When it comes to music, most of us listen to artists who fit into certain genres. For example, if you ask most folks, they would describe Garth Brooks as a country singer, or Lady Gaga as a pop artist. However, there are those few “odd ducks” whose fans sometimes have a hard time describing exactly what kind of music they make. For fans of Neil Young, this can be a very common problem when trying to describe his music to others. You see, Young’s music has been described as everything from hard rock, rock, folk-rock, country-rock, to proto-grunge. His unique sound makes him difficult to categorize, which is normally a sure ticket to obscurity for many artists.
However, Neil has found a way to not only survive such a fate he’s gone on to launch a very successful career while dancing between the lines of different genres. Since his career began in 1963, Young has gone on to win three Grammys and earn another 19 nominations, as well as numerous other awards and accolades. Back in 1970, during his successful rise in the business, Young purchased the Broken Arrow Ranch in Nothern California for $350,000. The caretakers of the ranch was an older couple, and while touring the ranch with the husband, young was asked how a young man such as himself could afford such a place. Young replied: “Well, just lucky, Louis, just real lucky.” And the older man said, “Well, that’s the darnedest thing I ever heard.” After that interaction, Young decided to write a song dedicated to him. In this video, we see Young and Jimmy Fallon (dressed as Young) performing “Old Man” together on The Tonight Show.
Image via YouTube
The song makes comparisons between the life of a young and old man while showing that the young man, to a certain extent, shares many of the same needs and concerns as the older one. It’s interesting to see how Young comes full circle in this performance, as he represents his older self. It’s like a story from one of those mind-trippy phycology books like Robert Bly’s Iron John. (trust me don’t go down that rabbit hole).
Image via YouTube
You can check out Young and Fallon’s interesting existential and hilarious performance in the video below.
