Neil Young on his inspirations: “I always like to hear BB King and Ray Charles”
It’s easy for anyone to get burned out on a certain style of music whenever they play. Even though they might be able to bend the guitar in ways that no one had ever seen before, there’s a good chance that going back to the same acoustic guitar and working out the same traditional melodies would have many folk musicians wanting to bang their heads against a wall. Neil Young never had that problem when it came time to follow his muse, but he admitted that there were some guitar greats who had yet to wear out their welcome with him.
But to understand Neil Young means knowing not to get tied to any particular sound. Throughout his career, Young’s only muse was himself, and that meant playing whatever best served the song, even if it meant something that would drive his fans up the wall the minute that they heard it. It wasn’t always the most profitable practice, but it did work well for Young, who wanted to stretch himself creatively.
And looking at where he went throughout the 1980s, he never apologised for his ability to get weird. While records like Everybody’s Rockin and Trans are far from everyone’s go-to Neil Young projects, it’s easy to respect him following his own creative spirit rather than trying to shoehorn in some song that sounded vaguely like ‘Heart of Gold’ if it were filtered through another genre.
But judging by how he was brought up, it’s not hard to see why Young thinks that way. His heroes were people like Bob Dylan, and Mr Zimmerman never minced his words about wanting to play whatever he wanted to anyone within earshot, even if it meant making something a bit off the wall. If there was one thing that ran right through every one of Young’s greatest moments, it was his neverending love of the blues.
After all, blues has always been the older brother of rock and roll, and there isn’t a single soul that started the genre who didn’t start off playing those old 12-bar numbers that got people dancing in the clubs. But despite leaving most of his favourites in the past, Young felt that Ray Charles and BB King would never leave his turntable.
While he has tried to stay in the here and now throughout his career, Young said that he always had time for both blues players, saying, “I hardly listen to albums. I just listen to what people make me listen to, because I can’t make that kind of decision. I hear what goes on on the radio in my car or on the jukebox. But I always like to hear BB King [and] Ray Charles.”
Even though both King and Charles are the furthest thing style-wise from what Young has been known for, it’s not shocking to see what he saw in them. There have been thousands of artists that have come and gone in the limelight, but the reason why songs like ‘The Thrill is Gone’ and ‘What’d I Say’ still work is because you can hear the teardrops in their voices as they are singing about what the world is like.
However, Young isn’t looking to paint his masterpieces with the pain of his early years. Like King and Charles, the Canadian icon looks at all of his classics as a way to amplify his pain and search for something better on the horizon.
