Is the Neil Young song ‘Down by the River’ about femicide?
‘Down by the River’ was one of the first songs Neil Young released as a solo artist and the last single of his early golden period not to chart. While it’s impossible to specifically decipher why it failed to gain traction upon release, one possible reason is the theme the song addressed in its lyrics which proved to be a barrier to its commercial appeal.
Following in the American folk and blues traditions of the murder ballad, the track concerns an angry lover who felt taken “for a ride” by his “baby”, and so he “shot her dead” by the river of the title. This narrative invokes the early 1960s standard ‘Hey Joe’, which was most famously covered by Jimi Hendrix in 1966, in depicting the merciless killing of a woman who’s been unfaithful to its male protagonist.
The brutally macho sentiments of these two songs is hard to reconcile with their artists’ apparently progressive personas, or the masterful musicianship they exemplify. ‘Down on the River’ features an expansive ensemble performance with the band Crazy Horse, and one of Young’s rawest, most brilliant guitar solos.
Young played down the idea that his single describes an act of femicide at the time of its release. “There’s no real murder in it,” he told journalist Robert Greenfield, claiming instead that the piece was an allegorical cry for help. But the lyrics themselves are unequivocal. In the plainest terms possible, a woman is killed by a gunshot.
So, does Young’s denial still stand?
Well, the song’s writer later admitted that its meaning is exactly what it sounded like when introducing it at a gig in New Orleans in 1984. “I’d like to sing you a song about a guy who had a lot of trouble controlling himself,” Young started. “He let the dark side come through a little too bright.”
He then painted a vivid picture of the place where the murder in his song took place. “One afternoon, he took a little stroll down through a field and through a forest ’til he could hear the water running along there.”
After which Young moved onto the act itself. “He met his woman down there. And he told her she’d been cheating on him one too many times. And he reached down in his pocket and he pulled a little revolver out. Said, ‘Honey, I hate to do this, but you pushed me too far.’”
It’s important to recognise that Young introduces the story of the song in the third person while prefacing his introduction by commenting negatively on his protagonist’s emotional state. He places himself some distance from the fictional man’s actions.
Nevertheless, his insistence on relating this tale of femicide in such a detached way, in a sense glorifying the song as an act of dramatic fiction, doesn’t cast Young in an especially flattering light.
He’s far from the only male artist of modern times to indulge in the fantasy of femicide. Nevertheless, in Neil Young’s case, this theme and his handling of it feel especially out of character, for somebody that typically carries themselves gracefully.
