“When ‘Runaway’ goes to “I’m-a walkin’ in the rain,” those are the same chords in the bridge of “Hurricane”—“You are …” It opens up. So, it’s a minor descending thing that opens up—that’s what they have in common. It’s like ‘Runaway’ with the organ solo going on for ten minutes.” Neil Young quoted in “Shakey” by Jimmy McDonough, 2002
The story of how Neil Young wrote “Like a Hurricane” with his pals Taylor Phelps and Jim Russell during a coke fueled late night adventure up on Skyline Drive in the Santa Cruz mountains is legend among Rusties. “One night in late November 1975, I wrote the “Like a Hurricane” lyrics on a piece of newspaper in the back of Taylor Phelps’s 1950 DeSoto Suburban, a huge car that we used to all go to bars in…As was our habit between bars, we had stopped at Skeggs Point Scenic Lookout on Skyline Boulevard up on the mountain to do a few lines of coke; I wrote “Hurricane” right there in the back of that giant old car. Then when I got home, I played the chords on this old Univox Stringman mounted in an old ornate pump-organ body set up in the living room...I finished the melody in five minutes, but I was so jacked I couldn't stop playing."
“Hurricane” was released on American Stars and Bars on May 27, 1977 and though it was included on the 3 LP Decade a few months later, Neil had decided that the song deserved its own release as part of a single album’s song cycle rather than buried in a greatest hits package. As David Briggs said in a 1997 interview, “We said to ourselves, wow, Hurricane, that's a really good cut. It should have its own album to be on instead of being released with 32 other songs.” That decision resulted in one of the greatest point/counterpoint album trackings ever: “Hurricane’s” sonic blast erupts from the speakers just as “Will to Love,” Young’s quiet masterpiece recorded in the presence of a crackling, late-night fire, fades into silence. “Like a Hurricane” appears on 11 other albums but none create the stunning musical contrast as the songs’ juxtaposition on American Stars and Bars.
“We tried it with two guitars. I think one day we tried it once at the end of a session, another day we tried it all day with two guitars, and the third day we tried it with two guitars. It was just...He was upset with it. I sat down at the keyboard. He had an organ and I started playing it a little. He said ‘Well, let's try it like that.’ So we played it like that one time, and at the end of that tape, you can hear it, Neil goes, ‘Yeah, that's how it goes I think. That's it.’” Frank "Poncho" Sampedro talking to Rolling Stone in 2013.
“Like a Hurricane” figured prominently on the 1978 Rust Never Sleeps tour, performed at every stop on the two-month tour. By the time, Neil and Crazy Horse reached the Cow Palace on October 22nd, the show’s pacing and song arrangements were so well established that the performance was chosen for the concert film documenting the tour, “Rust Never Sleeps.” Note Sampedro on the Stringman, as well as Billy Talbot’s Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt (a “controversy” RustWorks will address in a future post).
Watch Neil Young and Crazy Horse perform “Like a Hurricane” at the Cow Palace show in San Francisco on October 22, 1978:
But a few nights later on October 24th at the final (added) show of the tour, Neil was the best guitar player on the planet, ripping two of the most intense solos I’ve ever heard on “Like a Hurricane” (or any song, for that matter). The first solo starts off in subdued fashion but at 3:40 begins its ascent into the stratosphere, ending with Neil playing the melody line as he sings the second verse. The first solo break, perfectly serving the song, while simultaneously lifting it to unimaginable heights, is exceeded by a jaw-dropping second solo break, his fingering technique mimicking the pitter-pattering of rain falling in sheets, Crazy Horse driving the rhythm like a “jet plane in a thunderstorm,” the performance ending with a time signature change and that devastating descending guitar pattern with its Am resolution.
Yeah, that’s how it goes.
Listen to the 1978-10-24 performance of “Like a Hurricane” here:
Growing up on the Texas Gulf Coast, I played this on an old portable cassette player during Hurricane Alicia while my parents huddled in the hall. They weren't amused.