David Bowie’s opinion on Neil Young

Neil Young is the kind of songwriter who transcended the initial musical style that made him famous, inspiring artists from many different genres throughout his career. Although he is best known for his Folk Rock albums, he has always experimented with something new on his records, never sticking to a formula that had previously brought him success. Something that the late David Bowie also did and during his life, he gave his opinion on many of his peers, including Neil Young.

What was David Bowie’s opinion on Neil Young

David Bowie was a huge fan of Neil Young and considered the Canadian musician one of the artists keeping Rock and Roll alive and relevant. “I have an incredible admiration for Neil. There’s a youthful redemption in everything he does. A joyfulness about being an independent thinker in America,” he said in Jimmy McDonough’s book “Shakey”.

He saw Neil Young as a mentor in songwriting and said that whenever things went wrong, he would look to the careers of Neil and Bob Dylan for guidance. “When things go bad, I’ve always looked to my peers. And in a way, my musical mentors to see what they’ve done in similar situations.”

He continued:

“Neil Young and Bob Dylan have done similar things: They have both made a few disastrous albums. But they always end up coming back to the point of what they started in the first place. You’ve got to go back to what you were doing when you were rooting around with experimentation, ideas that are going to work for me, not my audience,” David Bowie said in an interview with The Kansas City Star in 2004.

In 1996, Bowie had the chance to play with Neil Young at the Bridge School Benefit concert, describing the experience as moving and poignant. He later mentioned the performance when explaining why his song “Dead Man Walking” was partially inspired by Young.

“It’s a reflection on getting older. I recently worked with Neil Young at a benefit. He played acoustically with two members of Crazy Horse, and they would slowly dance in a tight tribal circle. It was so moving, so poignant. They seemed to evoke and bring to life all that their youthful dreams and energies rested on. Rock ‘n’ roll lives on,” he said in an interview when promoting “Earthling” (1997).

That wasn’t the only song he wrote inspired by Neil Young. The track “Kooks” from his 1971 album “Hunky Dory” was also influenced by Young’s music, more specifically by “After the Goldrush” (1970).

David Bowie covered Neil Young’s “I’ve Been Waiting for You”

A few years later, he covered Neil Young’s song “I’ve Been Waiting for You” on his 2002 album “Heathen.” Bowie had been a big fan of the track since first hearing it in 1969 and had always wanted to cover it. “I do three covers on this album, in homage to the writers as much as any other reason. The Neil Young song ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’ was from his very first album.”

“When I got that album in 1969, I was dazzled by the overall complexity of sound. It was so majestic but aloft or lonely sounding at the same time. A real yearning. And I’d always wanted to do that song on stage or someplace,” he told Livewire magazine in 2002. Curiously, Foo Fighters‘ Dave Grohl was who played the guitar on this Neil Young cover made by Bowie.

Young has admired Bowie as a songwriter since the early days of his career

Neil Young has admired David Bowie since the early days of his career. As early as 1973, when he had released seven albums, the Canadian musician mentioned Bowie alongside Lou Reed as two artists who were driving a change in 1970s music.

“The sixties are definitely not with us anymore. The change into the music of the seventies is starting to come with people like David Bowie and Lou Reed, ‘Walk on the Wild Side.’ He’s telling a story, a street story. That’s a reality in the seventies, heroin. This is much more of a dope generation that we’re in now. That’s what the approach a lotta these people have towards makin’ records is that homosexualism and heavy dope use. Everything is a way of life to a lotta people and they don’t expect to live any more than thirty years and they don’t care.”

“And they don’t care. They’re in the seventies. What I’m tryin’ to say is these people like Lou Reed and David Booie or Bowie, however you pronounce it… Those folks, I think they got somethin’ there, heh heh. Take a walk on the wild side!” Neil Young said in an interview with B. Mitchell Reid in 1973.

Neil criticized Bowie and Michael Jackson in the 80s for allowing their songs to be used in commercials. He even wrote the song “This Note’s For You,” declaring he wouldn’t sing for Pepsi or Coca-Cola, which at the time had used songs in ads. The title also references Budweiser’s slogan, “This Bud’s For You.” MTV banned the music video for the song because of its critique of advertisers. In an open letter, Neil Young asked whether the “M” in MTV stood for “Music” or “Money.”