Neil Young: Thrasher

What is it about Neil Young? By no measure would his voice be considered a good one, yet he's spellbinding. He's got a shamanic thing goin' on. I will take a stand and say that Thrasher is the greatest Neil Young song of them all; and there's a lot of heavy competition. Thrasher's lyrics are being composed three feet above the canvas; the exact story's a bit obscured. But the words work stunningly well in their own right, with no more specificity needed. A favorite: "And the aimless blade of science slashed the pearly gates." This line hints at the fallout from cocaine abuse but could mean a bunch of other things, too. In fact, as lyric analysts online will tell you, Thrasher tells the story of Young's split from Crosby, Stills, and Nash, signaled with the line "How I lost my friends, I still don't understand." In this video, I love how Young botches the lyrics at 2:49. Leave to Neil to leave it in. Perfection is not our friend!