Neil Young birthday - TIMH | Eleven Warriors

A true rock and roll legend, Neil Percival Young was born today in Toronto, Canada in 1945. His ascendancy to superstar status would not have been evident early in his life. He contracted polio at a young age and the first instrument he played was the ukulele. It wasn’t until Young moved to Winnepeg with his mother that he started to become interested in rock music.

It was on a small transistor radio in Winnepeg that Young first heard the early rock and roll sound that would change his life. Artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Roy Orbison and Link Wray lit the fire in Young but Elvis Presley fanned the flames into an inferno. While in junior high school Young formed his first band, The Jades, and he would later join a band called The Squires. The Squires had a minor hit with a song called “The Sultan” and that was enough to encourage Young to drop out of high school and focus on music full-time.

The Squires eventually disbanded and Young was making his way as a song writer and folk musician around Winnipeg. He wrote a song for The Guess Who called “Flying on the Ground is Wrong”, which hit the Canadian Top 40. Young started touring Canada as a solo artist and eventually joined a band called the Mynah Birds. When that band split up Young and the bass player, Bruce Palmer, made their way to Los Angeles.

Young and Palmer joined Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Dewey Martin to form Buffalo Springfield in 1966. It was in Buffalo Springfield that Young first entered the collective American consciousness on the hit song “For What It’s Worth”. Buffalo Springfield would be gone as quickly as they arose and Young found himself going solo again.

He released his first solo album, “Neil Young”, in 1968 to mixed reviews. The album is notable, however, for the inclusion of Ry Cooder on guitar. The following year, Young’s second effort, “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”, fared substantially better and contained three future Neil Young classics – “Cinnamon Girl”, “Down by the River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand”. This was also the first time that Young played with what would become his longtime backing band, Crazy Horse. This second album is where we really hear Young come into his own and establish his own unique sound.

Right after his second album was released Young joined Crosby, Stills and Nash. CSN was already successful, having won the 1969 Grammy for Best New Artist, and they wanted Young to come on as a backing musician. Young balked and only agreed to join if he were a full member. The band agreed and CSNY was born. CSNY made their debut in Chicago on August 16, 1969. Their next show together was two days later at the Woodstock festival. CSNY would release their debut album, “Déjà vu”, in 1970 and would have an on and off relationship thereafter.

Young continued recording and releasing albums with an ever changing lineup of musicians, sometimes including Crazy Horse and sometimes not. His third album, “After the Gold Rush”, was released in 1970. It included Stephen Stills on vocals and Nils Lofgren on guitar and produced the hits “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and “Southern Man”. Two years later Young released “Harvest” which reached number one on the album charts in the U.S. Among the artists on the “Harvest” album were James Taylor, Linda Rondstadt, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. “Harvest” spawned multiple hits, including “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man”. It was a lesser known song, however, that sparked a response from the Southern Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Many people know Skynyrd’s classic song “Sweet Home Alabama” and many people mistakenly think it was written in response to Young’s song “Southern Man”. Skynyrd was actually responding to the song “Alabama” off of Young’s “Harvest” album. Fans and the media made it out to seem as if Young and Skynyrd were feuding and did not like each other but this was never the case. Despite each band going out of their way to honor each other – Young would often wear a Jack Daniels Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt as an homage while Ronnie Van Zant would one-up him by wearing a Neil Young t-shirt on the cover of the Skynyrd album “Street Survivors” – the myth of a feud has endured to this day.

Young himself has endured to this day through constant reinvention during his career. With his roots in folk music he evolved to be one of the earliest country rock artists. When he felt like it he would switch gears and play his version of punk music. When he tired of that he would record rockabilly songs before returning to country, rock or whatever else he chose to do. Neil Young is one of the rare artists that appeals to people of different ages as well as to fans of different genres. Few artists can claim to be equally revered by fans of punk, grunge, rock and country music as Neil Young can claim.

“Cinnamon Girl” off the “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” album 1969: