Memory Lane Music

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons — File:Johnson electric acoustic guitar 1.jpg — Public domain (copyright holder release) Moondance opens with a song about a boy, a river, and a feeling that cannot be explained, and that feeling is the whole album in miniature. The story behind the song And It Stoned Me, the opening track of … Read more

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons — File:Johnson electric acoustic guitar 1.jpg — Public domain (copyright holder release) Astral Weeks is not a song in the usual sense. It is a world, a mood, and a risk that Van Morrison took when he had every reason to play it safe. The story behind the song Recorded in … Read more

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons — File:Johnson electric acoustic guitar 1.jpg — Public domain (copyright holder release) Van Morrison has spent decades trying to move past Brown Eyed Girl, and audiences have spent decades refusing to let him, and both sides have a point. The story behind the song Brown Eyed Girl, recorded in 1967 for … Read more

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons — File:Johnson electric acoustic guitar 1.jpg — Public domain (copyright holder release) A song about a Spanish conquistador, a lost civilisation, and a guitar solo that lasts longer than most songs, Cortez the Killer is Neil Young at his most ambitious and his most controversial. The story behind the song The … Read more

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons — File:Johnson electric acoustic guitar 1.jpg — Public domain (copyright holder release) Twenty years after Harvest, Neil Young returned to its sound, its mood, and its moon, and wrote a love song that felt like a second harvest. The story behind the song Harvest Moon, the title track of Young’s 1992 … Read more

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons — File:Johnson electric acoustic guitar 1.jpg — Public domain (copyright holder release) In just over two minutes, with only an acoustic guitar and a voice, Neil Young wrote the most devastating song about heroin ever recorded, and he did it without preaching. The story behind the song The Needle and the … Read more

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons — File:Johnson electric acoustic guitar 1.jpg — Public domain (copyright holder release) A song that begins as a love ballad and ends as a confession, Down by the River is Neil Young and Crazy Horse at their most intense and their most unsettling. The story behind the song The song’s story … Read more

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons — File:Johnson electric acoustic guitar 1.jpg — Public domain (copyright holder release) A song about a girl, a band finding its sound, and a guitar solo played on a single note that proved less could be much, much more. The story behind the song Cinnamon Girl, recorded with Crazy Horse for … Read more

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons — File:Halo guitar.jpg — Public domain (released by W4D at English Wikipedia; Halo Guitars permission noted on file page) Some songs are difficult to write. Tears in Heaven was difficult to sing, difficult to hear, and, for its writer, difficult to keep singing, and that difficulty is part of why it … Read more

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons — File:Halo guitar.jpg — Public domain (released by W4D at English Wikipedia; Halo Guitars permission noted on file page) Badge is a Cream song, a George Harrison collaboration, and a title that came from a misreading, and it is also one of the most elegant songs Clapton ever played on. The … Read more