The classic Neil Young song Bob Dylan couldn’t stand: “I used to hate it when it came on the radio”
Say what you like about Bob Dylan, but the legendary musician has always stayed true to his core values as an artist.
While some of those will see a whole swathe of his audience unable to really sit through an entire performance, owing to his rejection of the idea that a legacy act should play the hits, largely Dylan has always maintained that it is the right of the artist to choose what they do at any one time, and an audience can either love or hate it.
It has meant that, across the years, when he has seen other artists—musicians whom he respects deeply—go the other way and write songs that he thinks are pandering to “cop-outs” or, more precisely, seem to emulate his own style, he has called them out. It’s part of the reason he ended up severely disliking a Neil Young track many would count among his best.
Bob Dylan and Neil Young have been excellent friends for a long time. First duetting together in the 1970s, the duo often covered one another’s songs and shared many good times on stage. It has been a friendship built on mutual respect and craft, with both championing a folk-rock style that saw them excel as the voices of their generations. But there’s one Neil Young song that Dylan has always hated.
Dylan is undoubtedly one of the most influential musicians in history. The freewheelin’ troubadour broke ground with his folk styling and narrative songwriting and quickly gained fame, fortune and widespread notoriety. He eventually chucked it all in when he ‘went electric’.
The trouble with carving out a path of success for yourself is that, more often than not, using your blueprints, many will find a similar way through to the holy grail. Of course, there were singer-songwriters before Dylan, but none caught the spotlight quite like Mr Zimmerman, and it encouraged many others to get themselves centre stage, too.
It meant that a sudden influx of folk-rock acts was being snapped up by nationwide record labels, providing Dylan ample competition for his folk-rock crown. Overall, the singer took it in his stride, but soon enough, he became impatient with what he saw as deliberate copying of his work and style. During the 1960s, many people followed Dylan’s roadmap to success, not just in their style but in their songwriting, too, with The Beatles being the most famous adopters of his personal narrative structure for songs—something the band were happy to acknowledge.
As the new decade broke and the 1970s began in earnest, Dylan’s initial impact was becoming buried in the collective consciousness; the songwriter grew a little more impatient with his influence not being as widely acknowledged as it should be. One song, in particular, pushed Dylan over the edge, “The only time it bothered me that someone sounded like me was when I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, in about ’72, and the big song at the time was ‘Heart of Gold’,” the singer told Spin.
The song is one of Young’s biggest hits, hitting the number one spot on the Billboard 100 and making Neil Young the first Canadian to do so. But for Dylan, the closeness of the track to his own style, now a little less wanted than before, was too similar: “I used to hate it when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I listened to ‘Heart of Gold.’ I think it was up at number one for a long time, and I’d say, ‘Shit, that’s me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me’,” he added.
Vocally, of course, Young’s tone is far removed from Dylan’s changeable output, but the similarities in style are there for all to see and hear. That may have something to do with the song’s conception because, as it turns out, Young was never really a fan of the song, despite its success or, perhaps, because of it. “This song put me in the middle of the road,” wrote Young in the liner notes for Decades. In reference to the ‘ditch trilogy’ of albums that followed, he said, “Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there.”
‘Heart of Gold’ habitually splits Neil Young fans down the middle. Either it’s a track built on deeply rich sentiment and the simplicity of its metaphor (mining for a heart of gold) or a commercially driven platitude akin to a Hallmark card. Whatever side you pick, just know that not only does Bob Dylan hate the biggest song of Young’s career, but Neil Young does, too.
Is ‘Heart of Gold’ Neil Young’s best song?
If one song sealed Neil Young’s transformation from counter-culture stalwart to a new rock and roll poster boy then it has to be ‘Heart of Gold’. Another brilliant song from the Harvest album, which could have easily dominated this list, sees Young transcend rock and roll and turn pop, if only for a short while.
Featuring backing vocals from none other than James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, the song shot Young into stardom and was later despised by the songwriter. But while it gained him fame and fortune, the song is now considered one of Young’s more mainstream works. For an artist who has spent most of his career fighting against such a current, one can easily assume that, for the most part, it shouldn’t be considered his best.
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