A rust-proof legacy: how Neil Young became a 20th-century legend
When Neil Young emerged in the 1960s, rock music was already busy taking genres like country, folk, and even jazz into its stride as the prevalent force in pop music. Innovative artists and producers found new ways of combining established ideas to create nuanced products, leading to runaway evolution in an increasingly commercialised industry.
From this era, several prominent solo artists led the so-called singer-songwriter wave into the 1970s. In that number were the unique talents of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, who were praised for their songwriting excellence above all else. Often credited with similar lyrical talents, Young is also distinguished by his eclectic and innovative instrumental approach.
Born in November 1945 in Toronto, Canada, Young deemed his childhood dream of becoming a musician a necessity since he was ill-suited to any other profession. “I totally have no other talent, and I would be totally out of work if I did anything else,” he told Melody Maker in 1988. “I’ve trained all my life for this race, and now I’m in it,” Young added, thankful for his achievements to date.
Indeed, by 1988, Young had achieved success beyond his wildest dreams. The eight-year-old boy who picked up a plastic ukulele would pinch himself to behold such heights, but over time, a “better ukulele” led to “a banjo ukulele to a baritone ukulele”. By the time Young reached his teens, his dream took form as he idolised Elvis Presley and filled his shelves with as many Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard records as his pocket could provide.
After nailing five strings on the banjo and later six on the guitar, Young formed his first teenage band, The Jades. He jammed frequently with fellow aspiring musicians in the working class district of Fort Rouge, Winnipeg, and then moved on to his second band, The Squires, with whom he released his first recorded material, including the local hit ‘The Sultan’.
In the early 1960s, Young’s musical aspirations led him to Detroit, where he became a crucial figure in the thriving folk-rock scene. It was during this time that he crossed paths with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, and Dewey Martin, with whom he formed Buffalo Springfield in 1966. The band’s eponymous debut album, released in 1967, catapulted Young to fame with the enduring hit ‘For What It’s Worth’, which resonated with the concurrent counterculture movement in opposition to the Vietnam War.
Despite Buffalo Springfield’s success, Young became restless, yearning for independent creativity. Duly, he pursued a solo career, releasing his eponymous debut solo album in 1968. The album showcased Young’s knack for introspective songwriting and laid the groundwork for his subsequent solo endeavours.
The 1960s bled into the ’70s to the tune of Young’s work with the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, but he would be the band’s most intermittent member, often leaving them as the trio CSN while he pursued solo eminence.
After the Gold Rush and Harvest kicked off Young’s most impactful decade with a fine exhibition of singer-songwriter material, these releases mainly consisted of poignant ballads and rural soundscapes delivered over stripped-back piano and guitar instrumentation. ‘Old Man’ from Harvest was a prevalent moment in which Young reflected on fame from the perspective of an old man on his newly purchased Northern California ranch.
In the film Heart of Gold, Young remembered writing ‘Old Man’ at a time when he had become “a rich hippie for the first time”. The “old man” in the song was inspired by ranch hand Louis Avila, who befriended Young and took him for a ride in his Jeep. “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, Louis, just real lucky.’ And he said, ‘Well, that’s the darnedest thing I ever heard.'”
By this point in his career, Young was an established celebrity revered by fellow artists and fans around the world. Such stature may sit well on the shoulders of some pop stars, but Young’s embrace of the countryside seemed to coincide with a conflict between fame and introspection. In his 1974 album, On the Beach, Young continued to develop his sound, welcoming sultry blues infusions and summarised his inner conflict in the salient title track: “I need a crowd of people / But I can’t face them day to day”.
The final pillar ensuring Young’s immortal legacy is his work with Crazy Horse. With a shifting roster, the band has been associated with Young since 1969, offering a fuller sound to live performances and studio sessions when needed. Young has recorded some of his most iconic albums with the band, including Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and Zuma, but their greatest triumph together was 1979’s Rust Never Sleeps. The album’s heavily distorted live recordings, especially ‘Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)’, lay the groundwork for the emergence of grunge in the 1990s, earning Young the moniker ‘Godfather of Grunge’.
Across six decades, Young has remained true to his artistic and sociopolitical vision, forging a unique path of utmost integrity. Whether crafting reclusive ballads, shaking the foundations with Crazy Horse, or using his platform to advocate for social and environmental causes, Young continues to inspire fans around the world with his songwriting command and infallible commitment to authenticity.
