The opening guitar scrapes out a space between the ears, making room for another guitar, then a bass and drums. Neil Young sings Be on my side I'll be on your side, baby. Kind of like the power struggle over the bed between me, wife, and dog when we are going to sleep at night.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse perform Down by the River with a loosely structured rural grace. Neil sings with a hushed confessional tone, describing how he shot her dead. The ol murder ballad. 'He had to do it, she was shooting her mouth off about his mom.' Oops, that's Crispin Glover in River's Edge. Both are about a river and a murder. Perhaps Neil was a young Feck. If you haven't seen River's Edge, I sorry for you.
When Neil isn't singing, he's choking out all sorts of primal electric sounds on his guitar. Love those one note solos! 1:52...then at
3:22 he lays down this amazing lick. Guitars trade some great stabbing chords for a bit, then an even crazier one/two note solo starts up at 3:56. Neil at his electric best: cutting loose in his idiosyncratic way, no rules, working out all the subtle nuances of one note until he feels it's ok to move on to a different one. Then having little spasms of fast-picked chaos.
I just love Neil's vocal delivery. Nobody sounds like him, letting the words out of his mouth with this kind of delicate seesaw between innocence and wisdom.
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