The 1993 song that took Neil Young a decade to finish
Songwriting tends to be an ever-evolving process for writers. Even though the label normally comes calling to see when an album is finished, songs can normally get mulled over until the writer finally has something they are comfortable releasing.
While Neil Young may be one of the more prolific writers in rock history, one song had to stay in the vaults for years before finally getting a proper release.
When looking at Young’s record for phenomenal tracks, though, he doesn’t necessarily care where the mix is. Throughout some of his best albums, Young has made it a habit of having songs decidedly dishevelled, including moments that are out of tune but suit the moment just right on albums like Tonight’s the Night and Zuma.
That commitment to authenticity over perfection became one of Young’s defining characteristics. He was often more interested in capturing a feeling than delivering a polished performance, even if it meant sacrificing commercial appeal.
As Young started to work into the 1980s, his need to explore different genres led to him going down roads that no one would have expected. After getting signed to Geffen Records, Young went on a strange run of albums that saw him toying with what made him a celebrity, to begin with, from the synthesised Trans to the rockabilly sounds of Everybody’s Rockin.
Having gone through different creative wilderness periods, Young would later return to the rootsy rock that made him a star. Across albums like Old Ways, Young would get back in touch with the sounds of country music, keeping in line with the kind of music he made on records like Harvest and with Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
Even though the album would see its fair share of highlights from this period of his career, one of the more celebrated songs from the sessions didn’t even appear on the final album. Since he was more concerned with putting together a decent record, the song ‘Depression Blues’ remained unreleased for over a decade, first appearing when Young cut charity albums for the first Farm Aid relief concerts.
While Young was still in the midst of a lawsuit with his record company for not delivering rock and roll albums, he was about to gain a second wind as one of the forefathers of the following cultural movement. With the release of Freedom, Young became the paternal figure to grunge rockers worldwide, making songs that spoke to the same disenfranchised young man that Pearl Jam did.
Although Young would eventually cut a record with every member of Pearl Jam sans Eddie Vedder, the studio version of ‘Depression Blues’ would turn up on the compilation entitled Lucky Thirteen, comprising songs from Young’s years at Geffen. While ‘Depression Blues’ may have been left off of the final album, it’s easy to see where it fits in with the country aesthetic of the rest of the project.
Since Young was putting together Farm Aid, it’s clear that the rural struggles are on his mind in the song, painting the picture of a lowly farmer trying to make ends meet amid The Great Depression in the 1930s. Although this may not have been the kind of Neil Young material that the label was expecting, it’s sometimes better to give the people what they need rather than what they want.
The song’s themes also aligned naturally with the mission of Farm Aid. By focusing on economic hardship and resilience, Young highlighted issues that remained relevant to struggling agricultural communities decades later.
Although ‘Depression Blues’ spent years hidden away in the archives, its eventual release proved that some songs simply need the right moment to be appreciated. Far from being a forgotten leftover, it stands as another example of Young’s ability to combine historical storytelling with empathy for ordinary people, regardless of when listeners finally got the chance to hear it.
