Neil Young

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Neil Young in 2009

Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation. Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960, before moving to California in 1966, where he co-founded the band Buffalo Springfield along with Stephen Stills, and later joined Crosby, Stills & Nash as a fourth member in 1969.

Song lyrics[edit]

  • Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
    With the barkers and the colored balloons,
    You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
    Though you're thinking that
    You're leaving there too soon,
    You're leaving there too soon.

With Buffalo Springfield[edit]

  • Did you see them in the river?
    They were there to wave to you.
    Could you tell that the empty quiver,
    Brown skinned Indian on the banks
    That were crowded and narrow,
    Held a broken arrow?
  • There you stood on the edge of your feather
    Expecting to fly.
    While I laughed, I wondered whether
    I could wave goodbye
    Knowin' that you'd gone.
    • Expecting to Fly, from Buffalo Springfield Again
  • I gave to you, now, you give to me
    I'd like to know what you learned.
    The sky is blue and so is the sea
    What is the color, when black is burned?

With Crosby, Stills & Nash[edit]

  • There is a town in north Ontario,
    With dream comfort memory to spare,
    And in my mind I still need a place to go,
    All my changes were there.
  • Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'.
    We're finally on our own.
    This summer I hear the drummin'.
    Four dead in Ohio.
  • If you guarantee the postage, I'll mail you back the key.
    • The Last Trip to Tulsa

Neil Young (1968)[edit]

  • I've been looking for a woman to save my life
    Not to beg or to borrow
    A woman with the feeling of losing once or twice.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)[edit]

  • A dreamer of pictures
    I run in the night.
    You see us together,
    Chasing the moonlight,
    My cinnamon girl.
  • You take my hand,
    I'll take your hand
    Together we may get away
    This much madness is too much sorrow
    It's impossible to make it today.

After the Gold Rush (1970)[edit]

  • Look at Mother Nature on the run
    In the nineteen seventies.
  • I was lying in a burned out basement
    With the full moon in my eyes.
    I was hoping for replacement
    When the sun burst through the sky.
    There was a band playing in my head
    And I felt like getting high.
    I was thinking about what a
    Friend had said
    I was hoping it was a lie.
    • After the Gold Rush
  • But only love can break your heart
    Try to be sure right from the start
    Yes only love can break your heart
    What if your world should fall apart?
  • Southern man better keep your head.
    Don't forget what your good book said.
    Southern change gonna come at last
    Now your crosses are burning fast.
    Southern man.
  • Don't let it bring you down
    It's only castles burning,
    Just find someone who's turning
    And you will come around.
  • When you dance,
    Do your senses tingle?
    Then take a chance?
    In a trance,
    While the lonely mingle
    With circumstance?

Harvest (1972)[edit]

  • See the lonely boy, out on the weekend,
    Tryin' to make it pay.
    Can't relate to joy, he tries to speak and
    Can't begin to say.
  • Will I see you give
    More than I can take?
    Will I only harvest some?
    As the days fly past
    Will we lose our grasp
    Or fuse it in the sun?

Did she wake you up
To tell you that
It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up,
Let me fill your cup
With the promise of a man.

    • Harvest
  • I've been to Hollywood
    I've been to Redwood
    I crossed the ocean
    For a heart of gold.
    I've been in my mind,
    It's such a fine line
    That keeps me searching
    For a heart of gold.
    And I'm getting old.
  • Old man look at my life,
    Twenty four
    And there's so much more
    Live alone in a paradise
    That makes me think of two.
  • Old man take a look at my life
    I'm a lot like you.
    I need someone to love me
    The whole day through.
    Ah, one look in my eyes
    And you can tell that's true.
    • Old Man
  • I've seen the needle and the damage done.
    A little part of it in everyone.
    But every junkie's like a settin' sun.
  • If I was a junkman selling you cars,
    Washing your windows and shining your stars,
    Thinking your mind was my own in a dream
    What would you wonder and how would it seem?
    Living in castles a bit at a time
    The King started laughing and talking in rhyme.
    Singing words, words between the lines of age.
    Words, words between the lines of age.
    • Words (between the lines of age)
  • A while ago somewhere I don't know when
    I was watching a movie with a friend
    I fell in love with the actress
    She was playing a part that I could understand
    A maid

On the Beach (1974)[edit]

  • Oh, baby, that's hard to change,
    I can't tell them how to feel,
    Some get stoned, some get strange,
    But sooner or later, it all gets real.
    Walk on.
    Walk on.
    • Walk On
  • Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon is full of famous stars,
    But I hate them worse than lepers and I'll kill them in their cars.
    • Revolution Blues
  • You can really learn a lot that way,
    It will change you in the middle of the day,
    Though your confidence may be shattered,
    It doesn't matter.
    • For the Turnstiles
  • The world is turning,
    I hope it don't turn away.
    • On the Beach
  • Well, all those people, they think they've got it made,
    But I wouldn't buy, sell, borrow or trade
    Anything I have to be like one of them.
    I'd rather start all over again.
    • Motion Pictures
  • I guess I'll call it sickness gone,
    It's hard to say the meaning of this song.
    • Ambulance Blues, referring to the drug related death of bandmate Danny Whitten
  • You're all just pissin' in the wind,
    You don't know it but you are.
    • Ambulance Blues

Zuma (1975)[edit]

  • I have seen you in the movies,
    And in those magazines at night.
    I saw you on the barstool,
    When you held that glass so tight.
    • Barstool Blues
  • He came dancing across the water with his galleons and guns
    Looking for the new world in that palace in the sun
    • Cortez The Killer
  • On the shore lay Montezuma with his coca leaves and pearls
    In his halls he often wondered of the secrets of the worlds....
    The women all were beautiful, the men stood straight and strong
    They offered life in sacrifice so that others could go on
    Hate was just a legend, war was never known
    The people worked together and they lifted many stones.
    • Cortez The Killer

Tonight's the Night (1975)[edit]

  • A sparkle was in his eye, but his life was in his hand.
    • Tonight's the Night
  • Well, people let me tell you, it sent a chill up and down my spine,
    When I picked up the telephone and heard that he'd died out on the mainline.
    • Tonight's the Night
  • Oh tell me where the answer lies,
    Is it in the notebook behind your eyes?
    • Speakin' Out
  • And the world on a string doesn't mean a thing.
    • World On A String
  • I'm singin' this borrowed tune I took from the Rolling Stones,
    Alone in this empty room, too wasted to write my own.
    • Borrowed Tune
  • Think I'll roll another number for the road,
    I feel able to get under any load,
    Though my feet aren't on the ground,
    I've been standing on the sound
    Of some open-hearted people going down.
    • Roll Another Number (For The Road)
  • I'm not going back to Woodstock for a while,
    Though I long to hear that lonesome hippie smile,
    I'm a million miles away from that helicopter day,
    No, I don't think I'll be goin' back that way.
    • Roll Another Number (For The Road)
  • I've been flyin' down the road,
    And I've been starvin' to be alone,
    Independent from the scene that I've known.
    • Albuquerque
  • He tried to do his best but he could not.
    • Tired Eyes
  • Please take my advice, please take my advice,
    Open up the tired eyes,
    Open up the tired eyes.
    • Tired Eyes

American Stars 'n Bars (1977)[edit]

  • You are like a hurricane
    There's calm in your eye.
    And I'm gettin' blown away
    To somewhere safer
    Where the feeling stays.
    I want to love you but
    I'm getting blown away.
  • It's a cold bowl of chili when love lets you down.
    • Saddle Up the Palomino

Comes a Time (1978)[edit]

  • It's gonna take a lotta love
    To change the way things are
    It's gonna take a lotta love
    Or we won't get too far.
  • It's gonna take a lotta love
    To get us through the night
    It's gonna take a lotta love
    To make things work out right.
    • Lotta Love

Rust Never Sleeps (1978)[edit]

  • My my, hey hey
    Rock and roll is here to stay.
    It's better to burn out
    Than to fade away.
    My my, hey hey.
  • Where the eagle glides ascending
    There's an ancient river bending
    Through the timeless gorge of changes
    Where sleeplessness awaits.
    • Thrasher
  • The king is gone
    But he's not forgotten.
    This is the story
    Of a Johnny Rotten
    It's better to burn out
    Than it is to rust.
    The king is gone
    But he's not forgotten.
    • Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
  • In my little box
    At the top of the stair
    With my Indian rug
    And a pipe to share.
    • Pocahontas
  • Shelter me from the powder
    And the finger
    Cover me with the thought
    That pulled the trigger
    Think of me
    As one you'd never figured
    Would fade away so young
    With so much left undone.

Hawks & Doves (1980)[edit]

  • Live music is better! Bumper stickers should be issued!
    • Union Man

Old Ways (1985)[edit]

  • When I was a younger man,
    Got lucky with a rock 'n' roll band,
    Struck gold in Hollywood,
    All the time I knew I would
    Get back to the country,
    Back where it all began.
    Get back to the country,
    Back in the barn again.
    • Get Back To The Country
  • The economy was getting so bad, I had to lay myself off.
    • Old Ways

Freedom (1989)[edit]

  • There's colors on the street
    Red, white and blue
    People shufflin' their feet
    People sleepin' in their shoes
    But there's a warnin' sign
    On the road ahead
    There's a lot of people sayin'
    We'd be better off dead.
    Don't feel like Satan,
    But I am to them.
    So I try to forget it,
    Any way I can.
  • We got a thousand points of light
    For the homeless man.
    We got a kinder, gentler,
    Machine gun hand.
    We got department stores
    And toilet paper
    Got styrofoam boxes
    For the ozone layer.
    Got a man of the people,
    Says keep hope alive
    Got fuel to burn,
    Got roads to drive.
    • Rockin' in the Free World

Weld (1991)[edit]

  • Welfare mothers make better lovers.
    • Welfare Mothers

Harvest Moon (1992)[edit]

  • I never believed in much,
    But I believed in you.
    • From Hank to Hendrix

Mirror Ball (1995)[edit]

  • Need distraction
    Need romance and candlelight
    Need random violence
    Need entertainment tonight
    Need the evidence
    Want the testimony of
    Expert witnesses
    On the brutal crimes of love.
    • I'm the Ocean

Greendale (2003)[edit]

  • And we'll be watching you
    No matter what you do
    And you can do your part
    By watchin' others too.
    • Leave the Driving

Quotes about[edit]

  • Neil, you know, was this rock & roller who was coming around to folk music through Bob Dylan. Of course. Anyway, Neil came out to the club, and we liked him immediately. He was the same way he is now – this offhanded, dry wit. And you know what his ambition was at the time? He wanted a hearse, and a chicken farm. And when you think of it, what he’s done with his dream is not that far off. He just added a few buffalo. And a fleet of antique cars. He’s always been pretty true to his vision.

External links[edit]

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