Songfacts®:

• "I've Loved Her So Long" is generally considered one of the highlights of Neil Young's debut album. As Andy Childs wrote in the March 1975 issue of ZigZag, "'The Loner,' 'I've Loved Her So Long' and 'Here We Are In The Years' were near-flawless pieces, acutely tapered and garnished with a side order of strings."
• The song holds an interesting place in the album, because whereas Young himself plays the tragic figure in most of the other songs, he's the white knight of "I've Loved Her So Long." This time, the role of tragic figure is filled by the sighing woman that "tumbles by" and "rolls along... doing it wrong," all while being a "veteran of a race that should be over."
  
  It's Young alone that can save her, as he notes that he can "bring her the peace that she needs" and "give her reason to smile." Even here, though, the eerie fatalism that marks much of Young's work is apparent.
• Many critics have noted the paranoia and desperation that infuses most of the songs on Neil Young. In "The Loner," we have Young as the half-crazed outsider misanthrope. In "If I Could Have her Tonight" we find him looking for a woman to save his life, and in "I've Been Waiting for You" he's so desperate for love that he sounds ready to crack. Only in "I've Loved Her So Long" do we get Young as the gallant hero.