Kim Gordon’s favourite Neil Young song: “An amazing, eye-opening experience”
Upon listening to the wildly experimental sounds of Kim Gordon or her old band Sonic Youth, you might hypothesise her influences as being full of obscure avant-garde artists from times gone by. While Gordon has always been indebted to youthful days spent at the heart of New York’s underground music scene, rubbing shoulders with heroes of the no-wave movement, she also harbours a healthy appreciation for many mainstream songwriters. Namely, the folk-rock mastery of Canadian songwriter Neil Young has always provided solace to Gordon.
By the time Gordon formed Sonic Youth in 1981, setting the songwriter on a path to musical greatness, Neil Young was already a colossal name in North American music. Having first emerged during the counterculture age of the 1960s as a member of Buffalo Springfield, Young soon became a defining songwriter of the 1970s through seminal solo releases like 1972’s Harvest in addition to the work he created as a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. An often overlooked aspect of his work, however, is Young’s penchant for experimentation and genre exploration.
In fact, around the same time that Sonic Youth started out, Young was in trouble with his label boss, David Geffen, for creating the 1983 album Trans – a highly experimental electronic record which sounded unlike anything Young had ever created prior. Young’s constant ability to subvert expectations and follow his own path certainly places him in a similar category to Kim Gordon, who has always operated by her own desires, too. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Gordon is a lifelong fan of Young.
During a 2020 appearance on BBC 6 Music, the former Sonic Youth musician collated some of her all-time favourite songs. Along with expected inclusion from the worlds of punk and alternative rock, in the form of artists like The Fall, Television, and PJ Harvey, Gordon also made sure to include her favourite Neil Young track, ‘Cortez the Killer’. Released on the 1975 album Zuma, created in collaboration with Crazy Horse, the song is a seven-and-a-half minute epic, drawing upon influences of hard rock and blues, in addition to Young’s interest in history and the conquest of the Aztec Empire.
The song is an expectedly excellent choice from Gordon, representing the wild, experimental aspects of Young’s extensive discography. In true punk fashion, the song was even banned under the regime of General Franco in Spain, largely for its less than complimentary take on Spanish colonialism and war crimes. Growing up on a healthy diet of musical rebellion and punk ethics, Gordon could certainly recognise the power of such a defiant tune.
Seemingly, Gordon’s appreciation for Neil Young was reciprocated. Back in 1990, the ‘Cortez the Killer’ songwriter invited Sonic Youth to perform with him during the Ragged Glory tour. Recalling the experience in her memoir, Girl in a Band, Gordon shared, “Opening for Neil was an amazing, eye-opening experience. We were all big longtime fans of his, and it felt like our first real brush with the mainstream.”
The tour did not necessarily go to plan, with the musician explaining, “Of course, this prompted every music journalist to ask us, ‘So what’s it like to finally be in the mainstream?’ In reply, I can say that Neil Young tour proved that Sonic Youth actually wasn’t in the mainstream, and if we were, the mainstream hated us!” Nevertheless, she confirms that “Neil was always incredibly supportive of us,” reflecting the songwriter’s consistent aptitude for keeping his ear to the ground on the lookout for the greatest new groups rising through the ranks.
On the face of it, Neil Young and Kim Gordon might seem an unlikely pairing, but it seems as though the two incredible songwriters are natural allies within the music industry, each pursuing fresh, exciting, and experimental styles regardless of pushback from the industry or onlookers. Artists as prolific and revolutionary as those must always stick together.
