Old Man (song)
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Background
The song was written for the caretaker of the Northern California Broken Arrow Ranch, which Young purchased for US$350,000 in 1970 (Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "[".). 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.[2]
In the film Heart of Gold, Young introduces the song as follows: Template:Quote
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
- In 2005, Lizz Wright covered it on her live album Dreaming Wide Awake, recorded at Allaire, Shokan, New York the year before. It also appears in the film Lords of Dogtown.
- In 2008, during the memorial service for Heath Ledger, the song was chosen to be played with a slideshow of pictures from Ledger's life.[3]
- Liam Finn (Neil Finn's son) & EJ Barnes (Jimmy Barnes's daughter) covered the song on the TV show RocKwiz.
- In 2011, Dallas Green, of City and Colour and Alexisonfire, covered the song at The 2011 Juno Awards, and post-grunge band Puddle of Mudd covered it on their covers album Re:(disc)overed. That same year Redlight King sampled "Old Man" on the album Something for the Pain. It was the first time Young had sanctioned a sample of this song.[4]
- In 2015, Young appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and performed the song with Fallon as his Neil Young character.[5]
- In 2022, Beck covered Old Man to promote a Sunday Night Football match between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The song is a nod to quarterback Tom Brady, the oldest active player in the NFL (in 2022) at 45 years old.[6] The line “24 and there’s so much more” refers to Brady and Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes winning Super Bowls when they were 24 years old.[7] After the commercial was released Neil Young posted a still image from the video for his 1988 anti-commercialization song This Note's for You in apparent protest of Beck's cover of Old Man being used in a commercial.[8][9] Beck's cover was nominated for Best Rock Performance for the 65th Grammy Awards later that year.[10]
Charts
| Chart (1972) | Peak
position |
|---|---|
| Canada Top Singles (RPM)[11] | 4 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 31 |
| US Cashbox Top 100 Singles[12] | 26 |
| US Record World Top 100 Singles[13] | 33 |
Personnel
- Neil Young — guitars, lead vocals
- Ben Keith — pedal steel guitar
- James McMahon — piano
- James Taylor — banjo guitar, backing vocals
- Linda Ronstadt — backing vocals
- Tim Drummond — bass
- Kenny Buttrey — drums
References
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- ↑ Jimmy McDonough. Shakey: Neil Young's Biography. New York: Anchor, 2003, p. 364.
- ↑ Leigh Creighton and wires (February 4, 2008). Heath Ledger's star-studded Hollywood memorial. Daily Telegraph. Accessed February 3, 2008.
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