“One of the great guitar solos”: How Neil Young’s ‘Down By The River’ influenced St Vincent
There’s an immediate emotional complexity linked to the works of St Vincent. An enigmatic artist whose world exist within the orbit of our innovative greats; David Bowie, Patti Smith and Talking Heads to name a few. She’s the sort of artist who showcases such a textural depth, that it’s hard to define the essence of her greatness to one attribute truly.
Perhaps St Vincent, whose real name is Anne Erin Clark, displayed this no more plainly than on her 2024 album, All Born Screaming. An album that saw her sharpen her tools as an artist, crystallising her eclecticism in an album that portrays a sense of relatable darkness.
There was one track in particular that Clark continually reworked until reaching what she decided was a suitable final version. Upon listening as a fan, ‘Hell Is Near’ sounds like a delicately crafted song that balances a tangly guitar melody with Clark’s ethereal vocal takes with complete naturalism. But the process was quite the contrary:
“That was a song that if I didn’t bow before it, it just wouldn’t happen,” the singer admitted. “I sang it 100 times. The chorus is bare … and I have to actually be there to sing it and for it to be real and not throw a bunch of ego or bullshit.”
“You’ve got to keep those things in check,” she concluded. “Not every song needs guitar. And the part of me that’s like, ‘Well, I’m a guitar player always in my head, you would not do the best thing for the song.’ You got to do the best thing for the song.”
The constant battle between insular, performance-led thoughts and stepping outside of yourself to view the song as a whole is an ever-present battle within studio recording. However, as Clark rightly points out, the true essence of artistry exists within the ability to channel the latter.
The battle between artistic intricacy and simplicity didn’t just reveal itself of ‘Hell Is Near’. On the record’s 4th track, ‘Flea’, Clark’s vocals tip-toe through crunching distortion and stormy melodies in what is another standout track in her pursuit of delicate darkness.
In the chorus, a guitar line runs behind Clark’s vocals, almost like the silhouette of a car chasing her in the rear view mirror. It’s a menacing and jarring addition to the song, that represents Clark’s desire to create a sound that exists curiously outside of the song.
In an interview with Total Guitar, Clark said: “I was going for a sound where it’s like… wrong? Like, ‘Is this person virtuosic, or do they totally suck?’ That’s kind of where I live. Like, one of the great guitar solos, Neil Young’s ‘Down By The River’ is, what, one note?”.
Clark’s reference speaks to the artistic curiosity that exists within her approach, making her one of the most accomplished and interesting musicians of our time. Undoubtedly capable of plugging in and letting rip on a solo – listen to the record’s 9th track ‘So Many Planets’ – yet more interested in serving the wider purpose of the song. While the two solos that exist on both hers and Young’s work share parallels, they are ultimately characters in two vastly different stories. But where their thread of similarity lies is within their shared interest to convey a profound sense of sonic emotion, way before any interest to individually exist within the spotlight.
