“Here’s a song I don’t usually do because I don’t know it that well. But you’re ready for it, I can tell.” [before playing Powderfinger live for the first time] Neil Young, The Boarding House, San Francisco, California, May 26, 1978, Late Show.
Today’s RustWorks is about one of Neil’s most popular, recognizable, and celebrated “story” songs. A meditation on despair, duty, and ultimately death, set to a mid-tempo folk melody, Young tells the tale of a boy on the edge of manhood. Sadly (spoiler alert), the story ends badly.
Originally recorded for Young’s 1975 album, Zuma, offered to Lynyrd Skynrd, and ultimately released on 1979’s Rust Never Sleeps, the song’s folk structure is compelling in both acoustic and electric performances.
Check out this early acoustic performance on YouTube:
First performed publicly on May 26, 1978, the song made its electric (with Crazy Horse) debut on September 16, 1978, with the Live Rust version becoming the widely beloved song it is today.
For this week’s RustWorks we feature a 2008 performance from Colmar, France on August 15, 2008. It’s a tribute to Ben (Long Grain) Keith as well, who imbues this extended performance with some wonderful, rollicking riffs that turn the song into a musical carnival ride.
“It’s a unique thing when you start a song at one point and finish it years later. Something happens. You get an original idea and get it going, and something stops you. It could be anything-some distraction that happens and takes your mind away from it. You could be trying too hard. These things happen, and you don’t finish the song. “Powderfinger” took a long time; I wrote the first line in 1967 and didn’t finish the song until 1975. It was funny to pick up where I left off. Something blocks me once in awhile, and I don’t try to force anything to an unnatural end. I just put it away and maybe come back to it later. Neil Young, Guitar World/Gary Graff, June 1993
Listen to the 2008-08-15 performance of “Powderfinger” here:
Completely identify with him on this. I have so many half written essays. Of course, none will turn out to be a hit song.