THIS NOTE'S FOR YOU

Young's satire of corporate sponsorship was a great crowd pleaser in concert that went on to become a cause célèbre on video. MTV initially refused to screen Young's biting send-up of famous television commercials, arguing that he was guilty of "product placement". Within a year, the station would nominate the offending item Best Video Of The Year while Young's CD single, from the album of the same name, featured an extra live version of the song. In attacking Pepsi, Coke, Budweiser and Miller, Young was aware that he could not completely escape from their pervasive influence. As he pointed Out: "That's kind of idealistic because when you get right down to it I have to play the Budweiser concert series because they make a deal with the promoter. I can't get around it, but I want people to know that it's not me making the deal with Budweiser and Miller. They bought all the places where I play."

COUPE DE VILLE

Sung in his most plaintive voice, this portrayal of a washed-up bluesman was one of the most moving moments on the album. Tom Bray plays the trumpet with Steve Lawrence adding the atmospheric tenor saxophone. In the song Young laments all that has been lost so cheaply: "I had a few cheap thrills/But they cost me a lot more/Than I could give". According to Young, the song was written late one night in a hotel room, while on the road. As he recalled: "I'd been working really hard for a number of weeks and I was very tired. I hadn't been sleeping that well. And I was up early and writing the song. And breakfast came. I started eating and then I started feeling dizzy and really sick. And I thought to myself, 'I'm hitting the wall... I can't take it anymore; I've pushed myself so hard, I should go home', Then I went back to bed and started to go to sleep. And then I realized that's it. I hit the wall, that's what it was. And I was right back up and finishing the song. It was over before I remembered that I had gotten dizzy and felt sick. So I went back to sleep. That's how those things happen. There's no method."

WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT

From 4/19/88 (late show) - The Bluenotes, New York, NY. Unreleased.

AMERICAN DREAM

The title track of the CSN&Y reunion album seemed to be inspired by the fall of Jerry Lee Lewis' cousin, the celebrated evangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Young's narrative is a wry look at the private and public reaction to the scandal. In determining where "things went wrong", Young points the finger at the American Dream itself. Hypocrisy and hubris go hand in hand here and the protagonist seems both a subject of fun and sympathy. Musically, the track was most notable for its engaging melody, synthed pipes and glorious CS&N harmonies at key moments in the song. Indeed, when issued as a single, this brought them a minor hit in the UK.

THIS OLD HOUSE

CS&N provide the high harmonies while Young controls the music, assisted by synth programmer Bruce Bell. Lyrically, the song deals with the power of the banks in repossessing property. Young sentimentalizes the issues with a House On The Prairie lyric in which kids play on swings, mother tends the garden and the parents plan a kitchen on the spot where they first made love. As far as CSN&Y are concerned it's the musical context that's the problem. The superstar foursome are ill suited to a straight country arrangement of this nature. This song would have been appropriate for Old Ways and is better served by the International Harvesters. At least some critics made an amusing connection by linking the composition with Nash's 'Our House' for which it is, intentional or otherwise, a witty response detectable in the chorus. The song is nothing special more a vehicle for Stills to enjoy a spiky lead guitar break.

FEEL YOUR LOVE

Another predominantly solo effort from Young, with musical assistance from Joe Vitale. Although slight, it's a pretty melody and typical of the type of material that Young appears to associate with CS&N.

ROCKIN' IN THE FREE WORLD

Recorded live at Jones Beach, Long Island, this acoustic opener to '89's Freedom confirmed Young's recent artistic rehabilitation. The title may have sounded like a Status Quo outtake, but such simple sloganeering appealed to Young. As he explained: "I wrote that song out on the road... on my bus, and I thought of the first line and said, 'My God, that really says something but it's such a cliché, it's such an obvious thing', so then I had to use it!" Judging from the lyrics it seems as though Young has just been on a walkabout of the city's less salubrious areas. He compares himself with Satan in relation to the poor that he encounters on the streets and rails against the deprivation of children whose lives are already blighted by the drug abuse around them. As Young explained to Nick Kent: "The lyrics to 'Rockin' In The Free World' are just a description of events going on every day in America. Sure, I'm concerned for my children, particularly my eldest son... He has to face drugs every day in the school yard, drugs that are way stronger than anything I got offered in most of my years as a professional musician."

CRIME IN THE CITY (SIXTY TO ZERO PART 1)

Young's Dylan-inspired epic, originally 11 verses in concert, is condensed here to a more manageable six stanzas, but still sounds like one of his most impressive songs for years. The opening verse details a bank heist that is transformed into a soap opera by the presence of television cameras. The scene then abruptly shifts to a recording studio where an imperious producer is assembling a backing track at which point he sends for a "hungry songwriter" and in the same breath orders a hamburger. As this section closes, Steve Lawrence's tenor saxophone solo is the perfect interlude before we're back on the streets and witnessing the problems of a disillusioned cop. Worn down by inept superiors and intimidated by street punks, he feels left with no choice but to "play by their rules". His corruption is frighteningly summed up when he accepts bribes from a 10-year-old kid. During the fourth verse, Young enters more personal territory. The tale of a boy coming to terms with the breakup of his parents' marriage recalls Young's own troubled childhood. By the last verse, Young presents a symbolic précis of his own life beginning with the contention "I keep getting younger" but ending on a more wistful note with the words "wish I never got old".

NO MORE

Young reverts to his Crazy Horse style of guitar playing for this minor classic. The first verse alludes to drug addiction with the narrator admitting "'Cause not so long ago/It had a hold on me/I couldn't let it go". The overall feel of the song is distinctly elegiac, giving the impression that something intangible has been lost. In the final verse, the corrupted quest could be referring to drugs, music, or both: Searchin' for quality/Havin' to have the very best/Now scrounging' for quantity Young prefers to retain the sense of mystery and ambiguity that is central to the song's theme. As he duly pointed out to the Village Voice's Jimmy McDonough: "If you listen to the lyrics, really listen to the lyrics, I'm not saying anything definitely. It's completely ambiguous what's going on, and that's the feeling of 'No More'. How many times do you have to say no more' before it means 'no more'? Because that song doesn't mean 'no more'." (This version is from a Saturday Night Live appearance).

 LOVE TO BURN

At over 10 minutes in length, this was one of the key moments on Ragged Glory. It's stronger than the preceding material with Young and Crazy Horse finding a groove in which to jam persuasively. It may not be 'Cowgirl In The Sand', but it has its moments. Lyrically, it deals with life's tribulations, including the breakup of a family, a theme which Young acknowledged was "painfully personal". As he concluded: "In the song you got all these things happening and you've just got to go for it. Just got to keep trying to give, keep trying to stay open. You can't shut down because of all the bad stones, the bad news movies that happen in life."

 MANSION ON THE HILL

One of Ragged Glory's highlights of the album was this composition, often assumed to have been inspired by Charles Manson. The couplet "There's a mansion on the hill/Psychedelic music fills the air" places the song firmly in the Sixties with Young looking back to that era for cold comfort. Young recalls an amusing moment during the recording when they needlessly ran through various versions of the song:" We were trying to get the groove on 'Mansion On The Hill' but we didn't know we'd recorded it a week-and-a-half earlier. We forgot about the one on record because we never listen to playbacks. We were working trying to get the song right and we'd already done it

 BLOWIN' IN THE WIND

A striking version of Dylan's 'Blowin' In The Wind' from the double live Weld. Here was a live album that truly captured the verve and excitement of a performer reaching new peaks. Much of the intensity came from playing concerts while the Gulf War raged. As Young noted: "It blew my head off during that tour. When we were playing that stuff, it was intense. It was real. I could see people dying in my mind. I could see bombs falling, buildings collapsing on families."

 ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER

From the Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary special.

 UNKNOWN LEGEND

This attractive opening track of Harvest Moon is highly reminiscent of Young's work on Comes A Time. Indeed, the song was written only a few years after that album was released. Here, he presents an idealized portrayal of a woman, who nevertheless was earthy enough to work in a diner and ride a Harley Davidson. The character sounds like a composite of his current and ex-wife, and as Young adds: "It's inspired by some people I know and some people I don't know and all kinds of things put together... They're just pictures of people's lives. A lot of the common thing is survival, not losing what it is you were when you were young, but take it with you, take it with you into your own age, don't leave it behind."

 HARVEST MOON

Opening with the sound of a broom sweeping, this pleasing melody recalls The Everly Brothers' 'Walk Right Back'. Lyrically, it's a simple enough nostalgic piece, reenacting the heroine's dance beneath the harvest moon. Young wallows in the sentimentality but also expresses the need to reaffirm old vows.

 STRINGMAN

TRANSFORMER MAN

MTV's Unplugged series offered artistes the opportunity to present their electric material in an acoustic setting. The news that Young was to be featured was eagerly anticipated as he was widely respected as one of the most eclectic and inventive performers in rock music. The resultant album, although a reasonable distillation of his career, proved only partially successful. Some songs were performed solo, while others included his band, featuring Nils Lofgren, Ben Keith, Spooner Oldham, Tim Drummond, Oscar Butterworth and backing singers Nicolette Larson and Astrid Young. The highlight of the evening was the one new song that Young introduced: 'Stringman'. Dating back to 1976, this impressive ballad was allegedly inspired by Stephen Stills, a view which, if true, pays enormous tribute to its subject ("There is no dearer friend of mine that I know in this life"). Unplugged also includes an acoustic 'Mr. Soul' that gave the song a fresh, moodier edge; a fascinating 'Transformer Man' which, minus the vocoders, took on a greater poignancy; and, most intriguingly, 'Like A Hurricane' played on a pump organ.

 SEPARATE WAYS

Recorded in the 70's for the Homegrown album that was shelved. This version was played on 7/3/93 with Booker T & the MGs - Torhout Rock Festival, Torhout, Belgium. Unreleased.

PHILADELPHIA

From the 1995 soundtrack of the same name. This song was featured at the end of the film as they show home video's of Tom Hank's character's childhood.

DRIVEBY

Like many of the tracks on the album Sleeps With Angels, this has a strangely mesmeric feel while the lyrics simmer with images of violence. The song was apparently inspired by the death of a young girl, shot from a car driving by. Young's vocal is impressive and the electric and acoustic guitar interplay gives the song an added tension. The rumbling feedback is used sparingly as if to create a sense of tension rather than full-blown mayhem.

CHANGE YOUR MIND

At 14 minutes 39 seconds, this is not only the longest song on the album Sleeps With Angels, but the longest studio song Young has ever released. It is also the most sustained attempt to rekindle the original sound of Crazy Horse with a song whose gradual build-up recalls the structure of 'Cowgirl In The Sand' rather than the single incandescent bursts evident on Ragged Glory. Lyrically, the song is a testament to the empowering nature of love. The first movement expresses the "magic touch" in strictly affirmative terms: "distracting", "supporting", "embracing" and "convincing". Young's lead guitar breaks are slow and precise, recalling 'Like A Hurricane', but minus the pyrotechnics. The next chorus continues the ascending movement: "protecting", "restoring", "revealing", "soothing". By the third chorus, however, there is a distinct shift in tone as the adjectives reveal the love as destructive as well as beneficial: "destroying", "confining", "distorting", "controlling". Crazy Horse's replies are sung like a mantra. In fact, the hymnal quality of the song is its most distinctive trait, in keeping with the somber elegy that inspired the work. The erotic imagery and call-and-response conclusion is both very soothing and disturbing.

DOWNTOWN

Young utters an obscenity before the song breaks into its simple but irresistible groove. The lyrics are lighter and more amusing than anything else on the album Mirrorball as he imagines hippies traipsing downtown to dance the Charleston and the Limbo. If this suggests a lampoon of senile Sixties' relics then Young is equally quick to pay tribute to his heroes, affectionately picturing Jimi Hendrix playing in the back room while Led Zeppelin are on-stage. Having recently performed alongside Jimmy Page at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, Young pays him a passing tribute, describing "A note from Page like a water-wasted diamond". As the song ends, Young exclaims with evident satisfaction: "That's funky!" Speaking to the NME, he confirmed that the song was inspired by the Hall of Fame appearance: "There was all these crazy people there that I recognized from all different periods of time in rock'n'roll. I guess that's what the song is really about. It's like, they're there. They're all there still singing and playing. It's just a place you can only go to in your mind - downtown, and whoever you like the best is going to be who's playing in the club."

PEACE AND LOVE

One of the more memorable tunes on the album Mirrorball, this continues Young's confused views on hippie values, including a reference to John Lennon's death. Eddie Vedder composes and sings his own riposte to Young, reflecting on the grunge generation's outside view of the flights and follies of rock culture and inability to extract anything more than its superficial rewards: "I saw the dream I saw the wake/We shared it all but not the take".

DEAD MAN

Theme from Dead Man - available only on a promo single, a promo cassette called Hold On Tight (with other bands from Vapor Records and other small labels), and on a compilation in an issue of Q Magazine. It is the music played under the opening and closing credits in the movie, it is the only Dead Man-related track for which a video was made, yet it is not on the Dead Man CD. This is the music often referred to as "that acoustic track...", although it is not solely acoustic.

GUITAR SOLO 5 (edit)

From the soundtrack Dead Man. This version is edited.

BIG TIME

MUSIC ARCADE

SLIP AWAY

From 1996's Broken Arrow with Crazy Horse.