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Neil Young - The Needle And The Damage Done

Neil Young - The Needle And The Damage Done Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Harvest
Released: 1972

The Needle And The Damage Done Lyrics

The Needle And The Damage Done

This song is about heroin use and what it will do to you in the end. Young wrote it about Danny Whitten, one of the original members of his band Crazy Horse. In 1971, Young went on tour and hired Crazy Horse and Nils Lofgren as backup. During rehearsals, Whitten was so high on heroin that he couldn't even hold up his guitar. Young fired him, gave Whitten 50 bucks (for rehab) and a plane ticket back to Los Angeles. Upon reaching LA, Whitten overdosed on alcohol and Valium, which killed him.

Whitten was one of the founding members of Crazy Horse and was very influential on much of Young's work preceding his heroin addiction. His influence is particularly noticeable on Young's second album, 1969's Everybody Knows This is Nowhere. Leading up to Whitten's dismissal from the band and overdose, Young even attempted daily one-on-one lessons to try and rehabilitate his old friend.

As quoted in Neil Young: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History , Neil Young says of the tragic death of Whitten: "I felt responsible. But really there was nothing I could do. I mean, he was responsible. But I thought I was for a long time. Danny just wasn't happy. It just all came down on him. He was engulfed by this drug. That was too bad. Because Danny had a lot to give. boy. He was really good."

Incredibly, this wouldn't be Young's only loss from heroin to be commemorated in song. Longtime friend and roadie Bruce Berry would also overdose on heroin just months after Whitten. Berry's song is "Tonight's The Night," on the album of the same name.

The song's first line mentions a "cellar door." Young and Crazy Horse, with Whitten, had played Washington DC's Cellar Door club in 1969.

Young's famous version was recorded live at the University Of California in January 1971, a year before it appeared on his Harvest album.

A solo, acoustic performance of this song by Young from Massey Hall in Toronto on January 19, 1971 features on his 2007 Live at Massey Hall 1971 album. He introduces it with a short explanation: "Ever since I left Canada, about five years ago or so and moved down south... found out a lot of things that I didn't know when I left. Some of 'em are good, and some of 'em are bad. Got to see a lot of great musicians before they happened, before they became famous - y'know, when they were just gigging. Five and six sets a night, things like that. And I got to see a lot of great musicians who nobody ever got to see, for one reason or another. But, strangely enough, the real good ones that you never got to see was... 'cause of, ahhm, heroin. An' that started happening over an' over. Then it happened to someone that everyone knew about. So I just wrote a little song."

This was one of the songs that Young performed at Live Aid in 1985.

Young made this succinct statement about the song in the liner notes to his album Decade: "I am not a preacher, but drugs killed a lot of great men."

Flea, famed bassist of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, played the song frequently on a 1993 tour following the singer John Frusciante's temporary departure due to heroin addiction.

The song has struck a long-lived chord with broad range of musicians. Over the years, it's also been covered by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Dave Matthews, and Jewel.

Neil Young - A Man Needs A Maid

Neil Young - A Man Needs A Maid Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Harvest
Released: 1972

A Man Needs A Maid Lyrics

A Man Needs A Maid Song Chart

Neil Young wrote this about actress Carrie Snodgress, who was his girlfriend at the time. They had a child together named Zeke, who was born with cerebral palsy. They broke up a few years later and things didn't go well for Snodgress. She spent a lot of time caring for Zeke and went was never able to get her acting career back on track. She died in 2004.

Jack Nitzsche, who played piano with The Rolling Stones and wrote soundtracks for many famous movies, produced this track. He dated Snodgress a few years after she broke up with Young and was sentenced to probation after he beat her with a handgun in 1979.

The London Symphony Orchestra plays on the album version of the song, as well as several others off of Harvest.

Some people were upset with the characterization of a woman as a "Maid," but the song meant no disrespect - Young wrote it in the spirit of the Robin Hood tale Maid Marion.

Critics have also interpreted the song as being more complex than it initially appears. Rather than being a straightforward expression of how badly a "man needs a maid," it's a heartbroken narrator trying to convince himself that he could be happy with something simple and emotionless - rather than the rocky ups-and-downs of a real relationship. The line "To live a love/you have to be part of it" hints at him realizing how this is an empty sentiment only concocted to try to ward off heartbreak.

Neil Young fell in love with Carrie Snodgress after seeing her in a movie on television, which inspired the lyric, "I fell in love with the actress, she was playing a part that I could understand." Learn more about Young and Snodgress in Song Images . (thanks, Nicole - Massapequa, NY)

British singer–songwriter Rumer covered this for the special edition of her Boys Don't Cry album. She explained to Q magazine why the song feels like a commentary on why, early in 2011, she broke up with A&R man Sam Winwood. (Rumer had lived with Winwood for several years). "As a travelling musician I couldn't take care of myself," she said. "Letters pile up, dishes pile up, you're not doing anything properly. So you're desperate to be taken care of. Emotionally, you're like a beggar going from door to door, but you can't give anything back. There's a line in the song, 'When will I see you again?' Well, I don't know. I can't commit. My ex-boyfriend said he felt like a field surgeon - putting me back together again."

Neil Young - Heart of Gold

Neil Young - Heart of Gold Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Harvest
Released: 1972

Heart of Gold Lyrics

I want to live,
I want to give
I've been a miner
For a Heart of Gold
It's these expressions
I never give
That keep me searching
For a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
Keeps me searching
For a heart of gold
And I'm getting old

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
Keeps me searching
For a heart of gold
And I'm getting old

Keep me searching
For a heart of gold
You keep me searching
And I'm growing old
Keep me searching
For a heart of gold
I've been a miner
For a heart of gold

Writer/s: KENNEDY/LEVER/PERCY/HOBBS/MEW
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Heart of Gold Song Chart

With a straightforward metaphor and complete lack of pathos, this not a typical Neil Young song. It finds him mining for a "heart of gold," which depending on your perspective, is either a touching and heartfelt sentiment, or a mawkish platitude. Rolling Stone took the churlish view, complaining that the album evoked "superstardom's weariest clichés." The listening public and Young's fans were far more accepting, however, and the song became his biggest hit.

Young wrote this in 1971 after he suffered a back injury that made it difficult for him to play the electric guitar, so on the Harvest tracks he played acoustic. Despite the injury, Young was in good spirits (possibly thanks to the pain-killers), which is reflected in this song. The next few years were more challenging for Young, as he suffered a series of setbacks: his son Zeke was born with cerebral palsy, his friend Danny Whitten died, and he split with his wife, Carrie Snodgress. His next three albums, which became known as "The Ditch Trilogy," expressed these dark times in stark contrast to "Heart of Gold."

This song was recorded at the first sessions for the Harvest album, which took place on Saturday, February 6, 1971 and were set up the night before.

Neil Young was in Nashville to record a performance for The Johnny Cash Show along with Tony Joe White , James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. Elliot Mazer, a producer who owned nearby Quadrafonic Studios, set up a dinner party on February 5, inviting the show's guests and about 50 other people. Mazer was friends with Young's manager Elliot Roberts, who introduced the two at the gathering. Young and Mazer quickly hit it off when Neil learned that Elliot has produced a band called Area Code 615. Young asked if he could set up a session the next day, and Mazer complied.

Nashville has an abundance of studio musicians, but getting them to work on a Saturday could be a challenge. Mazur was able to get one member of Area Code 615: Drummer Kenny Buttrey. The other musicians he found were guitarist Teddy Irwin, bass player Tim Drummond, and pedal stell player Ben Keith. All were seasoned pros.

Keith recalls showing up late and sitting down to play right away. He says they recorded five songs before they stopped for introductions.

By far, this was the biggest hit for Young as a solo artist. A very influential musician, he was never too concerned about making hit records.

James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt sang backup; they don't come in until the end of the song. Like Young, Taylor and Ronstadt were in town to appear on The Johnny Cash Show (the song's producer Elliot Mazer had produced Ronstadt's 1970 Silk Purse album). Young convinced them to lend their voices to this track, and they came in on Sunday, February 8, the day after the rest of the song was completed.

When it was their turn to add harmonies, the task proved rather arduous. Ronstadt recalled to Mojo: "We were sat on the couch in the control room, but I had to get up on my knees to be on the same level as James because he's so tall. Then we sang all night, the highest notes I could sing. It was so hard, but nobody minded. It was dawn when we walked out of the studio."

In the liner notes to his Decade collection, Young said: "This song put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch."

This statement reflected Young's aversion to fame, and was not meant to demean the song. In a later interview with NME, he clarified: "I think Harvest is probably the finest record I've made."

This was the song that tweaked Bob Dylan; Young had made no secret that he idolized Dylan, but when Dylan heard "Heart of Gold" he thought this was going too far. As quoted in Neil Young: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History , Dylan complained, "I used to hate it when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I listened to "Heart of Gold." I'd say, that's me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me."

This song was recorded in just two takes. The musicians were not familiar with Young or the song, but knew how to play. This spontaneity created just the right feel for the track - something that would have never come about through additional tweaking. This style of recording, where top-tier studio musicians are asked to give total focus to a take with little instruction, is something Bob Dylan often did. It's also a throwback to the analog days when tape (which was expensive) was rolling, making additional takes costly and cumbersome.

"Heart Of Gold" is the name of the spaceship stolen by Zaphod Beeblebrox in Douglas Adams' book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . (thanks, Charles - London, England)

Young became the first Canadian to have a #1 album in the US when Harvest topped the Billboard 200 for two weeks in April 1972.

This song appears in the 1984 film Iceman, and on the soundtrack of the 2010 movie Eat Pray Love.

Lady Gaga references this in her song "You and I." The line goes, "On my birthday you sung me 'Heart of Gold,' with a guitar humming and no clothes."

In 2005, the CBC Radio One series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version declared "Heart of Gold" to be the third best Canadian song of all time.

Stryper frontman Michael Sweet covered this for his 2014 I'm Not Your Suicide album. He also recorded a second duet version with country artist Electra Mustaine, who is the daughter of Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine.

Young revived the guitar riff for this song on CSN&Y's "Slowpoke" in 1999.

Tori Amos covered this on her 2001 album Strange Little Girls . She was trying to demonstrate how men and women hear different meaning in the same songs.