Young wrote this about the caretaker of the ranch he bought in 1970. The song compares a young man's life to an old man's and shows that the old man was once like this young man.
The caretaker of the that cattle ranch? His name was Louis Avila. The ranch was the Broken Arrow Ranch, purchased for $350,000 in 1970 (just think about those real estate prices compared to now!). Reportedly, Avila was giving Young a tour of the place and asked him how a young man like him could afford a place like this. Young, aged 25, replied "Just lucky, Louie, just real lucky." Avila was quite bemused.
Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor sang backing vocals on "Old Man" and another
Harvest track, ""
Heart of Gold." Ronstadt recalled to
Mojo: "I can't remember why Neil wanted me to sing with him - I guess he just figured I was there and could do it – but we went in there and they were doing 'Heart of Gold' and 'Old Man' and I thought they were such beautiful songs. I loved them.
And I knew how to do harmonies. I'd listened to the Buffalo Springfield harmonies and I knew how to get that 7th they always used. I don't think we started until midnight and it was dawn when we came out, and it was snowing – we came out to this beautiful snow storm in the rising sun. It was really exciting. I just thought I've been part of something really wonderful."
This was the first song recorded for the Harvest album. Neil Young arranged the session the previous night when he was at a party held at Quadrafonic Studios in Nashville (he was in town to record a segment for Johnny Cash's TV show). The studio owner Elliot Mazer was also a producer who had worked with a band Young admired called Area Code 615. Young asked if he could record there the next day, and Mazer complied, supplying not just the studio, but also the musicians.
The session took place on Saturday, February 6, 1971 with a group of Music City studio pros: Ben Keith on pedal steel guitar, Tim Drummond on bass and Kenny Buttrey on drums.
It was never the metric on which he wanted to be judged, but "Old Man" was the second-biggest hit for Neil Young as a solo artist, reaching #31 on the Hot 100. His biggest hit, by far, was his previous single, the
Harvest track "
Heart of Gold," which went to #1.
There was some conflict over a hi-hat when Young recorded this song. When drummer Kenny Buttrey played it, Young told him not only to refrain from the hi-hat, but to only play with his left hand, which Buttrey thought was ridiculous. The drummer complied, however, literally sitting on his right hand to resist temptation. Buttrey later quipped: "He hires some of the best musicians in the world and has them play as stupid as they possibly can."
It was immediately after the success of "Old Man" and the Harvest album that Danny Whitten, central to Young's band Crazy Horse, passed away. Young invited Whitten to audition for his backing band the Stray Gators on the condition that he cleaned up his substance abuse. Young gave him a trial, but it looked to be the same old story with Whitten, so he fired him. Whitten promptly went home and overdosed, found dead with Valium and alcohol in his system.
Young got the call that night, and was devastated. Whitten's death was part of the darkening of Neil Young's act during the time following "Old Man;" it wasn't just the success or being "headed for the ditch."
Young told Jimmy McDonough that the line "Does it mean that much to me, to mean that much to you?" is meant to be directed towards the audience.
James Taylor is credited with playing "guitar-banjo" on this song. Taylor, who along with Linda Ronstadt was in the studio recording vocals, saw the banjo and started playing it. The instrument belonged to Young; it was a called a "guitar-banjo" because it was a banjo tuned like a guitar.
Bob Dylan covered this song throughout his 2002 tour.
This song has appeared in various films over the years, including Due Date, Lords of Dogtown, and Wonder Boys.
2015 The Voice champion Sawyer Fredericks covered the song during the show's finale. The following week his version reached #63 on the Hot 100.
In 2018, a 72-years Young said during a concert in Chicago: "It's hard to do 'Old Man' now. It's like, 'Old man take a look at my life, I'm a lot like I am."
At the memorial service for actor Heath Ledger, "Old Man" was chosen as the song to play over a slideshow showing his various roles and life.
Beck
covered "Old Man" in 2022 to promote NBC's Sunday Night Football game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs. The "old man" in this case was Tom Brady, the 45-year-old quarterback for the Bucs. NBC claimed the line "24 and there's so much more" was relevant to the game because both quarterbacks were 24 when they won their first Super Bowls.
"But wait," you may be asking. "Doesn't Neil Young forbid any use of his songs in commercials?"
He does, but he may have given up some of those rights when he
sold part of his catalog to Hipgnosis. After the promo aired, Young made a passive-aggressive display of displeasure by posting a still from the video of his anti-commercial anthem "
This Note's For You" on Instagram.
