THE GOLD RUSH

1 SUGAR MOUNTAIN

(NEIL YOUNG, THE ARCHIVES VOL. 1 1963-1972 ; 1965)

Lament for lost youth

RANDY BACHMAN, FRIEND: I first met Neil at a gig I was playing in Winnipeg. He seemed determined to get to a place far from where he was. He played me both “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing” and “Sugar Mountain” as acetate demos. I also saw him play them live at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles in 1971. I was absolutely amazed. He had sold out several nights in a row and performed solo on guitar and piano. I couldn’t believe that this kid from Winnipeg had turned into this artist that had the audience so mesmerised with his music. At that concert he announced that he had written “Sugar Mountain” about a Joni Mitchell connection and, while driving in the canyons the other day, he’d written about 10 more verses! He asked the audience: “Do you want to hear the new verses?” He sang it for about eight minutes with the audience singing along on every chorus.

2 MR SOUL

(BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD, BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD AGAIN ; 1967)

Early swipe at rock stardom

BRUCE BOTNICK, ENGINEER: I think it was on “Mr Soul” that Neil overdubbed his solo and I forgot to put the eight-track into Sel-Sync, so when we did the playback Neil’s solo was out of synch by something like 187 milliseconds. They all thought that was cool and left it. Neil’s playing on this was great. There was this constant competition between Neil and Stephen [Stills]; they were always pushing one another. But they were so fluid and so good together. When they did the Buffalo Springfield reunion tour in 2011, both Neil and Steve were having a ball on stage, especially with “Mr Soul”.

In the studio I could sense there wasn’t a lot of harmony within the group because there were these two big stars – Neil and Stephen – rising out of that whole thing. Neil always felt comfortable standing on his own two legs. He was bursting with music. He didn’t necessarily know where to go with it, he just knew he needed to get it out. He followed the adage – don’t think, just do, let it come. You can hear that in his playing, it’s very fluid. Every album is still Neil Young, so that untapped creativity is still inside him. A lot of artists dry up and imitate themselves, but not Neil. He might go back and take a snapshot of a style, but he won’t copy it. I’ve always felt Neil paid attention to his emotions. He is a very sensitive guy. But when you see him on stage it’s no holds barred: he opens the barn doors and out he comes.

3 EXPECTING TO FLY

(BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD, BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD AGAIN ; 1967)

Singer-songwriter confessional

BRUCE BOTNICK, ENGINEER: We recorded “Expecting To Fly” at Sunset Sound. It was basically Neil and the Wrecking Crew. I think we had Carol Kaye on bass, Russ Titelman on rhythm, Hal Blaine on drums and Don Randi on piano. I was doing some work with Jack Nitzsche and he got me in. On “Expecting To Fly”, none of the other guys from Springfield were around. Jack came in with a full-blown arrangement and we did the rhythm track. I think Neil overdubbed the guitar because that was emotionally such a feel thing. I found Neil was very deep and very open. Musically he had a fire burning inside him, glowing red like ET’s heart. When we finished the album, I was producing Love’s Forever Changes. I asked Neil if he’d like to co-produce because I felt this musical kinship. Initially he said yes, but then he came back and said, “Sorry Bruce, I really have to do me.” He went and did his own stuff and I did Love. It worked out for both of us, and later I co-produced the first Crazy Horse album with Jack Nitzsche.

4 BROKEN ARROW

(BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD, BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD AGAIN ; 1967)

Ambitious, folk-rock suite

JIM MESSINA, ENGINEER: I think the episode that most summed up Neil’s creativity was working on “Broken Arrow”. When Neil brought the song in, he wanted to use all these separate pieces. That was a first for me, but I knew what we had to do to make it work. I got a chance to see how his mind worked in terms of piecing all those images together. The last part has that jazz part in it, which I never understood why he wanted it there. But when it all came together, it was quite wonderful. I would never have pictured it in that way, but Neil did. Sitting back and watching him think it through, then bringing the band in and getting them to play it, then putting that little piece in at the end, it was fascinating.

I remember him standing up when it was done, with a huge smile on his face, and saying, “That’s it. That’s great!” It’s wonderful to see anybody who has a passion and vision for something and is able to put it all together.

5 COWGIRL IN THE SAND

( NEIL YOUNG WITH CRAZY HORSE, EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE ; 1969)

Heroic guitar jam

Neil’s playing on this was awesome, it was so fresh and original. We did a lot of different versions, but this was the]’s house in Laurel Canyon when he left the Springfield and we’d sit around playing acoustic with Danny []. We were doing a show at the Whiskey and we asked him to sit in with us. He wasn’t a heavy yet, he was just a guy called Neil. The next thing I remember is that Danny said, “Neil wants to do some recording.” So we went to his house in Topanga and started to play. That’s when we realised it was a working thing. Neil loved the way Danny played. After we got Poncho [] we became a crunch band, but with Danny it was a mellower kind of thing. The last time we toured with Ben Keith, I thought Ben would do organ or keyboard, but Neil liked Ben on guitar. I asked why and he said it was because he played rhythm like Danny did.