Album: World Record (2022)
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Songfacts®:

  • World Record is Neil Young's 15th album with Crazy Horse. Young co-produced the record with Rick Rubin and recorded it live. It was mixed to analog tape at Rubin's Shangri-La studio in Malibu, California. For the bulk of World Record, Neil Young didn't play guitar, but when he did plug in his battle-tested 1953 Les Paul, it resulted in "Chevrolet" - the album's most epic track.
  • On the surface, "Chevrolet" is a celebration of cars and the freedom of the open road. But as the song goes on, it becomes more about the memories and emotions that are associated with cars.

    "It's based on different kinds of Chevrolets, in different kinds of highways, in different parts of my life," Young told Uncut magazine. "I don't really know how to describe it. Each verse is a different car, a different time of my life. I don't know whether I was talking about last week, or about 40 years ago."
  • Young and his Crazy Horse bandmates - guitarist Nils Lofgren, bassist Billy Talbot, and drummer Ralph Molina - jammed this song. They created a melting wall of sound that takes us on a 15-minute journey. "We played in a big circle," Young recalled of the session. "I was facing Ralph, Billy was too my left, Nils was to my right, and yeah, we just, You know, played and sang. Very simple."

    "I put on my black Falcon, turned way up, and we went on this long ride," added Lofgren. "I was leaning in, just reacting to Neil. Again, we've not had 70 shows under our belt together, but this is the third album together in a row now. So, I'm like, 'Hell with it, I need to turn up and be a little more reckless."

    "Chevrolet allows the Horse to really gallop," Talbot added. "If you're galloping on a horse, you're going up the hill, then down the hill, and around the hill. That's how the horse does it with Neil."

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