And I'm not sure that's a good thing.
My college roommate and bandmate loved to sing Neil Young, including this one. I only half paid attention to the lyrics of these songs, noticing that they had evocative phrases and interesting rhymes. For the longest time I just assumed that if I took the time to pay attention I would see the connecting thread of the full artistic creation. Even after hearing his live recording of "Sugar Mountain," in which he declares he wrote over a hundred verses and kept the best four I still thought those four would mean something together, that there would be a theme or story.
The Beatles would do such things with "I Am The Walrus," but one could always tell they were having fun with it themselves, winking at you.
But there seldom is with Young. That was true of many folk-rockers in the day, stringing together evocations that only sounded significant, but that was Neil's entire deal. So enjoy anyway.
12 comments:
I'm partial to the lyrics of "Old Man", but maybe I'm overly sentimental.
Up until 10 years ago, I was able to mildly appreciate a few of his (and his various groups') songs in passing. This meant I wouldn't change the radio station because one was playing. THEN someone forced me to actually listen to some of his 'work' because she thought his lyrics were meaningful to events in our family's lives. I've actively disliked him since. When his lyrics are partially coherent, they are self-centered in a maudlin way and often mean-spirited.
@Galen -- I mean no disrespect to you, but "Old Man" was used by this person to represent a son's accusation of all his problems being due to his father's example. It can certainly be interpreted differently.
“Almost … cut my hair ….
Happened just the other day
It was gettin’ … kinda long
Coulda said it was in my way….”
I think that may be David Crosby, but the lyrics always cracked me up for their absurd self-important incoherence.
Texan99 on a substitute device until FedEx gets it together.
Truly, though, I enjoy much of Neil Young’s music and still listen to it often. I don’t demand much of pop music lyrics.
Assistant Village Idiot: For the longest time I just assumed that if I took the time to pay attention I would see the connecting thread of the full artistic creation
It's about the impermanence of time, and how the answer isn't found in holding on to things, but in understanding through life's sensations.
I liked Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Can't say much for Young. (That boat didn't float.)
I've always shared Lynyrd Skynyrd's position on Neil Young.
Yeah, I was at school in the South while he was writing, and don't recall actual bullwhips being a big item. But I think that was mostly just stoner reflexive images for him. It's a good illustration of persistent prejudices based on no current information, though.
A lot of his music sounded like whiner stuff to me. Still liked rebel in him though.
As with many things, it's less the man and his works that irritate me than his fanboys. My friends and I wore out the CSN&Y albums, and I even followed S into his Manassas days--they put on a great show at Ole Miss about '73 (?).
I recall going to my best friend's older brother's place one evening--the brother everyone knows who is supersmart and who knows it. He started enthusing about old Neil and his genius, and questioning us about our devotion . . . I just mumbled and grinned, hoping for a chance to ask him what he thought of Bach or Mendelssohn. As little as I knew of them, I was sure he knew less; he has since mellowed and grown more humble, but I'm more of a smartass now than I was then.
I'm not the biggest Skynyrd fan, but Free Bird is AWESOME.
Cousin Eddie
Believe it or not, I wasn't familiar with Sugar Mountain, so I looked up the lyrics. It seems less than clear--more of an impressionist mood piece than a profound statement about anything. It's easy to give the impression of profundity, I suppose. It wasn't an era famed for clarity: May I be forgiven for approving Mason Williams' lyrics in Classical Gas?
james: It seems less than clear--more of an impressionist mood piece than a profound statement about anything.
It's about the inevitability growing up and having to leave childhood behind.
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