Neil Young
Canadian singer, songwriter and filmmaker (born 1945)
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.- Sugar Mountain (1969)
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?- Broken Arrow, from Buffalo Springfield Again (1967)
- 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?- I Am a Child, from Last Time Around (1968)
- 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.- Ohio, from 4 Way Street (1971)
- 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.
- 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?
- 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
- 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.- Hey Hey, My My, written with Jeff Blackburn; quoted by Kurt Cobain in his suicide note.
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- Joni Mitchell Interview with Rolling Stone (1979)
