"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

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

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

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

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