“We screwed up”: the two songs that Neil Young would delete from history
There has always been a traditional disposition about Neil Young, even long before modern technology threatened to be the death of art. While some approach music with drive and fervour, Young prefers a mellower attitude, knowing that if it’s right, it will come to him naturally. In his mind, the moment something becomes tryhard, failure begins to creep in.
From shunning Spotify for killing the quality of music to purchasing his own rustic barn to record material in, Young has naturally accrued the ‘old school’ title over time. He prefers to create music as if it already exists in the magic of the air, free and weightless in the ambience of its pure and unnatural state. From a distance, it might seem that Young’s disdain stems from a deep-seated hatred for the craft, but in reality, it’s the opposite.
This attitude isn’t reserved for technology discourse, either; Young doesn’t care much for sensationalism or fads and regards anything slightly off-centre or pretentious when placed under the guise of something else as a slanderous sign of the times. He even once made a jab at the current state of rock ‘n’ roll, claiming that most music under that label is actually just poorly executed pop music.
However, this has more to do with his disapproval of anything commercial, especially when it comes to music as an art form. In his mind, the music of today appears to be “a pale resemblance” to what it once was, and that “real” rock ‘n’ roll is “over”. It might seem bleak, but there are some truths to Young’s cynicism, even if sometimes it doesn’t come across as a little standoffish for no reason at all.
One of the biggest indicators that Young’s disgruntled remarks are more often than not worth listening to is that he doesn’t regard himself as immune in today’s evil digital-first world. In fact, his inner perfectionism often takes a front seat when looking back at his own discography, which is why he once looked back at two of his previous efforts—’Woodstock’ and ‘Southern Man’—with a deeply critical eye.
Discussing ‘Woodstock’, Young thought that he and his CSNY bandmates failed to adhere to his ‘do not be tryhard’ mantra, which impacted the quality of the piece. While discussing the song with Howard Stern, the musician said they “were just hung up on making everything perfect,” which resulted in them making another recording. “[Stephen Stills’] overdub vocal is great, but the original vocal was funky like the guitar was funky,” he added, saying that he didn’t realise his mistake until later when he listened to the original version again: “I thought, ‘Oh, we screwed up. We were trying to be too good.'”
Interestingly, his reasons for disliking certain parts of ‘Southern Man’ are slightly different but still demonstrate his keen eye for pinpointing fallbacks. According to Young, ‘Southern Man’ was too on the nose, which made it appear potentially “accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, too easy to misconstrue”.
‘Southern Man’ didn’t just land slightly off with Young; it gained criticism from many, including musicians Lynyrd Skynyrd, who responded with their hometown-loving ‘Sweet Home Alabama’. However, Young clearly sided with his Southern rock aficionados and dismissed it as one of his more inferior efforts on account of its inability to give credence to others’ cultural values.
