The legendary song Neil Young almost missed out on: “We were done for the day”
There’s an undeniable mystique to music making, which has kept millions of fans engaged for decades. For those who have never spent time in a studio, the glow of the machines and the smoky air represent something closer to a magician’s stage than a place of hard work. Of course, for the most part, that’s true. There are certainly moments when artists have their noses to the wheel, grinding out a song, melody or rhythm. But, perhaps the real moments of awe come from when that artist pulls something out of their hate. It was certainly the case for Neil Young.
In truth, Young was a more dedicated songwriter than a whole host of his contemporaries. He enjoyed being in the studio and was undoubtedly meticulous about his work, often taking hours, days and weeks to complete a song just how he wanted it. But while the road to perfection can often feel arduous, sometimes lightning will strike at the most unsuspecting moment and deliver a storm of brilliance.
‘Like A Hurricane’ is one of Young’s most prized compositions, but its conception happened almost in an instant, with a touch of luck and with only the whiff of an imbibition or two. Young had been recovering from vocal cord surgery when the tune appeared to him. As he tried to shake off the surgery, he took himself out for a night on the tile with his neighbour Taylor Phelps, who said: “Neil, Jim Russell, David Cline and I went to Venturi’s in La Honda. We were really fucked up. Neil had this amazing intense attraction to this particular woman named Gail – it didn’t happen, he didn’t go home with her. We go back to the ranch and Neil started playing. Young was completely possessed, pacing around the room, hunched over a Stringman keyboard pounding out the song.”
As the songwriter explained in his autobiography Waging Heavy Peace: “As was our habit between bars, we had stopped at Skeggs Point Scenic lookout on Skyline Boulevard up on the mountain to do a few lines of coke; I wrote ‘Hurricane’ right there in the back of that giant old car. Then, when I got home, I played the chords on this old Univox Stringman mounted in an old ornate pump-organ body set up in the living room.”
“I played that damn thing through the night,” he concluded. “I finished the melody in five minutes, but I was so jacked I couldn’t stop playing.” If inspiration had struck when Young was without a pen or the space to play his songs all night, he might have missed out on the original kernel of the tune. However, that wouldn’t be the end for ‘Like A Hurricane’ and its lucky ride to the airwaves.
It would take ten days in the studio for the track to reach maturation. Crazy Horse guitarist Poncho Sampedro said of the recording: “We kept playing it two guitars, bass, drums, but it wasn’t in the pocket. Neil didn’t have enough room to solo. He didn’t like the rhythm I was playing on guitar.” It seemed as though the song would never quite hit the necessary heights.
However, as luck would have it, with the studio slowed for the evening, Sampdero would be struck with inspiration: “One day, we were done recording, and the Stringman was sitting there. I started diddling with it, just playing the chords simply, and Neil said, ‘Y’know, maybe that’s the way to do it – let’s try it.’ If you listen to the take on the record, there’s no beginning, no count-off, it just goes woom! They just turned on the machines when they heard us playing again, ’cause we were done for the day. Neil goes, ‘Yeah, I think that’s how it goes. Just like that.’ And that was the take. That’s the only time we ever played it that way.”
Some tunes feel like they have been conjured from thin air, arriving as a poof of smoke that dissipates to leave an everlasting imprint on culture. Others feel closer to being carved out of granite, with each fleck of stone hitting the ground, allowing space for a chord to express itself. But perhaps the best ones are a combination of the two: they are the moment an impressionist painter, after completing millions of dots, misplaces a speck of paint to reveal a whole new message.
There’s a good chance that ‘Like A Hurricane’ could have been lost in the back of that car, forgotten by a drunken Young or deprioritised in the studio after ten days of issues. Thankfully, though, it managed to overcome them all.
