How a power cut completely altered Neil Young’s classic ‘Cortez the Killer’
When Far Out interviewed Graham Nash, the established musician was happy to talk about his adoration for Neil Young as a songwriter, but not as a performer.
“I think Neil is very smart. I do respect his connection with what he calls ‘the muse’ of his music. He follows that intently, and I understand that, and I respect that,” said Nash, “One of the things I don’t quite like is all the people who surround him, all the stage technicians, all the sound technicians, all the lighting technicians, to have a tour for six weeks in the summer all of a sudden cancelled because of whatever reason Neil wants to cancel it, all of those people can’t find a job, because the rest of the touring family are already out and running. Now what do they do?”
The point is, Neil Young is a man who follows his instinct when it comes to anything in his career. It can be a selfish way to think, as Nash highlights, but it also means that if you’re a fan, when you listen to Young’s music, you’re only ever going to get something that Young genuinely feels passionate about and backs wholeheartedly.
It’s this mindset that means Young isn’t afraid to push the boat out when it comes to picking different themes to write about. The majority of the time, these themes come from real places, as Young would write about politics, relationships, and his general view towards the world; however, there were some instances when he went a bit more abstract than that. His track ‘Cortez the Killer’ is a great example, given that the song has no ties to Young and is instead about a historical figure.
The track revolves around Hernán Cortés, who was a Spanish conqueror who took over the Aztec empire. Despite the Aztecs welcoming Cortez and his army, he still took their leader hostage, killed a lot of his people and built what we now know as Mexico City with slave labour. People have read into the track a great deal to try and work out how Young is connected to it, but he has confirmed the narrative isn’t in any way tied to his own experiences.
“It’s not about information. The song is not meant for them to think about me,” said Young, “The song is meant for people to think about themselves. The specifics about what songs are about are not necessarily constructive or relevant. A lot of stuff I make up because it came to me.”
In case you’re still not sure, Young’s ex-wife, who’s also a songwriter, Pegi, reaffirmed that personal experiences didn’t inspire the track. She said in this instance, it was all a story inspired by historical events. “I think there’s little kernels of our lives in many of our songs, unless you’re writing ‘Cortez’ or something,” she said, “It must have been in another life my husband was an Incan warrior.”
You can tell that this was a song which Young didn’t have personal ties to, as it seems to be a track he wasn’t sure how to finish. There was a powercut while he was recording it, which meant that the final verse was lost. Rather than go back and re-record said verse, Young decided to just leave the song as it was. He might not have been so content on leaving a song unfinished if it came from a personal place.
While Young has never revealed what the actual ending to the song is, when he went on tour in 2003, he added the line “Ship is breaking up on the rocks. Sand beach… so close.”
