there were all these planets. There was a watery planet, and that was where the song “Lost in Space” was kinda from—the tree’s floating in the water, and this guy in a rowboat is rowing and rowing and rowing to get there. And ya look down and there’s all these cities and everything he’s rowing over to get to the tree … there’s a lotta things like that that I had written out—all these stories of all these people and the way they interacted. It was meant to be loose enough to adlib a lot. And all the people on there—everybody on the tree—was an extremist. And finally what happened was they had trouble getting along. And the tree would land here and there on different planets, people would get off—and every time they went somewhere, everything would seem to be pretty good, the place would be beautiful and really nice, but all the people that they’d meet would be very jealous, very possessive. It kept happening with all different emotions and character traits—they’d go to the planet that represented that and they wouldn’t know it. They would just get to this place and get off, go out and experience things, and things would start goin’ wrong and they’d realize everybody was y’know, really two-faced liars and nothing was true. Finally they started goin’ crazy. At some point there were very few of the people left. It was getting down to the core group…. And then in the end the tree was being circled by this huge black ship. They were running out of power, going slower and slower, the tree was slowing down and this huge fuckin’ ship was circling them, but it was really like a big X-Acto knife kind of a thing with a blade on it, saws ’n things coming out of it and ominous black smoke coming out of the back of it…. And they powered the tree by playing this organ—and somehow the music would be converted into this thing that gave them power. It would start glowing from the music, and that was what they used to power the ship and go on. So finally the way they got away from this black ship was the guy playing the organ—he was playing and playing and playing and he’s not getting it—he’s trying, but he’s not getting enough power to get away. I think he ended up getting a blow job while he was playing, and that did it—when he came, the tree just fuckin’ took off! After that, they got goin’ way too fast, too much power, the fuckin’ branches were scorching off the tree, anything left on it was startin’ to burn … it gets into the 2001 thing with the sheets of color coming at you, and you see things goin’ by in space and it’s gettin’ really fast ’n crazy and the music is building… And finally this silent shot of the forest with nothing where the tree was—and then the whole fuckin’ thing starts rumbling, and the tree starts coming out of the ground and grows to be this gigantic redwood. And that’s the end. “The Tree That Went to Outer Space.” Neil Young Shakey by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Arc
[speaking about giving Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth a copy of the unreleased 1987 film Muddy Track during the Ragged Glory tour] There were shots of the road, moving back and forth, and then this distorted sound. That was the first time I really isolated it and took all those things out. I really enjoyed that and I think that, in some way, it is the essence of what the song is about, those things we do at the beginning and the end. Thurston came back and said, "Wow, you guys ought to make a whole record of that stuff." There is an order to it. I took 57 pieces that we called "sparks". We took them out, numbered them and disassociated them from the concerts that they came from. Of those 57 pieces, I chose 37. I had them all on a data base and I had all the keys and the lyrics that were in each piece all written down, and the location of the piece so I could tell what hall it was from, so that I could move from one hall to another so the sound wouldn't change so radically. If you listen to it a few times, you will see that it's almost like a song. Things come and go, hooks come back, it all cycles around. But it seems to degenerate also. By the time you get to the end, it's a little more frantic, a little more out of touch. It's starting to lose its mind a little Take that jazz bit in "Tonight's The Night". The video of that is cool because I'm not even playing. I'm holding my guitar up, the groove is playing, and every once in a while I blow at the strings. The wind going through the strings vibrates them and you get this "wuuuuuuwooooow sound". There are points in the video where the strings must have broken on my guitar seven or eight times. And then you get the sound of the broken strings crashing down on the pickups, which have octave dividers and tape repeat and all kinds of shit on the sound of my amp, which is way too loud anyway. The sound of that, man-it's like an explosion. If you play "Arc" loud, if you really crank it up in your car or something, it's very cool. "Arc" is the essence of "Weld". This is what's new about it. If you look at my music over the last 30 years and want to see where I'm at now, this is it. And it happens as soon as we lose the beat. We break it down, and then we're gone. Nothing else matters. It's like jazz or something. Where I'd really like to hear this played is in clubs - between records. Just put "Arc" on, play a record, fade "Arc" up for awhile, fade it down, play another record. Have it on between bands. It's refreshing. It clears the palate. Because of the fact that there's no beat. It's not an insult to your sensitivity in what kind of a groove you dig. There is no groove. Fuck that. Neil Young Melody Maker interview November 30, 1991

Human Highway
I‘d like to do a song for you now that ... it‘s a new song, but I think I can sing it good enough so it‘ll be an old song by the time it’s finished. This is something that I wrote in Hawaii. Hawaii which is one of the wonderful United States. Let’s have a little sun on that palm. Neil Young Rainbow Theatre, London, England November 5, 1973

Changes
Written by the great Phil Ochs, CHANGES is one of the first songs that showed me what a song could be. I think Phil Ochs was one of the greats - right up there with Lightfoot and Dylan. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater January 26, 2023

Chevrolet
Although it was written on a piano, the recorded version of Chevrolet is a guitar odyssey, a long wandering voyage marked by changes of fortune. Neil Young NYA Times-Contrarian January 23, 2023

War Of Man
GW: Do all the songs on Harvest Moon come from a particular period of time? YOUNG: There's two groups of songs on the record: those that I started a long time ago and were finished in 1991 or '92, and those that were written entirely in other years. For example, "One Of These Days" was written in '85, "Natural Beauty" and "Dreamin' Man" in '89, "Unknown Legend" was '82 and '92. All different periods. I also composed a couple of songs last summer while on vacation with my wife and kids in Evergreen, Colorado. I wrote "War Of Man" and I finished "You And Me," which I started in 1975^*. There were 17 or 18 possibilities for Harvest Moon. The songs that didn't make the cut are just waiting for something else, I guess. Neil Young Guitar World/Gary Graff June 1993 * - The intro to "I Am A Child" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Feb 1, 1971 contained a fragment of "You And Me"

Natural Beauty
GW: Do all the songs on Harvest Moon come from a particular period of time? YOUNG: There's two groups of songs on the record: those that I started a long time ago and were finished in 1991 or '92, and those that were written entirely in other years. For example, "One Of These Days" was written in '85, "Natural Beauty" and "Dreamin' Man" in '89, "Unknown Legend" was '82 and '92. All different periods. I also composed a couple of songs last summer while on vacation with my wife and kids in Evergreen, Colorado. I wrote "War Of Man" and I finished "You And Me," which I started in 1975^*. There were 17 or 18 possibilities for Harvest Moon. The songs that didn't make the cut are just waiting for something else, I guess. Neil Young Guitar World/Gary Graff June 1993 * - The intro to "I Am A Child" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Feb 1, 1971 contained a fragment of "You And Me"

Dreamin' Man
GW: Do all the songs on Harvest Moon come from a particular period of time? YOUNG: There's two groups of songs on the record: those that I started a long time ago and were finished in 1991 or '92, and those that were written entirely in other years. For example, "One Of These Days" was written in '85, "Natural Beauty" and "Dreamin' Man" in '89, "Unknown Legend" was '82 and '92. All different periods. I also composed a couple of songs last summer while on vacation with my wife and kids in Evergreen, Colorado. I wrote "War Of Man" and I finished "You And Me," which I started in 1975^*. There were 17 or 18 possibilities for Harvest Moon. The songs that didn't make the cut are just waiting for something else, I guess. Neil Young Guitar World/Gary Graff June 1993 * - The intro to "I Am A Child" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Feb 1, 1971 contained a fragment of "You And Me"

One Of These Days
GW: Do all the songs on Harvest Moon come from a particular period of time? YOUNG: There's two groups of songs on the record: those that I started a long time ago and were finished in 1991 or '92, and those that were written entirely in other years. For example, "One Of These Days" was written in '85, "Natural Beauty" and "Dreamin' Man" in '89, "Unknown Legend" was '82 and '92. All different periods. I also composed a couple of songs last summer while on vacation with my wife and kids in Evergreen, Colorado. I wrote "War Of Man" and I finished "You And Me," which I started in 1975^*. There were 17 or 18 possibilities for Harvest Moon. The songs that didn't make the cut are just waiting for something else, I guess. Neil Young Guitar World/Gary Graff June 1993 * - The intro to "I Am A Child" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Feb 1, 1971 contained a fragment of "You And Me"

You And Me
GW: Do all the songs on Harvest Moon come from a particular period of time? YOUNG: There's two groups of songs on the record: those that I started a long time ago and were finished in 1991 or '92, and those that were written entirely in other years. For example, "One Of These Days" was written in '85, "Natural Beauty" and "Dreamin' Man" in '89, "Unknown Legend" was '82 and '92. All different periods. I also composed a couple of songs last summer while on vacation with my wife and kids in Evergreen, Colorado. I wrote "War Of Man" and I finished "You And Me," which I started in 1975^*. There were 17 or 18 possibilities for Harvest Moon. The songs that didn't make the cut are just waiting for something else, I guess. Neil Young Guitar World/Gary Graff June 1993 * - The intro to "I Am A Child" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Feb 1, 1971 contained a fragment of "You And Me"

Powderfinger
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

Unknown Legend
GW: How do you keep track of all your song ideas? NY: I'm pretty good at remembering. I also have an archivist, Joel Bernstein, who keeps track of this stuff for this big retrospective set I'm working on. Joel has been working with me for three years, and we've got the past pretty well sowed out. "Unknown Legend" actually was a song Joel brought me; he kept bringing me the lyrics and saying, "What is this thing?" I said, It's a song I started back in '82. I don't think I ever finished it." He kept bringing it back to me, and one day I picked up my guitar and finished it right there. But that doesn't happen very often with me. The real good ones come right away, just in one sitting. 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. Neil Young Guitar World/Gary Graff June 1993

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
JO: Have any of your acoustic compositions transformed into heavy rock songs? NY: “Out Of The Blue” was written on acoustic in my living room. JO: What inspired it? NY: I don't remember. Elvis died, and I was thinking about that, but it was almost a year later. That was one of the things, plus Johnny Rotten. Neil Young March 1992 Guitar Player/Jas Obrecht

My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
JO: Have any of your acoustic compositions transformed into heavy rock songs? NY: “Out Of The Blue” was written on acoustic in my living room. JO: What inspired it? NY: I don't remember. Elvis died, and I was thinking about that, but it was almost a year later. That was one of the things, plus Johnny Rotten. Neil Young March 1992 Guitar Player/Jas Obrecht

Cinnamon Girl
JO: “Cinnamon Girl.” The one-note solo. NY: Oh yeah, two strings though. The same note on two strings. The wang bar made every one sound different. When people say “one-note solo,” I listen to it and every one sounds different to me. It sounds like it’s all different in that one place. As you’re going in farther, you’re hearing all the differences, but if you get back, it’s all one. Neil Young March 1992 Guitar Player/Jas Obrecht

Ambulance Blues
JO: Among the guitarists you’ve encountered who left the biggest impression? NY: Bert Jansch is the best acoustic guitar player and my favorite. The very first record that he made - great record. It came from England and I was particularly impressed by a song called the “Needle of Death”, this really outrageous, beautiful song. This guy was just so good. NY: Years later I wrote Ambulance Blues for the On the Beach album and I picked up the melody from his record - the guitar part, exactly - without realizing I had completely copped the whole thing. Years later someone mentioned it to me, and I went back and heard him playing it. Sure enough, it's almost like a note-for-note cop of his thing. I wrote whole new lyrics on top, but it's his thing. NY: I did meet him once when I went to England in the early ‘70s and got together with Pentangle. But I had a big limo and everything, because I didn’t know where I was going, and they kind of had an attitude about me, like I was a pop superstar and kind of a dickhead. Neil Young March 1992 Guitar Player/Jas Obrecht

High Heels
I'd like to do another one that I wrote back there in high school. Neil Young Cotati Cabaret, Cotati, California, USA November 9, 1987, Early Show

Alabama
Alabama is like...I just put the name of a state in the South on it 'cus it fit the image...fit the image of what I was trying to say. And actually the song is more about a personal thing that it is about a state. And I'm just using that name and that state to hide whatever it is that I have to hide. I don't know what that means. Neil Young Harvest Time film September 1971

Cowgirl In The Sand
This is a song I wrote about a dream I had. And it was snowing outside. And it was the kind of snow that sticks on you when it comes down - on your nose. Anyways, I had a dream. Neil Young Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, Connecticut, USA January 22, 1971

When You Dance, I Can Really Love
NY: Here's another one that sounds just like the last one. Poncho: They all sound the same. NY: It's all one song! Neil Young Meadows Music Theater, Hartford, Connecticut, USA November 8, 1996

Chevrolet
It's so different in my head - songs - I don't know where they came from [talking about the World Record whistling songs]. I don't have the usual grounded out...nothing started that way. Only one song, which is called Chevrolet, which has nothing to do with the rest of the record. It's about - with all the shit happening, thinking about COVID, thinking about war, thinking about all the shit that's happening in the world today and then there's this one song about this guy who's got..."almost bought an old Chevrolet". And he's talking about what it looks like and the gleaming paint and the steering wheel's ivory. It's so great. Rolling the window down. Doing all this shit in the car. And then he keeps talking about the car. He just keeps on going about the fucking car, really for a long time. The only thing about it is that he can't wait to go for a drive, but how's it going to feel burning all that fuel again. The whole car thing is great. He's in traffic - it's the roads, the freeways, the off ramps - all this shit about driving a car and other people driving their cars and people on the street. There's only one just this one little mention of how will it feel burning all that fuel. He just mentions that, but the whole rest of it is like a celebration of great roads and cars and freedom and everything. Neil Young World Record, The Making of November 22, 2022

Chevrolet
TP: I love Chevrolet. It's a 15 minute Crazy Horse jam tune NY: I love that one too. It's all electric guitars and jamming and everything. Oddly enough I wrote it on the piano up in Canada at a cottage. Sitting there for months and just walking by the piano every day, messing around. It's got a very complex structure to it - much more complex than any of my other songs that are long songs like Cowgirl or Down By The River or Love And Only Love. All those kind of songs that I've done with The Horse over the years. This is a little more than that. It's evolved to another place. NY: But the song itself about the car, and not just about the car, but all the cars that have been there. They've taken me from place to place through things in my life - that came to me while writing that song. Monumental parts of my life. NY: And now as much as I love that, I need to be thinking about the world. So I can't drive those cars anymore. I haven't driven them in years. I've stopped. No fossil fuel. I won't go if it's fossil fuel. So I'm re-designing and rebuilding some of my old forties cars so they can run on E100 now.' Neil Young CBC - q with Tom Power November 16, 2022

Sugar Mountain
ZS: Do you remember the first time you met Joni Mitchell? NY: I was twenty. She was about twenty two. Maybe one year older than me. I think we were in Winnipeg at the 4th Dimension club. ZS: Do you remember the conversation? NY: I was listening to her. I was local in Winnipeg and she was just passing through on the road with her husband Chuck. They were a duo playing. So we talked a little bit and I got to know her. I played her Sugar Mountain. I told her I'd just been in Canada in Toronto and I played that for a group called The Dirty Shames. There was this guy named Chick Roberts in The Dirty Shames who said, "That's a special song Neil. That song is going to be around for a while." And I'm saying to Joni, "this guy Chick Roberts, he told me that this was a special song, so I'll play it for you and see what you think." Then she wrote Circle Game after she heard Sugar Mountain because it got to her and she felt it. She felt it in her own unique way as well, obviously. ZS: That's incredible, but so special. Do you stay in touch today with her? NY: I just spoke to her the other day. ZS: That's a real friendship. NY: I love Joni. She's wonderful. She's one of the greatest artists of our generation - she may be the greatest artist of our generation. Neil Young The Zach Sang Show November 18, 2022

Soldier
Well, y’know—there’s good and bad, just like anything else, okay? The thing about religion is, it preys upon people’s weaknesses. If you take that kind of power and use it in the wrong way—that’s really bad. And that song “Soldier” was written to represent the subconscious of the Graduate guy movin’ through his decision-making process about what he was gonna do with his life or the kinda person he was gonna be. That was the decision—to go either to drugs, to religion or the army. Neil Young Shakey by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Break The Chain
NY: I've got this new song I'm working on. [Plays and sings] "Break the chain, break the chain, break the chain". That's all I got. HS: When you say that's all you got, you said you like repetition, "break the chain, break the chain, break the chain" ... NY: You see it works. You've got it, you've got that little note in it. There's something there. So I know I have that. I can hang the whole thing on that . NY: But I did it while I was walking before the pandemic. The pandemic had just started and Daryl and I were out for a walk. And I'm walking through another area where there's beautiful grass and alpine aspen trees. And I'm walking step by step and I'm singing this song to myself saying "break the chain". And then all the words start coming and I'm copying them in a little piece of paper in my pocket. And I do this whole thing and it was a couple of months before we even about the barn or anything like that. It's about the pandemic and it's about COVID and it's about the bug and don't give it a place to hide. So I finished it. I wrote it all down and then I forgot it. So I found the paper maybe two months ago. So when we did Barn I didn't remember it. So I'm going to do that maybe in the next album. Neil Young Howard Stern Interview December 15, 2021

Break The Chain
xx: When you are walking and writing, what are you writing on? NY: Oh yeah, I wrote it on a piece of paper while I was walking. xx: That's very analog. NY: That's one song. That's called Break The Chain. "When I'm walking and I take a deep breath, It's like I'm dancing, Am I dancing with death?" It's the COVID mindset song where you go - What happened? What am I doing? Neil Young Break The Chain music video October 20, 2022

My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
The rock 'n' roll spirit is not survival. Of course the people who play rock 'n' roll should survive. But the essence of the rock 'n' roll spirit, to me, is that it's better to burn out really bright than it is to sort of decay off into infinity. Even though if you look at it in a mature way, you think, well yes...you should decay off into infinity, and keep going along. Rock 'n' roll doesn't look that far ahead. Rock 'n' roll is right now. What's happening right this second. Is it bright? Or is it dim because it's waiting for tomorrow – that's what people want to know. That's why I say that. Neil Young Musician interview with Cameron Crowe November 1982

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
The rock 'n' roll spirit is not survival. Of course the people who play rock 'n' roll should survive. But the essence of the rock 'n' roll spirit, to me, is that it's better to burn out really bright than it is to sort of decay off into infinity. Even though if you look at it in a mature way, you think, well yes...you should decay off into infinity, and keep going along. Rock 'n' roll doesn't look that far ahead. Rock 'n' roll is right now. What's happening right this second. Is it bright? Or is it dim because it's waiting for tomorrow – that's what people want to know. That's why I say that. Neil Young Musician interview with Cameron Crowe November 1982

Sample And Hold
This album has a split personality ... which I think is interesting. Songs like "Like an Inca", that's the future of my music as seen 15 years ago. "Sample and Hold" is the future of my music as seen today. It's more automatic ... it's trans-music. That's why I want to call the album "Trans". Neil Young Musician interview with Cameron Crowe November 1982

Like An Inca
This album has a split personality ... which I think is interesting. Songs like "Like an Inca", that's the future of my music as seen 15 years ago. "Sample and Hold" is the future of my music as seen today. It's more automatic ... it's trans-music. That's why I want to call the album "Trans". Neil Young Musician interview with Cameron Crowe November 1982

Truth Kills
It's always a cute story about kids, how they see things so clearly. Neil Young Northrop Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA January 31, 2019

Southern Pacific
I used to live in a place called Omemee out there in Northern Ontario and behind our house we used to have a railroad track. Seemed like it was a couple of miles back then but I'm sure it was probably only about 200 feet. I wasn't very big. If I had some spare change I used to like go out there and put a little of it down on the track and watch the big train to come by and flatten it. Here's the story about a big train and a man who worked on it. Neil Young Canadian National Exhibition Grandstand, Toronto, Ontario, Canada August 17, 1985

Don't Take Your Love Away From Me
We'd like to do a new tune that I just wrote this morning. We might not get it all right but that don't matter too much. Neil Young State Fair, Syracuse, New York, USA August 30, 1983

Don't Spook The Horse
Like those things they use in school these days where you don’t read the whole book, you read a little condensed version to get an idea of what the book is about. Well that’s the way ‘Spook The Horse’ is. If you buy that, you don’t really have to buy the album. It’s all there. It’s a condensed version of the whole album. Neil Young unknown source

Carmichael
Carmichael was a good cop. Everybody missed him. Take a look at what he left behind in Greendale. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater May 18, 2020

Vacancy
Folks: this here tune written above is about as pissed off as I can get under such favourable circumstances. The person ........ (your name) who this little ditty was written for is not all bad. I have felt and scene the love she has for many people including me. But lately all I can get is bad vibes. I am trying to land this fucking thing the best I can. I get a good reading from the tower and also from uncle Mazz. But this other bitch just won't lighten up. I have never flown a dirigibl before. I have fuel to burn and will not attempt to land in darkness. In your light, Dirigible Dan Neil Young from the typewritten Vacancy manuscript September 1974

Timberline
Now the scene changes to a religious guy who just lost his job. He’s turning on Jesus. He can’t cut any more trees. He’s a logger. Neil Young NYA Times-Contrarian - TOAST - THE STORY May 24, 2022

Goin' Home
Then came ‘Goin Home’. A lady is lost in her car. The dark city surrounds her - past present and future. It’s a scary place. You be the judge. Neil Young NYA Times-Contrarian - TOAST - THE STORY May 24, 2022

Love In Mind
When I was in Chicago I think it was, or Detroit maybe, I wrote a song. Maybe it was Minneapolis, I woke up in the morning. Felt real good, so I wrote this song. I'll just sing the song. Neil Young Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, USA January 21, 1971, Early Show

Don't Forget Love
Don't forget Love' is a song I wrote to remind myself what really matters. I refer to it pretty often!!! Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater June 17, 2022

Sea Of Madness
Somebody yelled out Sea Of Madness. I'm not going to do it but I want to say something about it. When I first heard that record it was on the radio. I've never heard it before. They mixed that down - somewhere - I don't know how they got it but it was from the Fillmore East. It's on a Woodstock album if you don't know which one. It was weird, I was listening to the radio and there I was and I'd never heard the record before. I'm used to making my own records. It just seemed kind of strange. Neil Young Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, California, USA February 1, 1971

Bite The Bullet
I'd like to do a song I wrote in, uh ... somewhere out there in North Carolina ... Charlotte ... on the last tour I was out on. It's called Bite The Bullet. Neil Young Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA November 15, 1976, Early Show

Sixty To Zero
This song was written during an ocean crossing on the sailing ship WN RAGLAND. Neil Young NYA - Sneak Preview - Sixty To Zero March 31, 2022

Ordinary People
Ok, I'm sorry, this song's too long to be on the radio, it's too long to be a video and is probably too long to be on a record. And we keep feeding it and it keeps growing and growing. And we brought it here tonight to show it do you. Neil Young Community Center Theater, Sacramento, California, USA October 29, 1988

Ramada Inn
The lyrics are very personal to Neil and Pegi. I told Pegi, “I don’t know if you’re gonna like this song or not. It seems like it’s revealing a lot of stuff. I don’t know if it’s good or bad. You should check it out.” She came back two days later and said, “Poncho, it’s just a song about people and relationships. Everybody goes through that stuff.” I saw it more as, “Wow, the writing on the wall has been announced.” I cried a lot of times in that song, man. Frank "Poncho" Sampedro Uncut/Neil Young's 40 Greatest Songs February, 2021

Thrasher
After leaving Taos with Carpio, a Native American friend I had met during the filming of Human Highway, sitting in the front seat of his car, I wrote this song, Thrasher. Driving through the magnificent beauty of New Mexico, the words just kept coming to me. I saw the eagles circling, the deep canyons, the road ahead, reflecting on my journey through recent years, and thankful to be where I was. Neil Young NYA - Hearse Daily March 7, 2022

Mellow My Mind
This is a song about being on the road. It's a song about wanting to stop after a long tour - just wanting to be able to slow down. Even though it's over you can't stop because you get going so fast from place to place. Then when it ends you keep on going for awhile. Neil Young Sportpaleis Ahoy', Rotterdam, The Netherlands March 24, 1976

Sail Away
Here's a song I wrote on the road a couple of years ago between Key West and San Francisco. Neil Young Carmichael Auditorium, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA February 8, 1983

Human Highway
I made most of Comes a Time in Florida by myself, with these kids that were startin’ a recording studio—Triad. It was great. Used to come in in the afternoon and work three, four hours, go home. Did it all during the day. Acoustic guitars. Come in, lay down a basic, then I overdubbed—all me. Do overdubs on it with my acoustics, try a whole bunch of stuff. I did all kinds of things there—“Lost in Space” “Pocahontas” “Human Highway” “Goin’ Back.” Neil Young Shakey by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Pocahontas
I made most of Comes a Time in Florida by myself, with these kids that were startin’ a recording studio—Triad. It was great. Used to come in in the afternoon and work three, four hours, go home. Did it all during the day. Acoustic guitars. Come in, lay down a basic, then I overdubbed—all me. Do overdubs on it with my acoustics, try a whole bunch of stuff. I did all kinds of things there—“Lost in Space” “Pocahontas” “Human Highway” “Goin’ Back.” Neil Young Shakey by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Goin' Back
I made most of Comes a Time in Florida by myself, with these kids that were startin’ a recording studio—Triad. It was great. Used to come in in the afternoon and work three, four hours, go home. Did it all during the day. Acoustic guitars. Come in, lay down a basic, then I overdubbed—all me. Do overdubs on it with my acoustics, try a whole bunch of stuff. I did all kinds of things there—“Lost in Space” “Pocahontas” “Human Highway” “Goin’ Back.” Neil Young Shakey by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Lost In Space
I made most of Comes a Time in Florida by myself, with these kids that were startin’ a recording studio—Triad. It was great. Used to come in in the afternoon and work three, four hours, go home. Did it all during the day. Acoustic guitars. Come in, lay down a basic, then I overdubbed—all me. Do overdubs on it with my acoustics, try a whole bunch of stuff. I did all kinds of things there—“Lost in Space” “Pocahontas” “Human Highway” “Goin’ Back.” Neil Young Shakey by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Such A Woman
JM: What do you think of “Such a Woman”? NY: I haven’t listened to it in a long time … took a lot out of me when I did it, I know that … I had to go through a lot of changes. JM: Why? NY: Uhhhhhh, I don’t know. It was like a lot of mental baggage went with it. It was not easy. JM: There’s a masochistic quality to that record. Am I wrong? NY: You mean like “I’m hurting myself”? I know it made Pegi kinda uncomfortable. JM: You sound like a guy who would do anything for love. NY: Yeah, I think that’s it. JM: Do you idealize women? NY: Well, maybe I do—and I just can’t come to grips with it. Neil Young Shakey by Jimmy McDonough 2002

They Might Be Lost
They Might Be Lost was written in Ontario. Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor December 29, 2021

Human Race
NY: There's a song called Human Race on Barn that's about the fires and floods - the children of the fires and floods. It's about what's going on and why can't we come together and stop it. Why can't we all come together and deal with this thing that's happening to us? RR: The solo on that song was particularly fiery I remember. That was probably, for me, the best solo on the album on that song. NY: I think you're probably right. That was done three hours after the full moon. The song was written in the one or two hours before the full moon. The full moon was at 11 o'clock, 11:30 that morning. As I was walking to the studio, which I do every day, crossing an open field - it's about a 2 mile walk. I had a piece of paper and pencil. I'd just come up with a couple of changes that were pretty good. Just some changes that have got a groove. I wasn't thinking much about it. And then I wrote all the words on the way there and we only played that song once. NY: There's like three or four songs on this record that only have been played once. Yeah, it's interesting. It's a different approach. I try to find that moment and I don't really care about everything else. Therefore there's lots of unfinished records and lots of things that I just put down, made a rough, kept on moving, had other things to do. Now I'm finding them. RR: In the "Fire and floods" song it has - it feels like biblical imagery. Did you grow up in the church? Was it intentional to be biblical? NY: No, but I think what happened is when we put those vocals on it. I sang the song live and then we put the "today's people" and "children of the fires and floods" - that's definitely got a church vibe to it - that choir singing. And it's Billy's voice and Ralph's voice and Nils' voice singing. RR: You talk about a savior - there's a lot of words that definitely feel like they come from a biblical place. It's interesting. NY: It happened so fast, I don't know, because I was writing it while I was walking - I wasn't even singing it. I was just writing it down and then I'd put it back in my pocket. If I couldn't think of anything, I didn't try to, I just put it away. And then when I waited something else came along and I started writing again. I always just try to catch what comes and not try to make anything up. Neil Young Neil Young Part Two - Broken Record (Hosted by Rick Rubin) podcast December 28, 2021

Pocahontas
In the mid-seventies, I had collected some more wooden Indians that were placed in the trees around my Southern California home on the ocean in Malibu. At the time, I started taking ‘Woody’ (as he was then called) to some shows and having him stand onstage with me. He is still there with me. When I played the Boarding House in 77 or so, I had the three wooden Indians from Malibu on stage with me. I introduced a new song - recently written at my friend Taylor Phelp’s ranch. Regrettably, the Aids epidemic had just started and Taylor was taken by Aids. I played that new song, ‘Pocahontas’ at the Boarding House. We were making a movie at the time and we took all the wooden Indians from Malibu with us to Taos where we were filming. Dean Stockwell, Dennis Hopper and Russel Tamblyn helped with the film. Neil Young NYA - Roadstories - HONOUR THE TREATIES December 28, 2021

Yonder Stands The Sinner
This is a song here I wrote for The Coasters. Jack used to be in The Coasters a long time ago. A lot of things like that people don't know about Jack. [I don't think this is true, but Jack Nitzsche did write a song along with Sonny Bono for a precursor of The Coasters named The Robins] Neil Young Winterland, San Francisco, California, USA March 22, 1973

Rainbow Of Colors
A song about the diversity of America and how strong it remains even under attacks from the harbors of White Supremacy. White Supremacy, now in its early death throes here in America, is the root cause of violence around the country, with the Dept of Homeland Security calling it the largest threat to peace inside the USA today. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater December 7, 2021

Southern Pacific
Southern Pacific is a fun song i wrote on a walk along the ridge at Broken Arrow Ranch back there somewhere. Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor November 10, 2021

Wyoming Burnout
A LOT OF TIME PASSED and Briggs and I, although we didn’t know it at the time, made our last album together, Sleeps with Angels, in 1993 and ’94. Jim Jarmusch, a friend and great filmmaker, made a movie called Dead Man in 1995 and asked me to do the soundtrack. Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer played the two main characters in this epic film about an Indian named Nobody, who was played by Farmer, and a cosmic-searching character played by Depp. When I saw the film, it only had dialogue, and I told Jim it was a masterpiece. It was. It was a strange classic, in a world alone. It already looked like a silent-movie classic to me, the kind where someone would play live music in a theater on an organ or piano while the movie was projected, although it did have dialogue so it was not precisely a silent movie. Jim really wanted me to do the music and convinced me that it was needed. I drove the Continental to the sessions. For my approach to the Dead Man project, I decided to duplicate the feeling of a musician playing music live to accompany a film in a movie theater. I rented an old stage in San Francisco from Mike Mason, a friend who I had met while filming Human Highway in 1980, and set up with about twenty different TV monitors in a circle around me in the middle of the room. The monitors ranged from seventy inches to seven inches in size. I set up my guitar, Old Black, my amplifier rig, and my old piano dead in the center of the room surrounded by all of the TVs. Everywhere I looked, I saw the movie. It was inescapable. When I felt like playing to it, I picked up an instrument and played live. I played Old Black, my electric guitar, solo for most of the movie, making sound effects and developing a theme called “The Wyoming Burnout” that I had written years before for a cinematic idea of my own. I developed another theme I used for one of the supporting characters. I played it all live. We recorded three passes through the whole movie without stopping. I chose to use the first half of the second pass and the second half of the first one. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Ten Men Workin'
DZ: The first song on the Bluenotes album, “Ten Men Workin’,” seems to embody this feeling. NY: Yeah. That’s a cool thing, “Ten Men Workin’.” I had this groove going through my head and I was playing it on my guitar, which is actually my wife’s guitar, which she’s had since she was just a little teenybopper, I guess. She took it everywhere with her. And it really feels like her, so I wrote every song on this album, except one, on that guitar. (Young gestures towards the backseat where the guitar is lying.) It’s an old Gibson, like a J-45 or something. It just feels so good. I’d be walking around the house playing. (pause) And I had this groove going, didn’t have any lyrics, but I don’t try and make up words. I figure something’ll happen and I’ll start singin’ the words. Until then, I don’t have any words. I never just try and think of something clever. So the way “Ten Men Workin’“ came to me was ... one morning I was gettin’ ready to go into where we recorded the Bluenotes record, on Melrose Avenue across from the Hollywood Cemetery. One of the guys, the engineer of my boat, had a Men At Work T-shirt on. I just kept lookin’ at that T-shirt and started thinkin’, “Yeah, that’s me. I’m workin’ and we’re workin’.” It’s like we were building something. We had this job to do. It’s like it was our mission to make people feel good and to make ’em dance. Neil Young BAM Magazine/Dave Zimmer April 22, 1988

Sunny Inside
DZ: Regarding the Blue Notes material, how many of the songs are new and how many of them are old songs that vou've just rearranged? NY: Sunny Inside came from 1982. Neil Young BAM Magazine/Dave Zimmer April 22, 1988

Stupid Girl
DZ: But on one song, “Stupid Girl” from Zuma (released in 1975), it’s like there’s two of you when you combine two distinctively different voices: one’s low, the other’s real high . . . NY: You notice how that one starts off at one speed and ends up at a whole ’nother speed? You see, you can’t do that with the Bluenotes. It doesn’t work. I don’t know why. But with that song . . . I recorded it with Crazy Horse at 4 o’clock in the morning. We were all messed up and did the track, all the vocals and everything, all in one shot. But when I listened to it with just the low vocal, I said, “That sounds too dark.” So I added the high one. I was probably just zonked out of my mind when I did the whole thing. But at that time, all I wanted to do was keep moving, keep going. Neil Young BAM Magazine/Dave Zimmer April 22, 1988

Heading West
My mom and I travelled across the country together, heading west. She was on her way back home to start over. I was on my way there with her. Here’s a song about me and my mom and those ‘growing up’ times. It’s so great to remember her this way! Neil Young NYA Times-Contrarian October 28, 2021

Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
Here's a song - we used to do - back here in Chicago - we came here in the Buffalo Springfield. Some of our first gigs were here. We used to do this song here, but I didn't get a chance to sing it in those days. I'll sing it for you now. Neil Young Poplar Creek Music Theater, Hoffman Estates, Illinois, USA August 18, 1987

Song Of The Seasons
Written in Canada about a year ago, it’s the oldest song on Barn. There was a recording of the song done in my hometown that is the earliest. This is the first one with Crazy Horse! It starts the album. Neil Young NYA song note October 12, 2021

Music Is Love
That started out as an accident. I had been playing that little figure that it opens with for a while. One day, I was doing it and Neil and Graham heard me and they jumped on it. They liked it. Neil liked it in particular. I said, “That was fun. Let’s try and get on to something serious.” They said, “Listen, that’s really good. It’s better than you think it is. Give us the tape.” And so they took it and they put the conga drums and the bass on it and some handclaps. They brought it back and I said, “Fuck, I love it.” And it became the first song on the record. David Crosby Rolling Stone/Andy Greene October 12, 2021

Without Rings
I wrote it on the HORDE tour somewhere in Florida. Some weird amusement park in the middle of the Everglades or something. It was pouring rain. I was in the back of my bus. They had to stop the show for a while. So I wrote this song and I sang it an octave lower than in my usual range. And then I never really sung it again until I got home, But I just had this big piece of newspaper with all this felt tip marker writing all over it. It's kind of like Mr. Soul in as much I wrote it on a piece of newspaper with a felt tip marker and it all came out in one long line and it was done. Neil Young Neil Young Words + Music promo release for Silver & Gold May 2000

Daddy Went Walkin'
It's not my father or your father. It's just fathers. It's not so much about them, it's like, you look at these old folks who have lost their mates or maybe they've gotten divorced years and years ago, like my parents. And then one of them dies, and then the other one is still here and with a new mate. But the kids think they're going to get back together again - that the real parents are going to get back together. Is this something you want? You want to see your parents together. So, even if your parents aren't together maybe they will be someday. I lived in this place called Omemee, which is outside of Toronto about 100 miles way out by a lake. A really funky, beautiful little town - Canadian town, 700 people. That's really where I grew up. We had 2 acres behind the house with a little barn, and then a garage and a loft. And out behind there I'd walk through the grass and we had a little creek that went through and we used to catch frogs and stuff. There was a railroad track back there where are the trains used to go by and steam engines and everything. And we'd put the coins on the track and put your ear down. You could hear the train coming on the rail before it came around the corner and all that kind of stuff. So that's part of it. And then the last time that I visited my dad, who lived in Ireland for a while, he took us for a walk out on these fields. And he let us through all this stuff. And we're going through all these brambles and over wire fences and all this stuff. And that's in there too. Neil Young Neil Young Words + Music promo release for Silver & Gold May 2000

Silver & Gold
I think Silver & Gold is from 1980. I wrote it in 1980. I recorded Silver & Gold about 11 times before I finally just came back to just doing it with acoustic guitar. I did it with everybody I ever met and it never worked. It only works when I do it by myself. So I finally just let it be the way it was. Relationships are more important than material things is what the song says, but if you take one look at me you can tell I must be full of it because I've got so many possessions that it's ridiculous. But it is dawning on me how are useless most of them are. Neil Young Neil Young Words + Music promo release for Silver & Gold May 2000

Silver & Gold
When I got back from doing the HORDE tour with Crazy Horse, I had written a couple of songs. So when I got home I figured the best thing to do was to record them right away. So I went into the studio a couple of days after I got home and recorded three or four - i think Silver & Gold, Without Rings and three or four others that I didn't use. And then I was going to make an acoustic album called Acoustica which I worked on developing ideas for, and I did a lot of recording for, where I was using tiny little instruments that I wanted to mic really well and make them really loud. And try to get in really close to get a different texture in the music. But I never could get what I was looking for. I'm going to try again sometime later. Neil Young Neil Young Words + Music promo release for Silver & Gold May 2000

Without Rings
When I got back from doing the HORDE tour with Crazy Horse, I had written a couple of songs. So when I got home I figured the best thing to do was to record them right away. So I went into the studio a couple of days after I got home and recorded three or four - i think Silver & Gold, Without Rings and three or four others that I didn't use. And then I was going to make an acoustic album called Acoustica which I worked on developing ideas for, and I did a lot of recording for, where I was using tiny little instruments that I wanted to mic really well and make them really loud. And try to get in really close to get a different texture in the music. But I never could get what I was looking for. I'm going to try again sometime later. Neil Young Neil Young Words + Music promo release for Silver & Gold May 2000

Silver & Gold
It's always a kind of song do you do the first time, it's fine, it sounds great. And then you do it a second time and it's like, you know, why are you do we need again? [...] I really recorded, I think a total of 11 times with different people in all kinds of different configurations. And we got all of 'em, none of them are worth listening to. But this one here, I finally got back to the roots a bit and just sat down with my guitar and played it and said, "That's it." Neil Young Uncut - The Ultimate Music Guide - Neil Young / Jon Dale May 2021 (quoted from an unspecified c.2000 radio interview)

Human Highway
I wrote this back in the early 70s. One of my early recordings was a project called ‘Oceanside Countryside, which I presented to Reprise records back then. I loved it. They did too, but they suggested I go into the studio and do complete records with a band. I had recorded it all by my self on ‘Oceanside Countryside’, doing all the overdubs. Hearing their ideas, I decided to go to Nashville and try some of the songs with an orchestra or band. ‘Human Highway’ was one of those - the track appearing as ‘song of the day’ today is the ‘OC’ original with overdubs of bass and drums and a bit more, just as it appeared on ‘Comes a Time’ Neil Young NYA Song Of The Day October 6, 2021

Act Of Love
[talking about Mirror Ball] NY: The whole record was recorded in four days and all the songs, barring Song X and Act Of Love, were written in that four day stretch. I played Act Of Love with Crazy Horse in January at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Then, the following night, I played it with Pearl Jam at a Pro- Choice benefit concert and the version was so powerful! I decided there and then to record it with them as soon as possible. On a purely musical level, this is the first time I've been in a band with three potential lead guitarists since The Buffalo Springfield. Plus there's Jack Irons, their drummer, who was just unbelievable. He just played his ass off on every take at every session. I can't say enough good things about him. NY: I didn't even think about recording a whole album when we went in to cut Act Of Love. I had two days with Pearl Jam initially. Two days and just two songs - that wasn't enough for me so I had five written by the time I went in. Recorded five of them, left one out. Then I came back for another two-day session with two more new songs. Plus I re- recorded the fifth one from the first session again. Then the day after that, I wrote another two new songs. Throw Your Weapons Down - maybe. Maybe not, tho' there's a large part of making this new album that's pretty foggy... (laughs) NK: The song Act Of Love is about the issue of abortion. It throws together images like Rockin' In The Free World did... NY: Yeah, there's no bias so you have to make up your own mind, finally. See, personally, I'm pro-choice. But the song isn't! This isn't an easy subject to confront head-on. People who say that human beings shouldn't have the right to dismiss a human life - they have a point. You can't dismiss that point. But then there's the reality. There's idealism and reality, the two have to come together yet there are always major problems when they do. Maybe that's the crux of what I'm trying to say in this new album. It's also a commentary of the differences between my peace and love '60s generation and the more cynical '90s generation. Like this term 'love'. We hear the word so much it gets devalued and you need to - if not redefine it - then at least re-examine what it really stands for. We all need to get back inside ourselves and take another look. You can't just keep coasting along on the previous analysis because it isn't working any more. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

There's A World
Here's a new song I wrote in Vancouver. We had a gig in Eugene, Oregon. It was really a groovy gig. The next day we got up in our motel rooms. It was snowing outside and it was a blizzard. there we were in Eugene, Oregon in a blizzard. So, we went to the airport and found out that the airport wasn't doing anything. And we had this limousine service that had ambulance drivers. They have these silver and black limousines with super heavy duty tires on them, with studs. And we took off across the country in these things. And these guys must've been going about 80 in these things. It was pretty fast for a blizzard. They told us it was all right because they were ambulance drivers. So, finally we made it to where we were going to which was Portland, where we were to catch a connecting flight to Vancouver and then stay overnight and catch a connecting flight from Vancouver to Edmonton, Alberta. So we got on the plane and we flew and flew and flew and we never did get to Vancouver. We flew to Vancouver and then we flew back to Seattle because Vancouver was snowed in. So we went to Seattle and we got drunk in first class with someone from the Metropolitan Opera Company. She wasn't bad either. We got off the plane back there in Seattle. The only flight that was out that night to Vancouver they figured wouldn't go because they couldn't get the airport clean enough for it to land. And the next flight that went out that morning to Vancouver got into late for us to make our connection to Edmonton where we had a show that night. So we rented two more limousines. Only this time, instead of ambulance drivers, we had two 85 year old guys. Just pretty old looking. One of them was a bus driver, had to be back the same night. He was going to drive to Vancouver and back and then start on his bus in the morning. The other guy was just really old looking and his name is Glen. He was our driver. And it was a much worse blizzard than the earlier one. The road was all ice and it was all snowing and everything and it was complete total craziness. But we got chains on our limousine. We put chains on it - it sort of looked neat with chains. And off we went to the Canadian border. We managed to get through the border only losing one suitcase. Which we had to send one of the drivers from Vancouver in the middle of the night to get. And when we got to Vancouver I realized that the last time I was in Vancouver I had written this song. I just wanted to share that experience with someone. Neil Young Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, USA January 21, 1971, Early Show

There's A World
I woke up one morning and thought - wow, what if, what if there weren't any advertisements on television for things that said you didn't feel any good and you needed a pill. Like all of the things that said, well, your body doesn't smell good so you need to get this other stuff because your body doesn't make it. And all the other things said, well, you're going so fast, you're going need this pill because you're going to have a headache. And it's like half of TV is that. I think there is a lot of suggestion in it. It ends up, people end up sick. Neil Young Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, USA January 21, 1971, Late Show

A Man Needs A Maid>Heart Of Gold
This is another new song. It's called A Man Needs A Maid. It doesn't really mean what it says. It's just the idea that anyone would think enough to say something like that would show that something else was happening. So don't take it personally when I say it. I don't really want a maid. Neil Young Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, USA January 21, 1971, Early Show

A Man Needs A Maid
This is another new song. It's called A Man Needs A Maid. It doesn't really mean what it says. It's just the idea that anyone would think enough to say something like that would show that something else was happening. So don't take it personally when I say it. I don't really want a maid. Neil Young Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, USA January 21, 1971, Early Show

Love In Mind
I wrote a song this morning. I sort of wrote it this morning and in between shows. I was trying to figure out what to write it on. I might screw this up. Neil Young Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA January 16, 1971, Late Show

Love In Mind
This is the song I wrote yesterday. You have to write them sometime. Neil Young Masonic Temple Theater, Detroit, Michigan, USA January 17, 1971

Separate Ways
Letter: But the highlight of the show for me was a song I'd never heard before. Separate Ways. It somehow felt like the centerpiece song of the tour [the 1993 Booker T and The MGs tour], and of course, it was the only version of the song I knew until the recent Archival releases. I still can't believe that the harmony backing vocals were a new addition to the song at that time, as ’70s versions now show. It's still how I hear the chorus, even when I listen to the versions (Stills/Young Band version is my personal fav). NY: ‘Separate’ ways was written for back grounds, but they were never recorded and added for the original version, It’s basically incomplete. Recently, I stayed with what we did. I did not want to add them years later. I have tried many ideas on this to solve it with using only the original recordings. One more idea left to try… Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor September 29, 2021

Country Girl
This is a new song that I'm going to do for you now. Actually, it's not really new, but as a song, as a total thing, it's new. Part of it was written over four years ago - part of it was written two years ago and part of it was written two weeks ago. It just kind of falls in together. It takes in about four years. It's called Country Girl. I've written three songs now that go together - this one here is the third of three of three. The first one was Broken Arrow. The second one was Down By The River and this is the third one. I don't know if there'll be another one or not. You may think that this sounds a little like Broken Arrow - you're right. That's because I wrote this part of it before I wrote Broken Arrow. This is where Broken arrow came from. In other words - at the time, Broken Arrow seemed better than this and now it seems the other way around, as time changes - even though four years ago it wasn't. Neil Young The Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA October 16, 1969 [Down By The River seemed out of place in the list of related songs. In a 2021 NYA letter to the editor Neil corrected his 1969 intro quote] Letter: During your Canterbury performance in 1969 you say that Broken Arrow, Down by the River and Country Girl are connected with each other. Musically Broken Arrow and Country Girl are a pair, but Down by the River is something completely different. In which aspect are (or were) these three songs a trilogy for you? NY: I meant ‘Down Down Down’ Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor August 31st, 2021

Burned
"Burned" was my first ever vocal in the studio. I was very nervous and over-dubbing was a big deal. The band was in the studio watching and listening. I was not the main vocalist in the Springfield. Richie and Stephen were. Our producer, Charlie Greene, gave me a pill to help me. I'm not sure what it was or if it worked. I did not take any more. Neil Young NYA Song Of The Day September 2, 2021

The Last Trip To Tulsa
The Last Trip To Tulsa - I'm not there anymore. I tell ya, that's one record I made that I wish I hadn't. Unfortunately - that's not a put down to you - it's just the way I feel about it. It's funny - some records that you make you like. I thought it was okay when I made it, but later on ... Neil Young The Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA October 16, 1969

Powderfinger
Powderfinger: standard tuning key of G written between 1970 (first verse beginnings) and 1975 complete last three verses. (Zuma out-take). Where does it come from? Unexplainable. Neil Young NYA Song Of The Day August 12, 2019

Heart Of Gold
I'm going to bring out my one-man band. I'm not very good at this. I just started playing the harmonica yesterday. You ain't heard nothing yet. It's a new song called I'm Searching for a Heart of Gold. [from the first known performance of Heart of Gold on acoustic guitar and harmonica after previously playing it for a few weeks on piano as part of a medley with A Man Needs A Maid] Neil Young Macky Auditorium - University Of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA January 26, 1971

Down By The River
This is a song I wrote a couple of years ago. I guess it was maybe a year ago. I wrote it by accident in my living room. I was chasing a bush baby at the time. Do you know what a bush baby is? Well, it was probably the only song that was performed on television that was written while chasing a bush baby. How's that for pop folklore. Neil Young The Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA October 16, 1969

Will To Love
Letter: When was the initial ranch fireplace session for “Will To Love”? NY: 4/25/76 Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor June 3, 2021

Down By The River
NY: Really literally, we'd only been together for six or seven days when "Down By The River" was cut. EB: Was there any reason that you did it that soon, instead of waiting? NY: I just wanted to go ahead and do it, I just wanted to catch it... because there is something on those records that was recorded... like it was when we were really feeling each other out, you know, and we didn't know each other, but we were turned on to what was happening. So I wanted to record that, because that never gets recorded. And that's what that album is, it's just the bare beginnings. And the change between that album and the next album is really gonna blow a lot of minds. Neil Young Rolling Stone by Elliot Blinder April 20, 1970

Down By The River
I'd like to do a song now. I don't usually do this song because I felt pretty weird about it. I was told by a lot of people that most of my songs people can't understand on account of some reason or another. At one time in my life a lot of people told me that. But I realize now that it doesn't make any difference - everybody's gotten so hip they'll pretend they understand it. Anyway, the first part of each of these verses is conscience and the second part is reality. It's called Down By The River. If any of you follow any of the things I do very much, this is the second in a trilogy. The first one was Broken Arrow. This is the second one. And if you don't follow it, that's cool, you're here. Neil Young The Riverboat, Toronto, Ontario, Canada February 7, 1969

Down By The River
Naw, there’s no real murder in it. It’s about blowing your thing with a chick. See, now, in the beginning, it’s 'I’ll be on your side, you be on mine.' It could be anything. Then the chick thing comes in. Then at the end, it’s a whole other thing. It’s a plea...a desperation cry. Neil Young Fusion Magazine April 1970

Pushed It Over The End
"The original "Pushed It Over The End" was recorded by Elliot Mazer and there are several versions of the original unedited live versions with live harmonies," Joel Bernstein told us. "Then Crosby, Stills and Nash went to the studio and they put new background vocals because the originals were too out of tune. They put them on the original multitracks, so, the first version is the original live, unedited version. Then there was a version of the same thing with new back-ground vocals in full-length version. Then Elliot Mazer did an edited version with the studio-backup vocals, which for many years was what existed." Young did however regret that "Pushed It Over The End" was not released and made attempts to rectify this situation. "Neil wanted to put the Elliot Mazer version of "Pushed It Over The End" on "Decade" but Graham wouldn't let him," Bernstein explained to us a couple of years ago. "He once told me he was very sorry that he wouldn't let him put it out. At the time, they were very angry at Neil. The released version of "Pushed It Over The End" is a remix done by David Briggs and Tim Mulligan, who were asked by Italian WEA to put out a special box. When Neil authorized the use of "Pushed It Over The End" for the Italian box-set, David Briggs and Tim Mulligan went in the studio and did their own remix, a fully different remix, a very good one, but different from the Mazer mix. They sent the master to Italy, which is something they never do. But they wanted it to be great and very good sounding, but the press-ing was terrible and of very inferior quality. Since they sent the master, there is no copy of that version in Neil's archive. I think they made a safety-copy and they should have sent this copy and kept the master." Joel Bernstein Crosby Stills Nash and sometimes Young by Verbeke, Lucarelli, Frollano, van Diggelen September 2002

Down By The River
I'd like to sing you a song about a guy who had a lot of trouble controlling himself. He let the dark side come through a little too bright. One afternoon he took a little stroll down through a field and through a forest, till he could hear the water runnin' along there. And he met his woman down there. And he told her she'd been cheatin' on him one time too many. And he reached down in his pocket and he pulled a little revolver out. Said "honey, I hate to do this but you pushed me too far." By the time he got back to town he knew he had to answer to somebody pretty quick. He went back to his house, he sat down on the front porch. About two hours later the sheriff's car pulled up out front. It started sinking in on him just what he'd done. The sheriff walked up the sidewalk. he said "come with me son, I want to ask you a few questions." As he heard the jail door shut behind him he sat down on a little wooden bench - and he looked out of the door through those bars at this kind of wimpy looking sheriff out there. He started getting mad again and he realised what he'd done. There wasn't nothing he could do about it now though. He just sat down and put his head down and started thinking to himself - I'm all by myself here, there's nobody on my side... Neil Young World's Fair Int. Amphitheater, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA September 27, 1984

Sedan Delivery
With Poncho in the band and me living down in Zuma on the beach, I started writing. The first song I wrote there was Cortez the Killer. Sedan Delivery, Dangerbird and some others followed. ‘Zuma’ was recorded in David Briggs’ house on Point Dume, high over Zuma beach. Late night/early morning, after recording, I would walk the two miles up the beach to my house, trying to come down from whatever drugs I might have taken. I know I am lucky to be here today. Two songs we tried and did not get were ‘Powderfinger’ and ‘Sedan Delivery’. They didn’t make the cut for Zuma. Neil Young NYA - Album of the Week - Zuma September 4, 2019

Cortez The Killer
The power went out in the control room while we were recording ‘Cortez the Killer’. Briggs cranked it up as soon as control room power returned, 30 seconds or so later, and continued recording. We kept playing. We had power . . .so we lost a verse. We cut it together with the missing verse gone forever. Neil Young NYA - Album of the Week - Zuma September 4, 2019

Plastic Flowers
I remember the look she gave me when I showed her some plastic flowers in my rolling log cabin. Shortly after that when I first recognized her and saw who she was, my life was changed forever. Mother Nature’s daughter. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater May 4, 2021

Natural Beauty
Natural Beauty is about survival in nature in general and survival of any situation, there's many things in it. The subject of this song is meandering, it's kind of a trip through space. It's like I took a completed album of all kinds of different songs and threw it up in the air and it came crashing down. I took all the pieces and put them back together again. It's a live tape I overdubbed on, added all kinds of acoustic instruments to. Doing Natural Beauty live in Portland and singing it all the way through, I nailed it right there. There was no sense in trying to do a better one. I know I got it when I was doing things with the structure I'd never been able to do again. Neil Young New Music Express November 7, 1992

Blowin' In The Wind
[talking playing Blowin' In Ihe Wind on the Ragged Glory tour as the Gulf War was starting] The song itself asked the same questions everyone was asking then - about how long it will be before people can be free, What do you have to do? What about the Palestinians? They are embroiled in this thing. They're not free. The history of that part of the world is so complicated I don't even understand it. Now all we have is public opinion based on the latest thing we've seen the Israeli soldiers do on television. It really should be a lot deeper than that. There was no other choice for me. That was the song. I just had to do it. I didn't have the idea until we were out there practicing, getting ready for the show and the war was about to happen. Then when it happened, I woke up one morning and said "Well, we're going to do Blowin' In The Wind. That'll get people's attention. It will let them know what the show is about". Neil Young Melody Maker November 30, 1991

The Loner
When I first quit the Buffalo Springfield and made that record - The Loner - I was very conscious about what was going to happen to it, because I was wondering what was going to happen to me. And Cashbox magazine - I saved the little thing that they do when you put out a record - because they figure you're hip enough they'll do a little spread on it - they write about it you know. They said that "this snappy little item should send Young rising Phoenix-like from the ashes of the Buffalo Springfield". I thought it was rather poetic and I wanted you people to be in on it. Neil Young Fillmore East, New York City, New York, USA March 7, 1970

Broken Arrow
This is a new song that I'm going to do for you now. Actually, it's not really new, but as a song, as a total thing, it's new. Part of it was written over four years ago - part of it was written two years ago and part of it was written two weeks ago. It just kind of falls in together. It takes in about four years. It's called Country Girl. I've written three songs now that go together - this one here is the third of three of three. The first one was Broken Arrow. The second one was Down By The River and this is the third one. I don't know if there'll be another one or not. You may think that this sounds a little like Broken Arrow - you're right. That's because I wrote this part of it before I wrote Broken Arrow. This is where Broken arrow came from. In other words - at the time, Broken Arrow seemed better than this and now it seems the other way around, as time changes - even though four years ago it wasn't. Neil Young The Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA October 16, 1969

Oh, Lonesome Me
This song here will probably be my next single [laugh]. You never can tell. It's an old song written by a guy called Don Gibson. The first song that I've ever recorded that I didn't write. It's very historic. Actually I recorded it because I really liked it so much. I haven't recorded that many songs that I don't like though, so that doesn't really set it apart. You'll recognize it right away. Neil Young The Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA October 16, 1969

Everybody's Alone
Maybe I'll sing this new song for you here. Yeah, it's called Everybody's Alone. I've never played it on acoustic before, but let's see, it should work out about the same as it does on the electric, only it will sound different without the band. Here we go anyway - maybe you can get a little lift from it. Maybe I can get a little lift from it here. I got a remember these chords. Here, I'll have it in a minute. It's sort like one of those old April Stevens - "When a deep purple falls, over sleepy garden walls" - Vegas is next [chuckle]. It's good for driving a truck to. Neil Young The Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA October 16, 1969

Cowgirl In The Sand
I'd like to sing about a few very choice - probably some of the most remarkable people in the world. I learned the chord structure of this song from Alan-a-Dale. He's probably the best English guitarist to ever come out of England. Just nobody really got on to him back then. He's better than Clapton - he is - I wouldn't put you on. This is a song about a few women I've known. A very choice group. Neil Young The Riverboat, Toronto, Ontario, Canada February 7, 1969

A Man Needs A Maid
This is another new song. I wrote a lot of new songs. I don't know what happened, I wrote 10 new songs. I'm going to have to put out another album now. The song - we're going to record - we're going to rent an opera house in Los Angeles. And we're going to rent the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Jack Nitzsche, a friend of mine, is writing a chart for the Philharmonic to play. I'm going to play it on the piano and they're going to play with me. I'm going to sing it live and they're going to record it with no audience just using the theater as an echo chamber. So anyway, now you know that. Neil Young Macky Auditorium - University Of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA January 26, 1971

Revolution Blues
BF: "Revolution Blues" (On the Beach) was a great portrait of the distance between being a rock star, a supposed counter-culture leader, and a revolutionary with dreams of "dune buggies coming down the mountains." What inspired that? NY: Living in L.A. knowing Manson. BF: How did you know Manson? NY: I met him through Dennis Wilson. He wanted to make records. He wanted me to introduce him to Mo Ostin at Reprise. He had this kind of music that no one was doing. He would sit down with the guitar and start playing and make up stuff, different every time, it just kept comin' out, comin' out, comin' out. Then he would stop and you would never hear that one again. Musically I thought he was very unique. I thought he really had something crazy, something great. He was like a living poet. It was always coming out. He had a lot of girls around at the time and I thought, "Well, this guy has a lot of girlfriends." He was very intense. I met him two or three times. BF: This is a weird kind of speculation but I've got to ask: Do you think if the guy had gotten an outlet he would have been a worthwhile artist? NY: I think he was a worthwhile artist anyway. I don't know why he did what he did. But I think he was very frustrated in not being able to get it - and he blamed somebody. It had to do with Terry Melcher, who was a producer of records at that time. He wanted very much to make a record. And he really was unique. BF: And thank goodness. NY: But I don't know what happened. I don't know what they got into. I remember there was a lot of energy whenever he was around. And he was different. You can tell he's different. All you have to do is look at him. Once you've seen him you can never forget him. I'll tell you that. Something about him that's...I can't forget it. I don't know what you would call it, but I wouldn't want to call it anything in an interview. I would just like to forget about it. Neil Young Interview with Bill Flanagan 1985

A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop
When I was doing ‘The Monsanto Years’ with Promise of the Real, we were watching Vermont, where Starbucks had voted through the Grocery Manufacturers Association to take away Vermont voters’ rights to know which foods had GMOs in them. The people of Vermont had voted for GMO labeling and Starbucks had helped to overturn the vote through strong arm politics and the GMA. To me, Starbucks was overturning the people’s will in this case. Obviously, Starbucks was using GMO coffee and did not want their valued customers to know what they were drinking everyday. This offended us. I have not been back to Starbucks since that day. When they start labeling their GMO coffee as such, I will visit their outlets again, looking for organic coffee, the safest coffee to drink every day. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater February 24, 2021

Harvest Moon
Harvest Moon is a song I wrote for Pegi, my wife of many years, who gave me two beautiful children and helped bring up my first child Zeke. She was a dancer and floated around when she was happy. Neil Young NYA - Album of the Week - Harvest Moon February 11, 2021

Old King
Here's a story 'bout my dog. You've probably heard a lot of stories about my dog. I'm going to tell you the story about how he died. My dog had a lot of things going on. He used to travel with me on my tour bus. His name was Elvis. He's driving around on Jimi Henrdix' bus now. But while he was with me he did a lot of interesting things. One Christmas, yeah one Christmas he bought cars for everyone in the family!! But no ... that's not true. One Christmas we went out to find a Christmas tree with Elvis. We took Elvis out, Elvis used to like riding in the back of the truck. A big pick-up truck, one of those, what do you call them? king cab or crew cab, four door. Cool truck, I like it. Anyway, we used to spend a lot of time in the truck. He had in the back a little bowl. It was against the law for him to be in the back there, but he liked it back there, so I let him go back there anyway. If he saw a police car he'd go through the window and got in the back seat!! So anyway, we were looking for trees and Elvis was out running around and going up these rows of trees you were supposed to chop down and put in the back of the truck, and there were a lot of trees and we didn't mind chopping them down. So anyway, we couldn't find a tree we liked, so we went home without a tree. Yeah, that's right, yeah we had to get the tree somewhere else. We couldn't decide. The family couldn't make up it's mind and so Elvis, you know, he was running all over the place, scaring everybody. So I got him back in the truck and we're heading back up the road, this country road, driving along, and Elvis was back in the back of the truck, and everything's fine. We stopped to get some ice cream for the kids, yeah we did. We got out and he was gone, looked in the back and Elvis was missing. A few minutes later, a friend of mine pulled up in a truck and said, "Man, did you see your dog??" "Well, no I've just realised he's not there now, what did he do? "Well, he jumped out of your truck at about fifty miles an hour, back there, on the pavement." "Oh, is he dead or what?" "No, no, he's fine", he told me, "No, I just saw him going by, his face kind of ... (makes expression), then he kinda gee'd up, and then he just gotta hold of everything and took off." "Oh wow, well let's go back and see if we can find him." So going back to look for him, we couldn't find him. Then, later that night I got a call and he was, he'd been found up near a quarry somewhere, and just kinda looked in there, and was hanging out, was on his way home, I think. He could find his way home from anywhere. So I went up he was kinda really ... So we put him in the truck and went back. I wrote a song about him. His name is King in the song. A hound, a hound dog. He changed colors all the time, especially in the late sixties. Neil Young Beacon Theater, New York City, New York, USA February 18, 1992 [Transcribed by Adrian Matthews in Broken Arrow 49]

Pocahontas
Here's a story I wrote one night when I was just sitting around on one of my friend's farms out there. We were getting high sitting there in front of that old pot belly, thinking about what it could've been like. I turned over and said, "Wow, I wish I had my 12 string with me right now" Neil Young Fox Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia, USA November 24, 1976, Late Show

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
Devo was a great band. It was Mark Mothersbaugh, (Boogie Boy) who first sang “rust never sleeps”. He just threw it in during this performance. Where Devo was from in Akron, Ohio, there was a rust remover place and the sign outside said: ‘RUST NEVER SLEEPS’ That’s the way it was. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater January 22, 2021

Glimmer
Glimmer is the essence of Storytone, telling the tale. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater January 8, 2021

Separate Ways
In Nashville, Young resumed his sessions at Quadrafonic, and on December 2, 1974 [sic], came the ultimate ballad of failed romance: “Separate Ways.” The song begins in the middle of a doomy chord; Tim Mulligan lunged for the record button just as Young and the band dove into the song. Levon Helm rattles out a slow counterpoint as Ben Keith spins up a stark, bird-on-the-wire steel solo that has to be one of the lonesomest sounds ever recorded. “I won’t apologize / The light shone from in your eyes / It isn’t gone / And it will soon come back again,” sings Young, sounding dead. This was powerful, painfully sad stuff, and it was goodbye. Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Razor Love
In January (1984), Young recorded two solo songs with the Synclavier: “Hard Luck Stories” and “Razor Love.” They were the warmest of his techno-pop music, particularly the unrelentingly melancholy “Razor Love,” a piece he spent an unusually long time concocting. “Neil was locked away with that Synclavier for weeks and weeks,” said guitar tech Larry Cragg. “He spent days just working on that one drum pattern.” The obsession paid off. Over mournful, bell-chime keyboard tones, Young sings in a haunted voice of what seems to be a father jettisoning a family. (Was he thinking of his childhood, singing to himself? to Zeke? to someone else? I asked, but he never told me.) Then comes the line that always conjures up a vision of Young alone on his bus, staring out into the blackness of night and seeing only his reflection in the glass: “On the road there’s no place like home / Silhouettes on the window.” Young’s voice cracks on the word “silhouettes” à la “Mellow My Mind.” It was an eerie song, the sort of personalized misery he hadn’t written since Homegrown. Jimmy McDonough Shakey by Jimmy McDonough 2002

A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop
I was pissed at Starbucks for using GMOs and not owning up to it, helping to fight the people in Vermont, who had voted agains GMOs - banning them in their state. Monsanto, who fought to defeat the will of the people, helped by Starbucks, was under attack everywhere and they deserved it. Starbucks has an image in the public and it’s not the image that represents what they really do. That’s why i wrote this song. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater December 14, 2020

Dirty Old Man
This song “Dirty Old Man” explores the ugliest parts of alcoholism. I really loathe what it does to people. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater December 8, 2020

Thrasher
Thrasher is one of my favorite songs. When I first put it out, a reviewer really trashed it and it got to me. I didn't sing it for a long time. But I got over it. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater November 23, 2020

Feel Your Love
You probably haven't heard this one. Uh, you probably have heard it. It's either one or the other. It's about a hotel. Neil Young Prospera Place, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada April 22, 2009

I Wonder
This is a song I wrote in high school and one of the first songs I ever sang in front of an audience. My favorite "I Wonder" is the Ray Dee production from radio CJLX in Fort William, Ontario [recorded Nov 23, 1964]. It shows some of the sound of the Buffalo Springfield. It's an early look. It features Bill Edmondson on drums. This recording was made during the Squires second time in Fort William. It's too bad Bill had to leave the group. But he fell in love and got married in Winnipeg. No matter which version of the song "I Wonder" that you hear, you can tell that it is the root song of "Don't Cry No Tears" from the album "Zuma". Neil Young NYA Post Informer Volume 1, #1 June 2, 2009

It Might Have Been
This next tune is a tune that I learned at a high school - in a - well it wasn't a high school - it was a church. But anyways, that's where I learned it - at a church dance. I used to go there. This used to be my favorite song. I don't know who wrote it. You might not like it, but it used to be my favorite. It's kind of hokey. It's called It Might Have Been. I don't really know any more about it than that. I imagine we will find out who wrote it when we record it. Because you always find out when money's involved. People show up. Neil Young Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA February 25, 1970

Changes
Phil Ochs was one of the very greatest writers of the folk era, along with Tim Hardin and Bob Dylan. Phil wrote this song, ‘Changes.’ It’s a beautiful melody and lyric. The folk duo Jim and Jean introduced me to Phil Ochs back in the sixties and ‘Changes’ is my favorite song of Phil’s. Great lyrics. Give a listen. It’s from ‘A Letter Home.’ Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater October 8, 2020

Like A Hurricane
I wrote it on an organ, on the string synthesizer. I remember the night I wrote it, I stayed up all night playing it after I wrote it. It always had a feeling to me that it was going to take off. It was never going to be a peaceful little song. Neil Young Rock On Interview/BBC Radio 1 September 29, 1982

Transformer Man
This song was written for my son Ben. It was written to be performed totally in a synthetic sense. I programmed the drum computer myself and performed the rhythms. Programmed the actual sequence and performed all the instruments on it. And all of the voices. Neil Young Rock On Interview/BBC Radio 1 September 29, 1982

From Hank To Hendrix
Questioner: How did the idea for Hank To Hendrix come about? NY: I wrote the song in my house. I sat down with my 12 string guitar and just started playing and writing all at once. I don't think about it. I just do it. I don't think - "now I'm going to sit down and write a song" and then sit down and try to write a song. I didn't know I was going to write a song when I sat down. I'll pick up my guitar and start playing and then suddenly I am playing a new song. I've learned to realize when I'm writing and then remember what I'm doing. Neil Young Harvest Moon press conference, Milano, Italy October 21, 1992

Old King
My dog's name is really Elvis, so I changed the name to King to avoid confusion. Neil Young Harvest Moon press conference, Milano, Italy October 21, 1992

The Old Homestead
NY: My biggest remembrance of “Ambulance Blues”—heh heh—I was sittin’ in the kitchen with Carrie and this friend of hers. I never tried coke before, and she was turning me on to that about that time … I’m glad she didn’t turn me on to heroin. NY: So we were sittin’ around gettin’ high, smoked a joint, I said, “You guys wanna hear a song?” I played that song for ’em, all the way to the end. Then I looked at them. They didn’t understand it. It wasn’t their trip, anyway. AHAHAHAHAHA. So I said, “Try this one,” and I did “The Old Homestead.” I played that for ’em. JM: Better response? NY: Nope. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Lookout Joe
Written about a GI returning to the states from the Vietnam war. Neil Young NYA Times-Contrarian Roadstories January 24, 2018

Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown
A song about heroin and the life of an addict Neil Young NYA Times-Contrarian Roadstories January 24, 2018

Borrowed Tune
A song I had written at the beginning of the Time fades Away tour reflecting on whether a big stadium tour was right for me. Neil Young NYA Times-Contrarian Roadstories January 24, 2018

Are You Ready For The Country?
‘Are You Ready for the Country’ was written at the ranch shortly before the barn sessions happened. It’s a simple song based on an old blues melody that has been used many times. I thought it would bring some welcome relief from the other songs. Neil Young NYA - Times-Contrarian August 24, 2018

Cortez The Killer
I don't know what this next tour will be like. I'll be doing a lot of stuff that I'm recording now. A lot of long instrumental guitar things - progressive progresso supremo? It's about the Incas and the Aztecs. It takes on another personality. It's like being in another civilization. It's a lost sort of form, sort of a soul-form that switches from history scene to history scene trying to find itself, man, in this maze. Neil Young New Musical Express/Bud Scoppa June 1975

Human Highway
There were several Human Highway albums. I remember being in Albuquerque with Neil, he had just written the song [Human Highway] and wanted to call what was his next album was going to be at this point. This was on the Time Fades Away tour. Then, the CSNY album that they rehearsed in Hawaii in 1973 was also going to be called Human Highway and was going to include that track. That never happened. Then, when we were working on the film, the soundtrack was going to be called Human Highway. Joel Bernstein An Interview with Joel Bernstein by Bry Carter Broken Arrow #33 November 1988 (interview August 1, 1988)

Mr. Soul
"Actually", said Neil, "I just took the riff from Satisfaction, changed it a little bit and added a minor fifth harmony on top, which changed the sound. I felt like what the lyrics say, so I am sat down and wrote them. Neil Young Hit Parader 1967-1968

Expecting To Fly
Expecting To Fly took a long time to write, Neil said. It came from two or three different songs that I molded together and changed around and fit together. We spent three weeks recording and mixing it." Some people have said that you can't hear the lyrics too well. I like to hear lyrics and I can hear the words to it. They are buried in spots but the general mood of the song is there. That's what matters in that particular song. It's not like a modern recording. That recording is based on an old theory. The new style is to hear every instrument clearly. The old one is the old Phil Spector idea of blending them all so they all sound like a wall of sound. Neil Young Hit Parader 1967-1968

Broken Arrow
I wrote the first verse of Broken Arrow right away but I couldn't get a refrain, the part that goes 'Did you see them in the river?' I finally got to it by borrowing from another song I've written a year and a half ago, Neil said. Then I mixed it up and came out with the refrain. I had a two-minute song with no repetition, so I figured the only way to make it work would be to turn it into a six-minute song, repeat the refrain three different times and take it into three different movements. Neil Young Hit Parader 1967-1968

Don't Be Denied
Here I am in Dayton Ohio, remembering my old friend - Stephen. “They came to hear the golden sound” Good times. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater September 15, 2020

Don't Take Your Love Away From Me
I wrote this one in NYC and booked a session to record it right away. When I got to the session I found out it was cancelled by Geffen records because they didn’t want me recording if they hadn’t heard the song. What a record company! Nothing like Mo Ostin at Reprise, who always supported me. I’m still at Reprise. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater August 18, 2020

Horseshoe Man
[The "Clear Channel Rant", prior to playing Horsehoe Man] Audience member: You never told us about Clear Channel Mr. Young. NY: We can talk about that if you really want to hear. I'm a better musician. It is too bad you have to work with people who want sponsor war rallies. I’ve got a lot of friends who’ve been doing this for a long time Built-up relationships People want to retire They want to sell the business They get a great offer They let it go Somebody else comes along Buys their business But they don’t own it anymore These new people are different They’re not the ones you sold it to Something terrible happens Musicians try to say what they feel The new owner doesn’t want to hear that You’re still working with the same old guy You didn’t know he was selling to people who were going to sponsor war rallies A worldwide organization to control music and control freedom of speech Worldwide power gets bigger and bigger Let a couple of little guys play, then it won’t be a monopoly It’s still legal Friends in high places Calls from powerful people We like your organization You got a lot of power, a lotta reach People listen We want you to tell them this is a good war We want you to stop playing records by people who don’t think it’s a good war You heard enough? Neil Young Carling Apollo Hammersmith, London, England May 19, 2003

Here For You
This song was written for my beautiful daughter Amber Jean, many years ago. I knew she would be going out into the world soon and I was already missing her. Today, I love her so much with her wonderful family and my beautiful grandchildren. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater July 16, 2020

Florida
Letter: Is Florida the bad dream you just woke up from in Kansas? NY: Yes Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor July 9, 2020

Kansas
Letter: Is Florida the bad dream you just woke up from in Kansas? NY: Yes Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor July 9, 2020

Don't Cry No Tears
‘Don’t Cry No Tears’ has been around for a long time. This may be the best ‘live’ version of this song, according to The Horse [from 1990-11-13 - Way Down In The Rust Bucket]. I wrote it in high school under the name ‘I Wonder’, and added the don’t cry no tears verse around 1974 for ZUMA, where it first appeared on record, aside from two versions of “I Wonder’ by the Squires in 1964 that first appeared on record in ‘Disc 0’ of the ‘Archives Volume1.’ Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater July 3, 2020

The Great Divide
This is a pretty sad song. Skip it if you are having problems at home! Maybe you won’t have to. Good luck. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater July 1, 2020

Misfits
This one's for you called Dakota. I like to throw in these new ones every once in a while. Neil Young Entertainment Centre, Perth, Western Australia, Australia March 1, 1985

Give Me Strength
Here's a song that's about the other side of a relationship. Neil Young Entertainment Centre, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia March 22, 1985

New Mama
This next tune is a tune I wrote a little while ago - just a while ago - about five months ago or something, when my old lady had a baby - I wrote this song. People always come up and say, "Did you write a song about your kid yet? Hey - did you write a song about your kid?" And I say, "No, not yet. Don't know if I'm gonna. Can't think of anything nice." But I finally did it anyway. I kept thinking about that morning, you know - too much! Neil Young Scope Arena, Norfolk, Virginia, USA January 29, 1973

Journey Through The Past
I'd like to do this song for you now that I wrote for my movie that I just finished doing for the last two and a half years. I sort of got into something else for a while. It should be coming to Chicago in maybe a month or so - hope you like it - something new, for me anyways. This is a song, the title song from the movie Journey Through The Past. Only we made up the movie as we went along and couldn't think of anything to do with this song, so it got left out. Neil Young Arie Crown Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA January 11, 1973

Borrowed Tune
This is a song I wrote about a week ago when the tour started. Sitting in this hotel room - looking out the window - with a rented piano - across this lake where people were skating. Neil Young Arie Crown Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA January 10, 1973

L.A.
This new tune here ... this is a song about L.A I wrote in 1968. At the time I wrote it I was too paranoid to record it. But since then I've been revitalized. Here's the tune. I don't know if I'll ever record or anything, aside from tonight - we've got a truck outside. Neil Young Boston Garden, Boston, Massachusetts, USA February 8, 1973

L.A.
This is a new song I wrote about L.A. It's called L.A. It's not really new - I wrote it in 1968. My friend Jack reminded me about it a couple weeks ago. He wrote it down and I had to read it all out again because I had forgotten it totally. Neil Young Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, New York, USA January 14, 1973

L.A.
This is a new song I wrote in 1968. You haven't heard it yet. I was too paranoid to release it back then. It's called L.A. I thought I'd tell you a little about this song. xxx on the west coast - people live under palm trees looking out at the ocean and worry about earthquakes. Neil Young Arie Crown Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA January 10, 1973

Act Of Love
NY: We did this benefit with them [Pearl Jam], that was their show at Constitution Hall. And I played with Crazy Horse and then I came out and played with them. You know - we just like playing together. It sounds good when we play together. We like each other. DM: Was this like a spontaneous thing? Or was there a plan? NY: After we played this Choice benefit, Pro-Choice benefit in Washington. DM: Which was in January right after the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame. NY: Right, the night after that. We played Act Of Love at that. It was really good. We really smoked it that night. It was the first time they'd ever played it. It was first time we'd ever played it together. They told me they learned from a DAT because they heard it the night before. DM: So they bootlegged it at the Hall Of Fame. NY: Yeah - they bootlegged it and then learned it from that. And then we did it the next night - we never played it before, we played it at that show. It was it really in a great groove, so we were thinking this was really good we really smoked it - we should catch this and get it on tape. So we were talking a little bit about that and we decided to make a plan. Try to figure out when we could do it. We did it about a week or so later. Got two days in the studio. Neil Young Mirror Ball World Premiere radio broadcast with Dave Marsh June 1995

Peace And Love
NY: Ultimately what happened was that I never finished it. Eddie finished it. Because I had this melody in this place. It was a great way to save it. KL: Do you have a lot of things laying around that are sort of fragments? NY: Absolutely - that'll just take a couple of words to finish them, but I don't know what they are. Neil Young MTV News with Kurt Loder 1995

Hitchhiker
When I wrote “Cortez the Killer” and “Hitchhiker,” I called for the Horse to come and record. We decided on Briggs’s Point Dume house with the Green Board as the ideal location. I lived a few miles north near Zuma Beach. Malibu, with the Crazy Horse Saloon, was a few miles south. It was a perfect situation for good times. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace 2012

Cortez The Killer
When I wrote “Cortez the Killer” and “Hitchhiker,” I called for the Horse to come and record. We decided on Briggs’s Point Dume house with the Green Board as the ideal location. I lived a few miles north near Zuma Beach. Malibu, with the Crazy Horse Saloon, was a few miles south. It was a perfect situation for good times. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace 2012

Born To Run
Sometime after the Homegrown sessions—Billy Talbot put the time in the spring of 1975—Young and the band got together again. Talbot was renting a place in Echo Park, and in terms of wretched ambience, the residence was legendary. As Billy’s soon-to-be second wife, Laurie, recalls, “Poncho told me, ‘Oh, you’ll love where Billy lives—he has a little cottage in Echo Park.’ I pull up and there’s an empty field with one little shack.” “I don’t even think there was a driveway to it,” said roadie Guillermo Giachetti. “Just a dirt road, puppies everywhere, dogshit.” A woman raised goats down the hill, and not far away, the Hillside Strangler had dumped the nude corpse of one of his victims. “We used to play till four in the morning,” said Poncho. “No one would call the cops on us.” Young, who rarely stays with anybody, let it be known that he was coming to visit. Laurie Talbot was in charge of getting his accommodations ready. “One room they never opened—it was like Charlie Manson,” she said. “I had to paint the whole room and get the chickens out of the coop.” Neil pulled up in an old Buick armed with a new song, “Born to Run,” and there in a cramped room in Echo Park, the second incarnation of Neil Young and Crazy Horse really began. “It was great,” said Talbot. “We were soaring. Neil loved it, we all loved it—it was the first time we heard the Horse since Danny Whitten died.” Jimmy McDonough Shakey by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Cortez The Killer
NY: I keep thinking that there is a song that I don't remember, that's right on the edge. When I start looking through my mind I can't find it. Daniel Lanois: That would fit in with ... NY: Like another one of those ones that I found the last time which just sort of showed up. There may be something around there - somewhere. Just trying to go through what I left off - of like forty albums from forty-five years. You get a little lost. If there is anything left - I've been doing a lot of mining. DL: Do you have a way of knowing your favorites from the orphanage? NY Well - I've been doing that. They get more obscure. Like Hitchhiker was pretty obscure. I wrote that around the same time I wrote Cortez. In the house - the same time - the same kind of drugs. Mark Howard: What was the drugs? NY: It was a combination. Neil Young Le Noise Sessions directed by Bernard Shakey 2010, broadcast August 2019 in the NYA Hearse Theater

Over And Over
This is a song we love to do. It’s a simple repetitive one that gets us in a trance. Every time we do it with the Horse its unforgettable! One time though, we did it with Promise of the Real in Berlin and we rocked it to the ground! What a fun song to play! Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater June 19th, 2020

Don't Cry No Tears
NK: Legend has it that Don't Cry No Tears from Zuma is the first song you ever wrote... NY: No, that was only one of the first 30 or 40 songs I wrote! Oh yeah, there were a lot of them from back then. Unfortunately, we only have 'glimmers' of most of them but we do have actual recordings of five of them which you're going to hear when the Archives finally appear. I really love these tracks, by the way, I'm not embarrassed by them or anything because I was so young. I mean, some of them I wanted to hear over and over again, whereas others were clearly not so successful. I think it's real interesting when you hear the 'bad' ones with the good ones... Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

The Last Trip To Tulsa
I always thought there was a funny side to my music. But see, my sense of humour hadn't really been appreciated at that point in my career... it hadn't even been noticed. I mean, 'Last Trip to Tulsa'...that's my idea of a really funny song and that's just one of 'em. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

Mediterranean
You want to hear a new song I wrote the other day man? I don't know where the fuck this one came from. This is one of those different ones. Neil Young rough Mediterranean demo available in tape trading circles c. Sept-Oct 1974

Deep Forbidden Lake
Written in England after 1974 CSNY. Originally recorded for Homegrown. Neil Young from NYA Volume 1, Blu-ray disc 5 photos & clippings (alternate notes for Decade) 1976

Like A Hurricane
She had so much love he couldn’t handle it. She was always a step away but he loved her forever. He just couldn’t reach her. But he did, and she never forgot that. Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor May 15, 2020

The Bridge
[before the song] This is a song I wrote about - I don't know if any of you have heard of the poet Hart Crane. He wrote a poem called The Bridge among other things. And I've just been reading it. And I wrote this song - it sort of started out like I was feeling like I was Hart Crane. So I started writing this song called The Bridge. [after the song] I wrote that here in this bustling city of London three days ago. Neil Young Royal Festival Hall, London, England February 27, 1971

Four Strong Winds
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

Like A Hurricane
I did record here! [at Village Recorders in Los Angeles] I think I recorded a few tracks here a long time ago. There’s a song, “Like a Hurricane,” that I didn’t record here. But I couldn’t sing at that time, when I recorded that, because I had just had some sort of operation. They told me to stop for a month, but I couldn’t stop the music, so in my studio at home, me and Crazy Horse got together and we played this track. It was about fifteen minutes long, because I’d just written it the night before. I recorded it on an acoustic – now let’s play with all these other instruments and it’s going to be great. So we got the instruments out and we played it once. And we screwed it up really badly at first. If you listen to the record, you can tell we screwed it up. We cut it off. It just starts out of nowhere. But that was over. Now we’re in the record. And it’s divided. It doesn’t matter how cool and together the beginning was. But where it went as soon as it started. So we shortened it. Then I was here at this place in 1974 or something, and I said, “You know, a couple of weeks ago, when I couldn’t sing…” By the way, I know I can’t sing. I mean I couldn’t make a sound. And, of course, this was back in the day, way back there. So I’m saying, “We have this tape here. I brought this piece to multitrack. We’ve never played it. I’m going to sing it, because I never got a chance to sing it.” So we put it on, and he played back about ten seconds, and I said, “Okay, stop. Everything was working, right? We heard everything? Okay, then there’s no reason to listen to it. Because I was there; I know what it is. It’s on the tape. We don’t have to listen to it. Let’s not wipe the shit off the tape listening to it. Let’s record while the stuff is still on – let’s listen to what’s there, and record it to two-track while it’s still there.” Because if you listen over and over and over again, it goes away, bye-bye! Because the tape doesn’t like to rub over this head, and then part of it goes away, it’s terrible! That bothers me every time the tape plays. So I never hardly ever listen! Okay, so they put the tape on and I went out and I talk: “Am I there?” Yes. “Good. Okay. Record. Number one. Just record all the time – that’s why we’re here! Don’t not record at all, ever. Record! It’s a studio! Record! Practice at home! The red button’s not that scary, really not.” So we press the button and they start the tape, and I start singing the song. It’s long, so it’s like, four or five verses over and over again. So I sing one verse, and then the other verse – there’s only two verses, so I just keep singing them, one after the other. Later on, we can cut it down. The other guys aren’t here, and I hear the harmony part, so I want to sing the harmonies now. We did the harmonies, so we did three tracks, three times through, one time on each track. We had all this stuff, and it was the first time I ever heard it. The first time I ever listened to “Like a Hurricane.” And I was hearing it, and I was singing it, and I sang the harmony, and I sang the other harmony, and then we mixed it. So it was like the fifth or sixth time, and then we mixed it. Neil Young January 22, 2014 Acceptance speech for the 2014 President’s Merit Award from the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Grammys Village Recorders, Los Angeles

The Last Trip To Tulsa
Letter: What was the inspiration for last trip to Tulsa? NY: my mind on weed. Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor May 6th, 2020

Four Strong Winds
“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

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
I wrote that song right after the death of Elvis Presley, one of my childhood heroes, and sang it first for Bruce “BJ” (Baby John) Hines, part of the original Crazy Horse family. He was visiting the ranch for some reason, and I had just finished the song. It was written as an acoustic song. Rather reflective. During the filming of Human Highway when I played it with Devo, Booji Boy sang it in his crib, pounding on a synthesizer. I played it on Old Black. I remember seeing the video of that, and the peace signs and doves on Old Black’s strap played against the visual of Booji Boy, and the image created a feeling I can’t describe. It was the feeling of the hippie generation and the new punk generation juxtaposed. Devo’s influence and where they came from is something that I have never seen adequately described. They were true originals. It was just one of those moments. That was the defining original rock version. Booji Boy added some new lyrics and sang, “It’s better to burn out, ’cause rust never sleeps” or “than it is to rust.” I’m not sure which. One of the Devo members later told me that there was a sign on a shop in Akron, Ohio, where Devo originated, that read RUST NEVER SLEEPS. It was a maintenance and rust-prevention service. As is the case with many of my songs, some of it came from real-life things other people said or did. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
I wrote that song right after the death of Elvis Presley, one of my childhood heroes, and sang it first for Bruce “BJ” (Baby John) Hines, part of the original Crazy Horse family. He was visiting the ranch for some reason, and I had just finished the song. It was written as an acoustic song. Rather reflective. During the filming of Human Highway when I played it with Devo, Booji Boy sang it in his crib, pounding on a synthesizer. I played it on Old Black. I remember seeing the video of that, and the peace signs and doves on Old Black’s strap played against the visual of Booji Boy, and the image created a feeling I can’t describe. It was the feeling of the hippie generation and the new punk generation juxtaposed. Devo’s influence and where they came from is something that I have never seen adequately described. They were true originals. It was just one of those moments. That was the defining original rock version. Booji Boy added some new lyrics and sang, “It’s better to burn out, ’cause rust never sleeps” or “than it is to rust.” I’m not sure which. One of the Devo members later told me that there was a sign on a shop in Akron, Ohio, where Devo originated, that read RUST NEVER SLEEPS. It was a maintenance and rust-prevention service. As is the case with many of my songs, some of it came from real-life things other people said or did. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

A Man Needs A Maid
You people seem a little more receptive to that song. Now maid is a word that's been hijacked. OK. It's been hijacked. It doesn't mean what it means anymore. Now it's like a derogatory thing. It's something bad. Someone working. Sometimes I tell a little story here about something. Kinda tears it for people a little bit. I think some of you were here last night, especially the loud ones. So I don't have to tell that story anymore. That's over. (Audience protesting) So you weren't here last night. I'm glad that we're talking now. So a while ago a long time ago I was in a band and we were playing in London. Staying in a hotel, which we usually do, which I don't do anymore. But we used to do all the time. I got tired and now I like to stay in a motorhome now. You know where everything is. You know it works. But anyway, I was in this hotel and there was this light switch on the wall. I walked over to it but it wasn't a light switch. I was surprised to see 2 buttons. The top one you pressed a MAN and the second one you pressed MAID. I immediately went to the piano. That's how it happened. Neil Young Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA October 9, 2014

Reason to Believe
NY: Tim Hardin wrote that song, a great song. A while ago I did a record of people that impressed me and made a big difference in my life, songwriters. And he was certainly one of the best ones. And so it felt good to be able to let people know who I relate to, thought were the greatest. So all of the writers on that record - which I recorded in a little funky recording booth used at state fairs. It sounded like it was done a long time ago and I kinda liked the sound of it. All the people on that record who wrote the songs were all my favourite writers - they were great. Audience: What about John Lennon? NY: What about John Lennon?. That wouldn't work. Neil Young Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA October 9, 2014

Mellow My Mind
That one is from an album called Tonight's The Night. I advise you to go to a used place and get the vinyl version of that. Because of course it is not going to do anything for me, but it might do something for you. I would actually have to listen to that myself. They trashed me when I put that out 'cos it was no good. I thought I was real. You're slanted though, you're a slanted audience. There were a lot of technical musicians who did not feel good about that. They couldn't play out of tune if they tried. We love them all though, we really do. Me and my guitars love them all. Everybody does. And all my personalities we all love them. I don't want to be nicked. I already did that. Neil Young Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA October 9, 2014

Changes
Back in the 60's there was a guy who used to play here in Boston quite a bit. He was a folk singer by the name of Phil Ochs. He along with many others including Tim Hardin, wrote Reason To Believe that I did a minute ago. He was great, these were some great artists that wrote some beautiful songs. It was a beautiful thing. I'm glad I was watching from a distance and enjoying it. I met some people at ... somebody made a movie about these kinds of people, you know these artists - making fun of them. It was kind of weird. Anyway, they had a kind of a movie about these people and there were two people in it called Jim and Jean. And Jim and Jean were kinda like - they make fun of them and make fun of Jean - for some reason in the movie. I guess they thought folk music wasn't funny enough. SHIT. Funny to laugh at. Oh well, the movie was a stiff anyway. I never heard of it either. I can’t even remember the name of it. But Phil Ochs wrote some great songs....... Actually, Jean told me about this song. "This guy Phil Ochs is so good. You have to hear this song he wrote. Jim and I do all of his songs, but this is a great song. Unique." And she was so excited. [After the song] Sorry about those changes Phil. I forgot the changes to Changes. I couldn't do it. It's OK, it's all right, those things happen. The thing to remember is the songs. It's a great song. A beautiful song. It's a great product here too. One more time. It's not fracking, it's water. Neil Young Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, USA October 5, 2014

Reason to Believe
So I made a record a while ago, another terrible record I love. It sounded like, you know, it was made in an ancient place, where they made records. So I am going to do one of those songs - my favorite singers and songwriters are on this record. I didn't write anything on it cos I kinda lost it. Yeah - that's it, no more for me. "What was that other thing, that other song - where did that come from anyway? Who wrote that sucker. Woody, did you write that?" That's OK - we shouldn't talk to inanimate objects. Neil Young Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, USA October 5, 2014

You And Me
This guitar was given to me by my old friend Stephen Stills. This song I haven't played in a long time, so I might screw this up for you - but maybe not. Neil Young Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, USA October 5, 2014

When I Watch You Sleeping
So I don't wanna go crazy here. Love is beautiful. Life is great. This is a great place. I am not totally blown away by these bad things that are happening to the point that that I can't live right now. I am just like any other animal - I really love to play around. Have a good time. I love to love. I love to fly. I like to prance around - frolic with my little friends - like the horses in the field, like dogs playing. I think that's what this is all about. I think that's why we're here. So, I have a lot of love. And just think that I want to make it better and that's why these songs keep coming. That's why there are so many more people now thinking this then there were before. It's way too much for us to do and paying $28 billion per year of our taxpayer money to support the oil companies just doesn't seem right and then they use that money to advertise how cool they are. Human energy. Those families - nice looking lady with her kid, the sun's beautiful shining - it's great. I love it to be like that, I really would. I would like it to be like that forever. I don't see it happening with the oil companies. Here is a song for love. Neil Young Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA October 8, 2014

A Man Needs A Maid
So I was playing with a band once which will go unnamed. Too many names in it. I was staying in a hotel, like we always do, back then. Now I never do. I was in this hotel in London. The band was playing a gig over there. I was walking around in my room and I saw this light switch and it had 2 little dots on it - just round dots you know, very old. One said, Man. The other one said, Maid. It wasn't my idea. A couple sometimes get a little nervous when I do that. A little edgy. "What's he saying, what does that mean, what does that mean? What about Robin Hood? he had Maid Mariann, right. she was beautiful. That's what Robin Hood thought." Anyway, that unnamed band did a lot of songs that were very good and relevant during its time. Neil Young Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA October 8, 2014

Ohio
So I was playing with a band once which will go unnamed. Too many names in it. I was staying in a hotel, like we always do, back then. Now I never do. I was in this hotel in London. The band was playing a gig over there. I was walking around in my room and I saw this light switch and it had 2 little dots on it - just round dots you know, very old. One said, Man. The other one said, Maid. It wasn't my idea. A couple sometimes get a little nervous when I do that. A little edgy. "What's he saying, what does that mean, what does that mean? What about Robin Hood? he had Maid Mariann, right. she was beautiful. That's what Robin Hood thought." Anyway, that unnamed band did a lot of songs that were very good and relevant during its time. Neil Young Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA October 8, 2014

If You Could Read My Mind
Up in Canada there is a writer by the name of Gordon Lightfoot. One day when I was with Jack White and stepped into that recording booth. I had to do this song. I had to learn it first. Neil Young Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA October 8, 2014

Reason to Believe
Audience: I could die now NY: No no not yet. You gotta hear me do that when I am 90. We'll put you in a box with a Hoar's catalogue on it. So a while ago I did a record that sounded like a record I did really a long time ago. A record I made in a recording booth that they used to have in State fairs, I really enjoyed making it. It was a record, you know this thing could only record for, I think, a 1 min 40 seconds or something, then your record was over. It was for making records to send home to mum or your girlfriend or something. A way of communicating, like a 1941 email or something. And, yeah so, we, I, recently read, speaking of emails, someone said, it's a fake record - they couldn't really do that because the records could only play for 1 40 seconds. and some of the songs are 5 minutes long - "it's a fake, how did they do it?" OK - Well we did it. we played and I played for 1 40 then I played past that and i'd stop. We put in another disk and I played the rest. Kept going and we cut it all together with the magic of digital magic. Copied it and we cut it together and it still sounded like a record cos it was recorded on a record. so it was pretty cool. But the best thing about that was the fact that it was all these old songs by all these old guys, people I really loved when i was just starting out - people made a big difference in my life, cos they were great songwriters. So I was trying to pay respect to these people. Thank god I got the right harp. So here is one of them now - written by a great writer named Tim Hardin. Neil Young Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA October 8, 2014

Thrasher
This song, you know, I did it, I haven't done it that much in my life because at a very vulnerable moment I read something about it. Just like the worst fucking review I've ever read. So for all your reviewers, if you feel like your words don't mean anything, you're probably right, but in that case, in that case they were damaging. So, anyway, we.. I think I got this, I think this it’s the one here. I hope so. Neil Young Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, California, USA April 1, 2014

Pocahontas
I wrote this song at a friend of mine’s house. His name was Taylor Phelps. Neil Young Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, Oregon, USA March 8, 1999

I'm Glad I Found You
A song for my sweetheart — “you’re a life-line to me”. What more can I say? Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater May 5th, 2020

Birds
This next tune I'd like to do for you is called Birds. It's about birds - ha. It's about real birds - about the kind of birds that you see every day that hang out around. It's not about pelicans or anything like that. It's starlings, sparrows. Actually, sometimes when I sing this song I wish I was still in school. I can't remember what you call it, but it's a real big one of them - it's a simile or metaphor or one of those things. Where something appears to be something else, but it really isn't, or something like that, I don't know ... anyway, it's called Birds, about a couple of lovebirds. Neil Young The Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA November, 1968

Like A Hurricane
WHFS: Why did they [Decade & American Stars 'N Bars] both come out simultaneously? DB: We did Decade first. We put it together. It's 33 great songs covering 10 years. We had done Hurricane, which is off the Stars 'N Bars earlier before we put together the Decade album. We were on the road - on a gig - and we were driving between Houston and Madison, Wisconsin. We said to ourselves, "wow, Hurricane, that's a really good cut. It should have its own album to be on instead of being released with 32 other songs." We had already pressed 500,000 copies of Decade. We were on the road in Neil's bus. We were rapping about it and we went - "wow man, that's not right". So at three in the morning we called up, from the bus , on the road - to Neil's manager and said, "Hey man, I don't think we should put Decade out until we put Hurricane out on it's own record. Why don't you call up Warners and tell them so?" David Briggs Interview with WHFS Radio Nov 17, 1977

My Boy
My Boy is probably the most soulful recording I have ever made. Neil Young NYA - Album of the Week - Old Ways April 29, 2020

Out Of My Mind
Out of My Mind. Oh, that's far out. I didn't even know that anyone here bought that or heard that album here. That first one. I can do that one. That's a weird one. Out of My Mind - eh - hmm - hmm. The strange thing is about that song. I wrote that song before we ever ... before anything ever happened. We'd just gotten a manager. We really hadn't seen any scenes or anything you know. We'd just done some tours. But we hadn't had any success at all when I wrote that song. But I had a premonition, I don't know if you are familiar with the song, but the song was written before any of it happened. And later on we all sat and listened to the record, about two years later - and it blew our minds - then we broke up. Neil Young The Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA November 9, 1968

The Emperor Of Wyoming
Letter: How many guitars and other instruments do you play on Emperor Wyoming? What a way to begin your 1st solo album. NY: I know I played a White Falcon. I over-dubbed a lot on that one. Did a lot of ODs on that my first album as a solo. There may be an old D18 on it if there is an acoustic guitar! Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor April 29th, 2020

Pocahontas
I learned a lot today about one of the people in my songs. I don't quite know what to make of it. Some of it's not true. Some of it must be true. So I will sing the song and maybe I'll find out what the answer is. But ... we take a lot things from other people and make them into bad things. That's obvious. Neil Young Northrop Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA January 31, 2019

Pocahontas
[talking about the Hitchhiker recording session at Indigo Ranch on August 11, 1976] I started with Pocahontas, a song I had recently written. I previously tried it, recording with Crazy Horse for an album called Zuma, but that version did not make the cut. Then came another capo change for Powderfinger, which I had also tried for Zuma with The Horse and not captured well enough to use. Then, came Captain Kennedy, a complete (???) I had never played before, followed by Hawaii and Give Me Strength, two songs written around my recent breakup with Carrie Snodgress, mother of my first son Zeke. At this time, Briggs joined us in the playing room and we stopped the proceeding to do some more libations. That accomplished, Briggs returned to the control room; "Rolling!" he announced. We continued with Ride My Lama, another outtake from Zuma, followed by Hitchhicker. You may be able to hear the drugs kicking in here… Then came Campaigner, a song I had written about politics and Nixon. Human Highway was next. At that point we moved my vocal microphone to the piano outside in the main studio for the last song, The Old Country Waltz. Briggs did not want to change the mic, so we had to carry it out there. It was the same mic I had sung into; he wanted the songs to all be consistent without any unnecessary distractions or changes. He was mixing live as the songs went down, and my vocal mic was part of the sound. Neil Young KOTO FM radio Telluride CO September 1, 2017

Campaigner
[talking about the Hitchhiker recording session at Indigo Ranch on August 11, 1976] I started with Pocahontas, a song I had recently written. I previously tried it, recording with Crazy Horse for an album called Zuma, but that version did not make the cut. Then came another capo change for Powderfinger, which I had also tried for Zuma with The Horse and not captured well enough to use. Then, came Captain Kennedy, a complete (???) I had never played before, followed by Hawaii and Give Me Strength, two songs written around my recent breakup with Carrie Snodgress, mother of my first son Zeke. At this time, Briggs joined us in the playing room and we stopped the proceeding to do some more libations. That accomplished, Briggs returned to the control room; "Rolling!" he announced. We continued with Ride My Lama, another outtake from Zuma, followed by Hitchhicker. You may be able to hear the drugs kicking in here… Then came Campaigner, a song I had written about politics and Nixon. Human Highway was next. At that point we moved my vocal microphone to the piano outside in the main studio for the last song, The Old Country Waltz. Briggs did not want to change the mic, so we had to carry it out there. It was the same mic I had sung into; he wanted the songs to all be consistent without any unnecessary distractions or changes. He was mixing live as the songs went down, and my vocal mic was part of the sound. Neil Young KOTO FM radio Telluride CO September 1, 2017

Give Me Strength
[talking about the Hitchhiker recording session at Indigo Ranch on August 11, 1976] I started with Pocahontas, a song I had recently written. I previously tried it, recording with Crazy Horse for an album called Zuma, but that version did not make the cut. Then came another capo change for Powderfinger, which I had also tried for Zuma with The Horse and not captured well enough to use. Then, came Captain Kennedy, a complete (???) I had never played before, followed by Hawaii and Give Me Strength, two songs written around my recent breakup with Carrie Snodgress, mother of my first son Zeke. At this time, Briggs joined us in the playing room and we stopped the proceeding to do some more libations. That accomplished, Briggs returned to the control room; "Rolling!" he announced. We continued with Ride My Lama, another outtake from Zuma, followed by Hitchhicker. You may be able to hear the drugs kicking in here… Then came Campaigner, a song I had written about politics and Nixon. Human Highway was next. At that point we moved my vocal microphone to the piano outside in the main studio for the last song, The Old Country Waltz. Briggs did not want to change the mic, so we had to carry it out there. It was the same mic I had sung into; he wanted the songs to all be consistent without any unnecessary distractions or changes. He was mixing live as the songs went down, and my vocal mic was part of the sound. Neil Young KOTO FM radio Telluride CO September 1, 2017

Hawaii
[talking about the Hitchhiker recording session at Indigo Ranch on August 11, 1976] I started with Pocahontas, a song I had recently written. I previously tried it, recording with Crazy Horse for an album called Zuma, but that version did not make the cut. Then came another capo change for Powderfinger, which I had also tried for Zuma with The Horse and not captured well enough to use. Then, came Captain Kennedy, a complete (???) I had never played before, followed by Hawaii and Give Me Strength, two songs written around my recent breakup with Carrie Snodgress, mother of my first son Zeke. At this time, Briggs joined us in the playing room and we stopped the proceeding to do some more libations. That accomplished, Briggs returned to the control room; "Rolling!" he announced. We continued with Ride My Lama, another outtake from Zuma, followed by Hitchhicker. You may be able to hear the drugs kicking in here… Then came Campaigner, a song I had written about politics and Nixon. Human Highway was next. At that point we moved my vocal microphone to the piano outside in the main studio for the last song, The Old Country Waltz. Briggs did not want to change the mic, so we had to carry it out there. It was the same mic I had sung into; he wanted the songs to all be consistent without any unnecessary distractions or changes. He was mixing live as the songs went down, and my vocal mic was part of the sound. Neil Young KOTO FM radio Telluride CO September 1, 2017

Powderfinger
[talking about the Hitchhiker recording session at Indigo Ranch on August 11, 1976] I started with Pocahontas, a song I had recently written. I previously tried it, recording with Crazy Horse for an album called Zuma, but that version did not make the cut. Then came another capo change for Powderfinger, which I had also tried for Zuma with The Horse and not captured well enough to use. Then, came Captain Kennedy, a complete (???) I had never played before, followed by Hawaii and Give Me Strength, two songs written around my recent breakup with Carrie Snodgress, mother of my first son Zeke. At this time, Briggs joined us in the playing room and we stopped the proceeding to do some more libations. That accomplished, Briggs returned to the control room; "Rolling!" he announced. We continued with Ride My Lama, another outtake from Zuma, followed by Hitchhicker. You may be able to hear the drugs kicking in here… Then came Campaigner, a song I had written about politics and Nixon. Human Highway was next. At that point we moved my vocal microphone to the piano outside in the main studio for the last song, The Old Country Waltz. Briggs did not want to change the mic, so we had to carry it out there. It was the same mic I had sung into; he wanted the songs to all be consistent without any unnecessary distractions or changes. He was mixing live as the songs went down, and my vocal mic was part of the sound. Neil Young KOTO FM radio Telluride CO September 1, 2017

Down By The River
RB: Songs like "Down By The River" and "Cowgirl In The Sand", which feature extended instrumental breaks, how many takes were cut in the studio? NY: Maybe three or four overall and the final version was usually an edited take. So, you know, maybe what you hear on the record would be take one, but with a couple pieces of something else in there. I could look it up. We have all the track sheets. All that information could be made available through "Archives" updates. We could make it so you could go in and figure out exactly what take you're listening to of a specific song. Neil Young Guitar World/Richard Bienstock October 2009

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
NY: I'm trying to make records of the quality of the records that were made in the late Fifties and the Sixties, like Everly Brothers records and Roy Orbison records and things like that. They were all done with a sort of quality to them. They were done at once. They were done in Nashville.... :It doesn't matter where you do it. Nashville, it happened to be done there. Could be done anywhere. It's just a quality about them, the singer is into the song and the musicians were playing with the singer and it was an entity, you know. It was something special that used to hit me all the time, that all these people were thinking the same thing, and they're all playing at the same time. EB: Like the early Beatles. NY:Yeah, yeah, right. That's what I'm tryin' to get. That's what I want to get, on this next album. I started approaching getting it on the last album, on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. It happens on a few cuts, you can hear it. It's there all the time.... EB: Which cuts would you say? NY:Uh, I think "Cinnamon Girl," uh, "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere," and, uh, "Round And Round" has that feeling of togetherness, although it was just Danny [Whitten] and me and Robin Lane. Neil Young Rolling Stone by Elliot Blinder April 20, 1970

Crime In The City
Interviewer: Is there already Sixty To Zero, Part II? NY: It was all recorded at once, it was 18 minutes long and then I edited it down as 12 verses. So the other 7 verses are still there. I don't know what I'm going to do with those. Interviewer: Why don't you play them? NY: It doesn't feel right, it's too long at one thing. It's meant to stand by itself, not to be played, with anything else. If I play the long version in concert, it's too overpowering. If you can imagine listening to anything for 18 minutes, it disturbs the flow. It's too much of the same thing so I do the short version. Neil Young Dutch radio interview Transcribed in Broken Arrow 71 December 11, 1989

Don't Cry
Doing “Don’t Cry” and “Heavy Love,” every night in Australia and Japan, I blew myself out. Those songs are incredibly intense. I felt the effects. I damaged my throat doing those songs. See, people don’t realize how fuckin’ physical my music is. Every fuckin’ note is my last as far as I’m concerned, so it better be fuckin’ good. It better be there. So that takes a lot out of ya. And there’s no way to breathe deep and sing “Heavy Love.” You can’t do that. Have “good technique”—get the fuckin’ technique out. Get rid of it. Those shows were very loud. That’s when I was using Marshalls. I would cut in with the octave divider, the whole thing would just go to shit … There’s a breakdown in the middle of “Heavy Love” where everything just starts distorting and getting more mangled-sounding… When I wanted the big loud explosion, we had to go there—turn everything up. It was incredible. I had a thing where I could change from one amp to another—where I could play along real quiet and then just hit one button and it was the loudest fuckin’ thing you ever heard. On “Don’t Cry,” that just kicked in, like, two more amps at full volume, all on one note. It was just big and bad. Neil Young Shakey by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Heavy Love
Doing “Don’t Cry” and “Heavy Love,” every night in Australia and Japan, I blew myself out. Those songs are incredibly intense. I felt the effects. I damaged my throat doing those songs. See, people don’t realize how fuckin’ physical my music is. Every fuckin’ note is my last as far as I’m concerned, so it better be fuckin’ good. It better be there. So that takes a lot out of ya. And there’s no way to breathe deep and sing “Heavy Love.” You can’t do that. Have “good technique”—get the fuckin’ technique out. Get rid of it. Those shows were very loud. That’s when I was using Marshalls. I would cut in with the octave divider, the whole thing would just go to shit … There’s a breakdown in the middle of “Heavy Love” where everything just starts distorting and getting more mangled-sounding… When I wanted the big loud explosion, we had to go there—turn everything up. It was incredible. I had a thing where I could change from one amp to another—where I could play along real quiet and then just hit one button and it was the loudest fuckin’ thing you ever heard. On “Don’t Cry,” that just kicked in, like, two more amps at full volume, all on one note. It was just big and bad. Neil Young Shakey by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Sixty To Zero
Interviewer: Is there already Sixty To Zero, Part II? NY: It was all recorded at once, it was 18 minutes long and then I edited it down as 12 verses. So the other 7 verses are still there. I don't know what I'm going to do with those. Interviewer: Why don't you play them? NY: It doesn't feel right, it's too long at one thing. It's meant to stand by itself, not to be played, with anything else. If I play the long version in concert, it's too overpowering. If you can imagine listening to anything for 18 minutes, it disturbs the flow. It's too much of the same thing so I do the short version. Neil Young Dutch radio interview Transcribed in Broken Arrow 71 December 11, 1989

Bandit
TG: Well, I want to play one of the songs from "Greendale," and this is called "Bandit." And do you want to describe what's happening in this song? NY: Well, this song is a song about Earl Green again, the fellow we were talking about, and he's a Vietnam vet. He returned to the States in the late '60s, and he was shell-shocked and stayed in his house for a long time, couldn't handle looking at the bright colors and seeing the cars moving so fast on the freeway and things that he thought he was going to - looking forward to seeing, he couldn't handle them when he got back. And so he became very reclusive, and he also had a lot of hallucinations and was hearing voices. And the memories of his wartime experience were very heavy in his mind. And he found that by painting - he'd never painted before, but he found that by painting, that he could - that his mind cleared, and he was at peace with himself. And so this led to these paintings that he painted, and then the paintings were alive with sound. When his daughter looked at the paintings, she heard voices and she heard things that were like, you know, gunfire and, you know, bare feet running through the mud and people talking in a funny language, and then screaming and then gunfire and then American voices and people yelling and helicopters. And then sounds of people relaxing, lovers relaxing on the beach and talking to one another and the sound of the wind blowing and the sea gulls and the waves breaking. And this all happened when Sun Green, Earl Green's daughter, would come by the studio to look at these paintings, and she would come by every day and check out his paintings. And she thought her dad was, like, a genius and like a Picasso or something, that how - what fantastic works of art these were, these things that talked to you while you were looking at them. And - but Earl Green could never sell his paintings because to an art dealer or a gallery owner, they just looked like psychedelic art from the '60s and they really didn't have much else going for them. So he was unable to sell any paintings and unable to support the family on his own. And he was very down about not being able to hold his own, and he had to use his grandfather's money to support the family and everything. And so the song is set where he is in a motel room, he's been driving around in his Winnebago full of paintings, trying to sell his paintings. And he's stopped for a while in a motel room and he's just sitting there watching TV and using his little laptop computer and trying to come to grips with his situation, and he's pretty depressed. And the song is his thoughts going through his head. Neil Young Fresh Air/Terry Gross March 25, 2004

Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)
I'm so proud to be part of Farm Aid. And I'm so happy all you people came here. I'd like to do a song for my mother. Neil Young Farm Aid 4, Indiana Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA April 7, 1990

Hitchhiker
NK: But Don't Be Denied for example is one of your best songs. It's also your most openly autobiographical... NY: Yeah, certainly. It's one of them, anyway. The other one's called Hitchhiker. It's a contemporary of Don't Be Denied from 1975 and it was all about all the different drugs that I took. I started at the beginning and ran right through my years of drug usage up to that time, drawing parallels with other stuff. It's a very interesting song (laughs). Eventually I mutated it partly into a song called Like An Inca [Trans]. Only the chorus lived, though. All the verses were gone. Hitchhiker is now probably bootlegged 'cos I played it six or seven times on some acoustic tour I did in the '70s [actually 1992]. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

Grandpa's Interview
TG: You sing that Grandpa died fighting for "freedom of silence." What does that mean? NY: Today entertainment and news are being blended together so you can't tell the difference. You'll have a shot of Saddam being pulled out of his hole, followed by some country singer's new record on CNN's Music Room. In Greendale, the family suffers a personal tragedy when Jed kills a policeman. After that, the Greens are a human interest story. The media wants to know how it feels to have a cop killer in the family. Why is it OK to ask that question? The TV guys think everybody has a right to know, but the fact is, nobody has a right to know anything other than whether Jed is guilty or innocent. Neil Young Wired/Ted Greenwald March 1, 2004

T-Bone
I would like to thank my peers in the musical industry for making this next tune the song of the decade. It really means a lot to me. I wish that my mom had been around to see this. Neil Young The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, California, USA November 13, 1990

This Old House
This is one of those songs I wrote some time back around Farm Aid I or something. I tried to record it but my record company said it was too country. So I had to wait a little while. Then I went ahead and recorded it. Let's see if I can remember it. Neil Young Fox Theatre, St. Louis, Missouri, USA January 11, 1989

Will To Love
WILL TO LOVE came and I sang it one time only, right away in front of the fireplace with a cassette recorder. that was the moment. Sometimes that happens. No thinking. just be there. then i went with briggs and added the rest in the studio. Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor March 29th, 2020

Ordinary People
This song was written on my boat as we crossed the Pacific between California and Hawaii. Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor March 29th, 2020

Vacancy
8:40 pm. Neil picks up a guitar and sings the lines he has been typing, "Who are you, where are you going to?" 8:50 pm. Types. 9:00 pm. Thinks, and then types some more. He then reads what he has just committed to paper and stamps his foot on the floor. 9:10. He tries to sing the lines. 9:15. Stops, "I'm going to use a mouth harp." Sandy, "It sounds OK from the bathroom." 9:25. Neil orders tea, toast and ham. Two minutes later he looks for the harp,....."Aahh, got my old funky one." Sandy reads the lyrics; "Are you a friend, are you an enemy." "You going out tonight Neil?" "Yeah." 9:32 pm. The first version, with harp solo. Sandy says, "Call it 'Vendetta'." 9:37 pm. Neil says it's called 'Vacancy'. Sandy said "That's the same thing as 'Vendetta'." Everybody laughs. Neil then sings 'Vacancy' while Joel tries back-up vocals. Neil smiles; "Nice, good rhythm. When the whole band gets together there's a lot of mayhem. I'm really into this stuff tonight. I could play a solo at the end - we could play it with The Who!" When Neil and Joel try to work out an arrangement, Joel asks "Are you angry with someone Neil?" "Oh, I've got my frustrations, but up until now I've been able to let them out through my music." Constant Meijers Muziekkrant Oor/Constant Meijers September 28, 1974

Vacancy
CM: Afterwards, back in the bar of the hotel, Neil tells me how he likes to rip-off Stephen's riffs. NY: I take out one note, which he expects. "Vacancy" is the riff I played on "Black Queen", which Stephen himself taught me. Neil Young Muziekkrant Oor/Constant Meijers October 1, 1974

Wrecking Ball
What that song is saying is that I really don't have the freedom to have an affair. If I was going to have an affair, if I went into a bar and saw some woman in the bar and I was thinking, well, you know...my wife's miles and miles away, could just do this, you know. But I really can't do that, I mean I can't do it... period, because you know. I don't have that anonymous thing, there's too... that's part of what those lyrics are about, you know. Neil Young BBC Radio Interview with Richard Skinner Broken Arrow #49 transcription December 10, 1989

Transformer Man
This is a song for my son Ben. Ben was born with CP. Our lives all changed. Pegi started the Bridge School. Ben and I made a big train layout and I developed a remote control system for Lionel that disabled people like Ben could use. The Transformer is the device that powers the tracks so the train goes. Ben had no control of his hands for fine things like grabbing and moving. He used his head to enable a switch connected by wire to the controller I designed with my friend Ron Milner. The controller wirelessly controlled the train layout. Anything I did on the controller, Ben could reproduce with his head switch until i did something else, then he could do that. it opened a door between us. We had a great time. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater March 18, 2020

Find Another Shoulder
I'd like to do a song now inspired by the late, great Jimmy Reed. I wrote it, but it just sounds like one of his, only not as good. Neil Young Cocoanut Grove, Santa Cruz, California, USA November 3, 1987, Early Show

Old King
Old King is about my dog Elvis, a blue tick hound that Ben Keith found for me in Nashville. Ben and my wife Pegi gave Elvis to me for Christmas. I will never forget his face looking at me outside the top of a gift wrapped box. Elvis was a great dog. . . . got in a lot of trouble though. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater March 10, 2020

Here For You
This little song is about empty nests. If you have children, you will understand this one a little more. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater March 5, 2020

Transformer Man
A song I wrote for my son Ben, who has Cerebral Palsy, hoping that he could learn to communicate through technology. Ben learned a lot! He still is with me on the road today, riding “shotgun” in the bus! Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater March 3, 2020

You Never Call
For my old friend and partner Larry Johnson, a man who helped me make all these things we are collecting now for you. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater February 20, 2020

I'm Glad I Found You
In life, you can’t have too many love songs. ‘I’m Glad I Found You’ is just that, a true love song. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater January 29, 2020

I'm The Ocean
NK: I'm The Ocean strikes me as one of the most blatantly autobiographical songs of your career. The line "people my age don't do the things I do / They go somewhere whilst I run away with you." The "you" is your audience, the people who listen to your music... NY: (Pause) I think so. Definitely. I'm referring to the people who listen to music - they don't have to be there with me but they're still out there listening. We're together because we're both escaping through the music. It's like that line "I'm a drug that makes you dream." That's me trying to define the power of music. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

Out Of My Mind
JM: Was your apartment at Commodore Gardens a cool place? NY: It was for me. It was really my first own place. Everything was kinda psychedelic. I had a blue lightbulb in my refrigerator. Got this bamboo wall-covering stuff at Pier 9. Went down with Donna and Vicki and bought a whole shitload of stuff. Grass mats on the wall. Very funky. My apartment looked like the dressing room at the Fillmore. NY: That’s when we were playin’ the Whisky A Go-Go. I was able to pay for my own place for a while—that was a first. It was fun. I got so far in arrears that I skipped out on the rent. NY: I wrote “Out of My Mind” and “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” at Commodore Gardens on Orchid Avenue. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

When God Made Me
JD: Neil, thank you so much for joining us for this Prairie Wind Companion. Prairie Wind seems a definitive snapshot of where you're at today as you approach 60 and it's a beautiful piece. But in the hundreds of songs you've written it's been rare that you've sung directly about God. What were the circumstances of you composing Prairie Wind's final song, When God Made Me? NY: First of all I didn't know what I was doing. There was a little room with a piano in it. And the piano is locked in the room. It'll never leave the room unless they destroy the room. It can't leave because the room was built around it. And the room is in a church. The studio is in a church. So the ceiling of this studio has got a few little vents in it. And if you stand on top of a ladder with a flashlight and look up through the holes you can see the church windows. And this old huge roof and everything, and it's closed off, because to get the right sound and everything they, they made a lower roof. But when you see that, it really gets you. And then I just started playing this hymn. And Spooner Oldham is one of the most beautiful, beautiful gospel players on the organ ... it's just great. I mean he's just alive with it. So I've learned a lot from him over the years, just listening to him. So all the passing chords and the blending of things together ... but all hymns seem to have these little passages on the piano between them that sets up the next verse, kind of gets everybody in the key and kicks it around and gets ready to go. So I found myself just playing this and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Still don't. Neil Young Prairie Wind Companion CD - Interview with Jody Denberg October 2005

Already One
One of the best tracks (imho) is ‘Already One’. That song still resonates strongly with me today. I wrote it about Carrie, Zeke’s mom. She was a very special person and I still see her and love her in Zeke today. Neil Young NYA - Album of the Week - Comes A Time January 8, 2020

Love Is A Rose
The song that I just played [Homefires] was played in a session in the redwoods in 1974 maybe, somewhere in there. The song I played just now, you may have heard or may have not heard, was right before this one [Love Is A Rose]. So I played that one [Homefires] and recorded it and I played this one [Love Is A Rose]. Different guitars too. Neil Young Auditorium Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA July 1, 2018

Homefires
The song that I just played [Homefires] was played in a session in the redwoods in 1974 maybe, somewhere in there. The song I played just now, you may have heard or may have not heard, was right before this one [Love Is A Rose]. So I played that one [Homefires] and recorded it and I played this one [Love Is A Rose]. Different guitars too. Neil Young Auditorium Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA July 1, 2018

Who's Gonna Stand Up?
We have to help Earth, so she can help us. Where Science and truth take on the Devil and money, the song is about us. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater December 2, 2019

Falling Off The Face Of The Earth
It’s not hard to tell what this song is about. I will always remember writing it in the Hermitage Hotel, Nashville. I’m glad to be here with you. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater November 27, 2019

I Got A Problem
Addiction is hell. You got to get over it. It doesn’t have to be. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater November 22, 2019

Like A Hurricane
‘Like Hurricane’ is the second earliest track, cut at the ranch many months before the White House sessions. There, because I was on Dr.’s orders to not speak or sing, I did not sing on the original tracking with the horse at Modern Recorders. I sang all the harmony parts later, doing a “sketch” of the vocal arrangement with Ben Keith at the desk in LA’s Village studios. In the end, we used the sketch. NYA - Album of the Week - American Stars & Bars November 20, 2019

Star Of Bethlehem
In ‘Star of Bethlehem,’ Ben sang with Emmylou at her house in LA, the track (with my live vocal) already recorded in Nashville for the ‘Homegrown’ album in 1974. NYA - Album of the Week - American Stars & Bars November 20, 2019

Will To Love
‘Will to Love’ was cut on the floor in front of my home fireplace on a cassette, then transported to Indigo in Malibu for a night to remember. . . . finishing it with Briggs. Neil Young NYA - Album of the Week - American Stars & Bars November 20, 2019

Sad Movies
This song, written a long time ago, was never recorded with a band, which might have been cool. So now what I have to share with you is this solo version, under the watchful eye of director Tim Pope [from the London 2008 film]. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater November 20, 2019

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
Interviewer: You have been misunderstood on this - "better to burn out than to rust". And that people think it means burnout, like, party 'til you drop kind of burnout. NY: Well, maybe that's what ... that's not what I mean. I see the image of a shooting star - a falling star - it's going so fast. But it's the one in the sky you're watching, because it's the only one that's moving. Some of the other ones are twinkling and they're nice, but the one that going like that [moving across the sky], that's the one you're going to go for. And it may not burn out - or it may - it depends on how long of a trip it's on. Neil Young Neil Young: The Raw & Uncut Interview 1988

My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
Interviewer: You have been misunderstood on this - "better to burn out than to rust". And that people think it means burnout, like, party 'til you drop kind of burnout. NY: Well, maybe that's what ... that's not what I mean. I see the image of a shooting star - a falling star - it's going so fast. But it's the one in the sky you're watching, because it's the only one that's moving. Some of the other ones are twinkling and they're nice, but the one that going like that [moving across the sky], that's the one you're going to go for. And it may not burn out - or it may - it depends on how long of a trip it's on. Neil Young Neil Young: The Raw & Uncut Interview 1988

Help Me Lose My Mind
The song is about trying to lose heavy memories, PTSD. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater November 15, 2019

Far From Home
‘Far From Home’ is a song about Canada and my family. I miss my Dad, my cousins, my mom too. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater November 13, 2019

Sugar Mountain
You can’t be twenty on Sugar Mountain. When I played this song in Toronto 1966, for Chick Roberts of “The Dirty Shames”, he told me it was going to be around for years. I knew that was a good thing for him to say and felt great about it, still remembering that moment to this day. It meant a lot to me. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater November 12, 2019

The Great Divide
This is a sad song, but one of my favorites. I can’t talk about it. I love this recording, Year 2000, done in a studio in Austin Texas with Spooner Oldham, Tim Drummond [it's actually Duck Dunn], Kenny Buttrey, and Ben Keith (Long grain). Might be the last time Kenny, Ben and Tim and I played together on a record. That all started with Harvest thirty good musical years before. Long May You Run boys! Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater November 11, 2019

Berlin
This song written the night before this, the only performance so far [October 19, 1982], tells what it’s like to be scared. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater November 2, 2019

Sign Of Love
This is a love song that breaks my heart. Life is not always what you think it will be. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater October 31, 2019

Cowgirl In The Sand
Wrote this with 103° fever in bed in Topanga. Long live Crazy Horse. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Homegrown
Here's a tune for you that's been around for a long time. It's changed its persona. Actually, it didn't change at all. Everything else changed. It used to be a little song about, you know, smoking weed. But now it's a protest song. It's just a funny little song but it's about growing food. It's about growing things. There's a lotta ways to grow things. Myself and mostly Willie Nelson - I've been helping him. He's been working on Farm Aid for fifteen years and he's been learning a lot about farmers. I kinda came from a country place up in Canada myself. We hate to see the family farmer kinda go away out here in this country. It's been kind of a tradition for really a long time. Many generations. So that's what we're doing - we're trying to save the family farm and we're losing it. But it seems like something's happening now that we might be able to win. We might be able to stop the flow of five hundred family farms going down a week. We might be able to do something about it. It's just because people in California and people in New York, and some up in Washington and in Oregon. Mostly those four states are starting to get into organic food now. So, you know, in those places called factory farms, they can't grow organic anything. Farmers of course, with a little farm and a barn and a family and a field, they can grow organic anytime they want to. They make twice as much money with it now, so that's a good thing. So maybe that will help 'em keep the family farms going. That's what I'm hoping anyway. Neil Young Paramount Theatre, Oakland, California, USA March 20, 1999

The Needle And The Damage Done
I'd like to sing a song now about something that I think is really important that everybody knows about - about heroin and what can happen to people who use heroin. But most people don't think about it much because they just don't want to think about it - and I can dig that. But most people walk around thinking, well, I just don't anybody who knows anything about that. But I knew some people who knew something about it - some really good artists. The ones that I know aren't dead yet, but the music they would've made for you people is definitely is not there. So I just got affected when Hendrix and Joplin - and all of that happened - and some other people I knew. So I wrote this. Neil Young Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, Connecticut, USA January 22, 1971

Star Of Bethlehem
Spin: Maybe the star of Bethlehem wasn’t a star at all? NY: It’s like that feeling, what are you going to believe in? Neil Young Spin Magazine June 1988

Cowgirl In The Sand
Spin: When so many love you, is it still the same? NY: Well, when I became very popular in the music scene and I had what was possibly my first rush with popularity, around the time of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, I think at that time I was pretty innocent about that stuff, so if somebody seemed to really dig me, I was always wondering if they really liked me or did they like my songs? Did they like me because I’m famous? How could they like me this much when they just met me? NY: And if there are a lot of girls, it makes you very weary. It doesn’t happen very much, but that one time in my life it did, over a period of about a month of two. I wrote that song [“Cowgirl in the Sand”] and “Cinnamon Girl” and “Down by the River” all in one afternoon. I had 104 temperature and I was sick in bed. Neil Young Spin Magazine June 1988

Tell Me Why
Spin: Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself when you’re old enough to repay but young enough to sell? NY: That’s a hell of a question, isn’t it? I don’t understand it. It sounds like gibberish to me. I stopped singing that song because when I get to that line I go, what the fuck am I talking about? NY: You know, I don’t edit my songs. I knew something was happening at the time that I wrote it to make that right, but I can’t remember what it is and it doesn’t apply to what I’m doing now. Neil Young Spin Magazine June 1988

Don't Let It Bring You Down
Spin: Did you find someone turning and you came around? NY: Yeah, every once in awhile something could happen, especially when I was younger, that would get me really depressed, then I would run into somebody and forget about it, just because I got into an another thing. People are wonderful that way; the presence of another human being can be so strong that it’ll change your whole outlook. Neil Young Spin Magazine June 1988

My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
Spin: Is it better to burn out or rust? NY: Rust implies you’re not using anything, that you’re sitting there and letting the elements eat you. Burning up means you’re cruising through the elements so fucking fast that you’re actually burning, and your circuits, instead of corroding, are fucking disintegrating. You’re going so fast you’re actually fucking the elements, becoming one with the elements, turning to gas. That’s why it’s better to burn out. Neil Young Spin Magazine June 1988

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
Spin: Is it better to burn out or rust? NY: Rust implies you’re not using anything, that you’re sitting there and letting the elements eat you. Burning up means you’re cruising through the elements so fucking fast that you’re actually burning, and your circuits, instead of corroding, are fucking disintegrating. You’re going so fast you’re actually fucking the elements, becoming one with the elements, turning to gas. That’s why it’s better to burn out. Neil Young Spin Magazine June 1988

Ordinary People
Ordinary People, here with the Bluenotes, is a big song that I think was written on an ocean voyage to Hawaii, aboard the WN Ragland, a Baltic trader renamed after my grandfather when it was rebuilt in the mid 70’s. Neil Young NYA - Album of the Week - Chrome Dreams II Sept 18, 2019

No Hidden Path
‘No Hidden Path’ is a song I wrote about the forest on Broken Arrow where I used to walk regularly. Neil Young NYA - Album of the Week - Chrome Dreams II Sept 18, 2019

The Great Divide
This is a new song. It's a geographic-emotional song. Yeah. Neil Young Bass Concert Hall, Austin, Texas, USA May 29, 1999

Wrecking Ball
Here's a song for you - it's gonna be on my next record with that last song and a bunch of other songs. It's about a big ball. It's about a real big ball hanging from a chain. And it's swinging between all the new buildings down here in Houston. People looking out those windows going, "Oh god, I hope it don't hit us." Because it's big. The secretaries are scared. Nobody knows who's controlling it. But I'll tell you, it's awful big and there's a ballroom inside. And we're all in there dancing. It's a place where we can go and try to get away from things. A place where we can take our honeymoon. A place where you can take your sweetheart and have a good time while you wreck your other home. That's the Wrecking Ball room, it is. Neil Young Music Hall, Houston, Texas, USA January 15, 1989

Rainbow Of Colors
Rainbow of Colors is a song about the USA and the whole world. The idea of this song is that we all belong together. Separating us into races and colors is an old idea whose time has passed. With the Earth under the direct influence of Climate Change, we are in crisis together needing to realize that we are all one. Our leaders continually fail to make this point. Pre-occupied with their own agendas, they don’t see the forest for the trees. We need to all be one because we are all threatened. Climate Change is the unifying force we have needed for a long time. Now that it is here we just need to recognize it and stop turning on our brothers and sisters and help them instead. We are all in this together. Neil Young NYA Times-Contrarian September 11, 2019

Broken Arrow
Yeah, the basic track took one hundred takes. I just wanna say that it took Elvis over one hundred takes to get "Hound Dog" right, so let's not forget that. Neil Young Rockline Radio Interview November 23, 1981

Changing Highways
In 1975 I was living on Broken Arrow ranch in Northern California but I had rented a place on the Beach in ZUMA to be able to visit my friends. One day I was talking to Billy and he told me he had finally found someone who could fill the void left by Danny Whitten’s death. His name was Poncho Sampedro. We played with Poncho at Billy’s house in Echo Park, a part of LA. We sounded good right away and he joined us in Chicago shortly thereafter for a session at Chess records. That session in December of 1974, with Ben Keith along on steel guitar, produced ‘Changing Highways’, a song in the Archives we have never shared; the first song recorded with Poncho Sampedro. Neil Young NYA - Album of the Week - Zuma September 4, 2019

We Don't Smoke It No More
We Don’t Smoke It is a great track coming in 2020 on HOMEGROWN, what I think is in the spirit of Harvest, Harvest Moon and Comes a Time. I hope you like it when you hear it here at NYA. It is very close to me. That’s why I didn’t release it at the time. But times have moved on enough now and I’m letting it go. Neil Young NYA Letters To The Editor August 27, 2019

Revolution Blues
Letter: I have long wondered what guitar Neil is playing on “Revolution Blues” and “On The Beach.” The tone and style of the soloing are different to my ear than what I hear elsewhere from that era. Thanks! NY: OLD BLACK, Silvertone amp. Not the deluxe amp. Neil Young NYA - Letters To The Editor April 22, 2019

Expecting To Fly
JM: “Expecting to Fly”—overdubbed, but good? NY: That’s JACK. His dedication to feelings—getting the feelings on tape. It was a collaboration. Jack and I were working away peacefully with no distractions. “Expecting to Fly” has a sound. It’s overdubbed and yet nothing’s missing. It’s possible to overdub. But the longer you overdub, the harder it is to do. NY: Jack. What a fuckin’ character. He was just great. I think I met Jack at a press party for Buffalo Springfield. I loved the Phil Spector records that he’d been a part of. Jack had a whole scene. He was a player. “Expecting to Fly” is the best thing we did. NY: Bruce Botnick played an important part in that record. He was an artist. He would set up the board and if he didn’t like it, he would just fuckin’ erase the whole thing—the Botnick sweep. NY: We worked on it really hard. It’s probably one of the best records that I ever made. It took thirty days. That’s a long time on one song. But with Jack we got the real shit. ’Cause Jack could bring it out—he wrestled it out of me line by line, word by word … he reinforced it. My believing in me. JM: Did “Expecting to Fly” have anything to do with the Summer of Love? NY: Yeah, that must’ve been it. I remember the girls came up, I don’t know if it was Donna, Vicki, somebody came up and listened to “Expecting to Fly” over and over again on acid for hours. Got way into it. I don’t think I was there. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Mr. Soul
NY: Stills didn’t like the “Mr. Soul” that came out as much as the original, and he was RIGHT. The way we did it in New York was the best recording Buffalo Springfield ever made—because it was done by somebody who knew what the fuck they were doing. Then I did overdubs in L.A. and ruined it. Some stupid dickhead with too much time on his hands got a chance to do something, and I had to play the role. I completely fucked it up. NY: I can’t find the original tape. The only copy I have of the original session is a scratchy fuckin’ acetate—you can barely hear it—but it’s still the one. So that’s that. Either I find it or I don’t. And if it’s the only one I can find, I’m gonna put it out. I don’t give a shit how fucked up it is. JM: What do you think about when you hear that demo? NY: I think about how you can lose it when you already got it. NY: I worked all night on “Mr. Soul.” We did it all in one day. What did I do after that? I fucked it up—so what did that teach me? It teaches me that WHAT YOU DO FIRST IS THE RIGHT FUCKin’ THING AND JUST MOVE ON. NY: Don’t start until you’re sure you can finish. Whatever it is you wanna do makin’ a record, DO IT. Stay right on it. Don’t change your head. That’s what comes from “Mr. Soul.” Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Mr. Soul
NY: “Mr. Soul” takes me through all those times—the Springfield era. It really typifies the end without really being near the end or knowing what the end was about. That’s a song that is somehow semiprophetic and semiretro. It seems to make more sense the more I play it. I don’t know where it came from, but it really tells the story of my life at that time, and strangely enough, it still seems to be true. NY: I remember bein’ up in the middle of the night writing it—I don’t know why. * I wrote that on the floor in my little cabin. With a felt-tip pen. On the floor on newspapers in the bathroom, smokin’ some bad grass. That’s what I really like, writing on newspapers. It’s so easy and it looks so good. You write in black on top of it, and it’s hidden because of the black-and-white background. The words can’t come out and assert themselves that way. They lay in there, so you’re not intimidated by seein’ them so clearly. Even if you glance at them, they’re not that clear. They’re in there. If you wanna spend time findin’ them, they’ll be there, but you don’t read it instantaneously. They’re, like, a fuzzy thing. JM: Was the Stones riff your idea of a little joke? NY: Never even entered my mind, really, that it was that similiar to “Satisfaction”—until it was pointed out to me and I went, “Yeah, it is, you’re right.” But I wasn’t gonna change it because of that. So then I guess I kind of exaggerated it. If it’s there, you gotta go with it. JM: Who’s Mr. Soul? NY: Everybody has their own Mr. Soul. So even if I could—which I don’t think I can—point out to you who Mr. Soul is to me, it defeats the purpose. JM: Is there a coldness about “Mr. Soul“? NY: I don’t think so. JM: Sometimes I hear a deal with the devil in it. NY: Maybe—but I don’t think so. I mean, there’s nothin’ you can say about the song—the song is a combination of the lyrics and the beat and the sound of it when it’s bein’ sung. Breaking it down any more than that takes away from its meaning. It’s basically a guy talkin’ to himself— talking to his conscience. JM: What does the guy singing this song want? NY: He wants to be heard. JM: “Out of My Mind,” “Mr. Soul”—they seem like the darker side of the sixties. NY: Well, that was sort of like still not feeling I was part of it. Outside looking in. I was groovin’ on it—it wasn’t like I was bummed or anything. It was just a part of growing up, those songs. Growing up in a band that people knew about, playing in front of audiences … NY: You take things very heavily when you’re that age. You don’t realize you’re gonna live through it. Of course, sometimes you don’t live through it. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
JM: Was your apartment at Commodore Gardens a cool place? NY: It was for me. It was really my first own place. Everything was kinda psychedelic. I had a blue lightbulb in my refrigerator. Got this bamboo wall-covering stuff at Pier 9. Went down with Donna and Vicki and bought a whole shitload of stuff. Grass mats on the wall. Very funky. My apartment looked like the dressing room at the Fillmore. NY: That’s when we were playin’ the Whisky A Go-Go. I was able to pay for my own place for a while—that was a first. It was fun. I got so far in arrears that I skipped out on the rent. NY: I wrote “Out of My Mind” and “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” at Commodore Gardens on Orchid Avenue. “Flying on the Ground” wasn’t written for anybody in particular. It’s about drugs. It’s about bein’ straight and takin’ drugs—mixed in with life. NY: If you want to know me and you don’t wanna get high, you won’t get to know me. That’s kinda what that song’s about. We can’t be together because we’re too different. It’s like “I love you, but you’re not with me.” Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Like A Hurricane
NY: I wrote “Hurricane” in the back of Hernando—Taylor Phelps’s Desoto Suburban. On newspaper. We were all really high, fucked up. Been out partying. Wrote it sitting up at Vista Point on Skyline. Supposed to be right near the highest point in San Mateo County—which was appropriate, heh heh. There I was … the highest point in San Mateo County … I wrote it when I couldn’t sing. I was on voice rest. It was nuts—I was whistling it. I wrote a lotta songs when I couldn’t talk. NY: The Horse got it the first time—that’s the first time we recorded it. Then three or four weeks later we were tryin’ to get it and I said, “I think we already did it—but there’s no vocal on it. Let’s go back and listen to that one.” An engineer was in the truck, rolling on the green board, all our practices and everything—in case we did something. The real recording room wasn’t even on. JM: It wasn’t a live vocal? NY: It sounds kind of meek and mild, doesn’t it? It was a sketch. I went in and I sang both harmony parts, the low one and the high one—and that’s the way the record is. It’s all me singing. JM: What’s the similarity between Del Shannon’s “Runaway” and “Hurricane”? NY: When “Runaway” goes to “I’m-a walkin’ in the rain,” those are the same chords in the bridge of “Hurricane”—“You are …” It opens up. So it’s a minor descending thing that opens up—that’s what they have in common. It’s like “Runaway” with the organ solo going on for ten minutes. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Danger Bird
NY: “Danger Bird”—that’s a wild song. It’s so slow and great. Isn’t it slow? Briggs always wanted to remix it. I like the mix. A combination of two songs. “L.A. Girls and Ocean Boys” I never recorded, but it’s part of “Danger Bird.” Hey, sometimes that’s what happens—one song doesn’t come out, I’ll be writin’ another and say, “Oh, that fits.” Bang! Drop it right in. JM: Do you get a picture in your mind when you do “Danger Bird”? NY: Sometimes I get a picture, but mostly it’s just flapping …flying … Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Oh, Lonesome Me
NY: In Toronto I went out and played a whole bunch of gigs by myself. The twelve-string gave me a chance to do that. They weren’t very good gigs…. I played one night when somebody was not available at the New Gate of Cleve. And they knew a couple of days in advance, so I filled the bill—for that one night they let me in. Somebody was down there and reviewed me. It wasn’t a big review. My first review said that my songs were cliché-ridden. JM: How did that strike you? NY: “Marty, what’s a cliché?” NY: Then there was a place in North Bay-the Bohemian Embassy. That’s where I first did “Oh Lonesome Me.” I had the arrangement before I left Toronto-that same arrangement, the chord changes and the rhythm. Neil Young Shakey by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Cortez The Killer
One night I stayed up too late when I was goin’ to high school. I ate like six hamburgers or somethin’. I felt terrible - very bad - this is before McDonald’s. They were just real bad. I was studying history, and in the morning I woke up and I’d written this song. I never told anybody else that. Neil Young Nissan Pavilion, Bristow, Virginia, USA August 13, 1996

Hitchhiker
NY: I keep thinking that there is a song that I don't remember, that's right on the edge. When I start looking through my mind I can't find it. Daniel Lanois: That would fit in with ... NY: Like another one of those ones that I found the last time which just sort of showed up. There may be something around there - somewhere. Just trying to go through what I left off - of like forty albums from forty-five years. You get a little lost. If there is anything left - I've been doing a lot of mining. DL: Do you have a way of knowing your favorites from the orphanage? NY Well - I've been doing that. They get more obscure. Like Hitchhiker was pretty obscure. I wrote that around the same time I wrote Cortez. In the house - the same time - the same kind of drugs. Mark Howard: What was the drugs? NY: It was a combination. Neil Young Le Noise Sessions directed by Bernard Shakey 2010, broadcast August 2019 in the NYA Hearse Theater

Tonight's The Night
[prior to playing Tonight's The Night for the second time that evening] I'd like to do a song that you've heard before. I hope that someday it's one of your old favorites. Neil Young Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, USA November 16, 1973

Broken Arrow
NY: We did “Broken Arrow” in sections. Each verse, one at a time. A hundred takes of all of the pieces—they were all crossfaded. Could’ve been better. Well, maybe I’m not bein’ fair when I say that. Could’ve been more of a group record. The only reason Jack and I didn’t do it is I got back in the group. Too bad. It woulda been fuckin’ great. JM: Why did you dedicate the song to Ken Koblun? NY: He tried to make it, but it didn’t work out. He didn’t fit into the Buffalo Springfield like Bruce did. Very tough—tough for all of us—but that’s growin’ up. That’s what it’s all about. You find out a lotta things. Nothing is forever. NY: To me, “Broken Arrow” was the end of something—and the beginning. Transition. From one struggle to another. Some kind of milestone. The sign of peace at the end of an Indian war. “Now we can talk.” Arafat and Rabin—they could’ve broken the arrow. See, I wrote “Broken Arrow” right after I quit Buffalo Springfield, right? So there’s the end of something right there. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Words
CC: How did you cope with your first real blast of superstardom after that? NY: The first thing I did was a long tour of small halls. Just me and a guitar. I loved it. It was real personal. Very much a one-on-one thing with the crowd. It was later, after Harvest, that I hid myself away. I tried to stay away from it all. I thought the record [Harvest] was good, but I also knew that something else was dying. I became very reclusive. I didn't want to come out much. CC: Why? Were you depressed? Scared? NY: I think I was pretty happy. In spite of everything, I had my old lady and moved to the ranch. A lot of it was my back. I was in and out of hospitals for the two years between After the Gold Rush and Harvest. I have one weak side and all the muscles slipped on me. My discs slipped. I couldn't hold my guitar up. That's why I sat down on my whole solo tour. I couldn't move around too well, so I laid low for a long time on the ranch and just didn't have any contact, you know. I wore a brace. Crosby would come up to see how I was, we'd go for a walk and it took me 45 minutes to get to the studio, which is only 400 yards from the house. I could only stand up four hours a day. I recorded most of Harvest in the brace. That's a lot of the reason it's such a mellow album. I couldn't physically play an electric guitar. "Are You Ready for the Country," "Alabama" and "Words" were all done after I had the operation. The doctors were starting to talk about wheelchairs and shit, so I had some discs removed. But for the most part, I spent two years flat on my back. I had a lot of time to think about what had happened to me. Neil Young Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe August 14, 1975

Alabama
CC: How did you cope with your first real blast of superstardom after that? NY: The first thing I did was a long tour of small halls. Just me and a guitar. I loved it. It was real personal. Very much a one-on-one thing with the crowd. It was later, after Harvest, that I hid myself away. I tried to stay away from it all. I thought the record [Harvest] was good, but I also knew that something else was dying. I became very reclusive. I didn't want to come out much. CC: Why? Were you depressed? Scared? NY: I think I was pretty happy. In spite of everything, I had my old lady and moved to the ranch. A lot of it was my back. I was in and out of hospitals for the two years between After the Gold Rush and Harvest. I have one weak side and all the muscles slipped on me. My discs slipped. I couldn't hold my guitar up. That's why I sat down on my whole solo tour. I couldn't move around too well, so I laid low for a long time on the ranch and just didn't have any contact, you know. I wore a brace. Crosby would come up to see how I was, we'd go for a walk and it took me 45 minutes to get to the studio, which is only 400 yards from the house. I could only stand up four hours a day. I recorded most of Harvest in the brace. That's a lot of the reason it's such a mellow album. I couldn't physically play an electric guitar. "Are You Ready for the Country," "Alabama" and "Words" were all done after I had the operation. The doctors were starting to talk about wheelchairs and shit, so I had some discs removed. But for the most part, I spent two years flat on my back. I had a lot of time to think about what had happened to me. Neil Young Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe August 14, 1975

Are You Ready For The Country?
CC: How did you cope with your first real blast of superstardom after that? NY: The first thing I did was a long tour of small halls. Just me and a guitar. I loved it. It was real personal. Very much a one-on-one thing with the crowd. It was later, after Harvest, that I hid myself away. I tried to stay away from it all. I thought the record [Harvest] was good, but I also knew that something else was dying. I became very reclusive. I didn't want to come out much. CC: Why? Were you depressed? Scared? NY: I think I was pretty happy. In spite of everything, I had my old lady and moved to the ranch. A lot of it was my back. I was in and out of hospitals for the two years between After the Gold Rush and Harvest. I have one weak side and all the muscles slipped on me. My discs slipped. I couldn't hold my guitar up. That's why I sat down on my whole solo tour. I couldn't move around too well, so I laid low for a long time on the ranch and just didn't have any contact, you know. I wore a brace. Crosby would come up to see how I was, we'd go for a walk and it took me 45 minutes to get to the studio, which is only 400 yards from the house. I could only stand up four hours a day. I recorded most of Harvest in the brace. That's a lot of the reason it's such a mellow album. I couldn't physically play an electric guitar. "Are You Ready for the Country," "Alabama" and "Words" were all done after I had the operation. The doctors were starting to talk about wheelchairs and shit, so I had some discs removed. But for the most part, I spent two years flat on my back. I had a lot of time to think about what had happened to me. Neil Young Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe August 14, 1975

Down By The River
That’s what was so great about Crazy Horse in those days—Danny understood my music, and everyone listened to Danny. He understood what we were doing. A really great second guitar player, the perfect counterpoint to everything else that was happening. His style of playing was so adventuresome. So sympathetic. So unthoughtful. And just so natural. That’s really what made “Cowgirl in the Sand” and “Down by the River” happen—Danny’s guitar parts. Nobody played guitar with me like that—that rhythm. When you listen to “Cowgirl in the Sand,” he keeps changing—plays something one and a half, maybe two, times, and he’s on to the next thing. Billy and Ralph will get into a groove and everything will be goin’ along and all of a sudden Danny’ll start doin’ somethin’ else. He just led those guys from one groove to another—all within the same groove. So when I played these long guitar solos, it seemed like they weren’t all that long, that I was making all these changes, when in reality what was changing was not one thing, but the whole band. Danny was the key. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Cowgirl In The Sand
That’s what was so great about Crazy Horse in those days—Danny understood my music, and everyone listened to Danny. He understood what we were doing. A really great second guitar player, the perfect counterpoint to everything else that was happening. His style of playing was so adventuresome. So sympathetic. So unthoughtful. And just so natural. That’s really what made “Cowgirl in the Sand” and “Down by the River” happen—Danny’s guitar parts. Nobody played guitar with me like that—that rhythm. When you listen to “Cowgirl in the Sand,” he keeps changing—plays something one and a half, maybe two, times, and he’s on to the next thing. Billy and Ralph will get into a groove and everything will be goin’ along and all of a sudden Danny’ll start doin’ somethin’ else. He just led those guys from one groove to another—all within the same groove. So when I played these long guitar solos, it seemed like they weren’t all that long, that I was making all these changes, when in reality what was changing was not one thing, but the whole band. Danny was the key. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Cowgirl In The Sand
JM: How important are lyrics? NY: Well, it depends on the song. JM: What about an abstract song like “Cowgirl in the Sand“? NY: The words to “Cowgirl in the Sand” are very important because you can free-associate with them. Some words won’t let you do that, so you’re locked into the specific fuckin’ thing the guy’s singin’ about…. This way it could be anything. NY: The thing is, as long as there’s a thread that carries through it, then when you imagine what it’s about, there’s gonna be a thread that takes you to the end, too. You can follow your thought all the way through if you happen to have one—or if you don’t, you realize it doesn’t matter. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Cowgirl In The Sand
RB: Songs like "Down By The River" and "Cowgirl In The Sand", which feature extended instrumental breaks, how many takes were cut in the studio? NY: Maybe three or four overall and the final version was usually an edited take. So, you know, maybe what you hear on the record would be take one, but with a couple pieces of something else in there. I could look it up. We have all the track sheets. All that information could be made available through "Archives" updates. We could make it so you could go in and figure out exactly what take you're listening to of a specific song. Neil Young Guitar World/Richard Bienstock October 2009

Pushed It Over The End
Recorded live on the road in Chicago, 1974. Thanks to Crosby & Nash's help on the overdubbed chorus, I was able to complete the work. I wrote it for Patty Hearst and her countless brothers and sisters. Also, I wrote it for myself and the increasing distance between me and you. Neil Young Withdrawn Decade liner notes 1976

Cortez The Killer
Some of my best guitar playing ever, yeah! NK: Was being recorded and you had several other verses written and you were playing this one perfect take when... NY: ... When there was a power-cut in the recording studio, yeah. They missed a whole verse, a whole section! You can hear the splice on the recording where we stop and start again. It's a messy edit. But yeah that's true ... incredible! NK: What I'm asking is was the whole effect of that song its pacing, the lyric flow, everything - just an accident based around that powerfailure? NY: Yeah it was a total accident. But that's how I see my best art, as one magical accident after another. That's what is so incredible. You see, with lyrics I try not to edit anything. I just let it all come through. I actually believe that if it was meant to be written down in the first place, it has a place there. I only ever edit at all after I've actually performed a song live. And I like to record 'em fast. Record 'em quickly and move on to the next batch Neil Young The Vox/Nick Kent December 1990

Cortez The Killer
NK: Let's move on to Zuma. After that dark stretch, it sounded like you'd suddenly been liberated. The most renowned composition on Zuma has to be Cortez The Killer. I've always been intrigued about your personal opinion of the great explorer. Where id you get your information from? NY: It was a combination of imagination and knowledge. What Cortez represented to me is the explorer with two sides, one benevolent, the other utterly ruthless. I mean, look at Columbus! Everyone now knows he was less than great. And he wasn't even there first (laughs). It always makes me question all these other so-called 'icons' (smiles). Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

I Believe In You
BF: Sex and sin seem tied up in your songs. When you mention sex - in "Saddle Up the Palomino" (American Stars 'n Bars), "Love in Mind" (Time Fades Away), "Cowgirl in the Sand" (Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere) - it's usually with a sense of guilt. NY: I don't know. It keeps coming back, though, in all these songs...I think sex is an avenue I haven't explored deeply enough in my music. Maybe it is constant learning. Somehow it's made me feel I don't know enough about it to throw it around. "The Bridge" (Time Fades Away) really is like first discovery: "A river on your skin." "I Believe in You" (After the Goldrush) is another one. Neil Young Interview with Bill Flanagan 1985

The Bridge
BF: Sex and sin seem tied up in your songs. When you mention sex - in "Saddle Up the Palomino" (American Stars 'n Bars), "Love in Mind" (Time Fades Away), "Cowgirl in the Sand" (Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere) - it's usually with a sense of guilt. NY: I don't know. It keeps coming back, though, in all these songs...I think sex is an avenue I haven't explored deeply enough in my music. Maybe it is constant learning. Somehow it's made me feel I don't know enough about it to throw it around. "The Bridge" (Time Fades Away) really is like first discovery: "A river on your skin." "I Believe in You" (After the Goldrush) is another one. Neil Young Interview with Bill Flanagan 1985

Thrasher
BF: "Thrasher" described the point where old friends become dead weight and have to be left behind. I figured it was about Crosby, Stills and Nash. NY: Yeah. Parts of it were. Just dead weight. Well, at that point I felt like it was kind of dead weight for me. Not for them. For me. I could go somewhere and they couldn't go there. I wasn't going to pull them along, they were doing fine without me. It might have come off a little more harsh than I meant it, but once I write I can't say, "Oh, I'm going to hurt someone's feelings." Poetically and on feeling it made good sense to me and it came right out. I think I'd be doing a disservice to change it based on what I think a reaction would be. I try not to do that. Neil Young Interview with Bill Flanagan 1985

Campaigner
BF: You showed a great deal of sympathy for Nixon in "Campaigner" (Decade), at a time when everybody was kicking him. NY: Oh yeah, that's the human side. No matter how bad his ideals were or how he mishandled the trust of the country, he is still a human being. Neil Young Interview with Bill Flanagan 1985

Hawks & Doves
BF: One verse goes, "In history we painted pictures grim / The devil knows we might feel that way again / The big wind blows so the tall grass bends / But for you, don't push too hard my friend." I think that perfectly captures a certain American attitude. But at the same time, I'd be surprised if that were your attitude. NY: Well, I felt that way when I was thinking about the hostages in Iran. "Just push us one more fuckin' step." I wish Carter had...I'm glad that nobody got killed; that's number one. I just wish we didn't have to sit there and take it for so long. I was on the edge there. Neil Young Interview with Bill Flanagan 1985

Payola Blues
BF: What was the radio reaction to "Payola Blues" (Everybody's Rockin')? Did you get any flak from that? NY: Yeah. I guess there was a little flak, it was kind of an embarrassment to some people. But it was all in good fun. That's the way it is anyway, everybody knows that. It's all about money, the whole thing. Anybody who thinks it isn't is kidding themselves and everybody else. Because what goes on in parking lots is nobody's business but those people who are there, and believe me they're out there. This is still America. I know what payola is and there are different kinds of payola; there is payola where the artist puts his money into it, and there is payola where the record company puts their money into it. Neil Young Interview with Bill Flanagan 1985

Bound For Glory
I wrote that one on a little word processor in the back of my bus while I was rolling. I wrote it with a couple of beers and a little smoke. The bus was rolling down the road and I typed it out and I knew the melody in my head already. That's my favorite one on the Old Ways album Neil Young Interview with Bill Flanagan 1985

Revolution Blues
NY: That was based on my experiences with Charlie Manson. I met him a couple of times, and er.... very interesting person. Obviously he was quite keyed up. AS: Gulp. Before or.... after the Sharon Tate killings? NY: Before. About six months before. He's quite a writer and a singer, really unique - very unique, and he wanted very badly to get a recording contract. I was at (Beach Boys) Dennis Wilson's house when I met Charlie. Coupla times. The thing about Charlie Manson was you'd never hear the same song twice. It was one of the interesting things about him. He had a very mysterious power about him which I'm hesitant to even fuckin' think about, it's so strong and it was so dark, so I really don't like to talk about it very much. I don't even know why I brought it up. AS: Young stopped talking for a moment. Thought we'd lost him, but he continued. NY: There is a saying that if you don't look the devil in the eye you're alright, but once you've looked him in the eye you'll never forget him, and there'll always be more devil in you than there was before. And it's hard to say, you know. The devil is not a cartoon character, like God is on one side of the page and he's on the other. The devil lives in every one and God lives in every one. There's no book that tells you when the devil said to God 'fuck you' and God said (makes a raspberry noise). All those books that are written are just one person's opinion. I can't follow that, but I can see these things in other people. You can see it and feel it. But Manson would sing a song and just make it up as he went along, for three or four minutes, and he never would repeat one word, and it all made perfect sense and it shook you up to listen to it. It was so good that it scared you. AS: A couple of years later, then, Young wrote Revolution Blues: well I'm a barrel of laughs with my carbine on, I keep hopping till my ammunition's gone.... AS: So how did the superstar community take it, Neil? NY: Well, see, I wasn't touring at the time, so I didn't really feel the reaction of On The Beach. Then when I went out on the road I didn't do any of it, so.... Neil Young Melody Maker/Adam Sweeting September 7, 1985

Misfits
There are a lot of science fiction overtones, time travel overtones, in Misfits at different places geographically, it could all have been happening at exactly the same time. All of the scenes in that song could have been happening simultaneously, and yet they're also separate. It's an interesting thing.... I dunno, it only took me a few minutes to write it. I picked up my electric guitar one night in the studio, I was by myself and I turned it up real loud and started playing and, I wrote it just that night. Just got into it. Jotted it down on a piece of paper. I try not to think about the songs that I write, I just try to write them. And I try not to edit them, because I think editing is a form of, ah..., I know there's a source where the music comes through you and words come through you, and editing is really, uh, something you do to something that you've thought about. If you think about it and you try to put it down, then you can edit it. If you're not thinking about it, you just open up and let it come through you, then editing it is... you're really taking a lot of, what's the word, ah, a lotta liberties by editing. Neil Young Melody Maker/Adam Sweeting September 7, 1985

Wrecking Ball
Here's a song for all you married people out there. You don't have to be married though. You can still hear it. It's about a place that's a little bit downtown and it's a little bit uptown. A kind of middle-of-the-road kind of place. A place where you can go and have a good time. The door's always open. There's a bit of a cover charge but you can't tell right away. When you get inside it looks just like any other place. But then you see her standing across in the corner. Suddenly it doesn't look like any other place you've ever been before. But you know you're married. Later on - having a dance at the Wrecking Ball. It's that club everybody has to go to. Neil Young National Tennis Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia April 12, 1989

Heart Of Gold
Well, Ben and I we met back in 1970 - was it '69? - it snowed that year [it was 1971]. Twenty years ago we met. Ben was just in town. I was in Nashville - I was doing a TV show - I think it's the last TV show I ever did. I might have done some other ones. I'll probably do another one some day - the Dating Game - I think I'm going to be on that. Yeah - Wheel Of Fortune - maybe that will do it. Anyway, I ran into Ben and we recorded this song here. And I'd like to do this one for Roy [Orbison]. Here you go Roy. Roy always said that he didn't mind doing his hits because there was a time when he didn't have any hits. So he considered his hits to be real good friends of his. Neil Young Fox Theatre, St. Louis, Missouri, USA January 11, 1989

Wrecking Ball
I've got another album coming out in a little while. I finished it up. A couple of these songs are from it and the ones we're playing later on - some of those will be from it too. This is a song about a big ball. It's a very big one. Just swinging back and forth out there somewhere. It's kind of a wrecking ball I think. And it's just swinging down in maybe New York right now - between the buildings. But inside the ball is a beautiful ballroom where me and this lady - who stars in the role opposite me in the song - are dancing. And as we look out windows we can see the buildings flying by. And the floor is a little uneven. So I need the help of the Restless - my new band - the Restless - from the soap opera - Neil Young and the Restless. But they're just Restless - they're not really here. Neil Young Fox Theatre, St. Louis, Missouri, USA January 11, 1989

The Ways Of Love
These songs are from the Archives. This goes back way back somewhere. It was going to be on Comes A Time. That's what it was going to be on. But we never quite got it. So since it sounded terrible we didn't use it. But the song was good - it's just that the record was bad. Neil Young Orpheum Theater, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada February 22, 1989

Rockin' In The Free World
Now inducting into the event tonight - Rick and Chad - our loving rhythm section - two beautiful guys who've never played this song before. We're gonna see how great they're gonna do because none of us have heard this song before except me. I don't even know the words. It's not Bad Fog - no. It's Rockin' In The Free World. It's the first time anywhere. You might hear a few mistakes, but that's not really very different from other of our songs. I just have to remember it myself - I guess that's too fast. What's gonna happen now - at first it's gonna be like no one knows what's going on. And then it's gonna take form - this is like an art thing. It's gonna take form. By the end - we're all going to be Rockin' In The Free World here. Neil Young Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington, USA February 21, 1989

The Ways Of Love
Now we've got a couple more of these kinds of songs. [...]I was thinking about some songs that we tried to record over the years that we never did get. That was one of them [Silver And Gold] there and here's another one. You'll kind of recognize from - they might have been on an album you might have heard that you never heard before. We're gonna do a Restless version here. Neil Young Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington, USA February 21, 1989

Silver & Gold
[before the song] Here's a song, a song I wrote, back there somewhere, that I never made a record of it. [after the song] Now we've got a couple more of these kinds of songs. [...] I was thinking about some songs that we tried to record over the years that we never did get. That was one of them there and here's another one [Ways Of Love]. You'll kind of recognize from - they might have been on an album you might have heard that you never heard before. We're gonna do a Restless version here. Neil Young Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington, USA February 21, 1989

Heart Of Gold
Well Roy Orbison did interview before he died. The guy asked him, "Roy, don't you ever get tired of playing all your old hits?" Roy said, "No - I enjoy playing my old hits because there was a time when I never had a hit. All I wanted in the world was a hit. Just one hit." So Roy - this hit's for you. Neil Young Hult Center, Eugene, Oregon, USA February 19, 1989

Lady Wingshot
Here's a song about Annie Oakley. This guy's sitting in the stands watching Annie Oakley ride in on a horse. She used to look really good - I don't know if you ever saw what she looked like. Neil Young Municipal Auditorium, Eureka, California, USA February 18, 1989

Four Strong Winds
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

Sample And Hold
When I wrote this, I knew I was on to something. I could feel the world changing. I knew I was into something cool when I got the two sennheiser vocoders to the studio. They enabled me to be a robot, to sing through any thing, present my voice as an envelope to the notes I played with my synclavier keyboard. I saw the factory, the place where replicas and robots were built to order, the rows of old telephones being operated by feminine appearing robots, beautiful, yet mechanical. I started seeing mechanical nurses in a hospital, who came to help me find a way for my child to speak. I saw Trans for the first time. This is a live performance of that first song, Sample and Hold. It blew people’s minds. Almost everyone hated it. I was more worried about getting the right information and help for my beautiful child, lying on his back in his crib, full of gifts from his mother and I, sun streaming through the window on to his new life. How could I help? What could I do? Orders were being taken. I watched the fem-bots answering the requests. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater July 13, 2019

Get Gone
NK: Then came Everybody's Rockin', a curious and underwhelming collection of '50s rock pastiches and easily your most mystifying record to date. You lost a lot of your audience with that record, I reckon... NY: Well, that was a good as Tonight's The Night as far as I'm concerned. The character was strong, the story was great but unfortunately, the story never got to appear on the album. Before I got a chance to finish it - I got stopped from recording. Geffen cancelled a couple of sessions where I was going to do two songs - Get Gone and Don't Take Your Love Away From Me - that would've given a lot more depth to The Shocking Pinks. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

Like A Hurricane
MT: But Like A Hurricane gets cooking pretty good. NY: Yeah, but if you listen to that, I never really play anything fast. And all that it is four notes on the bass. It just keeps going down. Billy plays a few extra notes now and then. Andthe drum beats the same all the way through. It's like a trance we get into. But if you try to analyze it - sometimes it does sound like it's real fast, like we're really playing fast, but we're not. It's just that everybody starts swimming around in circles and it starts elevating and it transcends the point of playing fast or slow. Luckily for us, because we can't play fast. Neil Young A Conversation With Neil Young/Mary Turner 1979

Sugar Mountain
When I first heard ‘Circle Game’ by Joni Mitchell, she told me ‘Sugar Mountain’ had inspired it. Both songs were less than a year old at the time. Chick Roberts, of the DIRTY SHAMES, a Canadian group I saw in Toronto’s Yorkville Village, the center of the Canadian folk scene, told me it was a very special song. That meant so much to me at 20 years old! Neil Young NYA - Now Playing In The Hearse Theater May 25, 2019

Sugar Mountain
[talking about the 1965 Elektra Records audition recordings] RB: ...That song would be one of the defining tunes of your career, but on this version you sound very unlike yourself, as if you're approximating what you believe a folksinger to be. NY: That was probably what was going on. I was just trying to find who I was. And it was very uncomfortable for me to hear some of this stuff. In the case of "Sugar Mountain," I could't listen to it. I knew what it was and I listened a little bit but I jus thought, God, that's terrible. Because I can tell I was very nervous. I was just trying to be...something . But I didn't know what it was. Neil Young Guitar World/Richard Bienstock October 2009

Ramada Inn
This song always puts me on 1-5 south at the bottom of the Grapevine, heading to LA.. It’s a Crazy Horse journey, a long road. There’s a lot to see. . . .a lot to feel out there on I-5. Don’t be scared by this song. It kept me alive. Times were tough. Now time’s are good. We’re rolling again. . . . . Neil Young NYA Now Playing In The Hearse Theater June 12, 2019

Fuel Line
With gasoline priced at $2.35 per gallon, vacillating wildly from year to year on its overall steady climb, I had recorded a song called “Fuel Line,” featuring the choruses “Fill ’er up” and “Keep fillin’ that fuel line.” I was writing and performing a lot of songs about Lincvolt and the subject of electric powered cars. Fork in the Road, the album we made, was released in 2009. A lot of people were pissed that I made an album about that subject and I got bad reviews, but it was what was on my mind and I can be obsessive. Being obsessive is not such a bad thing for creativity. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Mr. Disappointment
When we got back from Rio and were recording at Toast again, we had new energy and recorded a song called “Gateway of Love.” We did some great stuff at Toast, one called “Mr. Disappointment,” and another called “Quit,” but eventually I gave up and abandoned the album Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Quit (Don't Say You Love Me)
When we got back from Rio and were recording at Toast again, we had new energy and recorded a song called “Gateway of Love.” We did some great stuff at Toast, one called “Mr. Disappointment,” and another called “Quit,” but eventually I gave up and abandoned the album Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Gateway Of Love
When we got back from Rio and were recording at Toast again, we had new energy and recorded a song called “Gateway of Love.” We did some great stuff at Toast, one called “Mr. Disappointment,” and another called “Quit,” but eventually I gave up and abandoned the album Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Philadelphia
One time, Taylor [Phelps] and Gary had come over to the ranch and visited Shakey Heights so I could play them the title song I had written and recorded for Jonathan Demme’s classic film Philadelphia. When they sat down on the couch, I put it on the stereo, played it through my big old Altec speakers and McIntosh amps, and listened with them. Closing my eyes, I felt the music and the song heavily. When it was over, I looked over at both of them; they were crying together in an embrace. That, and Tom Hanks’s gracious mention of my song as one of the inspirations for his own performance in the film Philadelphia, will be meaningful to me forever, and connected my friend Taylor to the music. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Dead Man - soundtrack session
Jim Jarmusch, a friend and great filmmaker, made a movie called Dead Man in 1995 and asked me to do the soundtrack. Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer played the two main characters in this epic film about an Indian named Nobody, who was played by Farmer, and a cosmic-searching character played by Depp. When I saw the film, it only had dialogue, and I told Jim it was a masterpiece. It was. It was a strange classic, in a world alone. It already looked like a silent-movie classic to me, the kind where someone would play live music in a theater on an organ or piano while the movie was projected, although it did have dialogue so it was not precisely a silent movie. Jim really wanted me to do the music and convinced me that it was needed. I drove the Continental to the sessions. For my approach to the Dead Man project, I decided to duplicate the feeling of a musician playing music live to accompany a film in a movie theater. I rented an old stage in San Francisco from Mike Mason, a friend who I had met while filming Human Highway in 1980, and set up with about twenty different TV monitors in a circle around me in the middle of the room. The monitors ranged from seventy inches to seven inches in size. I set up my guitar, Old Black, my amplifier rig, and my old piano dead in the center of the room surrounded by all of the TVs. Everywhere I looked, I saw the movie. It was inescapable. When I felt like playing to it, I picked up an instrument and played live. I played Old Black, my electric guitar, solo for most of the movie, making sound effects and developing a theme called “The Wyoming Burnout” that I had written years before for a cinematic idea of my own. I developed another theme I used for one of the supporting characters. I played it all live. We recorded three passes through the whole movie without stopping. I chose to use the first half of the second pass and the second half of the first one. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Dead Man Theme
Jim Jarmusch, a friend and great filmmaker, made a movie called Dead Man in 1995 and asked me to do the soundtrack. Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer played the two main characters in this epic film about an Indian named Nobody, who was played by Farmer, and a cosmic-searching character played by Depp. When I saw the film, it only had dialogue, and I told Jim it was a masterpiece. It was. It was a strange classic, in a world alone. It already looked like a silent-movie classic to me, the kind where someone would play live music in a theater on an organ or piano while the movie was projected, although it did have dialogue so it was not precisely a silent movie. Jim really wanted me to do the music and convinced me that it was needed. I drove the Continental to the sessions. For my approach to the Dead Man project, I decided to duplicate the feeling of a musician playing music live to accompany a film in a movie theater. I rented an old stage in San Francisco from Mike Mason, a friend who I had met while filming Human Highway in 1980, and set up with about twenty different TV monitors in a circle around me in the middle of the room. The monitors ranged from seventy inches to seven inches in size. I set up my guitar, Old Black, my amplifier rig, and my old piano dead in the center of the room surrounded by all of the TVs. Everywhere I looked, I saw the movie. It was inescapable. When I felt like playing to it, I picked up an instrument and played live. I played Old Black, my electric guitar, solo for most of the movie, making sound effects and developing a theme called “The Wyoming Burnout” that I had written years before for a cinematic idea of my own. I developed another theme I used for one of the supporting characters. I played it all live. We recorded three passes through the whole movie without stopping. I chose to use the first half of the second pass and the second half of the first one. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Like A Hurricane
We were between bars on Skyline Boulevard, which ran along the very ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains high above Redwood City, when we pulled over at Skeggs Point Scenic Lookout to park and enjoy some cocaine. The fog was rolling across the ridge, blanketing the beautiful view of the flats with its shimmering lights. There was a newspaper in the backseat with me and I picked up a felt-tip marker, one of my favorite writing tools, and scratched out a few words. Later that night when I got back to the ranch, I sat down at the electric organ I had built. It was made by combining an old antique-white painted and art-decorated ornate wooden pump organ I had received from Dean Stockwell in Topanga with a Univox Stringman analog string synthesizer plugged into a Fender Deluxe amplifier from the early fifties. The unearthly sound resonated in my little cabin for hours and hours while I uncovered the melody and chords that dwelled in those lyrics I had written in Taylor’s DeSoto. Over and over I played the themes and refrains, cascading and blissfully distorted, until I could not stay awake and the sun was rising. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Country Home
Daddy came to a lot of the shows in the Plymouth Special Deluxe. We played up and down the coast at little clubs and bars, rarely more than two or three hundred people in the crowd, sometimes less than one hundred. Johnny Talbot, Billy’s brother who lived with his wife Ellen on the ranch, handled the road manager duties. One of our best shows was in La Honda, a redwood town in the mountains near the ranch. The place we played was called the Boots and Saddle Lodge and it had a dance hall with a little stage. The bar adjoined the dance hall. It was very rustic with log walls and a beautiful stone fireplace. Daddy parked the Special Deluxe in the parking lot under the giant redwoods and we played great that night. “Country Home” was brand-new then and we played it for about twenty minutes. The Boots and Saddle burned to the ground in a suspected arson fire some years later and nothing else was ever built on the spot where it used to be. I can still see Daddy in the green Plymouth under the redwoods every time I pass by on my way to or from the coast. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Unknown Legend
Back in 1974, there was a bar up on Skyline Boulevard, California Highway 35, located on the ridge above the ranch. It was called Alex’s, and Pegi was working there. Alex’s was the place where “I used to order just to watch her walk across the floor.” It’s funny to see how a song can start out in fact and go completely to fantasy but then still be there, in the moment. “Unknown Legend,” as sometimes happens, starts out with a factual reference and just goes off into a world that opens up for me once the music starts. This song was a memory that returned to me when I found its lyrics written on an old newspaper fifteen years after I had written it. Soon the melody and chords came rushing back. When I picked up Hank, my old Martin D-28 that once belonged to Hank Williams, the song flowed as if it had always been there. When I finished it and recorded it for Harvest Moon around 1990, Ben Keith’s playing was among the most beautiful I had ever heard. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Powderfinger
Around the beginning of 1976 at Wally Heider Studios in Hollywood, we were trying to record “Powderfinger” with Crazy Horse. It was sounding really good to me and I was way into the song. Then I came completely unglued and yelled at Billy for what seemed like an endless time. We had been right in the middle of a great take and he had missed a bunch of changes. My nerves must have been totaled for some reason. I had to work on my temper with Crazy Horse and Buffalo Springfield, as I was mostly juvenile and had no patience. I’m still not completely past it now, just a little slower to react. When you open up to deliver in the studio, you have no self-control, no defenses, no point of view. That’s the place to be. You’re just a lightbulb with the filament exposed, no outer glass to protect you. The emotional and spiritual music comes along at just about the same time, so if something goes wrong right at that moment there is almost no way to predict what will happen. Usually I would just lose it. Today it is not very different when it happens; we just have recording more down now, and mistakes are easier to fix with technology. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Like A Hurricane
I did a few recordings in LA around that time [in early 1976]. One of them was just an overdubbed vocal sketch that I put on a track I had cut at the ranch with the Horse a few months earlier. I was still on voice rest when we cut it, so the song had been recorded without a vocal. The instrumental passages on this recording are some of our best Crazy Horse moments, with Poncho playing a great part on the Stringman keyboard, an amazing analog string synthesizer. It is a very emotional ride. Two months later, I overdubbed all the vocal parts at a studio called Village Recorders. Ben Keith was there at the board, helping me. I loved that track. I knew I had to finish it. The Horse was cosmic. Those sketches are the vocals we used on the final record of “Like a Hurricane.” Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Like A Hurricane
When we played the original Catalyst, a famous Santa Cruz club [during the 1975 Northern California Coastal Bar Tour], it was in an old building with a high ceiling. That building was later destroyed in the great earthquake of 1982. The night we appeared, it was packed. [...] The true highlight, though, came halfway through our next set as we did “Like a Hurricane.” I remember looking out into the crowd, and it was a dense crowd, with the aroma and fog of weed hanging over it, and all I could see was one girl standing there. She seemed to be floating; her beautiful light blond hair set her apart as she moved to the music in another world from everyone else. She had a light around her, a glowing haziness that set her apart like a queen among peasants, a goddess among mortals. Her clothes were a different color than anything else in the room and she stood out so completely, dancing and floating while not moving at all, a slow-motion masterpiece of a painting. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Look Out For My Love
During this time, one song we recorded at the ranch was called “Look Out for My Love.” We were having a lot of trouble getting it right and time was dragging on. It was four or five in the morning and we were still going at it. Probably cocaine was keeping us going when we should have given up. It was during the introduction to the song that the door to the studio playing room opened and Ellen Talbot, Johnny’s wife, danced slowly in and pulled down her jeans, showing us all her ass. Well, that was the take! It woke us up and we finally got it. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Stupid Girl
Every once in a while I was direct. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Powderfinger
I was rooted in the past, like I really was there: Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Cortez The Killer
There were songs that traveled around. I seemed to be in a lot of places at the same time. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Changing Highways
About that time, I called Crazy Horse and asked Billy, Ralph, and Poncho to come to Chicago, where I was visiting with Carrie after her mother’s death, to record at the Chess Records Studio. I had located it in the phone book and booked studio time. I needed something to do and a reason to disengage from Carrie’s dad’s house. Poncho Sampedro was new in the group and we had only jammed once in Echo Park at Billy’s house, so I thought getting the band to Chicago would be a great way to feel it out in the studio. I called Nashville and asked Ben Keith to come up as well. I had a new song I had written called “Changing Highways.” The guys soon arrived and we checked into a hotel downtown. We got together the night before the sessions so Poncho had a chance to learn the songs with us. He remembers that I was playing the songs and he would say, “Hey, Ben, you try the guitar,” then he’d smoke some weed and dig the song. Poncho thought we were just hangin’ out, didn’t see that we were woodshedding for the sessions so he would know the songs when we got into the studio. It didn’t matter, though. We got it down. Poncho’s laid-back attitude is a big part of who we are today as a band. [...] The sessions went well and we got a funky take of “Changing Highways,” which is still unreleased today. We were there for two or three days. I loved recording wherever I was and whenever I could. That’s how we did it best. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Frozen Man
We set up at Quadrafonic Sound on Sixteenth Avenue, with Elliot Mazer at the board. Quad was a little studio, built in a house, like many studios in Nashville, with an intimate feel and sound. It was a favorite among singer-songwriters like myself. The first day there, we recorded with Kenny Buttrey on drums, Tim Drummond on bass, Ben Keith on steel, and me on acoustic guitar. These musicians were known as the Stray Gators on the Harvest album and were all soulful, first-class players. Drummond had played with James Brown, Conway Twitty, and others. Ben had played with Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and many more. Buttrey had given his beat to Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers, and countless country artists and hits. I was fortunate to be in their company. We recorded a song called “Frozen Man,” which I had written in Amsterdam. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Try
Later the same day, we recorded a song that used a few of the favorite expressions that Carrie’s mom loved to say. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Hawaiian Sunrise
At the ranch, while rehearsing for the [1974 CSNY] tour, I wrote a new song called “Hawaiian Sunrise.” It seemed like every day I had another new song. With all the changes going on in my life, I wrote songs daily, turning the changes into something. I always looked at occasions in life as inspirations for songs. We were singing so easily. It was flowing. We were all high on weed and excited. Crosby called up Peter Fonda, and we sang “Hawaiian Sunrise” for him over the phone from my cabin living room, all four of us. It was the best we ever sang it. To this day, I’m sorry we weren’t recording it. That is one of the biggest lessons I have learned about recording music. “Get it while it’s hot.” Every song has its moment, and we let that one escape into a telephone. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Hitchhiker
One night, Dylan came by and I played him a couple of new songs, “Hitchhiker” and “Cortez the Killer.” When he heard “Hitchhiker,” a confessional about the progressive history of drugs I had taken through my life, he told me, “That’s honest.” That moment still crosses my mind. It makes me laugh every time I think of it because Bob’s humor is so wry. I think it was his way of saying kindly that the song was not very inventive as far as creating a story goes, just that I was following a history and not making up anything new. It’s still funny to me, at any rate, the way he put it. Neil Young Special Deluxe October 2014

Four Strong Winds
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

The Last Trip To Tulsa
I had met Briggs, and we were planning my first solo record. The songs were gathered from the past and the future, mostly dreams, nothing concrete; they were mostly created as vehicles for record-making, like “Here We Are in the Years,” or personal expression and longing, such as “I’ve Been Waiting for You.” Some of them were stream-of-consciousness, like “The Last Trip to Tulsa,” with no preconceived thought behind them. They were just songs. There was no big pressure on me at that time to top anything I had already done. That came later. The sky was the limit. I had no idea what was coming my way. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Here We Are In The Years
I had met Briggs, and we were planning my first solo record. The songs were gathered from the past and the future, mostly dreams, nothing concrete; they were mostly created as vehicles for record-making, like “Here We Are in the Years,” or personal expression and longing, such as “I’ve Been Waiting for You.” Some of them were stream-of-consciousness, like “The Last Trip to Tulsa,” with no preconceived thought behind them. They were just songs. There was no big pressure on me at that time to top anything I had already done. That came later. The sky was the limit. I had no idea what was coming my way. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

I've Been Waiting For You
I had met Briggs, and we were planning my first solo record. The songs were gathered from the past and the future, mostly dreams, nothing concrete; they were mostly created as vehicles for record-making, like “Here We Are in the Years,” or personal expression and longing, such as “I’ve Been Waiting for You.” Some of them were stream-of-consciousness, like “The Last Trip to Tulsa,” with no preconceived thought behind them. They were just songs. There was no big pressure on me at that time to top anything I had already done. That came later. The sky was the limit. I had no idea what was coming my way. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

A Man Needs A Maid
Then, a few weeks later, I was in London and recorded “A Man Needs a Maid” and “There’s a World” with the London Symphony Orchestra, produced and arranged by Jack Nitzsche. After hearing the playback in Glyn Johns’s truck, where the pieces were recorded outside the Barking Town Hall, Jack said, “I think it’s a bit overblown.” We knew it was over-the-top, but we had done it and we loved it. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

There's A World
Then, a few weeks later, I was in London and recorded “A Man Needs a Maid” and “There’s a World” with the London Symphony Orchestra, produced and arranged by Jack Nitzsche. After hearing the playback in Glyn Johns’s truck, where the pieces were recorded outside the Barking Town Hall, Jack said, “I think it’s a bit overblown.” We knew it was over-the-top, but we had done it and we loved it. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Words
“Words” is the first song that reveals a little of my early doubts of being in a long-term relationship with Carrie. It was a new relationship. There were so many people around all the time, talking and talking, sitting in a circle smoking cigarettes in my living room. It had never been like that before. I am a very quiet and private person. The peace was going away. It was changing too fast. I remember actually jumping out the living room window onto the lawn to get out of there—I couldn’t wait long enough to use the door! Words—too many of them, it seemed to me. I was young and not ready for what I had gotten myself into. I became paranoid and aware of mind games others were trying to play on me. I had never even thought of that before. That was how we did Harvest, in love in the beginning and with some doubts at the end. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Cinnamon Girl
I have made an Early Daze record of the Horse, and you can hear a different vocal of “Cinnamon Girl” featuring more of Danny. He was singing the high part, and it came through big-time. I changed it so I sang the high part and put that out. That was a big mistake. I fucked up. I did not know who Danny was. He was better than me. I didn’t see it. I was strong, and maybe I helped destroy something sacred by not seeing it. He was never pissed off about it. It wasn’t like that. I was young, and maybe I didn’t know what I was doing. Some things you wish never happened. But we got what we got. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Broken Arrow
I now had a house/cabin at the top of Ridpath Avenue near Utica Drive, way up at the end of the road at the top of Laurel Canyon. It was a crazy place up there, with a main house, a garage, and a little cabin. The shingles were all curved and mystical like a witch’s castle. Wonderful. I was renting a cabin at the top of a flight of stairs, maybe one to two hundred–plus steps. Below it, the garage was down on Utica, and a drummer, John Densmore of the Doors, lived there. The garage was constructed with the same mystical shingle work. An astrologer, Kiyo Hodel, was my landlord. She lived in the main house of the whole compound and was very cosmic. The little cabin was made of knotty pine, very rustic, and I loved it. I had a llama rug on the floor. [...] In that little cabin, I wrote “Mr. Soul,” “Expecting to Fly,” “Broken Arrow,” and a few other songs. I would listen to acetates of the mixes with my friends often there, too. (Acetates were records that you could make fast and play only a few times before they wore out and lost their sound. They would make them to take home and listen to right after we cut a song at Gold Star Studios in a little room where a lathe was set up. I still remember that acetate smell. The acetate would go in a little record sleeve and a Gold Star label would be typed up and stuck on it. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Expecting To Fly
I now had a house/cabin at the top of Ridpath Avenue near Utica Drive, way up at the end of the road at the top of Laurel Canyon. It was a crazy place up there, with a main house, a garage, and a little cabin. The shingles were all curved and mystical like a witch’s castle. Wonderful. I was renting a cabin at the top of a flight of stairs, maybe one to two hundred–plus steps. Below it, the garage was down on Utica, and a drummer, John Densmore of the Doors, lived there. The garage was constructed with the same mystical shingle work. An astrologer, Kiyo Hodel, was my landlord. She lived in the main house of the whole compound and was very cosmic. The little cabin was made of knotty pine, very rustic, and I loved it. I had a llama rug on the floor. [...] In that little cabin, I wrote “Mr. Soul,” “Expecting to Fly,” “Broken Arrow,” and a few other songs. I would listen to acetates of the mixes with my friends often there, too. (Acetates were records that you could make fast and play only a few times before they wore out and lost their sound. They would make them to take home and listen to right after we cut a song at Gold Star Studios in a little room where a lathe was set up. I still remember that acetate smell. The acetate would go in a little record sleeve and a Gold Star label would be typed up and stuck on it. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Mr. Soul
I now had a house/cabin at the top of Ridpath Avenue near Utica Drive, way up at the end of the road at the top of Laurel Canyon. It was a crazy place up there, with a main house, a garage, and a little cabin. The shingles were all curved and mystical like a witch’s castle. Wonderful. I was renting a cabin at the top of a flight of stairs, maybe one to two hundred–plus steps. Below it, the garage was down on Utica, and a drummer, John Densmore of the Doors, lived there. The garage was constructed with the same mystical shingle work. An astrologer, Kiyo Hodel, was my landlord. She lived in the main house of the whole compound and was very cosmic. The little cabin was made of knotty pine, very rustic, and I loved it. I had a llama rug on the floor. [...] In that little cabin, I wrote “Mr. Soul,” “Expecting to Fly,” “Broken Arrow,” and a few other songs. I would listen to acetates of the mixes with my friends often there, too. (Acetates were records that you could make fast and play only a few times before they wore out and lost their sound. They would make them to take home and listen to right after we cut a song at Gold Star Studios in a little room where a lathe was set up. I still remember that acetate smell. The acetate would go in a little record sleeve and a Gold Star label would be typed up and stuck on it. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Like A Hurricane
“Like a Hurricane” is probably the best example of Old Black’s tone, although if you listen too closely, it is all but ruined by all the mistakes and misfires in my playing. That was a memorable recording, though, for the feeling that comes out of our instrumental passages. I always record every note played, whether it is a run-through or not, and the recording of “Like a Hurricane” is a great illustration of why I do that. When you do that, you catch everything. Most often the first time something is played is the defining moment. That is what I like to capture in my recordings. It is a strict rule that my engineers are there to record everything. The master recording I used for the final version of the track was the run-through when I was showing the Horse how the song went. That is why it just cuts on at the beginning. There was no beginning. There was no end. It is one of those performances you can never repeat; the cherry, the original expression of the song, the essence. We just kept wailing on those changes until we couldn’t move anymore. One night in late November 1975, I wrote the “Like a Hurricane” lyrics on a piece of newspaper in the back of Taylor Phelps’s 1950 DeSoto Suburban, a huge car that we used to all go to bars in. Taylor was a great friend who lived on the mountain, and everybody loved him. He and Jim Russell were my buds back then. Jim was a cowboy who drove big machinery and was a really nice guy. In the mid-seventies, Jim and I hung out a lot and went to bars looking to get lucky. We had both recently broken up with our kids’ moms, and Zeke and Jenny, our two kids, would be in the truck in the parking lot when we went into the bars for “Daddy’s Boogie.” There was an Alaskan Camper on the back of my new 1975 Dodge Power Wagon, Stretch Armstrong, and Zeke and Jenny used to hang in it while we were doing our thing. As was our habit between bars, we had stopped at Skeggs Point Scenic Lookout on Skyline Boulevard up on the mountain to do a few lines of coke; I wrote “Hurricane” right there in the back of that giant old car. Then when I got home, I played the chords on this old Univox Stringman mounted in an old ornate pump-organ body set up in the living room. It was painted antique white, and I had gotten it from Dean Stockwell, the great actor and another friend of mine in Topanga. None of the original guts were left inside the thing, but it looked great and sounded like God with this psychedelic Univox Stringman inside it I had hooked up so that it was hammering and overdriving a Fender Deluxe. I played that damn thing through the night. I finished the melody in five minutes, but I was so jacked I couldn’t stop playing. A few months later at the Village in LA, I put on all the vocals as overdubs. I just had to hear that song finished. Crazy Horse had never sung it or even heard the words. It was just a rundown of the track, and it became the master recording of “Like a Hurricane.” Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Oh, Lonesome Me
I wanted to give the acoustic solo thing a try in the Village (Yorkville). That Gretsch guitar and signed case is probably around somewhere. I sold it at a music store on Yonge Street, and of all the things that are out there of mine, that is the one I wish I still had. That was my first Gretsch, just like Randy Bachman’s, but it was gone and I took my acoustic twelve-string to a few gigs and got some bad reviews. My first review dismissed my songs as full of clichés. They probably were! What’s wrong with clichés? I thought I was pretty good, myself. I had an arrangement of “Oh Lonesome Me” that I really liked, and people laughed at it, thinking it was a parody or something. I used it on After the Gold Rush, and that worked. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
I went down to New York for an audition at Elektra Records that Marty had set up, went to Greenwich Village, and met Richie Furay, who had been in a group with Stephen Stills before the Company and was living for a short time at the address Steve had given me on Thompson Street. Richie said Steve had gone to LA to start a band! I taught Richie “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing,” and then I did that demo session at Elektra Records that went badly. They had me set up in a tape storage room. I had my electric Gretsch to play and I ended up not using my amp because I had a bad guitar cord. (I had dragged my amp all the way to New York; I still remember lugging it through Port Authority Bus Terminal. I asked someone for a hand with it, and he replied, “You’re in the Big Apple now, kid—carry it yourself!”) Anyway, I ended up doing the demo without it. I sucked. I flunked the audition. They didn’t take me. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

I'll Love You Forever
In Fort William, Ontario, a working-class port town at the head of the Great Lakes where the Squires first played the Flamingo Club and hit the big time, we stayed and settled in. We played the Flamingo a few more times and sent our tapes out to record companies. Nothing happened. One of them is a song about Pam, who I have mentioned before, a beautiful, soulful girl I met at Falcon Lake who was my first love, in a fantasy setting by the ocean, which of course I had never seen at the time. I called it “I’ll Love You Forever.” We used sound effects of waves. I thought it was really cool. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Tom Dula
The Squires played my own songs and rock arrangements of folk classics like “Oh, Susanna,” “Tom Dooley,” and “Clementine.” We got that idea from the Thorns, another band that came through on the circuit. We learned their arrangement of “Oh, Susanna,” and I developed a theme doing other old folk songs along that way, with new melodies and arrangements that rocked. Tim Rose, leader of the Thorns, was one of those credited with writing “Hey Joe,” later made a big hit by Jimi Hendrix. The Thorns were really great. I don’t know what happened to them. They should have been huge. But we know life has her ways. Nothing is obvious, and you never know what is going to happen. The Thorns and Danny and the Memories were great bands that could have been huge, but just disappeared. Who knows what is next or why it isn’t? Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Oh Susannah
The Squires played my own songs and rock arrangements of folk classics like “Oh, Susanna,” “Tom Dooley,” and “Clementine.” We got that idea from the Thorns, another band that came through on the circuit. We learned their arrangement of “Oh, Susanna,” and I developed a theme doing other old folk songs along that way, with new melodies and arrangements that rocked. Tim Rose, leader of the Thorns, was one of those credited with writing “Hey Joe,” later made a big hit by Jimi Hendrix. The Thorns were really great. I don’t know what happened to them. They should have been huge. But we know life has her ways. Nothing is obvious, and you never know what is going to happen. The Thorns and Danny and the Memories were great bands that could have been huge, but just disappeared. Who knows what is next or why it isn’t? Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Clementine
The Squires played my own songs and rock arrangements of folk classics like “Oh, Susanna,” “Tom Dooley,” and “Clementine.” We got that idea from the Thorns, another band that came through on the circuit. We learned their arrangement of “Oh, Susanna,” and I developed a theme doing other old folk songs along that way, with new melodies and arrangements that rocked. Tim Rose, leader of the Thorns, was one of those credited with writing “Hey Joe,” later made a big hit by Jimi Hendrix. The Thorns were really great. I don’t know what happened to them. They should have been huge. But we know life has her ways. Nothing is obvious, and you never know what is going to happen. The Thorns and Danny and the Memories were great bands that could have been huge, but just disappeared. Who knows what is next or why it isn’t? Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Ain't It The Truth
The Flamingo [the Flamingo Club in Fort William] eventually put us [the Squires] up at the Victoria Hotel, and I was writing a lot of songs for the gig there. We were going Jimmy Reed–style big-time because I loved Jimmy and knew that kind of music would be perfect for the club. I wrote a couple of R&B songs in that vein right away, “Find Another Shoulder” and “Hello Lonely Woman,” at the hotel. I wrote a lot more then, too. One older song that was the same type of beat was resurrected. It was called “Ain’t It the Truth.” These tunes were all R&B-based and we did a good job on them. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Hello Lonely Woman
The Flamingo [the Flamingo Club in Fort William] eventually put us [the Squires] up at the Victoria Hotel, and I was writing a lot of songs for the gig there. We were going Jimmy Reed–style big-time because I loved Jimmy and knew that kind of music would be perfect for the club. I wrote a couple of R&B songs in that vein right away, “Find Another Shoulder” and “Hello Lonely Woman,” at the hotel. I wrote a lot more then, too. One older song that was the same type of beat was resurrected. It was called “Ain’t It the Truth.” These tunes were all R&B-based and we did a good job on them. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Find Another Shoulder
The Flamingo [the Flamingo Club in Fort William] eventually put us [the Squires] up at the Victoria Hotel, and I was writing a lot of songs for the gig there. We were going Jimmy Reed–style big-time because I loved Jimmy and knew that kind of music would be perfect for the club. I wrote a couple of R&B songs in that vein right away, “Find Another Shoulder” and “Hello Lonely Woman,” at the hotel. I wrote a lot more then, too. One older song that was the same type of beat was resurrected. It was called “Ain’t It the Truth.” These tunes were all R&B-based and we did a good job on them. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Leia
I wrote the song “Leia” for Marc and Lynne [Benioff]’s little girl. Her name is Leia. (See how creative I am?) We were just hanging in the house one night, the six of us and Leia, and I went over and started playing the piano so she would come over and play it, too. She is musical. She came right over and started some jazzy stuff while I was playing a simple percussion part. Next thing I knew, I was writing the song in my head. Lynne loved the chorus or bridge Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Will To Love
There is a song that I wrote in the middle of the night in front of my fireplace at the ranch that I think stands alone in its form and consciousness. It is a fairly long song that is pretty ambitious in a few ways. It was 1976. I recorded this song on a little Sony cassette player that had “Life is a shit sandwich. Eat it or starve” on a plastic strip label, applied by Briggs during the Zuma sessions right below the Sony brand marking. The door for the cassette opened right below the label so you saw it every time the cassette was inserted or removed. Sitting on the floor late at night, I recorded in front of the fireplace with the cassette on the hearth, three feet from the fire, and you can hear the crackling and hissing of the fire as I played my old Martin guitar and sang “Will to Love,” the story of a salmon swimming upstream. Laden with my own feelings of love and survival, the recording stands alone in my work for its audio vérité style, a live sketch of a massive production number with only the highlights presented, fragments of parts, the sound of the fire, the underwater sound created by vibrato. [see Chapter 67 of Waging Heavy Peace for an entire chapter on Will To Love] Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Expecting To Fly
Sunset Sound is where Jack and I recorded and mixed “Expecting to Fly” with Bruce Botnick, one of the most influential and accomplished recording engineers in the history of recorded sound. Jack and I spent weeks working on the chart for “Expecting to Fly” in his house in Coldwater Canyon. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It?
I wrote a lot of songs there [at the Commodore Gardens on Orchid Avenue in Hollywood] for the Springfield, and it was an exciting time for me. “Flying on the Ground,” “Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It,” and “Burned” were among the songs I wrote there. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Burned
I wrote a lot of songs there [at the Commodore Gardens on Orchid Avenue in Hollywood] for the Springfield, and it was an exciting time for me. “Flying on the Ground,” “Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It,” and “Burned” were among the songs I wrote there. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
I wrote a lot of songs there [at the Commodore Gardens on Orchid Avenue in Hollywood] for the Springfield, and it was an exciting time for me. “Flying on the Ground,” “Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It,” and “Burned” were among the songs I wrote there. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Hangin' On A Limb
“Hangin’ on a Limb” on the Freedom album is beautiful because Linda [Ronstadt] played such a part in it. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Alabama
Soon after I was so high on that orchestra [the Gone With The Wind Orchestra from Comes A Time in 1978] that I did a free concert in Miami and took the whole group down there and played. But we didn’t record it—I can’t believe it. It must be the only thing I’ve ever done that I didn’t record. I did “Sweet Home Alabama” at that show, and the folks loved it. (My own song “Alabama” richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don’t like my words when I listen to it today. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue.) Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Comes A Time
The song “Comes a Time” is one of my all-time favorite recordings because it just has a great feeling. The song and the performance are a total mesh. Nicolette’s singing is beautiful. I can see all the pictures. That is as close to a perfect recording as I ever have gotten. Karl Himmel laid down a unique groove on drums, and the band was locked in. Karl has the ability to play two grooves at once, which I have never heard anyone else do as well as he does. He is a completely unique musician. Chuck Cochran did the string arrangement. Rufus Thibodeaux played fiddle. JJ Cale played a guitar on it. Ben Keith played steel. Spooner Oldham played piano. There was a rhythm guitar section with six great guitarists all playing rhythm on old Martin acoustics. Everyone played and it was the country wall of sound, the Gone With the Wind Orchestra. What a sound! Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Ride My Llama
The album Zuma is the first album we made with Crazy Horse after Poncho joined the band. It’s one of my favorites. The cover is by Mazzeo and came out of a conversation we had on a day trip from the ranch to Zuma. We set up a Green Board control room in Briggs’s den. We played in the garage. One day Bob Dylan, who lived nearby, came along and sang a blues tune with us. On a break, Bob and I took a walk around the neighborhood, talking about the similarity in some of the paths we had each taken. It was the first time we had ever really talked. I liked him. Back at Briggs’s, we kept playing day after day and partying at night. We did the original “Powderfinger” and held it back. We did “Sedan Delivery” and held it back. My song “Born to Run” was recorded, left unfinished, and held back. “Ride My Llama” was completely finished and mixed and held back. We recorded a lot of tunes and held them back, but we released “Cortez,” “Don’t Cry No Tears,” “Stupid Girl,” and a bunch of other tracks on Zuma. It has a great feeling to it. Today I like listening to all of those tracks together in a compilation I call Dume that is in The Archives Volume 2. Those were some of the finest, most alive days of my life. I was getting past the lost relationship with Carrie, living the life with my best friends, making some good music, and starting to get a grip on something: an open future in my personal life and a new future with Crazy Horse after Danny. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Sedan Delivery
The album Zuma is the first album we made with Crazy Horse after Poncho joined the band. It’s one of my favorites. The cover is by Mazzeo and came out of a conversation we had on a day trip from the ranch to Zuma. We set up a Green Board control room in Briggs’s den. We played in the garage. One day Bob Dylan, who lived nearby, came along and sang a blues tune with us. On a break, Bob and I took a walk around the neighborhood, talking about the similarity in some of the paths we had each taken. It was the first time we had ever really talked. I liked him. Back at Briggs’s, we kept playing day after day and partying at night. We did the original “Powderfinger” and held it back. We did “Sedan Delivery” and held it back. My song “Born to Run” was recorded, left unfinished, and held back. “Ride My Llama” was completely finished and mixed and held back. We recorded a lot of tunes and held them back, but we released “Cortez,” “Don’t Cry No Tears,” “Stupid Girl,” and a bunch of other tracks on Zuma. It has a great feeling to it. Today I like listening to all of those tracks together in a compilation I call Dume that is in The Archives Volume 2. Those were some of the finest, most alive days of my life. I was getting past the lost relationship with Carrie, living the life with my best friends, making some good music, and starting to get a grip on something: an open future in my personal life and a new future with Crazy Horse after Danny. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Born To Run
The album Zuma is the first album we made with Crazy Horse after Poncho joined the band. It’s one of my favorites. The cover is by Mazzeo and came out of a conversation we had on a day trip from the ranch to Zuma. We set up a Green Board control room in Briggs’s den. We played in the garage. One day Bob Dylan, who lived nearby, came along and sang a blues tune with us. On a break, Bob and I took a walk around the neighborhood, talking about the similarity in some of the paths we had each taken. It was the first time we had ever really talked. I liked him. Back at Briggs’s, we kept playing day after day and partying at night. We did the original “Powderfinger” and held it back. We did “Sedan Delivery” and held it back. My song “Born to Run” was recorded, left unfinished, and held back. “Ride My Llama” was completely finished and mixed and held back. We recorded a lot of tunes and held them back, but we released “Cortez,” “Don’t Cry No Tears,” “Stupid Girl,” and a bunch of other tracks on Zuma. It has a great feeling to it. Today I like listening to all of those tracks together in a compilation I call Dume that is in The Archives Volume 2. Those were some of the finest, most alive days of my life. I was getting past the lost relationship with Carrie, living the life with my best friends, making some good music, and starting to get a grip on something: an open future in my personal life and a new future with Crazy Horse after Danny. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Powderfinger
The album Zuma is the first album we made with Crazy Horse after Poncho joined the band. It’s one of my favorites. The cover is by Mazzeo and came out of a conversation we had on a day trip from the ranch to Zuma. We set up a Green Board control room in Briggs’s den. We played in the garage. One day Bob Dylan, who lived nearby, came along and sang a blues tune with us. On a break, Bob and I took a walk around the neighborhood, talking about the similarity in some of the paths we had each taken. It was the first time we had ever really talked. I liked him. Back at Briggs’s, we kept playing day after day and partying at night. We did the original “Powderfinger” and held it back. We did “Sedan Delivery” and held it back. My song “Born to Run” was recorded, left unfinished, and held back. “Ride My Llama” was completely finished and mixed and held back. We recorded a lot of tunes and held them back, but we released “Cortez,” “Don’t Cry No Tears,” “Stupid Girl,” and a bunch of other tracks on Zuma. It has a great feeling to it. Today I like listening to all of those tracks together in a compilation I call Dume that is in The Archives Volume 2. Those were some of the finest, most alive days of my life. I was getting past the lost relationship with Carrie, living the life with my best friends, making some good music, and starting to get a grip on something: an open future in my personal life and a new future with Crazy Horse after Danny. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Changing Highways
While I was there in Chicago [in November 1974, after Carrie Snodgress's mother's death], I called Ben Keith, who was in Nashville, and Crazy Horse in LA so that they could come and play with me at Chess Recording Studios, the historic Chicago studio where so many great blues records had been made. I had already played with Poncho once at Billy Talbot’s house in Echo Park. Billy and his new, young wife, Laurie, had been there with a few kids. We had played on the porch, and the music had echoed in the canyon outside. I guess that’s why they named it Echo Park. Poncho had fit in real well, and we’d been able to jam on some cool stuff. I don’t remember what we were playing, but it had a good sound. Poncho is Spanish, Billy is Italian, and Ralph is Portuguese; three Latins and a Canadian, I thought to myself. There was something sympathetic about the way we played together. It felt really fluid and hot, yet funky and solid. When we all got to Chess Studios, we found it on the fifth floor of a big old brick building that really had a historic vibe. I felt I was in a hallowed place. It was funky and there was nothing high-class about it, like some of the studios we had played in Hollywood. It had everything it needed, though. We recorded one song, “Changing Highways,” at that session. It was kind of an experiment with Poncho in the studio, and it went well. We rocked. Crazy Horse went back to LA. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

When You Dance, I Can Really Love
We had finished a lot of the recording when word came through Billy that Danny had cleaned up. He came out and we played “When You Dance I Can Really Love” with him, Billy, and Jack. Crazy Horse was back together again. We rerecorded a lot of the chorus vocals with Danny singing, and they were a lot better than what we had before. It was great having Danny back! It really made the record better, and it felt so good to play with Danny again. Jack, too! Jack’s piano on that track is unreal. We were really soaring! But that was it for the original Crazy Horse with Danny and Jack. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

After The Gold Rush
Dean Stockwell came by the house with a screenplay called After the Gold Rush. He had cowritten it with Herb Berman and wanted to know if I could do the music for it. I read the screenplay and kept it around for a while. I was writing a lot of songs at the time, and some of them seemed like they would fit right in with this story. The song “After the Gold Rush” was written to go along with the story’s main character as he carried the tree of life through Topanga Canyon to the ocean. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Sugar Mountain
One night after hearing me at a hootenanny [in Toronto in 1965], Chick Roberts of the Dirty Shames told me he really liked my song “Sugar Mountain”—that made me feel like I was somebody. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Sugar Mountain
Joni Mitchell also really loved my song “Sugar Mountain.” Later, she wrote “The Circle Game” about “Sugar Mountain.” It was a real feeling of recognition that Joni wrote her song to answer mine; I didn’t even hear it until she had already been singing it for a year. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Motion Pictures
I got one more song I'd like to sing for you. It's another new one. I know you haven't heard a lot of these songs. I haven't had a chance to sing them for people so. This is a song here, a song here I wrote in a motel room in Los Angeles ... [Neil describes Honey Slides] ... anyway back to the motel. We were just sitting around having a few Honey Slides. They slow you down quite a bit. There's nothing to really get fast for anyways. We were all sitting around playing these chords, playing with my friends, Rusty Kershaw, Ben Keith, sitting around the motel room, the TV was on. Hadn't been home in two months by then, trying to get my act together. Neil Young The Bottom Line, New York City, New York, USA May 16, 1974

Motion Pictures
Sometime in 1973 before I bought the Ragland, the touring and constant womanizing finally caught up with me. I was growing further and further from Carrie. During the recording of On the Beach I did a song called “Motion Pictures.” I did the recording with Ben Keith and Rusty Kershaw and we were all high on “honey slides,” a little concoction that Rusty’s wife, Julie, cooked up. Honey slides were made with grass and honey cooked together and stirred in a frying pan until a black gooey substance was left in the pan. A couple of spoonfuls of that and you would be laid-back into the middle of next week. The record was slow and dreamy, kind of underwater without bubbles. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

The Ballad Of Peggy Grover
Number 88 Isabella Street was filthy, because I never cleaned anything. I was a little pig. But I did write a song called “The Ballad of Peggy Grover” up there. It was pretty good, but not too good. “Peggy Grover” was a play on words for Grover pegs, which were the best tuning pegs you could buy for a guitar. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

The Last Trip To Tulsa
Soon Briggs discovered that I needed to drink some beer to do vocals. In those days I didn’t sing live; I overdubbed. I was very unsure of my singing, especially after my previous experiences in the studio with Greene and Stone producing Buffalo Springfield. They tried feeding me amphetamines to get me loosened up enough to sing “Burned” with the Springfield, a song I wrote about having a seizure. Now there is a hit song idea! I sang “Burned” for about four hours after it had been recorded, unable to stop. David Briggs suggested an Oly—Olympia Beer was my favorite. It loosened me up quite a bit, and I actually sang a song, “Last Trip to Tulsa,” that was about ten minutes long, without overdubs. Once I got loose and in the groove I was fine, although it still sounded like me. Briggs always said my voice was good. It was unique, and that’s what we needed to make it. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Cowgirl In The Sand
A few weeks before the people who would found Crazy Horse (as yet unnamed), Danny, Billy, Ralphie, and me, got together in my Topanga living room, I had been sick with the flu, holed up in bed in the house. Susan was bringing me soup and good stuff, but I still felt like shit. I was delirious half the time and had an odd metallic taste in my mouth. It was peculiar. At the height of this sickness, I felt pretty high in a strange way. I had a guitar in a case near the bed—probably too near the bed in the opinion of most of the women I had relationships with. I took it out and started playing; I had left it in a tuning I was fond of, D modal, with the E strings both tuned down to D. It provided a drone sound, sort of like a sitar, but not really. I played for a while and wrote “Cinnamon Girl.” The lyrics were different from how the song eventually ended up, but all those changes happened right there, immediately, until the song was complete. Then I took the guitar out of D modal and kept playing. At the time, there was a song in E minor on the radio that I liked, “Sunny” or something like that. I remembered hearing it in the drugstore at Fairfax and Sunset while I was shopping for something to ease the flu. The song kept looping in my head, endlessly, like some things do when I’m sick and maybe a little delirious. So I started playing it on the guitar, and then I changed the chords a bit—and it turned into “Down by the River.” I was still feeling sick, but happy and high. It was a unique feeling. I had two brand-new songs! Totally different from the last album! Then I started playing in A minor, one of my favorite keys. I had nothing to lose. I was on a roll. The music just flowed naturally that afternoon, and soon I had written “Cowgirl in the Sand.” This was pretty unique, to write three songs in one sitting, and I am pretty sure that my semi-delirious state had a lot to do with that. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Down By The River
A few weeks before the people who would found Crazy Horse (as yet unnamed), Danny, Billy, Ralphie, and me, got together in my Topanga living room, I had been sick with the flu, holed up in bed in the house. Susan was bringing me soup and good stuff, but I still felt like shit. I was delirious half the time and had an odd metallic taste in my mouth. It was peculiar. At the height of this sickness, I felt pretty high in a strange way. I had a guitar in a case near the bed—probably too near the bed in the opinion of most of the women I had relationships with. I took it out and started playing; I had left it in a tuning I was fond of, D modal, with the E strings both tuned down to D. It provided a drone sound, sort of like a sitar, but not really. I played for a while and wrote “Cinnamon Girl.” The lyrics were different from how the song eventually ended up, but all those changes happened right there, immediately, until the song was complete. Then I took the guitar out of D modal and kept playing. At the time, there was a song in E minor on the radio that I liked, “Sunny” or something like that. I remembered hearing it in the drugstore at Fairfax and Sunset while I was shopping for something to ease the flu. The song kept looping in my head, endlessly, like some things do when I’m sick and maybe a little delirious. So I started playing it on the guitar, and then I changed the chords a bit—and it turned into “Down by the River.” I was still feeling sick, but happy and high. It was a unique feeling. I had two brand-new songs! Totally different from the last album! Then I started playing in A minor, one of my favorite keys. I had nothing to lose. I was on a roll. The music just flowed naturally that afternoon, and soon I had written “Cowgirl in the Sand.” This was pretty unique, to write three songs in one sitting, and I am pretty sure that my semi-delirious state had a lot to do with that. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Cinnamon Girl
A few weeks before the people who would found Crazy Horse (as yet unnamed), Danny, Billy, Ralphie, and me, got together in my Topanga living room, I had been sick with the flu, holed up in bed in the house. Susan was bringing me soup and good stuff, but I still felt like shit. I was delirious half the time and had an odd metallic taste in my mouth. It was peculiar. At the height of this sickness, I felt pretty high in a strange way. I had a guitar in a case near the bed—probably too near the bed in the opinion of most of the women I had relationships with. I took it out and started playing; I had left it in a tuning I was fond of, D modal, with the E strings both tuned down to D. It provided a drone sound, sort of like a sitar, but not really. I played for a while and wrote “Cinnamon Girl.” The lyrics were different from how the song eventually ended up, but all those changes happened right there, immediately, until the song was complete. Then I took the guitar out of D modal and kept playing. At the time, there was a song in E minor on the radio that I liked, “Sunny” or something like that. I remembered hearing it in the drugstore at Fairfax and Sunset while I was shopping for something to ease the flu. The song kept looping in my head, endlessly, like some things do when I’m sick and maybe a little delirious. So I started playing it on the guitar, and then I changed the chords a bit—and it turned into “Down by the River.” I was still feeling sick, but happy and high. It was a unique feeling. I had two brand-new songs! Totally different from the last album! Then I started playing in A minor, one of my favorite keys. I had nothing to lose. I was on a roll. The music just flowed naturally that afternoon, and soon I had written “Cowgirl in the Sand.” This was pretty unique, to write three songs in one sitting, and I am pretty sure that my semi-delirious state had a lot to do with that. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Burned
They tried feeding me amphetamines to get me loosened up enough to sing “Burned” with the Springfield, a song I wrote about having a seizure. Now there is a hit song idea! I sang “Burned” for about four hours after it had been recorded, unable to stop. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Aurora
My very first recording session was on July 23, 1963, at CKRC radio in Winnipeg. I was seventeen years old. Harry Taylor was the engineer behind the board, and Bob Bradburn was the producer, a CKRC DJ. The Squires were there to make a record! The first day we played all of our songs so we could hear how they sounded when recorded. It was very exciting, and I was really jacked up. Just before and just after the sessions, we played at the Crescentwood Community Centre and earned $35 the first night and $36 the second night. As you can tell, we were hot. The CKRC studio had a pair of mono tape recorders, some EQ, some echo, and a control board. The mixing was done live. It was at this session that I first sang on tape. I had a couple of songs, one of which I called “I Wonder.” It was the best one that I sang, but we decided, because I had a “different” voice, that the Squires would be an instrumental recording group. I knew that I had to work on my singing, and I knew I felt good when I sang. Those songs meant something to me. I had written several instrumentals that we were also playing. The two tunes picked from the audition session were “The Sultan” and “Image in Blue.” During the second session we practiced recording these, working on the arrangements. At that time it was decided that “Image in Blue” needed a name change so that Bob Bradburn could say the title at the end of the record in echo. “Aurora” was the new title. They thought of the title and had the idea. I was so young and eager, I didn’t complain. I was just happy to be making a record. I did like that a prerecording of a gong was added to “The Sultan” to give it that special sultanesque, desert-tent vibe—we knew all about that in Winnipeg. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Round And Round (It Won't Be Long)
I know we all sang live on “Round and Round”: Danny, Robin, and me. All gathered in a circle like at Laurel Canyon, singing and playing. The vocals are so great—Danny singing on the top, and Robin’s rich voice on the bottom. Danny’s soulful acoustic playing. Amazing. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

The Old Laughing Lady
Once I went down to Detroit to the Chessmate Club and tried to get a job, but that didn’t happen. I did write a song on a napkin in the White Castle across the street called “The Old Laughing Lady.” I stayed at Joni Mitchell’s house with her and her husband, Chuck, in Detroit while I was there. Eventually they left, and after one night sleeping in some girl’s basement, to the amazement of her parents, I left one morning in a snowstorm and returned to Toronto. It was cold and I didn’t have any warm clothes. That was a long trip. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace 2012

When You Dance, I Can Really Love
Danny Whitten could not make the [After The Gold Rush] sessions but he did come in at the end and recorded with us, doing a lot of chorus singing on many songs and playing on one song, ‘When You Dance I Can Really Love’. Jack Nietzche was there on a wild piano. Billy Talbot on bass. What a memory that is! Ralph Molina played drums on every track. Neil Young NYA - Album of the Week - After The Gold Rush May 29, 2019

Thrasher
I wrote ‘Thrasher’ in a car on my way to Albuquerque from Taos New Mexico. I was being driven by Carpio, a native American who I was introduced to by Dennis Hopper filming Human Highway Neil Young NYA - Letters To The Editor May 20, 2019

The Old Laughing Lady
It took me and Jack Nitzsche a month to put down the tracks for the "Old Laughing Lady". Neil Young CSNY: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young by Peter Doggett 2019

Helpless
NY: Well, on the new album, I play on about five songs and sing on three... EB: Three different from the five or three out of the five? NY: No, three of the five... and the ones that I play on we mostly recorded live. Like my two songs, "Helpless" and "Country Girl," I did the lead vocal while I was playing, all at the same time, so the drums and bass, guitar and piano were all going at once, and I was singing the lead, so my things sound different, from overdubbing, you know. I mean, I probably could have played on all of them, 'cause you know, I can make up lines and put 'em down... Neil Young Rolling Stone by Elliot Blinder April 20, 1970

Country Girl
NY: Well, on the new album, I play on about five songs and sing on three... EB: Three different from the five or three out of the five? NY: No, three of the five... and the ones that I play on we mostly recorded live. Like my two songs, "Helpless" and "Country Girl," I did the lead vocal while I was playing, all at the same time, so the drums and bass, guitar and piano were all going at once, and I was singing the lead, so my things sound different, from overdubbing, you know. I mean, I probably could have played on all of them, 'cause you know, I can make up lines and put 'em down... Neil Young Rolling Stone by Elliot Blinder April 20, 1970

Red Sun
I wrote this one about my dad after visiting him in Eire. Neil Young NYA - Letters To The Editor May 11, 2019

Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
[regarding working at Coles Book store in Toronto in late 1965] NY: I was a stock boy. I wasn’t very together. I used to stay out late and come in in the morning … I wasn’t meant for that kind of life. NY: I remember sitting on the floor and writing “Clancy.” And for sure “Peggy Grover” and “Don’t Pity Me, Babe.” JM: Were you gaining an awareness that songs could be as complex as you wanted to make them? NY: Yeah. About the last eight months I was in Toronto. When I wrote “Clancy.” I thought it was pretty good. Because obviously there was so much to it. I knew it was long. JM: Did anything provoke “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing“? NY: I don’t know. It’s just a product of my life at that point. That’s all I can say. There was a lot on my mind. JM: What do you think you were trying to accomplish with that song? NY: I don’t know. Just writin’ a song. It’s so long ago. I don’t remember much about Clancy. I really don’t … except what he looked like, a little … He’s an incidental character who somehow had his name in it—no more important than all the characters that didn’t. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

A Man Needs A Maid
This is a new song about, ummm ... it's about a ... it's a broadway musical. Some people look at their life and say, "well, my life's like a movie." And then they talk about what scenes went down. In some movies there's tunes, you know. This is like a show tune from my movie. Neil Young Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 19, 1971, Early Show

New Mama
Here's a new song for you. A song I wrote for my old lady. I hear some of you yelling out some of those old songs and I gotta keep it going. I got a lot of new songs here. Probably won't be doing too many old ones. Got a lot of new ones. Keeps it happening for me and for the band up here, you know. So we want to try to get off for you as much as we can, so you can dig the new ones. Here's a new one called New Mama. Neil Young Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan, USA January 8, 1973

Borrowed Tune
I'd like to do a new song for you now. I know I can do it. A song I wrote in Madison, Wisconsin a couple of days ago. Neil Young Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan, USA January 8, 1973

Love In Mind
This is an old song. I wrote it a long time ago, but I never recorded it. I wrote it on my last tour, the last time I was here in Detroit. I may have written it in Detroit as a matter of fact. I think I did. At a hotel down there on the corner. Neil Young Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan, USA January 8, 1973

Thrasher
NK: It's become something of a cliche to say that Rust Never Sleeps, the raucous follow-up to Comes A Time, was very influenced by the UK punk-rock scene at the time... NY: No, I wasn't really influenced by that scene. Most of the songs on that album had been written well before the Sex Pistols were ever heard of. The Thrasher was pretty much me writing about me experiences with Crosby, Stills & Nash in the mid-'70s. Do you know Lynyrd Skynyrd almost ended up recording Powderfinger before my version came out? We sent them an early demo of it because they wanted to do one of my songs. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
Uncut: You [Crazy Horse] were together a lot from 1975-1982. You survived glam, prog, disco..."Rust Never Sleeps" showed you had the power to learn from and withstand punk. NY: They were real songs on that album. Real songs about real things that I was feeling, not really responding to anything, any new wave or punk: it's just real songs, which just happened to be part of what was going on. Then playing "Out of the Blue" with Devo was...pretty educating there: this shock from this other place was so cool. It was just fun, and I took some of that back to Crazy Horse. Neil Young Uncut Magazine article May 2019

My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
Uncut: You [Crazy Horse] were together a lot from 1975-1982. You survived glam, prog, disco..."Rust Never Sleeps" showed you had the power to learn from and withstand punk. NY: They were real songs on that album. Real songs about real things that I was feeling, not really responding to anything, any new wave or punk: it's just real songs, which just happened to be part of what was going on. Then playing "Out of the Blue" with Devo was...pretty educating there: this shock from this other place was so cool. It was just fun, and I took some of that back to Crazy Horse. Neil Young Uncut Magazine article May 2019

After The Gold Rush
... Dean Stockwell came by the house with a screenplay called After The Gold Rush. He had cowritten it with Herb Berman and wanted to know if I could do the music for it. I read the screenplay and kept it around for a while. I was writing a lot of songs at the time, and some of them seemed like they would fit right in with this story. The song “After The Gold Rush” was written to go along with the story’s main character as he carried the tree of life through Topanga Canyon to the ocean. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace 2012

Sea Change
We're going to do a song we don't know right now. If we mess it up you probably won't realize it because you've never heard it anyway. None of us have ever heard it - so, you know - take a chance. I apologize for reading. [before playing Sea Change for the first time] Neil Young Way Out West Festival, Slottsskogen, Göteborg, Sweden August 9, 2008

Cough Up The Bucks
This song is one of my all time favorites. there was a huge crash in the market. 2008. We were in Wichita building Lincvolt. The world was watching the US economy implode. It was obvious who got screwed. There is a piece of history if I ever saw one. Neil Young NYA Song Of The Day February 22, 2019

After The Gold Rush
This next tune is about a dream I had one day. I woke up in the morning, went downstairs, sat down with my pipe, 8:30AM ... didn't even have any eggs or bacon. Neil Young Bayfront Center Arena, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA February 3, 1973

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
Yeah, they [Devo] were working on that [the Rust-Oleum ad campaign]. I think Mark [Mothersbaugh] had the idea in the first place. We were doing this version of "Out Of The Blue" together and were in the studio playing and Booji Boy was there and he was singing "Hey Hey, My My". He just had a lyric sheet and it said "It's better to burn out than rust." And he just said "Well, it's better to burn out 'cause rust never sleeps'", and I thought, "Well alright, that makes a lotta sense to me." Neil Young Rockline Radio Interview November 23, 1981

Homegrown
[after finishing the song] It's a stupid song anyway. Let's face it. I mean - I know it. But you know ... Homegrown ... it's a funny thing too. First, I thought it was a drug song - definitely weed. Then I started thinking no, no, no, it's about growing your own food ... it's organic ... it's good for you ... everybody should have that kind of food ... no chemicals ... that would be really good. Yeah - let's do it - I like that. Then - fuel. Growing plants and using them in cars - that's pretty good too. That'll never work ... you know they're already all over that one. Al, don't do that, you're going to kill the planet if you do that. All the plants will be gone. There will be no more CO2. Everything's screwed if to do that - specially South America - that would be bad. So, you know, who are you going to believe? All you got's a stupid song and all this information. So, it's up to you I guess. Neil Young Hammersmith Apollo, London, England March 15, 2008

Love Is A Rose
This is a song I wrote in ... the only thing I remember about this song ... for some reason ... is my friend Elliot ... we're walking into an airplane. He was getting off the airplane to come and see me after I'd written the song. I said, "I got this great new song. I want to play it for you. I'm over here in Hawaii. Come on over." This is before you could send it all over. So he landed there. This little plane lands ... because he landed in Honolulu and then he came to Maui ... he gets off the plane in Maui ... and he sees me ... and he comes running around ... and he's walking towards me ... and he hits his head right on the fuel tank and he goes down. I always think of that when I play the song. There we go again, it has nothing to do with anything. Neil Young Hammersmith Apollo, London, England March 15, 2008

Don't Let It Bring You Down
Once I came here and I went to a pop festival. It was on the Isle of Wight. And ... uh ... we got busted on that trip. My manager took the rap. These things happen – it was a surprise. We came to see Jimi Hendrix. And on the airplane, on the way back, I wrote this song. It was on a BOAC - British Overseas - gone but not forgotten. Neil Young Hammersmith Apollo, London, England March 14, 2008 [Neil must be a little off on this story. Hendrix played the Isle of Wight Festival on August 31, 1970 and Don't Let It Bring You Down was recorded in March 1970. More likely he wrote the song returning from the early January 1970 CSNY tour dates.]

Love/Art Blues
CM: When I mention during breakfast that my girlfriend has run off through pure jealousy, it brings a response from Neil. It turns out that he has a specific reason to prolong his stay in Europe - an argument with Carrie. NY: It's time Carrie came to me for a change. I'll stay away until that happens. Those girls always get jealous when you're working on something with great intensity. Susan, who was a lot older than me, was very jealous. One morning, I got up early to work on "Southern Man" in the studio, she threw breakfast against the door. When I opened the door to see what was going on, she threw the coffee at me. Carrie is more in control, but still, a lot of problems have to be overcome. The first few years are always happy, but then the problems come. "Love Art Blues"' is about this, especially the second line. That's why I want to break away for a while. I'm really having big domestic problems, which until now, have popped up in about 20 songs. Hmmm, women.....! Neil Young Muziekkrant Oor/Constant Meijers September 26, 1974

Love/Art Blues
Here's a song I never put out - I don't think. I recorded it, but somehow never did put it out. But I think it's a good one. It kind of gets into a few things. Like, it's nice to play these places. These are nice places to play because you can hear and you can see. In those big old rinks and arenas and rollerdrome or whatever it is - those can be good. And so can those huge, gigantic places where there's millions of people - it's just like a sea of humanity out there. But every once in a while there's a reward to one's self - it's nice to come back to a place that was made to do what you do - inside. But there's a lot of pressures to do other places [plays about 30 seconds of an unknown song] That is another song. That's a song that a guy named Bobby Vee did - I don't know if you heard of him. He lived in Minnesota. That was just below Manitoba, but it's in the United States. Bob Dylan played his band for a while - I think he played piano in his band, I'm not sure. Anyway, that's a song called "Please Don't Ask About Barbara", one of the most beautiful little tunes I ever heard. I don't really know how to play it. Neil Young Manchester Apollo, Manchester, England March 12, 2008

Mellow My Mind
I'd like to do a song for my old friend Constant [Meijers] who is here tonight. He's from here - he's a writer. He wrote a story about me and the band once. Apparently it was not a very glowing review, but it looked so cool to me because I didn't understand a damn thing it says It looked great to see people writing about me in a language I didn't understand at all. So I used in my album cover. I still love it when I look at it. I saw him backstage and he looks great. Must be a healthy lifestyle here. So this song's on the album that we were doing at that time. This note's for you Constant. Neil Young RAI Theater, Amsterdam, The Netherlands February 17, 2008

Mellow My Mind
[after playing the song] That was on an album called Tonight's The Night. It's one of my favorite ones that I did. I've got this old, old friend of mine who I had dinner with a couple of weeks ago. His name's Mo Ostin and he's the former chairman of Warner Bros. records. And I don't know exactly what the title was. He was the heaviest of the heavies. He's got a huge vibe. He hasn't got a huge body - he's pretty small - but his vibe is gigantic. And he never gets in the way of anything. I don't know how he got to be the leader of all these things. When I handed in that record, you know, it was a pretty sloppy piece of production. I'd just had "Harvest" and some pretty nice hits. And he said, "Neil, do you wanna ... you could damage your career with this record." I said, "Well, I like it." And he says, "Yeah, I can see you do. And that's good. But do you really want to put it out?" And I said, "Sure - I really do." And he said, "Well OK. We're going to give it everything we got. We're behind you 100%." And that's cool. It didn't make any difference. Nothing makes a difference. But it was cool the way it was - that people wanted to do things because they thought about ... the music is what you want to do and that's what you think, that's good. And away we go. Neil Young United Palace, New York City, New York, USA December 19, 2007

Sad Movies
[after playing the song] You know, when Reverend Ike made this place into a place where he could have his services, he changed it from being a movie theater. And since that day, 2001: A Space Odyssey has been up there in the projector and it's still up there. Were any of you here for that screening? I wouldn't have left. I'd stay. I remember when I saw that movie. There was this guy in a group called Spirit - his name was Randy California. And we were all at the movies. And at that part - in the middle of that movie - when things were starting to go haywire, Randy got up and walked right through the screen. Yeah, he just parted it and walked right through it. It was made out of threads. It was the weirdest thing I ever saw. He walks right in. Neil Young United Palace, New York City, New York, USA December 19, 2007

Cowgirl In The Sand
These songs - some of them are like they're antiques like me and the rest of us. But they're really just about people like you and me - and feelings. And you only feel it for like a second and then you write it down. After that you don't walk with that all the time. That's why the songs live. Some of them live longer than others. Neil Young United Palace, New York City, New York, USA December 18, 2007

Mellow My Mind
This next song here - when I recorded it - for the first time ever - I sang three notes at once. And I never heard myself do that before. The shape I'm in tonight, that could possibly happen again. This could be one of those golden moments. But what the hell, you know - bring it on voice! Neil Young United Palace, New York City, New York, USA December 18, 2007

Heart Of Gold
NY: I hope you like this next one. Audience: We love 'em all! NY: Oh, I've got something you don't like. I know I do. I'll find one. Neil Young United Palace, New York City, New York, USA December 16, 2007

After The Gold Rush
We ought to do this song here for Al Gore tonight. It's funny you know - here's a guy who decided he didn't want to do that other thing any more. It got down to what he really wanted to do - sort of half way through his life - something he'd be committed to for a long time. And he's just so committed to it that, unlike all of his peers, he had the balls to really say what he believed in. And then, Al ... "damn Democrat!, geez, how could he do that?" People just can't separate politics and life. So just because Al's a Democrat some people don't believe in global warming. I don't understand that. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Anyway, just my two cents worth. I woke up this morning and checked out my computer and read his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize ... I like people who say what they mean. Well this song, this song's for you Al. And I won't say anything more about it, except you know what you gotta do, if you want to. Neil Young Tower Theater, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, USA December 10, 2007

Mexico
Don't yell in this one, because I'm going to have trouble making it through it with total silence. Because I haven't ever played it. if you want to yell, go ahead, I'll do something else. Any way this is probably too sensitive for "BOO-WAAAA!" I can live with that ... a lot of energy ... I've done a lot of things ... people get excited ... I can live with that. Let's see what happens with this. World premier of a song that's thirty five years old. [before playing Mexico for the first time] Neil Young Orpheum Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, USA December 6, 2007

Love Is A Rose
Once I did a tour with Linda Ronstadt. That's a long time ago. She was really great. She still is. She chooses not to come out much. She did a lot of my songs. And she recorded a lot of them. And she sometimes blew my mind by recording my mistakes that I made on mine. Neil Young Orpheum Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, USA December 3, 2007

Sad Movies
This song was about the Glendale Theatre. I don't know if it's even there - by Brookdale and Avenue Road. That's where that one (came from). Neil Young Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada November 26, 2007

Love Is A Rose
Once I did a tour with Linda Ronstadt. It was a long time ago. And it was really good for me. It was pretty wild. She got thrown out of one place we played in for saying something. I heard she got thrown out of Las Vegas last year for saying something else. She's good. Anyway, she did this song here. She's done a couple of my songs and she always does a good job on them. Neil Young Fox Theatre, St. Louis, Missouri, USA November 18, 2007

Sad Movies
I was at a meeting the other day. Not an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting - not that I have a problem with that - this was a hockey pool meeting. We were choosing the teams and everybody had a good idea what was going on. Every team - a group of people in the pool - had one smart guy who'd been doing homework. We had a list of the teams. Just as I was getting ready to choose our last team, three people from Norway showed up behind me. I had no idea who they were, but they were introduced to me by a friend of mine, who totally surprised me with these three folks from Norway who were ardent fans and members of the Young Neils - a band. Just kind of like a thing they'd had for twenty or thirty years there in Norway. I was trying to keep my focus on the hockey pool ... I was again distracted when one of these folks pulled a guitar out and started playing one of my songs [laughter]. This is a song I hadn't heard in maybe thirty years or so. I'd like to do it for you now. Neil Young Nokia Live, Los Angeles, California, USA October 30, 2007

Journey Through The Past
I don't know if you all noticed, but when I was playing that last song, about half way through the second piano solo I kind of lost my mind for a minute. Yeah, but it was good. I hit some kind of note and I saw my granny. She used to play piano in a place called Flin Flon. That's real far north. That's a mining town way up in northern Canada. Way up there. And she was the one who - she was in the little booth, when they'd go down in the mine and everybody would check in with her and she would give them their tags. They were hanging on nails there. So all the guys would come by in the morning ... all the kids and everything ... everybody she knew in the whole town ... everybody knew her. She'd give them the little brass tags with their names on it. And then at the end of the day, when it was all over, they'd come out of the mine and walk by Jean, and Jean would be sitting there, and they'd all give her the brass tags. So everybody knew everybody. She was the music in the town. They used to have these productions at the local bar. It was like really a small company town and they had the bar and a little stage and they put on productions. People would act out these things that they wrote and my granny would be playing the piano. So everybody knew her. So she came and visited me in the middle of that song. Neil Young Keller Theater, Portland, Oregon, USA October 22, 2007

Mellow My Mind
This one here is ... this is from an album ... I didn't know whether to put it out or not. I finally decided I better put it out. Then the record company said, "Neil, are you sure you want to do this?" I said, "Yeah, I like this. I know it's kind of off-key and not very well recorded." I liked it! Neil Young Velma V. Morrison Center For The Performing Arts, Boise, Idaho, USA October 18, 2007

Heart Of Gold
Speaking of old guitars, here another one. This one here [his Martin D-45] - this was brand new when I first played the Ryman - that was the Johnny Cash Show in 1970. When I was there I met up with James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. They were doing the show too. And I was on tour at the time. I'd just written a bunch of new songs for my next album. And I'd recorded a live album of it - of all the new songs - up in Toronto just a few of days before. And we thought we had a great live album. But that never came out because when I got down here I met Ben - my old friend Ben Keith. And I met up with some other players - Tim Drummond and the legendary Kenny Buttrey. And we got together and recorded some songs. This is one the first day we got together. Neil Young Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee, USA August 19, 2005

Four Strong Winds
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

Here For You
Well I'm an empty nester. I never knew what that meant 'til a while ago and I really felt it. Some of you may not be old enough, but you like most of you are. [laughter] So it's funny - I used to write these love songs for these young girls - dreaming about them and falling in love with them. Specially back in the Buffalo Springfield. So I wrote this one here - it's a different kind of love song. Neil Young Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee, USA August 18, 2005

Prairie Wind
It's getting to about that time - some of us are starting to lose our parents and stuff. My daddy passed away a couple of months ago. He was one of those guys - I guess his blood pressure was too high or something - and he, uh, uh, he had that dementia. So he's just kind of walking around in the moment. We went to his service and a little cousin came up and said, "Daddy was ok. We were driving along in the car, and a policeman came up behind us and he said, 'Cop!'. So he was all right." Neil Young Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee, USA August 18, 2005

Far From Home
When I was just a kid, about eight years old or something, I was a chicken farmer. I had some chickens - I had about thirty-five of them I think. My daddy used to take me out on the weekends and we'd deliver the eggs. And I'd also deliver a newspaper that my dad wrote for because it was some weekend edition kind of thing that I could deliver without getting in the way of going to school. Anyway, one morning Daddy came home. He had this plastic Arthur Godfrey ukulele and he showed it to me. I looked at it and I didn't know much about that. I'd seen it in the store where I bought my 45 RPMs. But I must have said something about it because he bought it for me. And then he played a song on it. I'd never seen him sing or play before and I remember I was shocked. And he moved his hands around on it and made these funny sounds. And then he sang a song called "Bury Me Out On The Prairie" ... first song. And then he gave me this big smile. And I'm going, "Wow!" After that I got more into and our family used to get together and sing songs. My uncle Bob and my dad and my grandma ... Neil Young Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee, USA August 19, 2005

Far From Home
When I first started playing guitar I was a chicken farmer at the time. I was about seven or eight years old or something. Maybe a little older than that. But my daddy brought me an Arthur Godfrey ukulele - a little plastic one. Now I didn't know what to do with it or anything. He said, "You might need this." And then he sang me a song - which I never heard him sing before. He got this funny grin on his face, and was looking at me, and I was watching him ... and then I had to go feed the chickens. Neil Young Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee, USA August 18, 2005

I've Been Waiting For You
I used an organ on Country Girl and I've Been Waiting For You also a long time ago. That was in Glendale. A huge organ in a church building. I recorded it there. Neil Young WTF Podcast with Marc Maron #717 June 20, 2016

Country Girl
I used an organ on Country Girl and I've Been Waiting For You also a long time ago. That was in Glendale. A huge organ in a church building. I recorded it there. Neil Young WTF Podcast with Marc Maron #717 June 20, 2016

People Want To Hear About Love
I'm just talking about people who don't to hear a confrontational message. They don't want to hear, uh, No Fear. They don't want to hear about certain things. They just want to hear about love. That's what they want to hear about. That will relax them. Because, pretty soon, hey really need to get away. They put on the radio - they don't need to be attacked. They're feeling that way because the rest of the world is not really ... maybe they don't feel great about the world, so they want to get out the world and just go to ... Unfortunately, living in that musical space is people like me. I'm there and there's a lot people like me that want to sing about things they care about. The song started from ... I was playing a lot of songs about anti-corporate songs and all these things, and somebody just ... I got the message ... people want to hear about love, that's what they want to hear. I'm going, "Well, I don't give a ... I don't care. I've sang about love already. "Only Love Can Break Your Heart". I sang about many aspects of love." Just quite recently I did an album called "Storytone" that's all about love. That was only a couple albums ago. I'm going, "Does this mean that I can only do 'that'? And I can't talk about things like the dangers of different things and incongruous things that are happening. Pollution, corruption, corporate government." Those things - I think they're interesting. Neil Young WTF Podcast with Marc Maron #717 June 20, 2016

Expecting To Fly
NY: Jack Nitzsche and I made Expecting To Fly that took, like, about thirty days for us to complete it with Bruce Botnick the engineer. We had a fantastic time. A lot of time mixing it with these old tube boards and everything. MM: When you were setting out to do that ... because you were creating a new sound ... what was the collaboration like? How do you start to go to that place? NY: Well, you know, I was very young. I think it was only the second Buffalo Springfield album, I think, that Expecting To Fly was on. He had just started talking to me about doing things myself and being a solo artist. He was like a mentor ... he's a genius. He'd did incredible ... I knew everything he'd done. All of his charts that he'd written for various things ... Spector's and stuff that were just insane charts. Neil Young WTF Podcast with Marc Maron #717 June 20, 2016

Hitchhiker
Bob told me it was a very honest song. Bob Dylan. I sang it for him, he said, “Well, that’s an honest song.” Because it’s like this confession of all the fuckin’ drugs an’ everything that I took that I felt like I had to do for some reason. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Goin' Back
That was one point where I think overdubbing worked, especially on that one song, “Goin’ Back.” “Goin’ Back” was originally done in Triad. I did all the guitars by myself and went to Nashville and put the other stuff on there—put Nicolette on there. That’s one of my favorite records. It’s funky. Not that it’s technically great, that’s for sure. The sounds are a little muddled. It’s got a great amount of feeling. It had a lot of feeling in its straight acoustic versions, too. There’s something there that’s me, that record. It tells a story—“Goin’ Back” is sorta like the debris of the sixties. There’s nowhere to stay, nowhere to go and nothin’ to do. You could go anywhere … Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Lotta Love
Nicolette Larson’s cover of “Lotta Love” would be a top-ten hit in 1979. “I visited Neil at the ranch, we were driving around in a pickup, there was a cassette on the floor,” she recalls. “I picked it up, blew the dust off it, I stuck it in the cassette player and ‘Lotta Love’ came on. He told me he wrote it on the boat ’cause his crew had been playing Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours for three months straight. I said, ‘Neil, that’s a really good song.’ He said, ‘You want it—it’s yours.’” Nicolette Larson "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Cortez The Killer
When he’s on the boat, on his way over … I don’t think he knows what’s gonna happen yet—I’m not sure Cortez might’ve felt like he was doin’ the right thing at the end. Killing all those people. Might not have felt as good about it as he did when he was just dancing across the water in his boat. I have to think that changed his life, that experience. That he was not able to sleep well. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Barstool Blues
“Barstool Blues”—we came home from the bar and I wrote that song. I woke up and I went, “FUCK!” I couldn’t remember writing it. I couldn’t remember any of it. I started playin’ the chords and it was so fuckin’ high—I mean, it was three steps higher than the fuckin’ record. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

The Old Laughing Lady
I couldn’t get into Detroit once because I couldn’t get across the bridge with my guitar. Tried to sneak across, take the bus across. I think on my way back I went and visited my uncle Bob who lived in Windsor. Stayed there a couple of days, then I did a show there. Pretty big place. Those were like my first solo shows. I had a series of gigs—maybe Joni and Chuck Mitchell might’ve gotten these gigs in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area—solo acoustic, before the Mynah Birds. Chess Mate coffeehouse, an old folk club in Detroit, Livernois and One-eleventh. Very near there is where the White Tower is. “The Old Laughing Lady”—I was having some coffee and wrote it on napkins. I don’t know what prompted it. It came out on a napkin, no guitar. Hangin’ out in a coffee shop. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
In a rare admission, Young would tell deejay Tony Pig in a 1969 interview that the song was partially inspired by the work of his hero Roy Orbison: “That’s where ‘Flying on the Ground’ came from … the idea of the melody came from ‘Blue Bayou.’” Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Round And Round (It Won't Be Long)
JM: Unlike the labored creations of the Springfield and the first solo record, the music on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was recorded and in the can as quickly as it happened. Robin Lane said Young ambushed her on “Round and Round. RL: “Round and Round.” “I thought we were rehearsing. I didn’t even know what I was singing…. Neil was the original punk rocker.” Robin Lane "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Down By The River
Down by the River was really edited. We got the vibe, but it was just too long and sometimes it fell apart, so we just took the shitty parts out. Made some radical cuts in there—I mean, you can hear ’em. But Danny just played so cool on that. He was playin’ & kinda things. He made the whole band sound good. Me and Billy and Ralph sounded like Crazy Horse right away. All I had to do was come up with the songs and the riffs. I started realizing how long we could jam. It was fantastic Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Cinnamon Girl
JM: Where did the inspiration come from for the hand claps on “Cinnamon Girl”? Remember “My Boyfriend’s Back”? Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Down By The River
There’s an alternate version of “Down by the River”—same track, different background parts, different mix—with a very intense scratch vocal (done the night of the band recording) that hints at just what a challenge singing was to Young. Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

The Loner
According to Briggs, the psycho guitar noises featured on both “The Loner” and “I’ve Been Waiting for You”—where it sounds like Young is sticking the instrument into a garbage disposal and shredding the strings—were made by “putting Neil’s guitar through an organ Leslie, not even through an amp, just the Leslie into the board Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

I've Been Waiting For You
According to Briggs, the psycho guitar noises featured on both “The Loner” and “I’ve Been Waiting for You”—where it sounds like Young is sticking the instrument into a garbage disposal and shredding the strings—were made by “putting Neil’s guitar through an organ Leslie, not even through an amp, just the Leslie into the board Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Helpless
JM: Young and the Horse cut “Everybody’s Alone,” “Oh Lonesome Me,” “Wonderin’,” “I Believe in You,” “Birds,” an exquisite version of Whitten’s “Look at All the Things,” as well as an epic ballad called “Helpless” that failed to make it to tape. We were doing it live, everybody playing and singing at once, and we did about an eight- or nine-minute version of it … with a long instrumental in the middle,” Young told writer Jean-Charles Costa. “And the engineer didn’t press the button down. It was much more free than anything I’ve done onstage. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Country Girl
I think that Crosby, Stills and Nash made great records. Crosby, Stills, & Nash is better than Déjà Vu. “Country Girl” is overblown. It’s overdone. It’s my fault … parts of Déjà Vu are as good—but they’re the parts that I’m not on. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

When You Dance, I Can Really Love
“When You Dance” is a funky record. Me and Billy and Ralph and Danny and Jack. They were all crazy. Jack plays great—I was pushing him. A lotta leakage, boy. That’s a unique take, ’cause that’s the only take ever done in the studio by the Horse with Jack playing. That group actually didn’t work as well as I would’ve liked. It was nice havin’ Jack with us, but some of the stuff, he was in the way tonally. Crazy Horse was so good with the two guitars, bass and drums it didn’t need anything else. “When You Dance” is probably the last record with Danny that we played together on. That was done near the end of the sessions. When I did all the other stuff, Danny wasn’t on it—Nils, Ralph and I did the singing. Stills came up and sang, but I didn’t like those vocals, so I redid them all with Danny. Danny kinda got himself together, did the overdubs … He wasn’t lookin’ too good at that point. JM: Who inspired all the dancing-women songs? I don’t know … I remember this one girl, Jean “Monte” Ray—she was the singing partner of Jim, Jim and Jean, a folk duo. Had a record out called “People World,” and she did a lot of dancing with finger cymbals. She was really great. Might’ve been her. Good chance. I kinda had a crush on her for a while. Moved nice. She was real musical, soulful. JM: So is she the Cinnamon Girl? Only part of the song. There’s images in there that have to do with Jean and there’s images that have to do with other people. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Cinnamon Girl
JM: Who inspired all the dancing-women songs? I don’t know … I remember this one girl, Jean “Monte” Ray—she was the singing partner of Jim, Jim and Jean, a folk duo. Had a record out called “People World,” and she did a lot of dancing with finger cymbals. She was really great. Might’ve been her. Good chance. I kinda had a crush on her for a while. Moved nice. She was real musical, soulful. JM: So is she the Cinnamon Girl? Only part of the song. There’s images in there that have to do with Jean and there’s images that have to do with other people. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Southern Man
JM: Are you preaching in “Southern Man”? No. I’m warning. Warning. “Southern Man” was an angry song. I wrote “Southern Man” in my studio in Topanga. Susan was angry at me for some reason, throwing things. They were crashing against the door ’cause I was down there doin’ I don’t know what the fuck. We fought a lot. There’s some reason for it, I’m sure. It was probably my fault … everybody can relate to that. “Southern Man” was more than the South—I think the civil rights movement was sorta what that was about. The far North and the deep South are not very different. They’re extremes. Look at Robbie Robertson—an Indian from Canada who wrote a lot about the deep South. I’m sure it’s the same kinda thing. Southerners, northerners, they’re extremists. I mean, look at the people who live up in Canada. And look at the people who live in the deep South. They’re out there. I love Canada, with the hockey games and the fuckin’ spirit—everybody gets so fuckin’ into it. It’s so real. And there’s that real family thing about the South—everybody gets together and has barbecues, ya know what I mean? “Southern Man” is a strange song. I don’t sing it anymore. I don’t feel like it’s particularly relevant. It’s not “Southern Man”—it’s “White Man.” Heh heh. It’s much bigger than “Southern Man.” Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown
JM: In 2000, Young pointed out that his contribution to the song was the lines “Sure enough they’ll be sellin’ stuff when the moon begins to rise / Pretty bad when you’re dealin’ with the man and the light shines in your eyes.” "Not that it matters now, but Danny was more subtle and I was more surface," Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

For The Turnstiles
The way others recall the song’s origin reveals a Warholian quality in the way Young would snatch art from anywhere: Carrie Snodgress remembers walking around the house whistling the tune Young copped for the melody. Sandy Mazzeo recalls telling Neil that day about his infamous friend and prostitution-rights advocate Margo St. James, who had invited all of them to her Hooker’s Ball, where tickets were a then exorbitant $10. Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Motion Pictures
"We didn’t work every day, we only worked when we felt really inspired,” said Kershaw, who describes how “Motion Pictures,” a below-sea-level downer dedicated to Carrie, oozed out on the spot. “Me and Ben and Neil were sittin’ in Ben’s room. Neil started hummin’ somethin’, and I started playin’ along with the melody on the steel. Ben started playin’ bass, it sounded so goddamn pretty. Neil picked up a pen and just wrote the words right then.” The players all squeezed into the Confidential, rolled into Sunset Sound “and put that motherfucker down while it was still smeared all over us." Rusty Kershaw/Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Motion Pictures
The sick situation between Young and Snodgress would spur one of the great periods in Young’s art, beginning in May 1974 and lasting through January 1975. The songs poured out of him like blood from a wound. “Homefires,” “Bad News,” “Love Is a Rose” (a top-ten hit for Linda Ronstadt in 1975), “Barefoot Floors,” “Love/Art Blues,” “Through My Sails,” “Old Homestead,” “Hawaii.” A little later came “Star of Bethlehem,” “Separate Ways,” “Kansas.” (“Motion Pictures,” Young said, was written “before I knew—when I could sense.”) Neil Young/Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

White Line
With tracks from Nashville, the ranch and Los Angeles—plus a bittersweet song called “White Line” that Young had recorded as an acoustic duet with the Band’s Robbie Robertson in England a few days before CSNY’s Wembley show—Homegrown was shaping up to be a major work. Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
In the wee hours of the morning at Different Fur, Young and Devo collaborated musically for the only time on an ultra-twisted version of a new song called “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black).” “The first guy we ever jammed with was Neil Young,” said Mothersbaugh, a fact that is instantly apparent on listening to the cacophonous hash this bunch created—leading Briggs to dub the ensemble “Neil Young and his All-Insect Orchestra.” Sitting in a hijacked baby crib (“We had to get a crib from the woman next door,” said Johnson, “she took the baby out”) and dashing off lyrics in a shrill, tuneless yap, Booji Boy is the star of the performance. After abusing the song for over twelve very punishing minutes, Booji Boy sticks a knife into a toaster and Young gets squashed under the crib, still bashing away on guitar. “I didn’t want to sing about Johnny Rotten,” said Booji Boy’s alter ego, Mothersbaugh. “So I changed it to Johnny Spud. And I inserted a line—‘Rust never sleeps.’” The slogan—which adorned Booji Boy’s diaper that night—dated back to Devo’s graphic-arts days, when they were promoting an automobile-rust-proofing outfit. “We saw ‘Rust never sleeps’ as referring to corruption of innocence, de-evolution of the planet,” said Mothersbaugh. Neil Young would nick Booji Boy’s impromptu mumbling both to rework the new song and for the title of his next album. Young would interpret the line in his own way. “It caught my ear,” Young told Mary Turner in 1979. “I thought, ‘Wow, right off they wrote better lyrics than I did.’ I can relate to ‘Rust never sleeps.’ It relates to my career. The longer I keep going, the longer I have to fight this corrosion.” Young didn’t give rust a chance. Shortly after the Different Fur session, Joel Bernstein visited Young in his studio, where he played his guest the All-Insect Orchestra version of “Hey Hey, My My.” “It was hugely loud. Neil said, ‘I’m gonna play this for Crazy Horse, and they’re gonna learn this.’ That’s where the whole Rust trip came from.” Young disputed this memory, but Poncho agreed. “We went to play ‘Hey, Hey,’ and we weren’t hittin’ it that good. Neil showed us the film of him playin’ it with Devo. I didn’t think we could ever play it that good, but that inspired us to play harder. From then on, we played the shit outta that song.” Neil Young/Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
I wrote “Hey Hey, My My” in my house. Cowrote it with Jeff Blackburn—the line “It’s better to burn out than it is to rust”—Blackburn had that line in a song, and I said, “What did you say?” I called him up after I’d written the song and said, “Hey, I used one of the lines from your song. Want credit? Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
I wrote “Hey Hey, My My” in my house. Cowrote it with Jeff Blackburn—the line “It’s better to burn out than it is to rust”—Blackburn had that line in a song, and I said, “What did you say?” I called him up after I’d written the song and said, “Hey, I used one of the lines from your song. Want credit? Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

After The Gold Rush
“I was gonna write a movie that was personal, a Jungian self-discovery of the gnosis,” said Stockwell. “It involved the Kabala, it involved a lot of arcane stuff.” Though the After the Gold Rush script is currently missing, Shannon Forbes recalls that it involved a huge tidal wave coming to destroy Topanga. “It was sort of an end-of-the-world movie,” she said. “At the very end, the hero is standing in the Corral parking lot watching this huge wave come in and this house is surfing along, and as the house comes at him, he turns the knob—and that’s the end of the movie.” Russ Tamblyn was to play an over-the-hill rocker living in a castle; others vaguely recall some scene of George Herms carrying a huge “tree of life” through the canyon. Despite what the back cover said, Young, over twenty-five years later, could recall only two of After the Gold Rush’s cuts actually being inspired by the movie: the title cut and Cripple Creek Ferry. Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Cripple Creek Ferry
Though the After the Gold Rush script is currently missing, Shannon Forbes recalls that it involved a huge tidal wave coming to destroy Topanga. “It was sort of an end-of-the-world movie,” she said. “At the very end, the hero is standing in the Corral parking lot watching this huge wave come in and this house is surfing along, and as the house comes at him, he turns the knob—and that’s the end of the movie.” Russ Tamblyn was to play an over-the-hill rocker living in a castle; others vaguely recall some scene of George Herms carrying a huge “tree of life” through the canyon. Despite what the back cover said, Young, over twenty-five years later, could recall only two of After the Gold Rush’s cuts actually being inspired by the movie: the title cut and Cripple Creek Ferry. Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Ambulance Blues
"Ambulance Blues”—it’s out there. It’s a great take. I always feel bad I stole that melody from Bert Jansch. Fuck. You ever heard that song “The Needle of Death”? I loved that melody. I didn’t realize “Ambulance Blues” starts exactly the same. I knew that it sounded like something that he did, but when I went back and heard that record again I realized that I copped his thing … I felt really bad about that. Because here is a guy who … I’ll never play guitar as good as this guy. Never. He’s like Jimi Hendrix or something on the acoustic guitar. My biggest remembrance of “Ambulance Blues”—heh heh—I was sittin’ in the kitchen with Carrie and this friend of hers. I never tried coke before, and she was turning me on to that about that time … I’m glad she didn’t turn me on to heroin. So we were sittin’ around gettin’ high, smoked a joint, I said, “You guys wanna hear a song?” I played that song for ’em, all the way to the end. Then I looked at them. They didn’t understand it. It wasn’t their trip, anyway. AHAHAHAHAHA. So I said, “Try this one,” and I did “The Old Homestead.” I played that for ’em. Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

Mr. Soul
Caller: I was wondering why you decided to redo your "Mr. Soul" on your "Trans" album? NY: Back in about 1980 or 1981 we were thinking about getting the Springfield together, and as a joke, I made an audition tape for myself so that they'd know I was still kicking. I made Mr. Soul, but I never did play it for them. That's what I started doing. I made that tape at home with the drum machine and all that, as a sort of joke, as an audition to get in the group. But we never did get together again. Maybe I didn't do a good enough job on that one, I don't know. Neil Young Rockline Radio Interview August 18, 1986

Ambulance Blues
I'd like to do a little tune for you now that I wrote a while ago, it's called Ambulance Blues. It's kind of a long song so I hope you bear with me while I tell you all about it. It's this thing that happened to me. Sometimes I wonder about these long songs. I used to sit in coffee houses when I was younger, you know and, uh, look at all these folk singers up there, and they used to come up, and some of them would sing fast songs, ya' know, shake around a little. Then this cat would come up and sing all these down songs, you know. (audience laughter) What am I doing here, man, supposed to have a good time? So here's another bummer for ya. It's my trip, man. Neil Young The Bottom Line, New York City, New York, USA May 16, 1974

Tired Eyes
Here's another drug oriented song for you now. A song about the Navaho Trail in the United States. It's all covered by junkyards now and that's the Navaho Trail. All kinds of old cars and everything, piled up on top of one another. This is a song I wrote about - as soon as I get this thing in position I'll stop talking [adjusting his harmonica holder] - I wrote it about nine months ago. Neil Young City Hall, Newcastle, England November 9, 1973

Computer Cowboy (aka Syscrusher)
The second one is "Computer Cowboy (aka Syscrusher)" which is a guy's alias. Computer Cowboy is just a front; he has a herd of perfect cows, floodlit fields, even coyotes, But late at night he goes into the city and robs computer data banks of memory systems and leaves his alias, Syscrusher, printed over the information he’s lifted. He’s a 21st-century outlaw. That’s where the big crime is going to be. It’s going to move out of Las Vegas and into computer perforations. That’s what all the talking in the background of the song at the end is. The computers are all talking to each other, reading what’s happening; perforation, protection, security, all those words. Neil Young "Neil and Me" by Scott Young 1984

I Am A Child
Dewey the drummer came in - played drums - and we didn't even have a bass player. So, I had to hire a studio bass player. And I played rhythm guitar and then there were three instruments on the basic track. And then I overdubbed four more guitars and a harmonica and my voice. So, really that isn't much of a group you see when you get down to it. Only two people from the group played on it and the group idea wasn't there. I figured if I was going to do that, I might as well do it by myself. Since my original intention was to do a solo thing ... since I was doing it and giving the credit to other people ... and didn't particularly care for giving the credit of what other people were doing. There was no other way, Neil Young CBC Radio Interview with Robert Fulford February 1969

I've Been Waiting For You
You'd would never know ... I mean, you'd literally never know that it wasn't all done at once, And that it wasn't done by a huge orchestra. All that really was left from the original session was the drums. Because we didn't like the bass or the rhythm guitar ... that it had a good feel. And eventually we erased the bass from one track and the rhythm guitar from another track and we did them over again just playing along with the drums. And did it over again, and just built it right from the bottom up. Neil Young CBC Radio Interview with Robert Fulford February 1969

The Last Trip To Tulsa
I tried to tell a little bit of what happened to me in L.A. See, places like Tulsa ... when I think of the United States, I think of Tulsa and Memphis ... I think of the South. I always think of the Deep South. New York doesn't remind me so much of the ... you know what I mean ... the United States. You think of Dallas, you think of San Francisco, Los Angeles ... those names that are closer to the other end. And so, Tulsa really represents to me the United States - sort of - that feeling of being in the South. The song is sort of an adventure of me down there. The more you listen to it, depending on how much you've been through or what your experiences have been, you can take the verses ... you can take them any way you want. But the thing is, when I wrote them, they all had a continuity to the way I thought. So I believe that if they had a continuity the way I put them together that they'll fit with any set of images and work all the way through - they have to. If they work one way, they can't possibly miss another way. It's the law, you know ... that's the way it is. Neil Young CBC Radio Interview with Robert Fulford February 1969

The Loner
On my first album, I like The Loner. I felt like I was getting into something different there ... starting to. Neil Young KMET radio interview with B. Mitchell Reed September 1973

Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
BMR: Did you consider yourself a confident writer? NY: I didn't have any idea what I was at the time. I wrote the words in a corner. Wrote 'em all down so they looked ... I'd write twelve lines of poetry and then look at it ... I'd go, wow, what a trip that was ... Nowadays, Clancy Can't Even Sing. And then I sat down and wrote the second verse. And the third one ... so they looked the same, graphically on the paper. It was weird, just to get the shape of the paragraph. The I wrote a melody to it. You know, I don't write that anymore. I'm not nearly as analytical. Neil Young KMET radio interview with B. Mitchell Reed September 1973

Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
This song was...it's about dope. It's just about...mostly just grass. It's about what happens when you start getting high and you find out that people you thought you knew, you don't know any more, because they don't get high and you do. Your girlfriend, she doesn't understand. Your life is crazy. Neil Young The Cellar Door, Washington, D.C., USA December 2, 1970, Late Show

On The Way Home
This is a song I wrote about leaving friends. Neil Young The Riverboat, Toronto, Ontario, Canada February 8, 1969

Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
This is my dope song. Everybody's supposed to write a dope song, right? There was a time about a year ago, maybe a year and a half ago, when it became incredibly right. And everybody was to write about dope and have an underlying meaning in the song. And all the hip people knew about it and all the, whatever the others are didn't know it. And then they all smiled at each other and felt this big unity. Everybody went out and bought the records. The artist made a lot of bread. Well, this is my song like that. How disillusioning! Neil Young The Riverboat, Toronto, Ontario, Canada February 8, 1969

Sugar Mountain
This a song I wrote a long time ago and I'm ashamed at some of the lyrics in it. But nonetheless, some of the other lyrics aren't too bad, so it all balances out in the end. It's like everything else. I wrote it when I just turned twenty which seems an enormous length of time ago. And Joni Mitchell - as a matter of fact I think I was staying with Chuck and Joni Mitchell when I wrote it in Detroit. She wrote a song about this song and her song was called The Circle Game. And Tom Rush learned The Circle Game from Joni. Tom Rush once played golf with my brother. Which is how I met my brother. Neil Young The Riverboat, Toronto, Ontario, Canada February 7, 1969

A Man Needs A Maid
It was just, you know, me and the London Symphony. I sat down and played the piano, had a little trouble getting the rhythm together at first, but the song ... Jack Nitzsche was there and he helped me. We did it five or six times and got it. Neil Young Greater London Radio interview with David Hepworth November 1, 1992

Throw Your Hatred Down
DM: But one of the clearest and most direct statements on the record is the next thing we're going to hear which is Throw You Hatred Down, which I understand was originally called Throw Your Weapons down. NY: Yeah, I sometimes mess around with titles for a while and i couldn't figure out which one to use, so I thought I'd just wait until I sang it and see which one I sang first. Because when you're playing, some words work better than others and it's never done and until it's over, you know, it's never finished. And even then, it's not finished because I keep changing it after that anyway. DM: Yeah, well, Throw Your Hatred Down talks about people being divided by their dreams and I think that goes back to the kind of 60s versus 90s versus 70s and 80s or the 60s and the 90s versus the 70s, you know, connecting up to the 70s and 80s sensibility. Am I right about that? NY: Well, I was thinking about the kids in the schoolyard who are fighting - like just the different ways to go and they're started right there. Just how ... where does it start ... where do we start the conflict? You know, where does it begin? It must begin at birth or something, because conflict is always there. It seems part of our nature, as sad as it sounds. I mean it must just be there ... and I just, you know ... was drifting around in my head trying ... I just had all these images of this ... conflict and people planning ways to overcome evil and evil planning ways to encroach on good. Neil Young Mirror Ball world premier with Dave Marsh August 1995

Human Highway
I'd like to do a song that's going to be on a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album in January - maybe February. Neil Young Empire Theatre, Liverpool, England November 6, 1973

Sedan Delivery
This version was inspired by DEVO in attitude, moving a lot faster than the original earliest recording of ‘Sedan Delivery’, a ‘Zuma’ out-take, soon coming to the archives. Sedan Delivery is one of my favorite ‘Crazy Horse’ songs of all time. “It sure was hard to find." Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater April 10, 2019

A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop
When I was doing ‘The Monsanto Years’ with Promise of the Real, we were watching Vermont, where Starbucks had voted through the Grocery Manufacturers Association to take away Vermont voters’ rights to know which foods had GMOs in them. The people of Vermont had voted for GMO labeling and Starbucks had helped to overturn the vote through strong arm politics and the GMA. To me, Starbucks was overturning the people’s will in this case. Obviously, Starbucks was using GMO coffee and did not want their valued customers to know what they were drinking everyday. This offended me. I have not been back to Starbucks since that day. When they start labeling their GMO coffee as such, I will visit their outlets again, looking for organic coffee, the safest coffee to drink every day. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater April 10, 2019

Born In Ontario
I wrote this song after returning to Canada for my Dad’s funeral with my Canadian family. Canada gave me a great start in life and we get back there often to visit the lakes in North Ontario. I am proud to be Canadian. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater April 12, 2019

God Save The Queen
There was no plan with that song. I woke up one morning, I was singing - in my mind, I was hearing God Save The Queen. And I'm going, "How about that." When I was a kid and I went to school in Canada, I used to sing it every morning. So I figured, "Well, OK, I’m programmed - singing this song in my head while walking around. Well, I could do that! The Horse - we could play that!" So we tried to play it and it was awful! We couldn’t play it, we had to figure out what tempo it was in and figure out an actual arrangement. I think we had to do like six takes to get it right and then I added the choir to it. Because I could hear what I wanted as we were doing it. Neil Young BBC Radio 4 Front Row interview with John Wilson 2012

I'm The Ocean
DM: I'm The Ocean has this rather different perspective in the lyrics. I was trying to figure ... I was saying first ... well the guy ... we're hearing this from someone beyond the grave and I decided it was someone dreaming about they're dead. NY: Well, you know, someone else tried, someone showed me a video plan that they had for this song and it had the same kind of thing you're talking about. But you know, the song doesn't mean that much - it doesn't mean that to me. Maybe it's kind of like a bunch of flashes of things going on all at the same time or something. So you get kind of the feeling that your life is flashing before you. So that makes you think you're floating up on the ceiling somewhere watching. But I think - I wasn't thinking about that. I just got caught up in this thing where everything just kept happening and all I could do was write it down. But it wasn't going backwards - it was going forwards. So, finally, I tried to not think about what I was writing as you ... I just tried to keep going and now I listen to it ... it's different every time. Neil Young Mirror Ball world premier with Dave Marsh August 1995

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
Some friends of mine from Akron, Ohio used to be in an advertising company and they had a client that was a rust inhibitor. They came up with the slogan 'rust never sleeps'. I was talking to them and we were playing, they're musicians, and we were playing and we had this song and I sang Rust Never Sleeps or Hey Hey My My or Out Of The Blue or whatever you want to call it. We sang that and I said not to worry about the lyrics. If you can't remember the lyrics I wrote just make up your own lyrics. So the first thing he said was instead of 'it's is better to burn out than it is to rust' he said 'it's better to burn out 'cause rust never sleeps'. And it caught my ear and I thought 'wow'. Right off they wrote better lyrics than I did. It makes more sense to me, I can relate to Rust Never Sleeps. It relates to my career. The longer I keep on going the longer I have to fight this corrosion. Now that's gotten to be the World Series for me or something. The competition is there. Whether I corrode and eventually not be able to move anymore and just repeat myself until further notice or whether I'll be able to expand and keep the corrosion down. So that's it. Another lyric that changed was... there's a lyric 'the king is gone but he's not forgotten. This is the story of Johnny Rotten'. And then they changed it to 'the king is gone but he's not a dud. This is story of Johnny Spud'. That's Devo. Neil Young "Los Angeles" interview, transcribed by Tom Therme Broken Arrow #58 1979

My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
Some friends of mine from Akron, Ohio used to be in an advertising company and they had a client that was a rust inhibitor. They came up with the slogan 'rust never sleeps'. I was talking to them and we were playing, they're musicians, and we were playing and we had this song and I sang Rust Never Sleeps or Hey Hey My My or Out Of The Blue or whatever you want to call it. We sang that and I said not to worry about the lyrics. If you can't remember the lyrics I wrote just make up your own lyrics. So the first thing he said was instead of 'it's is better to burn out than it is to rust' he said 'it's better to burn out 'cause rust never sleeps'. And it caught my ear and I thought 'wow'. Right off they wrote better lyrics than I did. It makes more sense to me, I can relate to Rust Never Sleeps. It relates to my career. The longer I keep on going the longer I have to fight this corrosion. Now that's gotten to be the World Series for me or something. The competition is there. Whether I corrode and eventually not be able to move anymore and just repeat myself until further notice or whether I'll be able to expand and keep the corrosion down. So that's it. Another lyric that changed was... there's a lyric 'the king is gone but he's not forgotten. This is the story of Johnny Rotten'. And then they changed it to 'the king is gone but he's not a dud. This is story of Johnny Spud'. That's Devo. Neil Young "Los Angeles" interview, transcribed by Tom Therme Broken Arrow #58 1979

Mr. Soul
The best take of it and the best mix of it and the best version of it is somewhere in the Atlantic vault. The one we're listening to here, is one where we got away from it, and we kept overdubbing and overdubbed guitar parts and added things over top of the original stuff and lost some of the original stuff. We took it too far. We didn't have anybody to tell us to go home or that had experience to tell us what to do. We lost a lot of the great stuff that we had on tape in the first place, or we never got a lot of it on tape at all. Neil Young The Fresh Air Interview with Terry Gross 1992

Hippie Dream
DJ: The line in the last song, "Hippie Dream", "The wooden ships were just a hippie dream", did you have David in mind at all? NY: Yeah, I had him in mind. I had him in mind for about five years and I kept writing different things. Then one night I wrote that. I called him up and said, "I wrote this song. You're probably going to hear it. All you have to do is prove that I didn't know what I was talking about. And I'd be a happy guy if you could do that." Neil Young Rockline Radio Interview August 18, 1986

If You Got Love
Caller: Why was "If You Got Love" omitted from "Trans"? NY: It was too wimpy! Yeah, I didn't like it. One of those occasions where I changed my mind at the last minute. The record company loves me for that kind of thing. Neil Young Rockline Radio Interview October 23, 1983

T-Bone
Caller: I was listening to "re-act-or" an wondering if "T-Bone" has any old flashbacks like T-Bone Walker? NY: No, it doesen't. As a matter of fact, the night we recorded that we didn't have anything else happening in particuLar. We were just in the studio and we had already recorded the song that we thought we were gonna be recording and we really felt Like playing. So I just went in, picked up my guitar and started playing. If you notice, the song starts with a straight cut right through the middle. We'd already started playing before the machine started. So that was a one-shot deal. I just made up the lyrics and we did the whole thing that night. It was a one-take thing. It seems like the lyrics were just on my mind. It's very repetitive but I'm not such an inventive guy. I thought those two lines were good. Every time it sounded a little different to me when I started singing. Then I was thinking about something else. I really like that cut better than the rest on "re-ac-tor". Neil Young Rockline Radio Interview November 23, 1981

I Am A Child
The group was falling apart by this time. We all worked separately in studios. Dewey on drums. The Sunset Sound receptionists boyfriend on bass. The rest is me. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977 [note: Per John Einarson - "Gary Marker was not 'the boyfriend of the receptionist at Sunset Sound' but a seasoned studio musician and husband to the woman in question who soon went on to work in the Springfield’s office.” ]

Falcon Lake (Ash On The Floor)
"Falcon Lake was an instrumental,” he recalls. “It was a memory of that time at Falcon Lake. It had Stephen Stills and I and Buddy Miles on drums, but we never finished it. I later used the melody from it for Here We Are In The Years on my first solo album.” Neil Young For What It's Worth: The Story of Buffalo Springfield/John Einarson and Richie Furay 1997

We R In Control
If you listen to Trans, if you listen to the words to “Transformer Man” and “Computer Age” and “We R in Control,” you’ll hear a lot of references to my son and to people trying to live a life by pressing buttons, trying to control the things around them, and talking with people who can’t talk, using computer voices and things like that. Neil Young Rolling Stone Interview with James Henke June 12, 1988

Computer Age
If you listen to Trans, if you listen to the words to “Transformer Man” and “Computer Age” and “We R in Control,” you’ll hear a lot of references to my son and to people trying to live a life by pressing buttons, trying to control the things around them, and talking with people who can’t talk, using computer voices and things like that. Neil Young Rolling Stone Interview with James Henke June 12, 1988

Transformer Man
If you listen to Trans, if you listen to the words to “Transformer Man” and “Computer Age” and “We R in Control,” you’ll hear a lot of references to my son and to people trying to live a life by pressing buttons, trying to control the things around them, and talking with people who can’t talk, using computer voices and things like that. Neil Young Rolling Stone Interview with James Henke June 12, 1988

The Needle And The Damage Done
JH: “The Needle and the Damage Done,” from Harvest, was one of the first anti-drug songs. NY: I wrote that about Danny Whitten. He’d gotten so wasted, so strung out, that he OD’d and almost died. JH: He finally did OD and die shortly after Harvest was released. Had he known the song was about him? NY: He must have. I never sat down with him and said, “Danny, listen to this.” I don’t believe that a song should be for one person. I just tried to make something that everyone could relate to. Neil Young Rolling Stone Interview with James Henke June 12, 1988

Hippie Dream
[Hippie Dream] - I wrote that one for Crosby. But I guess it could have been for me, or for anybody. It’s really about the excesses of our whole generation. From hippie to yuppie – I mean, it’s been quite an evolution. Neil Young Rolling Stone Interview with James Henke June 12, 1988

Sunny Inside
On This Note's For You there's only one old song - which is Sunny Inside, which is from 1982. Neil Young Neil Young: The Raw & Uncut Interview 1988

Alabama
If you're lucky and very quiet, you're going to hear a brand new Neil Young song. It just so happens that we finished doing it this afternoon. They have to work out the changes - it's really loose. If we get it, it'll be lucky. But it's worth trying. David Crosby Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York, USA October 4, 1971

Don't Let It Bring You Down
Here is a new song. It's guaranteed to bring you right down. It's called Don't Let It Bring You Down. It sort of starts off real slow and then it fizzles out all together. Neil Young 4 Way Street Auditorium Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA July 5, 1970

Here For You
TG: This is a song that was written for you daughter. It's called I'm Here For You. Would you talk about writing this one? NY: This is like the second to last song that I did before going back to New York. It's a song about my daughter - she's twenty-one, and she's moving on. She's in college, she's graduating, and I'm really proud of her and how well she's doing. She an artist. Of course, I miss her all the time, but I really don't want to intrude. So I was just trying to communicate to her that she had a place to go, but it wasn't a place she had to go. If she needed me that I was there - that myself and her mother would be there for her if she ever needed us. And that she was free to go and free to stay. And that we were behind her all the way. So, it's just that kind of a song - a kind of a letting go without letting go kind of ... Neil Young "Neil Young And Jonathan Demme On The Pain And Power Of 'Heart Of Gold" Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross February 9, 2006

Falling Off The Face Of The Earth
TG: I want to play the song Falling Of the Face Of The Earth. You mention this as one of the songs you wrote right before the procedure. It's just such a beautiful song. It's about, like, an older person's love. Not, like, new romantic, I've just fallen in love, love. But the kind of love that you have with somebody that you've been with for a very long time. It's a very beautiful song. Would you say a little bit about writing this song, Neil Young? NY: Writing Falling Of the Face Of The Earth is really a case of ... I had a melody that I was writing, that'd just come up with that night. And then I was going to bed and I couldn't come up with the lyrics. But I had a melody and chord changes. So I thought, well, you know, I'll just go to sleep, and I'll wake up in the morning and start playing the changes and the words will be there. So, I checked my voice-mail and I had a message from Jim Jarmusch, who did my film Year Of The Horse - an earlier concert film of Crazy Horse, which is almost the polar opposite of this film in some ways, because of the musical content. Jim and I are good friends and he left a voice-mail ... it seemed ... I'm not sure he knew I had this aneurysm or if he didn't ... I think he did ... but he was just thinking about me and so he left me a message. And some of the phrases that are in the message ... I played it again and I wrote down some of the phrases that he used. And in the morning I had the song all done because some of the phrases that he used in the voice-mail were in the ... I just used them out of context in this song and kind of opened up the door for everything else ... so, the chorus and everything all just fell out. Once you get started ... TG: Did he say something about he's Falling Of the Face Of The Earth? NY: No, he said, "I just want to thank you for all the things you've done. We've done some special things together." It may sound simple, things like that. Little phrases that are in the song. Neil Young "Neil Young And Jonathan Demme On The Pain And Power Of 'Heart Of Gold" Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross February 9, 2006

Farmer John
We were doing a song, a cover song ... we played a song by The Premiers called Farmer John. There were some other musicians around and one of them was a really, really good guitar player and he really could just bend the strings on his Telecaster. And he really just made the thing sing. I thought he was, like, fantastic. He had to be like twenty-one or something and I was like seventeen. And I did something on my guitar where we started playing this song and we got into the instrumental and I just basically went nuts. And I think that was the first time that ever happened. And I just kept playing and I just kept going and going and grinding and just pounding away at this rhythmic thing and exploring little nuances of it. I don't know how many minutes - it went on and on. And then when we came offstage, the guy walked up to me and he says, "Where the hell did you learn how to do that? What are you doing?" And I said, "What do you mean - what am I doing? It's the same thing I've been doing." And he said, "Oh no no. No, I don't know what you're doing." And he knew, like, two hundred thousand more chords than I did and all the scales and everything. And he just said, "I just don't know what you're doing. What did you do?" And at that point I realized, well, there's a place I can go. And I just kind of fell into it by accident. And I think I've spent the rest of my life trying to get there. Neil Young The Fresh Air Interview with Terry Gross March 25, 2004

Love And War
The song says, 'When I sing about love and war / I don't really know what I'm saying.' And I think that sums it up. Because they're very deep subjects. You can't possibly know what it means to somebody else. War to one person may mean a justified thing that's happening for a very good reason, and another person may think that's a terrible thing and never should have happened. And another person will be thinking that he lost his sister or his brother or his mother in the war and it was a waste of time. And another person could be thinking the exact opposite: that his brother went to war and gave his life for our country. So you can't really have an opinion, although I have opinions and I've had them and I've made very loud statements about things. But that's the way I felt at the time. When I did the Living With War album, I was very outspoken about the anger I felt about certain things that were happening at that time in history. But again, I was no more right than the people who believed in it because it was such a big thing — how can you know? How can you know all of the reasons and everything that's happening? I just don't enjoy war. I'm not like a fan of war. And love can be very damaging, and it can be very good. So you just don't know where to go with these things. So I wrote about that — the quandary of not knowing what to do with any of those things. It's kind of a useless point of view. Neil Young The Fresh Air Interview with Terry Gross June 6, 2012

Tonight's The Night
[Tonight's The Night mid-song rap] And one day Bruce was picking up the guitars for the band. That's what Bruce did. He carried around the instruments and made sure that everything was working good. And one day he showed up in a station wagon and walked up to my friend David and he says, "I lost your guitar, man. I lost your guitar, man. I left it in the station wagon, but it ... when I came back it was gone. When I came back it was gone. I don't know what happened." There wasn't too much work for Bruce. One day he came looking for work and he says, "I'd like a job, I'd like a job. I'm ready to work for you guys. You got everything together, man? I'd like to take care of your guitars for you." So we looked at him and we said, "I'm sorry man. Can't do it. I mean, you lost David's guitar and you don't know what happened to the guitar ... it was gone. You lost his guitar, man. I mean, it's his axe. That was it. You lost it." "You took that guitar - you put it in your arm!" Neil Young Empire Theatre, Liverpool, England November 6, 1973

Tonight's The Night
[Tonight's The Night mid-song rap] Bruce Berry was a working man. He used to load guitars. He used to load that Econoline van. He used to put the strings on my guitars. Every night when the hall was clean. We'd arrive at the hall. Bruce Berry was a working man. He used to tune guitars and have them waiting for me there. Pick up my guitar [unintelligible]. Thank you Bruce. Man, that's not bad. My guitar's well in tune. My guitar's in tune, Bruce. That's good. I'm ready for those people now, man. It was tuned already. Days were good, you know, days were good. Traveling alone. All around the United States. We'd travel from town to town [unintelligible] James Brown and the Famous Flames. Travelin' around from town to town [unintelligible]. Make sure the guitar is all right. Because I want to play tonight, so make sure my guitar's all right, will you Bruce? Tune it up, will you? [unintelligible] Just tune it, Bruce. Tune my guitar right up [unintelligible]. You know, the times are changing. Time for us to get on the road. We've been together too long, man. Bruce, you want to go get a job for a little while, man. Maybe a couple years. We'll be together. We will, man! We'll be all right. I don't know, man. Why don't you work for, uh, work for Stephen, man. Have a good time. Have a good time. So you know that time passes, and it's a couple years, and everything is in the past. Bruce is [unintelligible]. What happened Bruce ... what happened to ... what happened to my guitar, man? I know you put it in the station wagon. My guitar, man, where's my guitar, Bruce? You never lost my guitar before, man. Why'd you have to ...? You lost it, man! You lost my axe, man. I'm a musician first, a [unintelligible] second. [unintelligible] my axe and now it's gone. Stripped naked, naked, nak-ed. [unintelligible]. What happened to it, man? Bruce, where's my guitar, man? It's time man and I'm waiting. I'm waiting for it. I'm waiting, man. Where is it, man? Nooo ... no ... no ... no ... no ... no ... noo ... noooo ... noooo ... noo! What do you mean, man? Did you put it in your arm, man? [unintelligible] pawnshop. Bruce Berry was a working man. He used to load that Econoline van. He used to load that Econoline van. Just about the .. Just about the break of day And sleep until the afternoon Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, [unintelligible] Bruce Berry was a working man. He used to load that Econoline van. Sparkle was in his eye. But his life was in hand And late at night he used to pick up my guitar Neil Young Auditorium Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA November 20, 1973

Transformer Man
Trans was about all these robot-humanoid people working in this hospital and the one thing they were trying to do was teach this little baby to push a button. That's what the record's about. Read the lyrics, listen to all the mechanical voices, disregard everything but that computerized thing, and it's clear Trans is the beginning of my search for communication with a severely handicapped nonoral person. 'Transformer man' is a song for my kid. If you read the words to that song - and look at my child with his little button and his train set and his transformer - the whole thing is for Ben. People completely misunderstood Trans. They put me down for fuckin' around with things I shouldn't have been involved with. Well, fuck them. But it hurt, because this was for my kid. Neil Young The Village Voice/Jimmy McDonough December 1989

Sugar Mountain
BMR: See (Joni) told me one time, or I don't know if was part of a riff I heard her do live when she was doing the Circle Game, that she wrote it for you. Is that true? NY: Yeah, she wrote it for me. She heard Sugar Mountain ... a long time ago I wrote Sugar Mountain around the time when I first met Chuck and Joni. Chuck was her old man at the time and they were doing an act together in folk houses. I was writing that song at that time and she really liked it. So she wrote a sequel to it, which was The Circle Game. NY: If you listen to those two tunes back to back ... Out at The Corral, you should have been at The Corral - Joni and I sang Sugar Mountain with an electric band. Joni's into electric guitar now, which is kind of far out. Nobody's heard it yet, but she's been jamming with our band and with Graham's band. She's getting really funky - I think it's going to surprise a lot of people. BMR: She started getting funky on this last album of hers. NY: Sweet Fire and those things. That's clean compared to what she's into now. Neil Young KMET radio interview with B. Mitchell Reed September 1973

Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
Many people, I know, tell me they can't understand "Clancy." They can't figure out all the symbols and stuff. Well, I don"t think it's possible at all for them to know who he really is. For listeners, Clancy is just an image, a guy who gets come down on all the time. He was a strange cat, beautiful. Kids in school called him a "weirdo," cause he would whistle and sing "Valerie, Valera" in the halls. After a while, he got so self-conscious he couldn't do his thing anymore. When someone as beautiful as that and as different as that is actually killed by his fellow men—you know what I mean—like taken and sorta chopped down—all the other things are nothing compared to this. In the song I'm just trying to communicated a feeling. Like the main part of "Clancy" is about my hang-ups with an old girlfriend in Winnipeg. Now I don't really want people to know my whole scene with that girl and another guy in Winnipeg. Thanks not important, that just a story. You can read a story in Time magazine. I want them, to get a feeling like when you see something bad go down-when see a mother hit a kid for doing nothing. Or a frustration you see a girl at an airport watching her husband leave to go to war. Neil Young Los Angeles Times/Jeffrey C. Alexander September 17, 1967

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
When we put that out, we put it out as a single. The radio stations called back saying there was something wrong with it. They said it's distorted. We have to have another - give us another one. We really like the song, but it's so distorted. We just told them, "That's it. That what it is. It's distorted. The message is distorted." Neil Young Don't Be Denied documentary, BBC October, 2008

Helpless
I found myself listening to this today. Stills on piano during the tracking with my live lead vocal, then again on guitars as overdubs on the track. Nash’s singing is beautiful to me, all the way through the oohs and then Crosby’s part under ‘Blue Blue windows’. They are exceptionally poignant to me now. I noticed in the mix that the chorus comes in pretty loud the first time, maybe disturbing the reflection in the water. Soon that is gone and the voices find a place. The reflection returns. Greg Reeves on bass. Dallas Taylor on Drums. In the groove. Bill Halverson at the board. Neil Young NYA Times-Contrarian June 2, 2018

Down To The Wire
I recorded this at Gold Star Recording Studios with Steve Stills in early '67 after first Springfield recording. Jesse Hill on drums. Bobby West on bass, Mac Rebenack (later known as the "Dr John the night Tripper" on piano. It has multi guitar overdubs by Stills & I. Background voices all by Stills. Steven And I put our hearts into this one. From the unreleased "Stampede" album. Neil Young Decade liner notes October 28, 1977

Burned
My first vocal ever done in a studio late 1966 (Gold Star). The boys gave me some uppers to get my nerve up. Maybe you can hear that. I was living in a $12.50 per week apartment at the time and everybody on the floor liked it too. We stayed up all night listening to it. Neil Young Decade October 28, 1977

Mr. Soul
Recorded by the original Springfield in atlantic's new york studio after a gig at "Ondene's". Shortly after this Bruce Palmer, bassist, was busted & deported to Canada. Eventually we got him back to U.S. but made many records without him. Broke Stills' heart and mine too that he wasn't on all our records. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Broken Arrow
I wrote this after quitting the group in '67 due to one of many identity crisis'. Joined up again soon enough to cut this one through. Took over 100 takes to get it. Had a lot of help from our engineer, Jim Messina. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Expecting To Fly
This record was made by Jack Nitzsche and I. It took a lot of time. I overdubbed my vocal line by line to get it in pitch. Studio singing was still very nervous for me then. Though I was not with the Springfield at the time, I brought this tape to the record when we finally got together Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Sugar Mountain
Wrote this on birthday 19 somewhere in Canada. Recorded on a home Sony at "Canterbury house" in Ann Arbor, Michigan during my first tour after Springfield breaking (up). Gotta send this one back to Chuck Roberts of the "Dirty Shames". Joni heard this song and wrote Circle Game. Oh to live on Sugar Mountain. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

The Loner
Jim Messina on bass. George Grantham on drums. I overdubbed the rest except the strings. Was living on David Briggs' couch at the time in Topanga Canyon. It was our first record together. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

The Old Laughing Lady
Jack Nitzsche & I did this one together. Gracie Nitzsche and the girls can be heard singing. It was a first take overdub vocal for me. Singing in the studio was starting to get easier. It was at this time that Jack told me everything was temporary. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Cinnamon Girl
Wrote this for a city girl on peeling pavement coming at me thru Phil Ochs eyes playing finger cymbals. It was hard to explain to my wife. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Down By The River
Wrote this the same day as "Cowgirl In The Sand". Lying in bed sweating with scraps of paper covering the bed. On the cuts made during this time, Crazy Horse had only been together for two weeks. This was the last album I overdubbed lead vocals on. I remember Crazy Horse like Roy Orbison remembers "Leah" and "Blue Bayou". Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

I Believe In You
I think this gets to the heart of the matter and as Danny Whitten once said, "I don't want to talk about it." Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

After The Gold Rush
I had toured once already with CSNY. I recorded this in my Topanga Studio. I put the wood on the walls myself and loved that feeling. My house was on a steep hill overlooking the canyon. The French horn player ran out of breath on my steep driveway. Thanks to Dean Stockwell for inspiring this song for his movie "After The Gold Rush". It was his title. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Southern Man
This song could have been written on a civil rights march after stopping off to watch "Gone With The Wind" at a local theatre. But I wasn't there so I don't know for sure. Actually I think I wrote it in the Fillmore East dressing room in 1970. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Helpless
Wrote this in New York, 1970. I'd like to send it out to Tim Hardin. Recorded in San Francisco about 4 A.M. when everbody got tired enough to play at my speed. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Ohio
It's still hard to believe I had to write this song. It's ironic that I capitalized on the death of these American students. Probably the biggest lesson ever learned at an American place of learning. My best CSNY cut. Recorded totally live in Los Angeles. David Crosby cried after this take. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Soldier
Recorded for my first film "Journey thru the past" in a sawdust burner at a northern California sawmill to the accompaniment of a roaring fire. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Old Man
I wrote this for the caretaker of my ranch after I purchased it in 1970. Special thanks to James Taylor for his banjo playing. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

A Man Needs A Maid
I recorded this with the London Symphony Orchestra. Some people thought this arrangement was overdone but Bob Dylan told me it was one of his favorites. I listened closer to Bob. Robin Hood loved a maid long before women's liberation. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Harvest
Written in London in 1971 and cut in Nashville that year. My favorite record from Nashville. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Heart Of Gold
This song put me put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Star Of Bethlehem
I cut this in Nashville where I cut "Harvest", but much later in late '74. It is from the unreleased album "Homegrown", sort of a sequel to Harvest. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

The Needle And The Damage Done
I am not a preacher but drugs killed a lot of great men. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Tonight's The Night
I think this is one of my strongest and longest lasting albums. It covers my obsession with the ups and downs of the drug culture. Coincidentally it was my least commercially successful record ever made. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Tired Eyes
A bleary view of a drug murder in a Los Angeles canyon. Out of pitch but still in tune. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Walk On
My over defensive reaction to criticisms of "Tonight's The Night" and the seemingly endless flow of money coming from you people out there. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

For The Turnstiles
If statues could speak and Casey was still at bat, some promoter somewhere would be making deals with ticketron right now. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Winterlong
I wrote this in 1969. It was recorded the same day as "Walk On" at the ranch. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Deep Forbidden Lake
Another song from "Homegrown". I cut this the same time as "Star Of Bethlehem." It hopefully signified the end of a long dark period which started with Time Fades Away. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Like A Hurricane
Recorded during the rehearsals for The Northern California Coastal Bar Tour of 1975 with Crazy Horse. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Love Is A Rose
Written in a car on my way to Hana, Maui from the airport. Recorded at the ranch during rehearsals for the CSNY '74 reunion tour. Later done up well by Linda Ronstadt, a soulful girl with big brown eyes. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Cortez The Killer
Recorded with Crazy Horse in "ZUMA" 1975. Banned in Spain. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Campaigner
Written during the "Stills-Young" tour on the bus. Sort of a modern day Cortez, you know. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Long May You Run
A song written for my first car and my last lady. As Dylan says, "Now that the past is gone" Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

Will To Love
"Will to Love" was written in one night, in one sitting, in front of the fireplace. I was all alone in my house and I was really high on a bunch of things. This was a long time ago. I really don't abuse myself like I used to. I don't think I'd still be here if I did. But I was really out there and I wrote the whole thing and put it together. None of the verses are exactly the same length. They're all a little different. I made it through once on the tape. And then I went to record with Crosby, Stills and Nash in Florida after that. I took the cassette along and said, "Listen to this song I wrote." I played it for David and he loved it. He said, "Wow, that's great just the way it is." We tried to learn it but could never get it as a band song. I couldn't sing it. I couldn't sing past the second verse without forgetting what I was doing, losing it totally, and getting all pissed off because it didn't sound right. I couldn't get through it. I never have sung it except for that one time. That's what I used for the record. A Sony cassette machine which I transferred to twenty-four-track and then I played it back through my Magnetone stereo reverb amp. I bought two tracks of the cassette up on a couple of faders with the stereo vibrato in it, then I mixed them in with the original cassette for that sound of the fish. I overdubbed all of the instruments on it and mixed it in the same night. Up in a place called Indigo Ranch. It was on a full moon. What a night it was, man, unbelievable. I ordered all of the instruments from Studio Instrument Rentals, the drums, the bass, the amps, the vibes, all the percussion stuff. We had them set it up like a live date. I made the transfer of the cassette onto the sixteen-track and then I started overdubbing all the parts. They thought it was going to be a live session! They were all set up and ready to go. I just walked from one instrument to another and did them all, mostly in the first take. And then mixed it at the end of the night. It took us about eight hours to finish the whole thing and make it sound like it does now. I think it might be one of the best records I've ever made. I think as a piece of music, and sound and lyric and spirit, it's one of the best. And that's why it's important for me as an artist to able to record a song when I want to. I will never stand for anybody trying to take that away from me. Neil Young Interview with Bill Flanagan 1986

Old Ways
I wrote that one on a little word processor in the back of my bus while I was rolling. I wrote it with a couple of beers and a little smoke. The bus was rolling down the road and I typed it out and I knew the melody in my head already. That's my favorite one on the Old Ways album. Neil Young Interview with Bill Flanagan 1986

Pardon My Heart
[talking about Joni Mitchell] She writes about her relationships so much more vividly than I do. I use...I guess I put more of a veil over what I'm talking about. I've written a few songs that were as stark as hers. Songs like "Pardon My Heart," "Home Fires," "Love Art Blues"...almost all of Homegrown. I've never released any of those. And I probably never will. I think I'd be too embarrassed to put them out. They're a little too real. Neil Young Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe August 14, 1975

Homefires
[talking about Joni Mitchell] She writes about her relationships so much more vividly than I do. I use...I guess I put more of a veil over what I'm talking about. I've written a few songs that were as stark as hers. Songs like "Pardon My Heart," "Home Fires," "Love Art Blues"...almost all of Homegrown. I've never released any of those. And I probably never will. I think I'd be too embarrassed to put them out. They're a little too real. Neil Young Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe August 14, 1975

Love/Art Blues
[talking about Joni Mitchell] She writes about her relationships so much more vividly than I do. I use...I guess I put more of a veil over what I'm talking about. I've written a few songs that were as stark as hers. Songs like "Pardon My Heart," "Home Fires," "Love Art Blues"...almost all of Homegrown. I've never released any of those. And I probably never will. I think I'd be too embarrassed to put them out. They're a little too real. Neil Young Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe August 14, 1975

Down To The Wire
CC: Last Springfield question. Are there, in fact, several albums of unreleased material? I've got all of that. I've got those tapes. CC: Why have you sat on them for so long? What are you waiting for? I'll wait until I hear from some of the other guys. See if anybody else has any tapes. I don't know if Richie or Dicky Davis [Springfield road manager] has anything. I've got good stuff. Great songs. "My Kind of Love," "My Angel," "Down to the Wire," "Baby Don't Scold Me." We'll see what happens. Neil Young Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe August 14, 1975

Pocahontas
CC: Have you got a name for the new album? I think I'll call it My Old Neighborhood. Either that or Ride My Llama. It's weird, I've got all these songs about Peru, the Aztecs and the Incas. Time travel stuff. We've got one song called "Marlon Brando, John Ehrlichman, Pocahontas and Me," I'm playing a lot of electric guitar and that's what I like best. Two guitars, bass and drums. And it's realy flying off the ground too. Fucking unbelievable. I've got a bet with Elliot that it'll be out before the end of September. After that we'll probably go out on a fall tour of 3000 seaters. Me and Crazy Horse again. I couldn't be happier. That, combined with the bachelor life...I feel magnificent. Now is the first time I can remember coming out of a relationship, definitely not wanting to get into another one. I'm just not looking. I'm so happy with the space I'm in right now. It's like spring. [laughs] I'll sell you two bottles of it for $1.50. Neil Young Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe August 14, 1975

Campaigner
One afternoon during a tour several years ago, Young sat in his manager's hotel room. The phone kept ringing, tour crew members bustled in an out . . . and through it all, Young sat on the bed with his son Zeke, peacefully watching the news. The broadcast was interrupted by an emergency bulletin. Pat Nixon had suffered a stroke, an announcer said over a filmed report of the sad and beaten Richard Nixon tearily moving through the hospital's revolving doors. After a time, Young got up and disappeared into his bus in the parking lot. Onstage several hours later, Young played the song he had written: Hospitals have made him cry But there's always a freeway in his eye Though his beach got too crowded for a stroll. Roads stretch out like healthy veins And wild gift horses strain the reins Where even Richard Nixon has got soul. The song was a first called "Requiem for a President." Young later changed the name to "Campaigner," and placed it on his three-record retrospective album, Decade. "Guess I felt sorry for [Nixon] that night," he said of the song while traveling on his bus the next year, just as 300,000 copies of Decade were being prepared for release within the week. "That album was a chance to use some of the unreleased material. Hopefully it's a greatest-hits album that's more like an album." Young laughed. "Should be timeless." Neil Young/Cameron Crowe Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe February 8, 1979

I've Been Waiting For You
EB: Except for one song, which is great: "I've Been Waiting For You." Yeah, yeah, that's the only one that sounds like it got off, but you know all those things were played at different days, every instrument. On that cut, isn't it incredible... you see that's how it can work, every once in a while. Because when I put on the lead guitar I was really into it that day, you know, and all the moods I was in at all the times that I put those things on. See, what I do is... in the beginning, we put down acoustic guitar and bass and drums, that's the smallest track that I ever did, one guitar, bass and drums... and then the acoustic guitar had a bad sound and the bass wasn't playin' the right notes and was a little out of tune, so we did both of these over again; so then we have only one original thing that I'd done before and Jimmy Messina, who played the bass on it, played the bass part over, and then he made up a different bass part so we took off the first one completely and played a whole new one... and then we dropped the acoustic guitar, 'cause it didn't fit with the other things that I put on... so then there was nothing left except for the drums. The pipe organ was put on.... Part of these things were done in different cities.... Neil Young Rolling Stone/Elliot Blinder April 20, 1970

Cinnamon Girl
I'm trying to make records of the quality of the records that were made in the late Fifties and the Sixties, like Everly Brothers records and Roy Orbison records and things like that. They were all done with a sort of quality to them. They were done at once. They were done in Nashville.... It doesn't matter where you do it. Nashville, it happened to be done there. Could be done anywhere. It's just a quality about them, the singer is into the song and the musicians were playing with the singer and it was an entity, you know. It was something special that used to hit me all the time, that all these people were thinking the same thing, and they're all playing at the same time. EB: Like the early Beatles. Yeah, yeah, right. That's what I'm tryin' to get. That's what I want to get, on this next album. I started approaching getting it on the last album, on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. It happens on a few cuts, you can hear it. It's there all the time.... EB: Which cuts would you say? Uh, I think "Cinnamon Girl," uh, "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere," and, uh, "Round And Round" has that feeling of togetherness, although it was just Danny [Whitten] and me and Robin Lane. Neil Young Rolling Stone by Elliot Blinder April 20, 1970

Round And Round (It Won't Be Long)
I'm trying to make records of the quality of the records that were made in the late Fifties and the Sixties, like Everly Brothers records and Roy Orbison records and things like that. They were all done with a sort of quality to them. They were done at once. They were done in Nashville.... It doesn't matter where you do it. Nashville, it happened to be done there. Could be done anywhere. It's just a quality about them, the singer is into the song and the musicians were playing with the singer and it was an entity, you know. It was something special that used to hit me all the time, that all these people were thinking the same thing, and they're all playing at the same time. EB: Like the early Beatles. Yeah, yeah, right. That's what I'm tryin' to get. That's what I want to get, on this next album. I started approaching getting it on the last album, on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. It happens on a few cuts, you can hear it. It's there all the time.... EB: Which cuts would you say? Uh, I think "Cinnamon Girl," uh, "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere," and, uh, "Round And Round" has that feeling of togetherness, although it was just Danny [Whitten] and me and Robin Lane. Neil Young Rolling Stone by Elliot Blinder April 20, 1970

The Last Trip To Tulsa
Like "The Last Trip To Tulsa," in my opinion, after I did it, I didn't like it and I didn't want it. After the album came out that's the one I really didn't like, you know, and I still don't, but a lot of people really dug that better than anything else on that whole album. See, it's strange. Just because it doesn't happen to be my favorite part, and I know a lot of people really didn't like it, you know, and I can dig why. Because it sounds overdone. It just sounds like it's a mistake to me, and luckily it's cool. Neil Young Rolling Stone by Elliot Blinder April 20, 1970

Round And Round (It Won't Be Long)
Yeah, because the sound of that record, if you get into the sound of it and you know what's happening, thinking of the fact that there were three people sitting like you and me, and then another, and six microphone booms coming down, absolutely stoned out of our minds in the studio, singing a song with the guitars, three guitars goin' at once. If you listen to it, "Round And Round" is one of my favorites on the second album, because of some of the things - I guess you sort of have to listen to them, 'cause I didn't bring them out very much - but the echo from the acoustic guitar on the right echoes back on the left, and the echo from the guitar on the left comes back on the right and it makes the guitars go like this... one line starts goin' like da-da-daow... and then you can hear like one voice comes in and out, and that's 'cause Danny was rockin' back and forth.... Those things are not featured, they're just in it, you know, and that's what I'm trying to get at. I think they last longer that way. Doing it live and singing and playing all at once just makes it sound more real. Neil Young Rolling Stone by Elliot Blinder April 20, 1970

Heart Of Gold
I stole the idea for "Heart Of Gold" from "Love Is Blue". Neil Young Muziekkrant Oor/Constant Meijers September 25, 1974

Southern Man
Those girls always get jealous when you're working on something with great intensity. Susan, who was a lot older than me, was very jealous. One morning, I got up early to work on 'Southern Man' in the studio, she threw breakfast against the door. When I opened the door to see what was going on, she threw the coffee at me. Neil Young Muziekkrant Oor/Constant Meijers September 26, 1974

Only Love Can Break Your Heart
I'd broken up with Joni and Neil came to me and said he'd written a song for me, because he knew exactly how I felt. Joni is one of those people who can't make a good relationship last. When we were doing alright, she quit. Graham Nash Muziekkrant Oor/Constant Meijers September 27, 1974

Pardon My Heart
Here's a song I learned recently. I wrote it too. This is a love song. It's one of the saddest love songs I've ever heard. It's the bottom line ... love song ... eh. Neil Young The Bottom Line, New York City, New York, USA May 16, 1974

Transformer Man
"Transformer man" is a song for my kid. If you read the words to that song - and look at my child with his little button and his train set and his transformer - the whole thing is for Ben. Neil Young The Village Voice/Jimmy McDonough December 1989

Heavy Love
[talking about the 1989 Restless/Lost Dogs shows] Those are high fuckin' songs. All of 'em are right out there. The actual pitch of the fuckin' notes is way up there. To do it every night is a bitch. My music is very physical. People don't realize how fuckin' physical it is. There's no way to breathe deep and sing "Heavy Love." You can't do, that. You can't have 'good technique.' Get the fuckin' technique out. Get rid of it. Every fuckin' note is my last so it better be fuckin' good. Neil Young The Village Voice/Jimmy McDonough December 1989

Florida
[talking about plans for Decade II] Well, "Florida" - that's not even a song, that's a narrative with sound effects. Neil Young The Village Voice/Jimmy McDonough December 1989

Diggin' My Bad Self
[talking about plans for Decade II] And what about that jazz thing we did - "Diggin' My Bad Self?" Young improvises a lyric or two, complete with scat singing. Neil Young The Village Voice/Jimmy McDonough December 1989

The Ways Of Love
[talking about Freedom] Take "Too Far Gone," "Ways of Love," "Someday," and "Don't Cry" off the record. Those are the songs that bother me. The older songs all escaped when I wrote them. "Ways of Love" was a great song when I wrote it in '75, and if I had recorded it then ... But I made a remake of it. It's hard for me to go back when I feel like I should be taking care of the new ones. If I don't get it when it's new, forget it. Then it gets fucked up. That's another frustration of making records. But I don't really make records - I do performances and I record them. Neil Young The Village Voice/Jimmy McDonough December 1989

Too Far Gone
[talking about Freedom] Take "Too Far Gone," "Ways of Love," "Someday," and "Don't Cry" off the record. Those are the songs that bother me. The older songs all escaped when I wrote them. "Ways of Love" was a great song when I wrote it in '75, and if I had recorded it then ... But I made a remake of it. It's hard for me to go back when I feel like I should be taking care of the new ones. If I don't get it when it's new, forget it. Then it gets fucked up. That's another frustration of making records. But I don't really make records - I do performances and I record them. Neil Young The Village Voice/Jimmy McDonough December 1989

Someday
[talking about Freedom] Take "Too Far Gone," "Ways of Love," "Someday," and "Don't Cry" off the record. Those are the songs that bother me. The older songs all escaped when I wrote them. "Ways of Love" was a great song when I wrote it in '75, and if I had recorded it then ... But I made a remake of it. It's hard for me to go back when I feel like I should be taking care of the new ones. If I don't get it when it's new, forget it. Then it gets fucked up. That's another frustration of making records. But I don't really make records - I do performances and I record them. Neil Young The Village Voice/Jimmy McDonough December 1989

Don't Cry
[talking about Freedom] Take "Too Far Gone," "Ways of Love," "Someday," and "Don't Cry" off the record. Those are the songs that bother me. The older songs all escaped when I wrote them. "Ways of Love" was a great song when I wrote it in '75, and if I had recorded it then ... But I made a remake of it. It's hard for me to go back when I feel like I should be taking care of the new ones. If I don't get it when it's new, forget it. Then it gets fucked up. That's another frustration of making records. But I don't really make records - I do performances and I record them. Neil Young The Village Voice/Jimmy McDonough December 1989

Rockin' In The Free World
[talking about the September 20, 1989 performance on Saturday Night Live] JM: With the September 30 appearance on Saturday Night Live, Young arrested any signs of rust - at least for the moment. Backed by Charlie Drayton, Steve Jordan, and longtime sideman Frank "Poncho" Samperdro - a new band Young's tentatively calling Young, CS&P - he was all over the stage, jumping on the drum stand, lunging out of camera range, whipping off earsplitting solos that sounded like falling power lines. It was the loudest thing I've ever heard on TV, the lyrics to "Rockin' in the Free World" barely audible. This is easily his best band since Crazy Horse. Just the look on his face was enough. He really seemed insane. I don't like TV. Never have. It always sucks and there's nothing you can do about it. You can't just walk on and do "Rockin' in the Free World," or you'll look like a fuckin' idiot. To perform that song the way it's supposed to be performed you have to be at peak blood level, everything has to be up, the machine has to be stoked. To do that I had to ignore Saturday Night Live completely. I had to pretend I wasn't there. JM: So Young developed "a brand new technique for doing TV" - a half-hour before going on he worked out with his trainer, lifting weights and doing calisthenics to get himself wired. Neil Young The Village Voice/Jimmy McDonough December 1989

No More
If you listen to the lyrics - really listen to the lyrics - I'm not saying anything definitely. It's completely fuckin' ambiguous what's goin' on. And that's the feeling of "no more." How many times do you have to say "no more" before it means no more? Because that song doesn't mean "no more." Neil Young The Village Voice/Jimmy McDonough December 1989

Don't Cry
There's a big Orbison tribute song on Eldorado called Don't Cry. That's totally me under the Roy Orbison... spell. When I wrote it and recorded it I was thinking 'Roy Orbison meets trash metal' ( laughs). Seriously. Neil Young The Vox/Nick Kent December 1990

You And Me
That song was started in 1975, but I never finished it. In 1976, [bassist] Tim Drummond heard it and said: 'You've got to finish that, man. That's like Harvest stuff, let's do that.' And that kinda freaked me out, I got spooked by it, because it was like someone said what it was before we did it. I don't want to feel like I'm just filling in the numbers." Neil Young Rolling Stone/Alan Light December 1992

Farmer John
We did "Farmer John" really well in Fort William. We just got way out there and went berserk. That was one of the first times I ever started transcending on guitar. Things just got on to another plane. Afterwards people would say, What the hell was that? That's when I started to realize I had the capacity to lose my mind playing music. Neil Young Mojo/John Einarson September 1994

Helpless
Well, it's not literally a specific town so much as a feeling. Actually, it's a couple of towns. Omemee, Ontario, is one of them. It's where I first went to school and spent my 'formative' years. Actually I was born in Toronto... "I was born in Toronto"... God, that sound like the first line of a Bruce Springsteen song (laughs). But Toronto is only seven miles from Omemee. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

It Might Have Been
[talking about growing up in Canada] Another song from that period that I loved, and also ended up doing a version of with Crazy Horse and Jack Nitzsche on piano, that's going to end up on Archives - it's a country waltz called It Might Have Been recorded by Jo London. It was a big hit in Canada though it didn't mean anything in the States. Great record. Real, real soulful rendition. Unfortunately on my version, I screwed up almost all the words (laughs). Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

Running Dry (Requiem For The Rockets)
[talking about his image in 1969-1970] My only concern was to make the fuckin' records sound right. When I finally got the studio together and played, I think, Running Dry [on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere], that was my first live vocal. As was almost the whole of Goldrush after it... Things like I Believe In You - that's when I started recording live. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

I Believe In You
[talking about his image in 1969-1970] My only concern was to make the fuckin' records sound right. When I finally got the studio together and played, I think, Running Dry [on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere], that was my first live vocal. As was almost the whole of Goldrush after it... Things like I Believe In You - that's when I started recording live. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

Don't Be Denied
NK: But Don't Be Denied for example is one of your best songs. It's also your most openly autobiographical... Yeah, certainly. It's one of them, anyway. The other one's called Hitchhiker. It's a contemporary of Don't Be Denied from 1975 and it was all about all the different drugs that I took. I started at the beginning and ran right through my years of drug usage up to that time, drawing parallels with other stuff. It's a very interesting song (laughs). Eventually I mutated it partly into a song called Like An Inca [Trans]. Only the chorus lived, though. All the verses were gone. Hitchhiker is now probably bootlegged 'cos I played it six or seven times on some acoustic tour I did in the '70s [actually 1992]. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

Powderfinger
NK: It's become something of a cliche to say that Rust Never Sleeps, the raucous follow-up to Comes A Time, was very influenced by the UK punk-rock scene at the time... No, I wasn't really influenced by that scene. Most of the songs on that album had been written well before the Sex Pistols were ever heard of. The Thrasher was pretty much me writing about me experiences with Crosby, Stills & Nash in the mid-'70s. Do you know Lynyrd Skynyrd almost ended up recording Powderfinger before my version came out? We sent them an early demo of it because they wanted to do one of my songs. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

Don't Take Your Love Away From Me
NK: Then came Everybody's Rockin', a curious and underwhelming collection of '50s rock pastiches and easily your most mystifying record to date. You lost a lot of your audience with that record, I reckon... Well, that was a good as Tonight's The Night as far as I'm concerned. The character was strong, the story was great but unfortunately, the story never got to appear on the album. Before I got a chance to finish it - I got stopped from recording. Geffen cancelled a couple of sessions where I was going to do two songs - Get Gone and Don't Take Your Love Away From Me - that would've given a lot more depth to The Shocking Pinks. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

Good To See You
I wrote this on the back of the bus, early on in the tour. All I had was the line 'Good to see you,' and I thought, 'Well, what good is that?' But it said what needed to be said. It's about coming home after being gone a long time. Neil Young Reprise Silver And Gold promotional piece 2000

Silver & Gold
This one says to me that relationships are more important than material things. You could take a look at me and say I was really full of it, because I have so many possessions it's ridiculous. But it's dawning on me how useless most of them are. Neil Young Reprise Silver & Gold promotional piece 2000

Daddy Went Walkin'
It's got my father in it, but I think it's about everybody's father, everybody's parents. It's like taking a look at these old folks who have lost their mates, or who've gotten a divorce years ago, like my parents. And it's about kids hoping that their parents will get back together again. It's a hope all kids in that situation have, I think. Neil Young Reprise Silver & Gold promotional piece 2000

Buffalo Springfield Again
What's cool about CSN&Y is it gives Stephen and me a chance to play around with what we were doing back then and take it to another level. When he came up to the ranch to work on the box set, part of it was kind of depressing in the end because I think we both felt like it had all been cut short. We realized how much more there was for us to do. Neil Young Reprise Silver & Gold promotional piece 2000

The Great Divide
This is a good example of a song that you can't just break out when you're sitting around with a bunch of friends having a good time. You have to have exactly the right people and the right situation. Fortunately I did. Ben Keith plays steel on that one and Oscar Butterworth did a great job on drums. Neil Young Reprise Silver & Gold promotional piece 2000

Red Sun
I wrote this song on a really fresh day. My head was feeling good and I was really open. I remember I was by myself when I did it and, by the end, I was crying. It was very emotional. I kept hearing Emmylou Harris' voice on it and I finally ended up taking it to Tucson to Linda Ronstadt's house, where she and Emmylou were working on an album with Dolly Parton. They ended up singing on a lot of the songs on this album, but this one really got to me. The song's got a little bit of religion in it and Emmylou's voice, especially, is suited to that. Neil Young Reprise Silver & Gold promotional piece 2000

Distant Camera
There was one thing I let go on this album. It's on this song and it still bothers me. There was a misplaced beat and nobody liked it but me and I wanted to leave it in because that's just the way it had happened originally. But I took it out and to this day, whenever I hear this song I think about that kick drum. And I probably always will. That's just the way my mind works. Neil Young Reprise Silver & Gold promotional piece 2000

Without Rings
This is one of the first songs I recorded [likely August 1997], back when I thought I was doing an acoustic solo album. It's another one I wrote in the back of the bus, somewhere in Florida at some weird amusement park in the middle of the Everglades. I had this big piece of newspaper with felt tip marker writing all over it. It's kind of like 'Mr. Soul,' inasmuch as it was written on a piece of newspaper with a felt tip marker and it all came out in one long line and then it was done. Neil Young Reprise Silver & Gold promotional piece 2000

Devil's Sidewalk
"There were fewer people, fewer things going on, less distraction," he said "I just tried to focus right in on the core and get back to the roots of what we do." The first song to emerge was "Devil's Sidewalk," a two-chord rumination on the state of humanity: "There's a garden growing and a million weeds/There's no way of knowing who has done which deeds," the song observes. "I didn't even know what it was," Mr. Young said. "I said, what the hell is this? What is that? What am I talking about?" Then came another song, "Falling From Above." And another, "Double E." For the first time in Mr. Young's career, they both mentioned the same characters: Grandpa, his son Earl and Earl's wife, Edith, and a granddaughter. Neil Young New York Times/Jon Pareles June 15, 2003

Double E
"There were fewer people, fewer things going on, less distraction," he said "I just tried to focus right in on the core and get back to the roots of what we do." The first song to emerge was "Devil's Sidewalk," a two-chord rumination on the state of humanity: "There's a garden growing and a million weeds/There's no way of knowing who has done which deeds," the song observes. "I didn't even know what it was," Mr. Young said. "I said, what the hell is this? What is that? What am I talking about?" Then came another song, "Falling From Above." And another, "Double E." For the first time in Mr. Young's career, they both mentioned the same characters: Grandpa, his son Earl and Earl's wife, Edith, and a granddaughter. Neil Young New York Times/Jon Pareles June 15, 2003

Falling From Above
"There were fewer people, fewer things going on, less distraction," he said "I just tried to focus right in on the core and get back to the roots of what we do." The first song to emerge was "Devil's Sidewalk," a two-chord rumination on the state of humanity: "There's a garden growing and a million weeds/There's no way of knowing who has done which deeds," the song observes. "I didn't even know what it was," Mr. Young said. "I said, what the hell is this? What is that? What am I talking about?" Then came another song, "Falling From Above." And another, "Double E." For the first time in Mr. Young's career, they both mentioned the same characters: Grandpa, his son Earl and Earl's wife, Edith, and a granddaughter. Neil Young New York Times/Jon Pareles June 15, 2003

Sun Green
DF: What do you believe? Where is the hope in the Greendale songs and story?  The energy in the last couple of songs ["Sun Green" and "Be the Rain"] - that's youth rising out of this. It hasn't gotten to the point where things have started moving yet, but this period is the biggest breeding ground for revolution in this country since the mid-Sixties. I don't think there's been a more ripe time for a generation to come along and rebel against all this.  Neil Young Rolling Stone/David Fricke September 3, 2003

Be The Rain
DF: What do you believe? Where is the hope in the Greendale songs and story?  The energy in the last couple of songs ["Sun Green" and "Be the Rain"] - that's youth rising out of this. It hasn't gotten to the point where things have started moving yet, but this period is the biggest breeding ground for revolution in this country since the mid-Sixties. I don't think there's been a more ripe time for a generation to come along and rebel against all this.  Neil Young Rolling Stone/David Fricke September 3, 2003

I Don't Want To Be Sorry
DF: What was the last song you wrote?  "Be the Rain " DF: Literally the final song on Greendale.  Yeah. It was about nine months ago. DF: Isn't that a long time between new songs?  No. You gotta give things a chance to settle down. There was a song at the beginning of Greendale, a hangover from Are You Passionate?, called "I Don't Want to Be Sorry." It's a cool song -- me and the Horse. But I didn't use it. It was a transition song.  Neil Young Rolling Stone/David Fricke September 3, 2003

Be The Rain
DF: What was the last song you wrote?  Be the Rain  DF: Literally the final song on Greendale.  Yeah. It was about nine months ago. DF: Isn't that a long time between new songs?  No. You gotta give things a chance to settle down. There was a song at the beginning of Greendale, a hangover from Are You Passionate?, called "I Don't Want to Be Sorry." It's a cool song -- me and the Horse. But I didn't use it. It was a transition song.  Neil Young Rolling Stone/David Fricke September 3, 2003

Oh Susannah
JJ: How did Americana emerge as a theme for the music? As I was writing this book [Waging Heavy Peace], I wrote about a time in the mid ’60s. I was in a place called Thunder Bay, Ontario, playing with a group called the Squires. I had just recently left home and this was really my first big trip out of Winnipeg. We had our own vehicle and were making our way in the world. We were working in a club called the Fourth Dimension. A band came through called the Thorns, which featured their leader Tim Rose. He’s a seminal figure in music who has gone largely unnoticed. While he didn’t write “Hey Joe,” the huge hit that Hendrix had, he was the one who defined how to do it. But he also had this thing called folk rock. It was the movement of the day, and defined mainly by the Thorns’ version of “Oh Susannah.” I heard that version and it blew my mind. I taught the Squires that version, but then I enlarged upon it and started arranging all kinds of folk songs, taking the same liberties and having the same freedoms. In doing that, we found ourselves with a pretty solid repertoire of that kind of song. Neil Young Wall Street Journal/John Jurgensen June 8, 2012

Rockin' In The Free World
AG: Tell me the story of how you coined the phrase "Rockin' in the Free World." We were on the road with the Los Dogs in 1989. I was riding on Neil's bus at the time. I was his cook on the bus, so we were hanging out 24/7. All this stuff was going down with the Ayatollah. I don't know if you remember that footage of them passing the casket along over the heads of thousand and thousands of people. There was a lot of "Hate America" demonstrations and we were supposed to do this exchange. We were going to Russia for the first time. It was a cultural exchange. They were getting us in exchange for the Russian Ballet. [Laughs] And it just fell through. Neil was like, "Damn, I really wanted to go." I said, "Me too. I guess we'll have to keep on rockin' in the free world." He was like, "Wow, that's a cool line." Then I said it again later and he said, "That's a really good phrase. I wanna use it." He told me he was going to use it. We were checking into our hotel and the manager was like, "That's stuff going on with the Ayatollah and alI this turmoil in the world." I said, "There's a song there, man. Come on, get to it." [Laughs] The next day he came up to me and told me to check out this lyric sheet. I only questioned one of them. I think it was "Keep Hope Alive" or something. He said, "No, no, no. That's a good one." We just started signing it and he taught me the harmony part. That night we played it in Seattle. It was this cool theater. We didn't even rehearse it with the band. I was telling the chords to [bassist] Rick Rosas as we went along. Poncho Sampedro Rolling Stone/Andy Greene April 17, 2013

Mr. Soul
This is the original Mr. Soul, recorded at Atlantic in NYC... just as it was that night we first finished... before the overdubs done for 'Buffalo Springfield Again' were added in Hollywood, My bad. should have left it alone. This copy is a recording of the original acetate we got at Atlantic in NYC right after we first mixed it. Work with Stephen on this one as a great co-effort. Love Stephen. He is great. This is the one. We lost the master it was cut from. [Neil referring to the January 9, 1967 recording session] Neil Young NYA Song Of The Day July 17, 2018

Round And Round (It Won't Be Long)
NH: What do you remember of the seesions for “Round and Round (It Won’t Be Long)” RL: When I sang “Round And Round” with him and Danny [Whitten], Danny brought me into the studio. Neil listened to some of my songs, and was really sweet. And then we went into the studio and cut the song in one or two takes. There was a platform that you could sit on, and the three of us sat around, maybe with just the one mic. We all played guitar. I was just making it up as I went along - not the lyrics, but the “ooh oohs”. We did it once or twice, then Neil said, “Okay, that’s it!” and I was really amazed. We’d done the song before together. When I first met him, he taught me the song, and then we’d play it together up at the Rocket house, with other musicians that came up there. The Rocket house was full of pot-smoke. My impression of singing that song with him then was of darkness. I didn’t notice the sun. There was a lot that went on there that helped define me. I don’t know that it defined Neil. He came already knowing what he was doing. Robin Lane Uncut Magazine/Nick Hasted April 2009

Sail Away
When i think about the road, I always see those long strips of blacktop cutting through immense valleys. Neil Young NYA Song Of The Day October 7, 2018

Days That Used To Be
I was in the middle of the ocean. I was sailboat sailing to Hawaii. This was two years ago when I wrote the song and I just received word that the video for "This Note's For You" was not going to be played. I'd just finished making it and I had a copy of it on the boat. I'd been out at sea almost 10 days - about halfway over there. I hadn't seen anybody for about 8 days - no planes, no other boats - just the horizon. So I was pretty spacey out there by then. In one night I wrote three songs: "Ordinary People, "Sixty To Zero" and "Days That Used To Be". And "Days That Used To Be" was sort of like an answer to - it was kind of the way I felt - kind of lost. I was wondering whether what I was thinking was even relevant about "This Note's For You" and the whole thing. I thought it was hilarious and then it turned out that it wasn't - that they thought it wasn't funny. You know, I still kill myself every times I look at that video. I was rolling around the floor of the boat - on the deck. It's just a moment in time. I don't wander around feeling that way all the time. As a matter of fact that song almost didn't make the album because it doesn't really fit with all the other songs. Neil Young Ragged Glory World Premier radio broadcast Broken Arrow #41 transcription September 5, 1990

Ordinary People
I was in the middle of the ocean. I was sailboat sailing to Hawaii. This was two years ago when I wrote the song and I just received word that the video for "This Note's For You" was not going to be played. I'd just finished making it and I had a copy of it on the boat. I'd been out at sea almost 10 days - about halfway over there. I hadn't seen anybody for about 8 days - no planes, no other boats - just the horizon. So I was pretty spacey out there by then. In one night I wrote three songs: "Ordinary People, "Sixty To Zero" and "Days That Used To Be". And "Days That Used To Be" was sort of like an answer to - it was kind of the way I felt - kind of lost. I was wondering whether what I was thinking was even relevant about "This Note's For You" and the whole thing. I thought it was hilarious and then it turned out that it wasn't - that they thought it wasn't funny. You know, I still kill myself every times I look at that video. I was rolling around the floor of the boat - on the deck. It's just a moment in time. I don't wander around feeling that way all the time. As a matter of fact that song almost didn't make the album because it doesn't really fit with all the other songs. Neil Young Ragged Glory World Premier radio broadcast Broken Arrow #41 transcription September 5, 1990

Sixty To Zero
I was in the middle of the ocean. I was sailboat sailing to Hawaii. This was two years ago when I wrote the song and I just received word that the video for "This Note's For You" was not going to be played. I'd just finished making it and I had a copy of it on the boat. I'd been out at sea almost 10 days - about halfway over there. I hadn't seen anybody for about 8 days - no planes, no other boats - just the horizon. So I was pretty spacey out there by then. In one night I wrote three songs: "Ordinary People, "Sixty To Zero" and "Days That Used To Be". And "Days That Used To Be" was sort of like an answer to - it was kind of the way I felt - kind of lost. I was wondering whether what I was thinking was even relevant about "This Note's For You" and the whole thing. I thought it was hilarious and then it turned out that it wasn't - that they thought it wasn't funny. You know, I still kill myself every times I look at that video. I was rolling around the floor of the boat - on the deck. It's just a moment in time. I don't wander around feeling that way all the time. As a matter of fact that song almost didn't make the album because it doesn't really fit with all the other songs. Neil Young Ragged Glory World Premier radio broadcast Broken Arrow #41 transcription September 5, 1990

Southern Man
(in response to a request for Southern Man) I have to tell you a story about Southern Man. I was at the Oakland Coliseum. I was playing away. I was having a pretty mediocre time actually. It wasn't that hot you know. Show number fifty-eight. We were all tired. The band wasn't right in the first place. It was one of those things you know. By the time we got there - Southern Man - everybody, every night would yell "Southern Man, Southern Man". I could dig it you know. It was nice. But I went to sing it. And I was singing away and I started off...and by then you know I sang it with Crosby, Stills & Nash and I sang it by myself and I was singing it with these guys. By then I was starting to sort of feel like a Wurlitzer. Even though I really believed the song, where I was at, where I wrote it and everything. But anyway, I was singing away, "Southern Man better keep your head, don't forget what the good book...". This guy in the front row as far away as me and you. He jumped up, "right on, right on, I love it". He felt really good I could tell. All of a sudden this, this black cop just walked up to him - it just was the scene, the way it looked to me - and he just crunched him. And I just took my guitar off and put it on the ground and got in the car and went home. A lot of those people couldn't understand it because they couldn't see from the other end. They thought I had just freaked out or something. But something about it - and ever since then I've never sung the song. I don't know why. I don't know. I sang it a lot. I sang it every night for a long time and I really - that's the story anyways. I couldn't do it. I don't feel it right now. Neil Young May 16, 1974 The Bottom Line, New York City

Cinnamon Girl
WH: Who's Cinnamon Girl? NY: Oh, she was an actual person. She danced and she sang and she had finger cymbals. And cinnamon is my favorite spice. Neil Young The Times/Will Hodgkinson May 28, 2016

I'm The Ocean
Too may times in this life, we miss what is going on right in front of us......I try but sometimes i don't see. Lots of love to the searchers... Neil Young NYA Song Of The Day November 19, 2018

White Line
I wrote ‘White Line’ in the back of Pearl on the CSNY 1974 stadium tour. Joel Bernstein, friend, archivist and photographer, believes I am seen typing the original in this photo. He compared the typewritten page in the archives with this picture and identified the song as White Line, a love song about traveling away from the pain. Neil Young NYA Times-Contrarian November 23, 2018

Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
I wrote 'Flying on the Ground' in the first place I rented in LA. It was a one room apt in Hollywood called the Commodore Gardens. Buffalo Springfield was playing at the Whisky on Sunset strip so i was making enough to move out of the house Barry Friedman (our first manager) had been sharing with the 5 of us in the Springfield. I had finally made the big time after driving down to LA from Canada in April, 1966. Neil Young NYA Song Of The Day November 26, 2018

A Man Needs A Maid
Here's a song. Of all the songs that I have, I have two or three that I categorize as weird songs. This is the newest weird one that I have. It's funny - I started singing it at the beginning of the tour in Vancouver because I wrote it just a couple of days - I wrote most of it just a day or two before I left. People didn't understand it at first because they never heard it before. Sometimes they started to laugh because couldn't understand what I was singing. So I put some more words on the front of it and I put some more words on the end of it. [before singing Man Needs A Maid for the first time with the "My life is changing in so many ways" verse at the beginning and the "When will I see you again?" concluding line.] Neil Young Royce Hall - UCLA, Westwood, California, USA January 30, 1971

Cortez The Killer
Somebody asked me where these songs come from. A lot of people ask me that. I don't know where they come from. Neil Young Paramount Theatre, Oakland, California, USA March 20, 1999

Ambulance Blues
I remember when I wrote that song. I walked in the kitchen. I said, "Hey - check this song out. I just wrote this song." So I sang the song. They were looking at me like, "Where were you?. Were you outside or what?" Neil Young Paramount Theatre, Oakland, California, USA March 20, 1999

Ambulance Blues
I remember the first time I played that song. I was in my kitchen at home. A couple of people came by. I say, "How'd you like to hear a new song I just wrote?" Great. So I sat up on the counter and sang Ambulance Blues for the first time. They were talking about lawnmowers or something before that. "Hey Neil, maybe you should go back to Canada for awhile or something?" Neil Young Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, Oregon, USA March 8, 1999

Kansas
(after playing Slowpoke, someone from the audience yells out Kinda Fonda Wanda) Neil: I always Wanna, Wanna, Wanna. Kinda Fonda Wanda ... wow. Just a minute. (Neil picks up a large binder that he had onstage with him during the 1999 tour containing lyrics to all of his songs) Neil: I just want to see - like alphabetically - what happens there. Kansas, Kinda Fonda Wanda. That's it. Not much happening in the K's. You've never heard Kansas - no - never heard Kansas. (from the audience - "play it") Neil: Oh ............... I'm going to take that one home with me. (Neil would play Kansas for the first time six shows later in Oakland) Neil Young Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, Oregon, USA March 8, 1999

A Man Needs A Maid>Heart Of Gold
This is a new song about ummm ... it's about a ... it's a broadway musical. Some people look at their life and say, "well, my life's like a movie". They talk about what scenes went down. In some movies there's tunes you know. This is like a show tune from my movie. Neil Young Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 19, 1971, Early Show

Bad Fog Of Loneliness
A while ago I was gonna do the Johnny Cash show. I wrote a song specially for it when I was going to be doing it. But then after I wrote this song, they cancelled me. But later on they hired me again. And I'm going to be on the show and we're going to tape it on the 4th I think, or the 10th or something, of February. There's going to be James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. Anyway, I'm not going to do this song on that show. It's real old now. I was going to do it with Carl Perkins and the Tennessee Three. Neil Young Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 19, 1971, Early Show

Bad Fog Of Loneliness
This is a song I wrote particularly to be on the Johnny Cash show with Carl Perkins and the Tennessee Three. A certain magic (...) They weren't serious about the show so I just wrote the song (...) This is a song you are not likely to ever hear again. This little song has a history written out. About once every six months, I hold a meeting with my songs and decide which ones get recorded. This next song isn't even invited to the meeting. (starts the song) what are you clapping for, you don't know this song. Neil Young Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 19, 1971, Late Show

Old Man
This is a new song that I wrote about my ranch. I live on a ranch now. Lucky me ... there's this old man who lives on it, that uh...he came with the place when I bought it. Ranches have foremen you know usually that sort of like stay there with the cows, no matter who owns it. He's about seventy years old or something like that. Neil Young Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 19, 1971, Early Show

Journey Through The Past
This is another song that I wrote about my ranch. I'm going to sing mostly new songs tonight. Maybe only a couple more old ones. But I've written so many new ones that I can't think of anything else to with them other than sing them. It's been kind of interesting for me this tour. I've been out for two weeks and we've been at about, I don't know how many cities. But anyways, singing some of these songs has been like living them as well as singing them because I wrote three of the ones on the road while I was out here. Neil Young Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 19, 1971, Late Show

The Needle And The Damage Done
Since I left Canada about five years ago or so and moved down south I found out a lot of things that I didn't know when I left. Some of them are good and some of them are bad you know. I got to see to see a lot of great musicians before they happened. Before they became famous. When they were just gigging. Five and six sets a night. Things like that. I got to see a lot of great musicians who nobody got to see for one reason or another. But strangely enough the real good ones that you never got to see was because of heroin. And that started happening over and over. And then it happened to some that everybody knew about. So I just wrote a little song. Neil Young Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 19, 1971, Early Show

Old Man
This is a new song I wrote about my ranch. I live on a ranch in California. I just bought it a while ago from these two lawyers. There was an old man living on it. I don't know if you have things like that here - like foremen on ranches? It's like a old caretaker that takes care of all of the cows and fences and everything. So I wrote this song for him. Neil Young BBC TV Studios, London, England February 23, 1971

A Man Needs A Maid
I'm going do another sad song folks. I'm finding it hard to - oh it's two of these - dual BBC cups. In America you know they do things to cars. I don't know if you about...the reason I said dual BBC cups. Here's your thing for between the shows when you advertise - "Don't miss it, don't miss it". Ha! On American television, they you know. This kind of TV over here isn't the same as American TV. American TV they give you a lot of commercials. They don't know that you know what's on. They take it for granted that you don't know anything. Start from there and work down. So I was talking about American cars. When you turn sixteen in America you get your drivers license. That makes you a man at sixteen. Well really it's a huge masculine symbol I guess. In American a man's car is his whole trip sometimes. They have mufflers and everything. They get them and they them and they put stuff in the back in the trunk to make them this high off the ground. So they look like they're going fast even when they're not even turned on. "That guy sure must be far out. He's got such a far out car." And then they put aerials on them. One on each side. And mufflers coming out the back. And they change the lights on the back and make them big and red. But I got dual BBC cups on my grand piano. 1957 Buick piano. Here's something else that's happening with me ... Neil Young BBC TV Studios, London, England February 23, 1971

Love In Mind
Forgot all about this one. I wrote this one in Vancouver. No, no, I wrote it in Detroit. Just trying to keep you up to date. I used to...used to call this girl from the road, that I'd never, that I was in love with, but I'd never really met. I used to talk to her on the phone all the time. And late at night I would talk to her on the phone because of the time difference. And I'd wake up the next morning feeling so good. Neil Young BBC TV Studios, London, England February 23, 1971

Old Man
This is a new song I wrote about my ranch. I live on a ranch in California. I just bought it a while ago from this two lawyers. There was an old man living on it. I don't know if you have things like that here - like foremen on ranches? It's like a old caretaker that takes care of all of the cows and fences and everything. So I wrote this song for him. Neil Young Royal Festival Hall, London, England February 27, 1971

Cowgirl In The Sand
This is a song I wrote about beaches in Spain. I've never been to the beaches in Spain. It's sort of my own idea of what it's like over there. Neil Young Royal Festival Hall, London, England February 27, 1971

See The Sky About To Rain
This is sort of a - social - song. It's very social, goes to a lot of parties. It's a good song. It gets along well with other songs. Neil Young Royal Festival Hall, London, England February 27, 1971

Harvest
I've got this new song that I just wrote last night. And I can't remember all the words. And I forgot to bring out my piece of paper with them on it. This is a new song. It's going to be the title song on my album when it comes out. Should be April 15th in the United States. Probably a little sooner...there it is right there [presumably given the lyric sheet] - whoo, ah - a lotta words folks. I could never remember that. It's called Harvest. That's what the album will be called. Neil Young Royal Festival Hall, London, England February 27, 1971

Pocahontas
Here's an old song I wrote in the seventies just after Marlon Brando received his Academy award and didn't accept it. And sent an Indian girl to receive the award and make a few comments. I don't know if anyone remembers it. I know Marlon does. Neil Young Centerstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, Illinois, USA November 17, 1992

Revolution Blues
Here's one about a guy's in jail now. I think you will recognize him. He hasn't been around for a while though. Neil Young Cow Palace, Daly City, California, USA January 25, 1983

Revolution Blues
I'd like to do a song for a guy who had ten heads and ended up in jail. I don't feel sorry for him though. Neil Young Universal Amphitheater, Universal City, California, USA January 23, 1983

Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
This is a very old song also. It's really old folks. I can't believe how old this song is. I can hardly remember it. I can't remember it. It's the first dope, acid-rock song I wrote folks. I was cashing in on psychedelics at the time. I was really more into jello than anything else. There's a little dust on my nine foot Steinway. I've been playing eight months. I got a nine foot Steinway! Neil Young Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York, USA December 5, 1970

Country Girl
When I was about fourteen years old I used to go out to coffee houses at night. And listen to folk music. And they used to all sing terribly long songs. And I could never understand what they were about. And I wasn't really into that shit anyways. So I'm going to do one of those for you now. Neil Young Falkonercentret, København, Denmark January 11, 1970

Expecting To Fly
Later on tonight we're going to bring out Crazy Horse. I don't know for all you old Buffalo Springfield fans. You might remember a record called Expecting To Fly. Well, that record was mostly made by a person outside the group. The record was made when I quit the group for my first time. It's sort of a habit I picked up. So anyway, his name is Jack Nitzsche and he's playing piano with Crazy Horse tonight. And that's going to be something else for you to look forward to. Neil Young Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA February 25, 1970

The Old Laughing Lady
I wrote this song in Detroit about four years ago. This is an old song. At the White Tower restaurant at about four o'clock in the morning at the corner of Livernois and something. The Chess Mate Club was there. We had come out of the Chess Mate Club and found out that someone had left with part of our car and we had to wait for a while in this restaurant. We had to wait for almost a day. It was out-of-sight. Guys propositioning me at four o'clock in the morning. I wrote it out on a napkin in true folk tradition. Sounds very good. And then I went home and put it in D-modal tuning which was very hip. At the time, everything was in D-modal. You know what D-model tuning is? You tune the E strings on each end down to D. Leave the other ones where they are. And play as if nothing ever happened. And you get D-modal. Everything sounds different because it's tuned different Neil Young The Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA November 10, 1968

Old Man
This is a song I wrote about a place I live - in Northern California. I have a ranch that I live on. I've only been there for a couple of months. And when I moved on there - when I bought the place - the first time I went there there was this old guy about seventy years old. I went there with a real estate lady and she showed me the place. She took me out in this blue jeep. Drove me around. Took me through the woods and everything. Showed me all the cattle. He was just sort of like - I don't how to explain - that he was so much like the land that he was almost a tree or something. He had the spirit. So I wrote a song about him. Neil Young Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, USA January 21, 1971, Late Show

Cowgirl In The Sand
This is a song I wrote about a dream I had. Neil Young Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, USA January 21, 1971, Late Show

Don't Let It Bring You Down
This is a song I wrote while I was in England on a continental fancy. The first time I ever went across the ocean. I guess everybody goes across the ocean now. Sooner or later you got to cross the ocean. Neil Young Macky Auditorium - University Of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA January 26, 1971, Late Show

Midnight On The Bay
Here's a new song for you. One you haven't heard, it don't think. Unless you were in London. Anyways, it's a song about a place called Cocoanut Grove, Florida. I was living in a houseboat there on the end of the dock. I had the very end (...) this funky little houseboat for a week or so. I just happened to be passing through. And here's a song I wrote there. Neil Young Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland April 2, 1976

Sad Movies
This is song for everybody trying to find their seat here in this theater. Neil Young Hammersmith Odeon, London, England March 28, 1976

Too Far Gone
I was walking down the walking street, some night like Friday. Might have been Friday. I was very stoned, out of my mind. Visiting with new friends here in Denmark who introduced me to all possible varieties of everything that they had all at once. I was, I was - just uh - never been so high in my whole life. But it certainly is a beautiful place to walk around and look at even if you're Too Far Gone. That's what this song is called. It's a new song I wrote. I like this one. Neil Young Falkonerteatret, København, Denmark March 16, 1976

Mellow My Mind
This is really a great place. Upstairs they've got pictures of everybody that played here. Great people played here. I think that Segovia was up here playing the guitar. Here goes nothing ... Neil Young Falkonerteatret, København, Denmark March 16, 1976

Ohio
Here's an old song for you. That you may want to forget about. Probably one of the only folk songs I ever wrote. Neil Young Stadthalle, Offenbach, West Germany March 19, 1976

Mellow My Mind
This is an old song about being on the road, coming off tours and traveling around. Something happens to your mind. You got to take care of it. Neil Young Sporthalle, Köln, West Germany March 20, 1976

Too Far Gone
I'd like to do a new song, a new song you haven't heard before. It's about life in American bars. Neil Young Sporthalle, Köln, West Germany March 20, 1976

Too Far Gone
This is a song from an album I'm working on now. It's nice to play for all you people. I'll sing you a song now about the way you woke up last weekend. Neil Young The Forum, Inglewood, California, USA November 4, 1976

Sweet Joni
I'm sorry we had to cancel out there a couple days ago. I hope we didn't inconvenience you too much. I've never done this song before. Never played this song for anybody before. My closest friends have never heard this song. I may screw this song up. I've never done it before. This is a little ballad here. Neil Young Bakersfield Civic Auditorium, Bakersfield, California, USA March 11, 1973

Lookout Joe
Here's a new song for all the soldiers coming home from war. Neil Young Bakersfield Civic Auditorium, Bakersfield, California, USA March 11, 1973

Comes A Time
This is a song I used to sing with my kid Neil Young The Boarding House, San Francisco, California, USA May 24, 1978, Early Show

I Believe In You
Here's a song that sounds like all my other piano songs. Neil Young The Boarding House, San Francisco, California, USA May 24, 1978, Early Show

Ride My Llama
This is a song about outer space. Neil Young The Boarding House, San Francisco, California, USA May 25, 1978, Late Show

Ride My Llama
This is one of my favorite songs coming up here. I wrote this song - I wrote a couple of songs in one night. Three songs in one night - a world record - for me. Anyways, this song - Cortez The Killer and this song ... Neil Young The Boarding House, San Francisco, California, USA May 26, 1978, Early Show

Powderfinger
Here's a song I don't usually do because I don't know it that well. But you're ready for it, I can tell. [before playing Powderfinger live for the first time] Neil Young The Boarding House, San Francisco, California, USA May 26, 1978, Late Show

Ride My Llama
Here's a close encounters of the finest kind. Neil Young The Boarding House, San Francisco, California, USA May 26, 1978, Late Show

Ride My Llama
Here's an extraterrestrial folk song. Neil Young The Boarding House, San Francisco, California, USA May 27, 1978, Late Shown

Tired Eyes
The next song was written about ... this song was written about the last song you just heard [Roll Another Number]. That's right. I'm just trying to keep you informed ... like an almanac. These songs are all going to out on a record. I'm not trying to do a commercial or anything. Be about three, four months from now. January or whenever that is. Neil Young Palace Theatre, Manchester, England November 3, 1973

Tonight's The Night
[prior to playing Tonight's The Night for the second time this evening] We'll play a song now you've heard before ladies and gentlemen. This is it. A song you've heard before. Neil Young Palace Theatre, Manchester, England November 3, 1973

Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
[while listening to a series of audience requests after the main Tonight's The Night set] I take my time, but I will be playing songs that I can get into for you tonight. You know, a funny thing that happens, you get a group of songs, things go real good for a couple years. Then everybody thinks that's what you are. But, if you can get back to where you were two years ago, I'll go back to where I was. Neil Young Palace Theatre, Manchester, England November 3, 1973

Albuquerque
I wiped out three years of my life recently. There's lot of songs included in there. Funny, I changed you know? I woke up one morning - I was different. I went to sleep in LA and woke up in Miami. Well, Miami's all right. Sometimes the hicks come in and play a little good music for us. This is song I wrote about a year ago - maybe - in the tour I was involved in. It's almost like a crime if I look back on it. Anyways, I made it this far and I'm glad to be here tonight. This song I wrote in the middle of that tour. This is the only productive thing to come out that tour that I can think of. While I'm here in Miami, it doesn't matter..that's what a vacation's all about. Neil Young Hippodrome, Bristol, England November 4, 1973

Don't Be Denied
A song about the boys in the band. Neil Young Empire Theatre, Liverpool, England November 6, 1973

Human Highway
I'd like to do this song now. It's going to on an album that might called by the name of this song, I don't know. We were going to call it that a couple months ago, but it didn't get done. Anyway, it's called Human Highway ... the next Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young record. Neil Young City Hall, Newcastle, England November 9, 1973

Roll Another Number (For The Road)
This is a song I learned in the sixties. Got sort of psychedelic flavor to it. A couple of dope songs for you. Actually, I just got back from England and it's real good to be back. I sang this song over there and they weren't familiar of the term of the song, you know? It's called "I Think I'lll Roll Another Number For The Road". Neil Young Colden Auditorium - Queen's College, New York City, New York, USA November 15, 1973, Early Show

I Believe In You
Here's a song for you to sing to yourself while you're ... and you go home, and there's no jive left anywhere except in your immediate body. Neil Young Auditorium Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA November 20, 1973

I Am A Child
I'd like to do a song now for my son Zeke. He couldn't be here tonight. He's on vacation. Neil Young Royal Festival Hall, London, England November 10, 1973

Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
Here's an old song for you from the Buffalo Springfield's first record. I never got to sing it on that record. I'd like to sing it for you now. Neil Young Royal Festival Hall, London, England November 10, 1973

Don't Be Denied
I'm still a songwriter - really straight though. Really straight. I hardly, don't take any drugs, no hard drugs, no, not a thing. Believe me, even though I did it, I'm here. I believe in everything organic. I'm not Catholic, but I believe I'm caught in some kind of confession tonight ladies and gentlemen. I wouldn't like to dwell on this any longer. I'd just like to sing a song for Danny Whitten who couldn't be with us here tonight...Jose Cuervo...but however, you try to get the point across. He couldn't be here with us tonight. I'm talking real slow because I'm talking about a good friend of mine. And I don't want to jive his name. This is a song for him - any one of about fifty ... he was almost here ladies and gentlemen. Neil Young Rainbow Theatre, London, England November 5, 1973

Tired Eyes
BS: What about the chilling Tired Eyes, with its straightforward description of a dope-dealing vendetta that ends in bloodshed? Has he seen that sort of thing? NY: "Yeah … puts the vibe right there … that's what I was saying, at SIR, when we were playing, and these two cats [Berry and Danny Whitten, the leader of Crazy Horse, who'd worked very closely with Young] who had been a close part of our unit, our force, our energy, were both gone to junk, both of them OD'd. And now we're playing in a place where we're getting together to make up for what is gone and try to make ourselves stronger and continue. Because we thought we had it with Danny Whitten. At least I did. I thought that a combination of people that could be as effective as groups like the Rolling Stones had been … just for rhythm, which I'm really into. I haven't had that rhythm for a while and that's why I haven't been playing my guitar: because without that behind me I won't play. I mean, you can't get free enough. So I've had to play the rhythm myself ever since Danny died. Now I have someone who can play rhythm guitar, a good friend of mine." Neil Young NME/Bud Scoppa June 1975

Tonight's The Night
BS: The title song, one of the album's most jagged and discomforting, tells the story of Bruce Berry, a friend of Young's who - the lyric states - "died, out on the mainline". Who was he? NY: Bruce Berry was a roadie - he used to take care of Steve's (Steve Stills) and my guitars and amps. BS: That line about his dying comes out and just hits you, someone noted. NY: Yeah … those mixes were a little unorthodox. Like it's real music. Sometimes I'd be on mic and sometimes I'd be two feet off it. Sometimes I'd be lookin' around the room and singin' back off mic … we'd have to bring it way back up in the mix to get it. And you can hear the echo in the room. We were all on stage at SIR just playing, with the PA system and everything, just like a live thing. NY: I got tired of … I think what was in my mind when I made that record was I just didn't feel like a lonely figure with a guitar or whatever it is that people see me as sometimes. I didn't feel that laid back – I just didn't feel that way. So I thought I'd just forget about all that … wipe it out. Be as aggressive and as abrasive as I could to leave an effect, a long-term effect, that things change radically sometimes, it's good to point that out. Neil Young Bud Scoppa/NME June 1975

Tonight's The Night
[Tonight's The Night mid-song rap] Bruce Berry was a working man He used to load that Econoline van And late at night And late at night when the people where gone, he used to pick up my guitar I listened to him play all night like that. He didn't play hot licks all night. Sometimes he'd sit down and sing something real, you know. We didn't see him for couple weeks then. Oh, time passed by. Bruce came back one day. He said, "Hey man, do you need somebody to work for you man? "I don't know bro." "Roadie to riches" I say, "Wait a minute though. Wait a minute. Didn't you lose, uh, didn't you lose David's guitar man? You lost David's guitar. You lost David's guitar man. You never lost anybody's guitar in a long time. You worked for us a long time. You never lost any guitars of ours." "Well, I don't know man. It was just in the back of the station-wagon. I left it in the back for just, like, five minutes. I went inside, you know. Thought everything was cool, man. I came out and the guitar was gone. I don't know what happened there. The guitar was gone." "I'm sorry man. "I'm sorry man. You can't work for us man. I'm sorry, you can't work for us. You lost David's guitar. You lost his guitar, man. That's his axe. What else is there other than that?" "You mean after all the time I've spent with you, man. Years and years, man. That just losing one guitar, man - is uh - you mean I'm fired because I lost one guitar (I've lost three guitars). I've been working with you four years. This is real man! I've been working with you four years!" "I'm sorry man. That's the way it is. I mean you lost David's guitar. People let me tell you It sent a chill up and down my spine When I picked up the telephone And heard that he'd died out on the mainline Neil Young Rainbow Theatre, London, England November 5, 1973

Helpless
See, the way I used to work then - this would be the summer of 1969 we're talking about now - I'd usually go in and record with Crazy Horse at Sunset Sound Studios every morning. Then I'd go to CSN&Y rehearsal in the afternoon through to the evening. Then I'd go home, crash out, get up the next morning and do the same routine all over again. That's when "I Believe In You", "Oh Lonesome Me", "Wonderin'" ... a couple of others on After The Goldrush - all those songs were conceived there and recorded there. That's where I first cut "Helpless", by the way, and the only reason the Crazy Horse version didn't come out is because the engineer didn't record the perfect take, so ... bam, that was lost. Neil Young The Dark Stuff - Neil Young and The Haphazard Highway That Lead To Unconditional Love by Nick Kent 1993

Wonderin'
See, the way I used to work then - this would be the summer of 1969 we're talking about now - I'd usually go in and record with Crazy Horse at Sunset Sound Studios every morning. Then I'd go to CSN&Y rehearsal in the afternoon through to the evening. Then I'd go home, crash out, get up the next morning and do the same routine all over again. That's when "I Believe In You", "Oh Lonesome Me", "Wonderin'" ... a couple of others on After The Goldrush - all those songs were conceived there and recorded there. That's where I first cut "Helpless", by the way, and the only reason the Crazy Horse version didn't come out is because the engineer didn't record the perfect take, so ... bam, that was lost. Neil Young The Dark Stuff - Neil Young and The Haphazard Highway That Lead To Unconditional Love by Nick Kent 1993

I Believe In You
See, the way I used to work then - this would be the summer of 1969 we're talking about now - I'd usually go in and record with Crazy Horse at Sunset Sound Studios every morning. Then I'd go to CSN&Y rehearsal in the afternoon through to the evening. Then I'd go home, crash out, get up the next morning and do the same routine all over again. That's when "I Believe In You", "Oh Lonesome Me", "Wonderin'" ... a couple of others on After The Goldrush - all those songs were conceived there and recorded there. That's where I first cut "Helpless", by the way, and the only reason the Crazy Horse version didn't come out is because the engineer didn't record the perfect take, so ... bam, that was lost. Neil Young The Dark Stuff - Neil Young and The Haphazard Highway That Lead To Unconditional Love by Nick Kent 1993

Oh, Lonesome Me
See, the way I used to work then - this would be the summer of 1969 we're talking about now - I'd usually go in and record with Crazy Horse at Sunset Sound Studios every morning. Then I'd go to CSN&Y rehearsal in the afternoon through to the evening. Then I'd go home, crash out, get up the next morning and do the same routine all over again. That's when "I Believe In You", "Oh Lonesome Me", "Wonderin'" ... a couple of others on After The Goldrush - all those songs were conceived there and recorded there. That's where I first cut "Helpless", by the way, and the only reason the Crazy Horse version didn't come out is because the engineer didn't record the perfect take, so ... bam, that was lost. Neil Young The Dark Stuff - Neil Young and The Haphazard Highway That Lead To Unconditional Love by Nick Kent 1993

Tired Eyes
NK: ...and most chilling of all, the matter-of-fact recounting of a mass murder during a drug deal over an electric grave-yard waltz otherwise known 'Tired Eyes'. Everyone thought he'd taken the incident from some random newspaper report. In fact, the guy who'd done the killing was yet another of Young's strange, impossible running buddies: NY: That actually happened to a friend of mine, My friend was the guy who shot the other guys [laughs]. He's doing OK now. The's already been to jail and come back. He wasn't gone for that long, either. It was just one of those deals that turned bad, He didn't have any choice really. The lyric is just a straight narrative account of what happened. Neil Young The Dark Stuff - Neil Young and The Haphazard Highway That Lead To Unconditional Love by Nick Kent 1993

Revolution Blues
That '74 tour was really the swan-song of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young for me. I remember when we started the tour and I wanted to play one of my On The Beach songs, "Revolution Blues", which I wrote about Charles Manson. And Crosby and the rest ... Man, they didn't know if they wanted to stand on the same stage as me when I was doin' it. I was goin', "It's just a fuckin' song. What's the big deal? It's about culture. It's about what's really happening." See, that's why I always return to Crazy Horse over CSN&Y Neil Young The Dark Stuff - Neil Young and The Haphazard Highway That Lead To Unconditional Love by Nick Kent 1993

This Note's For You
I remember writing it in my bus, turning to my driver and saying, "Jesus Christ, this must be the most idiotic fucking song I've ever written." I [Pause.] still can't believe that such a dumb little song could have helped resuscitate my career the way it did. Neil Young The Dark Stuff - Neil Young and The Haphazard Highway That Lead To Unconditional Love by Nick Kent 1993

Dreamin' Man
Just the feelin' behind this form...there's nothing literal in here. Neil Young Portland Civic Auditorium, Portland, Oregon, USA January 24, 1992

Dreamin' Man
I'd like to do a song here for Thoreau. This is a song for him. It may seem like a song that doesn't make any sense, till after you've heard it. Then you'll be pretty sure. This a song about a dreamer. I think it has some kind of relevance here, somehow. I've been wrong before though, so... Neil Young Walden Woods Benefit, Universal Amphitheater, Universal City, California, USA April 1, 1992

Days That Used To Be
KL: There's a song on this new record where you're talking about an old friend you can't talk to because the things you used to say are so hard to say now - and just relate to that now. NY: A lotta people think that is what that was, but I wrote that song out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I was ten days out. And I hadn't seen any land for like ... ten days. Eight days since I saw ... KL: Was this an accident? NY: No - I was cruising - going across the water to Hawaii. I got a sailboat. So I'm out there with my friends and we're cruising. And we got this ship-to-shore radio. We'd just done the This Notes For You album and the video and everything and then I took off. Everything's done - great. I'm gonna go take a rest. You know the video's ready. I was in the program. We were great. We had this ... we thought it was a great record, you know. I still think it was a great record. NY: But then I found out that MTV wasn't going to play the video. And I went...I thought that was the funniest damn video I ever saw in my life. Am I that far out of touch? I know I'm probably the oldest guy on MTV ... but I still ... I'm connected. I know what's happening. [laughing] And then I started thinking, well - you don't know what happening. And that's what the song's about. That's what the song's about. People say. "Don't rock the boat. Don't do that. Don't sing about all these guy's sponsors and all that stuff." That is what I getting at. I thought it was hilariously funny and that everyone would be cracking up on it. And then I found that it wasn't funny at all. They weren't even going to play it. [chuckle] KL: And then on the other hand, MTV turned around and gave you the Best Video of the Year award. NL: Right. I don't know. There's a moral to that story. KL: Wonder what it is? NY: I don't know. Neil Young MTV Interview with Kurt Loder November, 1990

Mansion On The Hill
We were listening to Mansion On The Hill. This is after ... we recorded Mansion On The Hill the first couple days. We tracked for a couple of weeks. The first couple of days we recorded that somewhere - either the second or third day. And then we kept trying to do it. We thought, "Wow, this is a neat song. It should be great. It will really make a great record. So lets play it again and see if we could do it." So we would do it every day - once in the day and once at night. And we'd remember those versions and how we were. And we never could remember doing a good one. Then we started listening back to all of the stuff. And finally we found this one take of Mansion On The Hill and I went, "That's it. It sounds great ... oh, we made a lotta mistakes... but it's still cool." We were trying to do a real cool version that doesn't work. It has a mistake in it that a musician could figure out. Actually, it sounds like Billy hits the wrong note, but it's me. Billy hits the right note. It's pretty weird - we all play a different chord at once - together. And David Briggs, who's producing, says. "Well, let's hear it in all its Ragged Glory then if it's all screwed up, Neil." And I said, "That's it. That's what we're going to call it." So it was David's idea. As usual, I was just in the right place at the right time to pick up someone else's good idea. Neil Young MTV Interview with Kurt Loder November, 1990

Mr. Soul
Well, Mr. Soul I wrote in my little cabin in Laurel Canyon where I was living ... and I wrote it on a newspaper ... felt tip marker I think. And it covered the whole paper. I was getting ready to use it as a kitty litter, but, you know, then I wrote the song on it. Neil Young Don't Be Denied documentary/BBC October, 2008

Revolution Blues
I played it for Crosby and he said, "Don't sing about that. That's not funny." It spooked people. It was spooky times. I knew Charlie Manson, so it spooked the hell out of me. He wasn't what you call a song writer. He was like a song spewer. But he got turned down. He got turned down by record companies. He got turned down by Reprise. I remember I told Mo Ostin, "This guy, you know, he's good. He's just a little out of control." But when he got turned down, that really pissed him off. He didn't take rejection well. It was the ugly side of the Maharishi. You know, there's this one side ... nice flowers and white robes and everything. And then ... something that looks a lot like it, but just isn't it all. Neil Young Don't Be Denied documentary, BBC October, 2008