Not all artists seek to please the public. While having a hit single on the charts can be rewarding, the first goal is always to produce something that reflects the artist’s vision. Only afterward do they contemplate how it will be received by the general public. However his career-long contempt for other people’s opinions. Neil Young admitted that one album seemed too personal and emotional for him to share with anybody else.
After serving as the signature edge for bands like Buffalo Springfield, Young was ready to go out on his own by the late 1960s. However, he was told that another group was waiting. Young, who joined Crosby, Stills, and Nash at Stephen Stills’ request, didn’t need to prove himself in front of his fellow world-class songwriters. He put up songs like ‘Ohio‘ and ‘Helpless‘ as if he had just tossed them together on his porch with a handful of chords.
Young did not want to be dull, and the moment the band began to have internal problems, he was out the door. While creating After the Gold Rush and Harvest, Young’s popularity unexpectedly surged, marking a pivotal career moment.
While Young followed his muse, songs like ‘Heart of Gold‘ became his biggest hits. A major album triumph and a hit single on the charts? The only way to proceed is to make a sharp turn in the opposite direction.
Despite carrying over a few elements from his previous project, many of Young’s albums would become defined by grit over time. The massive sounds of Rust Never Sleeps influenced the grunge bands that emerged in Seattle over two decades later.
For all of the beautiful music Young could produce, some tragic events were going on in the background. After writing ‘The Needle and the Damage Done’ about Danny Whitten’s heroin addiction, Young’s guitarist succumbed to an overdose. This occurred before the 1970s ended.
Instead of heading into the studio to make another big record, Tonight’s the Night was emotionally fragile. Young sounded heartbroken, dealing with his marriage split. There was another project in the works, though, and Young couldn’t stand to release what ended up on Homegrown.
For all of the dark moments on Tonight’s the Night, Young believed that the other album he made was far more revealing than what he was ready to release, telling Rolling Stone, “That record might be more what people would like to hear from me now, but it was just a down album. It was the darker side of Harvest. A lot of the songs were about my breakup with my old woman. It was a little too personal, and it worried me.”
Given how honest Young is with his music, it says a lot that even he is hesitant to release it. Fans have laughed, cried, and discovered themselves through Neil Young’s music. However, even with a 2020 reissue, Homegrown is essentially Neil Young’s equivalent of The Beach Boys’ Smile – a lost masterpiece.
