My introduction to this week's tune came one Christmas in the late seventies (couldn't remember which one, though 1978 would be my guess) when my parents bought me this week's artist's triple album greatest hits, Decade. I was just beginning to learn there was a lot more to life than they taught me in high school, and simultaneously that there was a lot more to rock and roll than top forty radio, and that album opened my eyes even wider to both. And I'll never forget Young's self-penned liner note about this week's song: "I am not a preacher, but drugs killed a lot of great men." Just as true today....
I've written about Neil Young as a solo artist twice before (here and here) and once as a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young for the greatest protest song every written, "Ohio." In the little more than a year since I last wrote about him, Young has released two albums (one of which has been in the vaults since the 1970's) and headlined the Glastonbury Festival. Even better, last year he released another protest song, "Big Crime," which he wrote in response to Donald Trump, piece of shit that he is, sending the National Guard into Washington D.C. One of its lyrics was "Got to get the fascists out, got to clean the White House out...." Bravo, Mr. Young!
"The Needle and the Damage Done" was originally released in 1972 on Young's rather accumulatively named album, Harvest. The song was released as the B-side of Young's single "Old Man" which peaked at #31 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 (it reached #4 in Young's native Canada--so many cool kids in the Great White North!), The album was the only #1 of his career.
(Not so) Fun Fact: Young wrote the song about the effects of heroin addiction on musicians he knew, including his Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten. Sadly, Whitten would die of an overdose the same year the song was released. Even worse, the next year Young's roadie Bruce Berry also died of an overdose.
"The Needle and the Damage Done" is two minutes of sheer fucking brilliance. Rather than record a studio version, Young used a version he'd performed in concert, just him and his guitar, for the album release. The sparseness of the show strips the song to its bare essence which captures both the song's beauty and its sorrow. Neil Young has written a lot of great songs, but this is his greatest. The lyrics reveal Young's compassion for these troubled folks and avoids even the slightest hint of self-righteousness as he chronicles heroin addiction and the chains with which it wraps up its victims. Young's vocals are spare, honest, and convey the tragedy he has seen unfolding around him. Add in Young's beautiful melody, picked adeptly on his acoustic guitar, and you have a masterpiece, a short story in song.
Lyric Sheet: "I've seen the needle and the damage done/A little part of it in everyone/But every junkie's like a settin' sun..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
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