April 23, 2020 —– Chart #11

Hello Musical Friends,

Its almost the weekend so we are going to rock today. I have chosen a 1969 number from Neil Young for today’s chart of the day. This one rocks and is a little dark. “Down By The River” was first released on his 1969 album with Crazy Horse, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Young explained the context of the story in the liner notes of his 1977 anthology album Decade, stating that he wrote “Down by the River,” “Cinnamon Girl” and “Cowgirl in the Sand” while delirious in bed in Topanga Canyon with a 103 °F fever.

The lyrics tell the story of someone who killed his lover by shooting her after feeling unable to continue from the emotional highs of their relationship. Or maybe it was weeks on end of “Shelter in Place”, who knows? Young himself has provided multiple explanations for the lyrics. In an interview with Robert Greenfield in 1970, a year after the song was released, Young claimed that “there’s no real murder in it. It’s about blowing your thing with a chick. It’s a plea, a desperate cry.” Later, when introducing the song in New Orleans on September 27, 1984, Young said that the song depicts a man “who had a lot of trouble controlling himself” who catches his woman cheating on him, then meets her down by the river and shoots her. According to Young, the local sheriff comes to the man’s house and arrests him a few hours later. I suspect it was not just a fever that made Neil delirious in 1969. Just sayin’

Live version 1994: 

Keep Rockin’,

Stan