1972 · Folk Rock · Behind the Songs
Written for Louis Avila Sr., the caretaker at Broken Arrow Ranch — a conversation between a young man and an old one.
“Old Man” was not written about Neil Young’s father, or about growing old in the abstract. It was written about Louis Avila Sr., the caretaker who looked after Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch near La Honda, California. Avila was a working man in his seventies; Young was a rock star in his twenties who had just bought a ranch. The song is the conversation between them — the young man realizing how much he needs the old man, and how little the years between them finally matter.
It was recorded in February 1971 at Quadrafonic Sound Studios in Nashville during the Harvest sessions, with the Stray Gators behind him: Ben Keith’s weeping pedal steel, Tim Drummond’s bass, Kenny Buttrey’s drums and Jack Nitzsche’s piano. James Taylor played banjo and, with Linda Ronstadt, sang the high backing vocals that answer Young’s lead. The arrangement builds slowly, verse by verse, until the band is roaring behind a lyric about needing someone.
Released on Harvest in 1972, “Old Man” became one of Young’s most durable songs — covered by generations of singers and a fixture of his concerts ever since. Avila himself got to hear it, which is more than most song subjects can say. It remains the warmest moment on an album full of them: proof that Young’s gift was never just the guitar noise, but the directness with which he could address another person.
What to listen for: the way the song starts almost as a whisper — just Young’s acoustic guitar and voice — and how the full band, and Taylor and Ronstadt’s harmonies, arrive like a change of weather. The banjo is easy to miss on first listen; find it, and the whole track opens up.