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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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