Neil Young – Heart Of Gold

A giant hit for Neil Young.

James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt sang backup on this song. They don’t come in until the end of the song. Like Young, Taylor and Ronstadt were in town to appear on The Johnny Cash Show (the song’s producer Elliot Mazer had produced Ronstadt’s 1970 Silk Purse album). Young convinced them to lend their voices to this track, and they came in the day after the rest of the song was completed.

This song was recorded in Nashville in just two takes. The musicians were not familiar with Young or the song. This spontaneity created just the right feel for the track…something that would have never come about through additional tweaking. This style of recording, where top-tier studio musicians are asked to give total focus to a take with little instruction, is something Bob Dylan often did.

By far, this was the biggest hit for Young as a solo artist, Peaking at #1 on the Billboard 100 in 1972…the Harvest album peaked at #1 a week earlier,

Linda Ronstadt: “We were sat on the couch in the control room, but I had to get up on my knees to be on the same level as James because he’s so tall. Then we sang all night, the highest notes I could sing. It was so hard, but nobody minded. It was dawn when we walked out of the studio.”

 

From Songfacts

With a straightforward metaphor and complete lack of pathos, this is not a typical Neil Young song. It finds him mining for a “heart of gold,” which depending on your perspective, is either a touching and heartfelt sentiment, or a mawkish platitude. Rolling Stone took the churlish view, complaining that the album evoked “superstardom’s weariest clichés.” The listening public and Young’s fans were far more accepting, and the song became his biggest hit.

Young wrote this in 1971 after he suffered a back injury that made it difficult for him to play the electric guitar, so on the Harvest tracks he played acoustic. Despite the injury, Young was in good spirits (possibly thanks to the painkillers), which is reflected in this song. The next few years were more challenging for Young, as he suffered a series of setbacks: His son Zeke was born with cerebral palsy, his friend Danny Whitten died, and he split with his girlfriend, Carrie Snodgress. His next three albums, which became known as “The Ditch Trilogy,” expressed these dark times in stark contrast to “Heart of Gold.”

This song was recorded at the first sessions for the Harvest album, which took place on Saturday, February 6, 1971 and were set up the night before.

Neil Young was in Nashville to record a performance for The Johnny Cash Show along with Tony Joe White, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. Elliot Mazer, a producer who owned nearby Quadrafonic Studios, set up a dinner party on February 5, inviting the show’s guests and about 50 other people. Mazer was friends with Young’s manager Elliot Roberts, who introduced the two at the gathering. Young and Mazer quickly hit it off when Neil learned that Elliot has produced a band called Area Code 615. Young asked if he could set up a session the next day, and Mazer complied.

Nashville has an abundance of studio musicians, but getting them to work on a Saturday could be a challenge. Mazur was able to get one member of Area Code 615: Drummer Kenny Buttrey. The other musicians he found were guitarist Teddy Irwin, bass player Tim Drummond, and pedal steel player Ben Keith. All were seasoned pros.

Keith, who had never heard of Neil Young, recalls showing up late and sitting down to play right away. He says they recorded five songs before they stopped for introductions.

A very influential musician, he was never too concerned about making hit records. His next-highest Hot 100 entry was his next single, “Old Man,” which reached #31.

At the time, Taylor and Young were huge stars, but Ronstadt had yet to land a big hit. Her talent was obvious to those around her, but poor song selection and promotion kept her from the top ranks. Young exposed her to arena crowds when he brought her along as the opening act on his Time Fades Away tour in early 1973, but it was another two years before she landed that elusive hit, going to #1 with “You’re No Good.”

In the liner notes to his Decade collection, Young said: “This song put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch.”

This statement reflected Young’s aversion to fame, and was not meant to demean the song. In a later interview with NME, he clarified: “I think Harvest is probably the finest record I’ve made.”

Before separating them into two songs, Young wrote this together with “A Man Needs A Maid” as a piano piece – he described it as “like a medley.”

This was the song that tweaked Bob Dylan; Young had made no secret that he idolized Dylan, but when Dylan heard “Heart of Gold” he thought this was going too far. As quoted in Neil Young: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, Dylan complained, “I used to hate it when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I listened to “Heart of Gold.” I’d say, that’s me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me.”

“Heart Of Gold” is the name of the spaceship stolen by Zaphod Beeblebrox in Douglas Adams’ book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. 

Young became the first Canadian to have a #1 album in the US when Harvest topped the Billboard 200 for two weeks in April 1972.

This song appears in the 1984 film Iceman, and on the soundtrack of the 2010 movie Eat Pray Love.

Lady Gaga references this in her song “You and I.” The line goes, “On my birthday you sung me ‘Heart of Gold,’ with a guitar humming and no clothes.”

In 2005, the CBC Radio One series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version declared “Heart of Gold” to be the third best Canadian song of all time.

Stryper frontman Michael Sweet covered this for his 2014 I’m Not Your Suicide album. He also recorded a second duet version with country artist Electra Mustaine, who is the daughter of Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine.

Young revived the guitar riff for this song on CSN&Y’s “Slowpoke” in 1999.

Young has made it clear that the musicians who played on his tracks had a lot to do with their success. In an interview with the Musicians Hall of Fame, he said that “Heart of Gold” would not have been a hit without drummer Kenny Buttrey.

Tori Amos covered this on her 2001 album Strange Little Girls. She was trying to demonstrate how men and women hear different meaning in the same songs.

Heart of Gold

I want to live
I want to give
I’ve been a miner for a heart of gold.
It’s these expressions I never give
that keep me searching for a heart of gold
and I’m getting old.

I’ve been to Hollywood
I’ve been to Redwood
I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold
I’ve been in my mind, it’s such a fine line,
that keeps me searching for a heart of gold
and I’m getting old.

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

35 thoughts on “Neil Young – Heart Of Gold”

  1. Simply a classic song from one of my favourite artists. It’s the first song I ever learned how to play on a guitar, even tried the harmonica parts lol. Love the fact that Ronstadt and Taylor were on the song. Great post.

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    1. I’ve never tried the harmonica parts…I should though. The first harmonica I learned was Girl From The North Country by Dylan…

      I didnt know about Taylor and Ronstadt either. Thanks for commenting

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  2. I was just writing about Ronstadt’s Silk Purse for my post next month about the Eagles. Linda is such a nice person, everybody that worked with her likes her. Great post Max, I really enjoyed this.

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  4. Wow, this is a really good article about Neil Young and”Heart of Gold”. This song comes on Music Choice a lot. I like the fact that Linda and Taylor came in and improvised the vocals for the end of the song. Improvised songs have this wonderful, spontaneous feeling to them. I like to improvise songs myself.
    By the way, I think you asked me if I ever blogged before. The answer is no, this is my first time making a blog. 🙂 But I’ve written a lot of stories and non-fiction in the past, so I have a little writing experience.
    I posted a new article called “Jimi Hendrix and the Music Business”. It describes the challenges Jimi faced in the industry. If you want to see it, feel free to check it out.

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    1. I sure will check it out thank you. I love Jimi Hendrix’s music and history. He lived in Clarksville Tennessee for a while when he was in the military and I live 25 minutes away from there.

      I was going to tell you since you are beginning to be patient for followers. You are doing WAY better than I did…It took me 6 months to start getting traffic….you are already getting some.

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      1. Oh, thanks a lot! 😀 I was surprised by the amount of people who wanted to learn more about Jimi’s music and vision, but I’m really happy about it. I think it helps to be passionate about what you do, and maybe Jimi Heaven helps fill a void. It’s hard to find truly in-depth information on Jimi, and I felt I had to give it a try and start an info source.

        I also branch out in other subjects on the blog, but Jimi is like the main theme.

        Wow, you were 25 minutes away from Jimi? That’s awesome!

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      2. I was just a baby and a toddler at the time but yea…I was close and he went into some of the shops I’ve gone to. His bass player from the Band of Gypsies…I’ve met him…Billy Cox. He owned a pawn shop in Nashville. Really nice and humble man.

        I live right outside of Nashville… Really right between Nashville and Clarksville.

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  6. There are very few Neil Young songs I like, but this is one of them. 🙂 (Another is ‘Expecting To Fly’ which he wrote and did with Buffalo Springfield.)

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      1. I’ve recently been trying to define a particular sound from the late sixties. I’ve created a playlist on youtube with mostly that sound and vibe. Must get back to that and get them sorted out then share the link to it!

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  7. Of all of the interesting tidbits on the song in your post, this is probably the most amazing to me: “Young became the first Canadian to have a #1 album in the US when Harvest topped the Billboard 200 for two weeks in April 1972.” When I think of all of the great music created by Canadian musicians, to think this was the first #1. I love Neil Young, especially in those younger days. He’s made good ones more recently I’m sure, but those early ones are the ones I’m familiar with. I love the idea of Linda Ronstadt as the opening act for the Time Fades Away tour. Uncle Neil did well by her by giving her the exposure. He’s been a good mentor to Pearl Jam over the years as well.

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    1. He is something… I truly love his songwriting and voice. He is like Dylan in a way…he doesn’t try to be liked…he is just that good. I didn’t know Linda and James were on this.

      “The Loving Teacher” made a comment about you I believe…I got the reply though…check her comment out Lisa if you can…it’s about taoism.

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  8. Thanks for liking my comment! I see you make a blog about Taoism. That’s really interesting. I used to research about Taoism. I like the philosophy: it’s sort of like living with the flow of life instead of fighting against it.

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    1. Teacher, will you please say more about your research on Taoism? My area of interest is philosophical Taoism, as well as some other schools of thought around those times.

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      1. Oh, well by research, I don’t mean I actually took classes or anything. 🙂 I looked on the internet when I was working on a report about religions. From what I remember, philosophical Taoism is the kind which involves living a philosophy of kindness, moderation, and acceptance of life. You treat others with kindness, just as you would like to be treated. I’m not an expert on the subject of Taoism, though. That was just my impression of it.

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    1. I agree with you. Lately I’ve posted too many hits. Sometimes I get wary of…I’ve never heard this before….but it is rewarding when someone listens to it and likes it.

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      1. I think I’ve just been thinking of political correctness lately; my 5 year old daughter got a bunch of take home sheets, including one about “I is for Indian”. Seemed very anachronistic.

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    1. I didn’t know about Taylor and Ronstadt either. either.

      off topic….There is a film or a documentary that Neil made in Nashville in the early 70s that is on youtube I think….I just have to find it. I’ll post it when I find it. It’s pretty cool dude. I’ve seen it once.

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  11. Great song I grew up with. Neil might find it boring but I think it’s near the peak of his work. I think I knew Linda r was on there, but didn’t know James Taylor was. What a loosely-associated group o fmusicians back then in LA, eh?

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    1. That was the peak of his work you are right…at least to me..now…I also liked Crazy Horse and those years but the early seventies are my favorite.

      A talented bunch to hang with

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