The left-handed hi-hat at the centre of Neil Young’s ‘Old Man’
The recording process behind ‘Old Man’ is legendary. Laid up with a severe back issue, Neil Young could do nothing but strum his guitar. Out of that pain came thoughts of growing old, and with just his guitar, Young crafted most of the arrangement for ‘Old Man’ to feature just himself. In true singer-songwriter fashion, this would be the way that Young would prefer to play the song for the next decade, often appearing in the solo acoustic set of his concerts.
But there were some additional contributions that were made to the track. Most notably, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt contributed to the song’s backing vocals, harmonising with Young during the song’s chorus sections. Both Taylor and Ronstadt were in Nashville to record appearances on The Johnny Cash Show when they were lured to help Young flesh out ‘Old Man’.
“I can’t remember why Neil wanted me to sing with him,” Ronstadt later recalled. “I guess he just figured I was there and could do it – but we went in there and they were doing ‘Heart of Gold’ and ‘Old Man’ and I thought they were such beautiful songs. I loved them.” Ronstadt even took a page out of Young’s old band, Buffalo Springfield, for her vocal lines.
“And I knew how to do harmonies. I’d listened to the Buffalo Springfield harmonies and I knew how to get that 7th they always used,” Ronstadt added. “I don’t think we started until midnight and it was dawn when we came out, and it was snowing – we came out to this beautiful snow storm in the rising sun. It was really exciting. I just thought I’ve been part of something really wonderful.”
Not every musician involved had such a warm and fuzzy feeling about the session. Drummer Kenny Buttrey was ready to lay down his part when Young came to him with a request: he didn’t want him to play at all, and when he did, Buttrey was only to use his left hand on the hi-hat. Buttrey managed to convince Young otherwise but came out of the session shaking his head. “He hires some of the best musicians in the world and has them play as stupid as they possibly can,” Buttrey reportedly said.
Check out ‘Old Man’ down below.
