Neil Young’s fascination with the moon: “That’s just my religion”
There is no denying Neil Young‘s status as one of the most respected and prolific songwriters in modern music. After releasing his first album in 1968, he has recorded 36 more over the course of his career, each of which has a distinct guitar sound, his beautiful high-tenor singing voice in full force, and deeply personal lyrics.
When we consider some of these lyrics, themes show themselves as suspected topics run through different tracks and albums. Often, these themes are relatively predictable, as, like many musicians, Young speaks about love and loss in a poetic way, providing a branch for those who may not talk about their feelings to have them addressed in the most loving method. However, another common theme that can be found running throughout his music is the moon.
In his book, A Strange Celestial Road, trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah talks about the link between religion and music. “It makes sense to me that if the Creator would send anyone here, it would be a person who mastered music, the planet’s universal language,” he said, “Sound is the beginning of all creation, the Nommo, the Om, and the Nam that direct our lives…”
This is an interesting concept. If God were to send someone to Earth to spread the word of their truth, would it make sense for that person to be a musician? Given how pivotal a role music plays throughout all religions, people have constantly tried to articulate their feelings towards the world, its creation, and what our existence in it means in music, so there is a universal language already in place.
While Neil Young may not immediately stand out as a religious musician, he certainly let his spiritual beliefs trickle down into both his music and the way he conducted business. He didn’t follow a specific religion, but like in Aztec mythology, Incan mythology, and various other religious practices, he saw wisdom in the moon and, in a sense, worshipped it.
People who have worked with Young in the past can attest to this, and if you’re still not sure, simply look at his run of 26 songs that pay homage to the moon in some way. This could be done in an obvious way, such as with ‘Harvest Moon’, or more subtly, for instance, in tracks like ‘Helpless’, where Young says, “Blue, blue windows behind the stars, yellow moon on the rise.”
Young admits that he does treat the moon like a religious deity. “Before there was organised religion, there was the moon,” he said, “The Indians knew about the moon. Pagans followed the moon. I’ve followed it for as long as I can remember, and that’s just my religion.”
He continued, “I’m not a practicing anything, I don’t have a book that I have to read. It can be dangerous working in a full moon atmosphere, because if there are things that are going to go wrong, they can really go wrong. But that’s great, especially for rock n roll.”
