10 songs that reveal the true Neil Young

‘Ordinary People’

A long-time live staple for Young fans ever since the late 1980s the track ‘Ordinary People’ finally got its full release in 2007 and took up much of side three of Chrome Dreams II doing it.

At 18 minutes long, the track’s length is somehow more than justified. Young opens fire on several areas of society, most notably Ronald Reagan. Over nine verses of visceral imagery, Young takes aim at the former President’s administration, depicting ordinary people coping with the financial hardship his administration presided over.

‘Rockin’ in the Free World’

Quite possibly one of Young’s most famous compositions came about in curious circumstances. Young had spent the previous decade being deliberately obtuse, even provoking his record company to sue him for releasing music that was “un-representative of Neil Young”.

Naturally, as the singer tends to do, he bounced back and delivered one of his standout albums of all time, Freedom and his most commercial single, too, in ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’. It’s not his finest work, but it’s hard not to tap along, and it perfectly reveals the kind of rebellious attitude that Young has put into his entire career.

‘Cinnamon Girl’

Only a songwriter like Neil Young could pull off a song like ‘Cinnamon Girl’. The track has long been touted as one of the tracks he wrote while suffering from a fever and it begs the question—what kind of incredible songs was he writing when he was well?

‘Cinnamon Girl’ was the first track to be recorded of the fever four that also included ‘Down by the River’, ‘Cowgirl in the Sand’ and ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’ and it is one of Young’s most beloved and covered tracks.

In the liner notes for Decade, Young said of the song: “Wrote this for a city girl on peeling pavement coming at me through Phil Ochs’ eyes playing finger cymbals. It was hard to explain to my wife.” The track is undoubtedly one of Young’s finest, complete with searing guitar and untethered vocals, it’s the distillation of what makes Neil Young an artistic hero. 

‘Pocahontas’

Young has an acute understanding of how the present-day political tensions he finds himself in are rooted in history. The patterns of behaviour that has led to power being abused time and time again are noticed throughout Young’s work and in essence, is what makes him such an active campaigner against bureaucracy to this day.

In ‘Pocahontas’ he wears those references on his sleeve, making no bones about the American massacre of the country’s native landowners. While many artists would feel as though they need to tread carefully around the referencing of history, Young doesn’t waver because he knows how to veil his criticisms in nuance. The track is laid on the sort of campfire melodies that rural Americans pride themselves on and would gladly harmonise too, inviting them to sing about their historic atrocities arm in arm. It’s a track that not only finely displays the songwriting brilliance of Young, but the intellectual superiority upon which he likes to operate.

‘Cowgirl in the Sand’

One of the songs Neil Young wrote while struggling with an incessant fever, ‘Cowgirl in the Sand’ is a true tour de force despite being a comparatively unknown song. It is a searing moment of Neil Young’s repertoire, largely because of the wrenching guitar from Danny Whitten. “Nobody played guitar with me like that,” Young says of the guitarist, who passed away after a heroin overdose in 1972. “That rhythm, when you listen to ‘Cowgirl In The Sand’, he keeps changing. Billy and Ralph will get into a groove and everything will be going along and all of a sudden Danny’ll start doing something else.

“He just led those guys from one groove to another, all within the same groove. So when I played those 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. A really great second guitar player, the perfect counterpoint to everything else that was happening.”

‘Old Man’

By 1970, Young had shaken off the shackles of working within Buffalo Springfield and was quickly marking himself out as a contender for the title of America’s songwriter. It was during this time that Young made the move and bought a plot of land in Northern California and turned it into Broken Arrow Ranch, where he still lives to this day.

When he was buying a plot of land, he met Louis Avila, who showed him around the estate: “Louis took me for a ride in this blue Jeep,” Young said in 2005.

“He gets me up there on the top side of the place, and there’s this lake up there that fed all the pastures, and he says, ‘Well, tell me, how does a young man like yourself have enough money to buy a place like this?’ And I said, ‘Well, just lucky, Louie, just real lucky.’ And he said, ‘Well, that’s the darndest thing I ever heard.’ And I wrote this song for him.”

‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Young never really tried to put on the air of a rock and roller. Largely because he inherently was one. When you’ve been moulded by the shape of rock then you don’t find the need to try and match up to it. That fact allowed Young’s vocals to remain delicate and vulnerable.

It also allowed for songs like the beautiful ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ from the 1970s, After The Gold Rush, to be given the charming performance they deserved. One of Young’s most widely covered songs, the track has risen beyond his rock star status and is fast becoming an American standard. Written for Graham Nash, it showcases how Young could empathise with anybody’s situation.

‘Southern Man’

The paradox of Young’s character is perhaps summed up no finer than in this seminal track. The sweet affability of the harmony gives way to antagonising lyrics in what is a sonic version of a well-gripped but threatening handshake, designed to prepare you for the unflinching truth that will soon follow. 

It’s an explicit takedown of historic America and the Deep South, with unfiltered referencing to “bullwhips cracking” on the backs of slaves and the “crosses” set alight and “burning fast” by the Ku Klux Klan. Young is angry, ashamed and unafraid of sharing harsh truths with his audience. “Southern change gonna come at last”, Young sings in the chorus, to slightly twist his scathing attack with upheaval but aside from that small change of delivery, the entire track is representative of Young’s brutal, yet morally informed honesty.

‘On The Beach’

In music, there’s an age old dilemma for artists. Providings fans songs they want, while also fulfilling your own artistic endeavours. I’m not here to say Young didn’t like Harvest, but there was an ease with which it could be digested by fans, that he would have undoubtedly been aware of. So upon its release and roaring success, Young was provided an opportunity to double down on his sense of self and with his follow up album On The Beach, he took it.

The title track was patient, brooding and lyrically dark, painting the picture of a disconnected and lonesome protagonist. But while many fans preferred Young as the voice of their romantic evening soundtracks, the fact is, this was as truthful a window into the heart of Young as any other of his works. It may have been darker, but it was observationally astute and truthfully paints the picture of a man that’s hard to understand fully. By this point, he was hitting the soaring heights of rock and roll fame, a place well known for isolating its subjects and if you listen closely to Young on this album, it’s clear we as fans had thrust him into that place of loneliness.

‘Harvest Moon’

Underneath the furrowed brow sits a true romantic. While imaging Young in the depths of romance is akin to picturing your family member kiss someone, there’s no doubt he experienced love in its rawest form for his ability to pen a full-hearted ballad is as good as anyone’s. In fact, in choosing songs that portray the dewy-eyed sentimentalism of our most beloved songwriter I was actually spoiled for choice. But there’s simply no avoiding ‘Harvest Moon’ as his finest romantic take.

And if you think it’s Young just feigning at romanticism for commercial gain you’d be sorely mistaken. Firstly, for the mere fact that commercial gain has never been his motive, and secondly, on the basis that he’s regarded it as one of his favourites. He said: “That’s one of my favourite songs, because it’s a real song about real feelings”. It’s that very simple instinctual pull that makes the song such a compelling and easy listen, it feels as though Young’s natural feelings are oozing from both the melody and lyric, proving that deep down is an artist who understands the truest and most real experience of love.