‘Motion Pictures’: Neil Young’s ultimate ode to being cheated on
After the release of 1972’s Harvest, a global hit that topped the US charts and became the year’s best-selling album, Neil Young seemed poised to continue riding the wave of success. However, life had other plans, and the joy of that period soon gave way to a much darker chapter—one that neither he nor anyone else could have foreseen.
One thing that made an impact on Young was the heartbreaking death of former Crazy Horse guitarist and close friend Danny Whitten in 1972. Whitten was meant to be in The Stray Gators, Young’s new backing band, who were supporting him on the extensive Harvest tour in early 1973, but his tragic passing from an alcohol/diazepam overdose crushed the Canadian.
The tour quickly descended into chaos, plagued by heavy drinking and drug use that created tension within The Stray Gators. Neil Young’s guitar playing was subpar, and his decision to perform unfamiliar songs was met with criticism from audiences. These and other challenges made the period a low point for Young, leaving him depressed and frustrated. Out of this tumultuous experience came the live album Time Fades Away, a record Young has famously referred to as his least favourite in his catalogue. The sombre album became the first instalment of his aptly named ‘Ditch Trilogy’, a trio of works defined by their profoundly bleak and introspective themes.
This tour wasn’t the only thing that affected Young. From late 1970 to 1975, Young was in a relationship with actor Carrie Snodgress. She starred in the hit comedy-drama Diary of a Mad Housewife in 1970, earned an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Actress’ and won a Golden Globe for her performance. Young was so inspired by her in the film that he wrote ‘A Man Needs a Maid’ from Harvest about it. Together, they had a son, Zeke, in 1972, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and Snodgress left her acting career for years to care for him.
Young and Snodgress’ relationship bloomed in the early years and was blissful, but it wouldn’t take long before it hit the rocks, and it became notoriously tumultuous thanks to the influence of drugs and alcohol. As we know, Young was in a sticky personal patch during this era, which made the quality of his work and his prolific nature remarkable. Yet, Snodgress’ infidelities exacerbated the situation to new emotional lows. He left her for good in 1975, and the heartbreak is the throughline of his classic but devastating album from that year, Zuma.
However, before he confronted the fact, he had already written his ultimate break-up song in ‘Motion Pictures’ from 1974’s On the Beach. It’s the second album in the ‘Ditch Trilogy’, which features a musician in one of his most depressive states ever. The track is undoubtedly one of the most heartbreaking on the record, and in it, he reflects on the serenity of the start of their relationship and the melancholy of its end. Even more astounding is that he wrote the song before discovering her affairs.
In Jimmy McDonough’s biography Shakey, Young admits that he was also screwing around and notes his feelings were absurd about Snodgress’ infidelities given his own. However, he feels the alienation of the song, in lines such as “Well, all those headlines / they just bore me now” and “I’d rather start all over again”, emerged due to him subconsciously feeling that something was going on. In the book, he says the track was written “before I knew – when I could sense”.
After On the Beach, Young linked back up with the great Elliot Mazer, the producer of Harvest, to lay down another acoustic record. That became Homegrown. It contained direct references to the break-up with Snodgress, and due to it being so personal, even for him, Young decided to shelve it. He instead released Tonight’s the Night, an effort deemed one of his finest and the last in the ‘Ditch Trilogy’. He wouldn’t release Homegrown until 2020.
