How Neil Young’s Decade Changed My Life

Mark Kozelek

From Harp Magazine an article "How Neil Young’s Decade Changed My Life" by Mark Kozelek of Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon:

"I can't remember the first Neil Young song I ever heard, but I remember the first album I owned: Decade. I had that, and then Live Rust. My earliest memories of these albums are of sleepy days inside, getting high, sitting in my room next to the turntable. I'd stare transfixed into the blurry, psychedelic photos of Live Rust, and look for deeper meaning in the handwritten notes of Decade's foldout. I loved music--Yes, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd--but Neil Young was closer down to earth. I'd lose myself in these albums--in the 'burned out basement' of "After the Gold Rush," in the sentimental themes of "I Am a Child" and "Sugar Mountain." The guitar solos from "Cortez the Killer" and "Down by the River" were drawn out and hypnotic and seeped into my pores like a narcotic that has never left my system."

More on Neil Young's influences on other artists.