Old Man (song)

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This article is about the Neil Young song. For the song of the same title by Love, see Forever Changes.
"Old Man"
Old Man (Neil Young single - cover art).jpg
Single by Neil Young
from the album Harvest
B-side"The Needle and the Damage Done"
ReleasedApril 17, 1972
RecordedQuadraphonic Sound Studio, Nashville TN, February 6, 1971
Genre
Length3:24
LabelReprise
Songwriter(s)Neil Young
Producer(s)Neil Young
Elliot Mazer[1]
Neil Young singles chronology
"Heart of Gold"
(1971) 		"Old Man"
(1972) 		"War Song"
(1972)

"Old Man" is a song written and performed by Neil Young on his 1972 album Harvest. "Old Man" was released as a single on Reprise Records in the spring of 1972, reaching number 4 in Canada,[2] and number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the week ending June 3.

Background[]

The song was written for the caretaker of the Northern California Broken Arrow Ranch, which Young purchased for $350,000 in 1970. The song compares a young man's life to an old man's and shows that the young man has, to some extent, the same needs as the old one. James Taylor played six-string banjo (tuned like a guitar) and sang on the song, and Linda Ronstadt also contributed vocals.[3]

In the film Heart of Gold, Young introduces the song as follows:

About that time when I wrote ("Heart of Gold"), and I was touring, I had also—just, you know, being a rich hippie for the first time—I had purchased a ranch, and I still live there today. And there was a couple living on it that were the caretakers, an old gentleman named Louis Avila and his wife Clara. And there was this old blue Jeep there, and Louis took me for a ride in this blue Jeep. He gets me up there on the top side of the place, and there's this lake up there that fed all the pastures, and he says, "Well, tell me, how does a young man like yourself have enough money to buy a place like this?" And I said, "Well, just lucky, Louis, just real lucky." And he said, "Well, that's the darnedest thing I ever heard." And I wrote this song for him.

He tells a similar story when introducing the song at a February 23, 1971 performance broadcast by the BBC (in which he says that he purchased the ranch from "two lawyers").

Uses in popular culture and covers[]

Charts[]

Chart (1972) Peak

position

Canada Top Singles (RPM)[8] 4
US Billboard Hot 100 31
US Cashbox Top 100 Singles[9] 26
US Record World Top 100 Singles[10] 33

Personnel[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Harvest". Discogs. Retrieved 2015-07-21.
  2. ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles - June 24, 1972" (PDF).
  3. ^ Jimmy McDonough. Shakey: Neil Young's Biography. New York: Anchor, 2003, p. 364.
  4. ^ Leigh Creighton and wires (February 4, 2008). Heath Ledger's star-studded Hollywood memorial. Daily Telegraph. Accessed February 3, 2008.
  5. ^ "Official Redlight King website". Redlight King. Archived from the original on 2011-06-12. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
  6. ^ "Jimmy Fallon Sings With Neil Young As Another Neil Young". Huffington Post. February 4, 2015.
  7. ^ "Billions - Season 5 Episode 5, Contract | SHOWTIME".
  8. ^ "RPM100 Singles" (PDF). RPM. 8 April 1972. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  9. ^ "CASH BOX MAGAZINE: Music and coin machine magazine 1942 to 1996". worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  10. ^ "RECORD WORLD MAGAZINE: 1942 to 1982". worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
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