Neil Young’s opinion on Tracy Chapman

A professional musician since the early 1960s, Neil Young had the chance to witness the evolution of music up close. He was part of that evolution, especially during the 1960s and 1970s, as an artist of a new generation. In the following decades, he continued to support and collaborate with emerging artists.

Throughout his career, Young spoke about many of them, often sharing his honest opinions. One of those artists was the influential American singer and songwriter Tracy Chapman.

What is Neil Young’s opinion on Tracy Chapman

Neil Young is a huge fan of Tracy Chapman and praised her since she released the self-titled debut album in 1988. (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) “We were just talking about the flame burning last night and we were listening to Tracy Chapman. She’s got the light. I was saying to Elliot Roberts (his manager) that I want to take her on the road with me because she’s got the light, an inspiration, she’s carrying it.”

“She’s the only one who’s got it right now. You can have it and then it’s gone, you know, you don’t know why. It gets snuffed out and then somebody else has got it. You might get it again but there is no way to keep it. It’s not in your control and she has it.” He then shows the cover of her self-titled 1988 debut album) and says: “If you want to hear it this is it.”

He then explained why he meant about having “the light”: “You listen to this song and you find yourself (reacting like) ‘Oh my God, that’s great’. She’s got it, it’s really, there is a feeling, it’s something more than music, it’s life and it’s there. Nobody gets to keep it for very long and then it’s gone. You can have it and then it’s gone halfway through a sentence. I’ve lost it many times and been lucky enough to be around when it came back a couple of times.”

He continued:

“You don’t really know when you lost it as much as you know when you get it back. You don’t really feel it go, but you feel it when it comes back. This light, this feeling comes over your whole body and you feel right. Everything you do is right, you can’t make any mistakes and then you wake up one morning and it’s over. That’s what it’s all about, there’s no preconceptions,” Neil Young said in a TV interview in 1988, made available by Best of Vox Pop.

During that same year, Young, who was promoting “This Note’s for You”, his album with the Blue Notes, talked about the “light” she had. “Yeah. I’ve been hit with a lot of shit. I’m not the same guy I was when I was 20. But even though I have less of a shine, I still recognize the light when I have the light. I heard a Tracy Chapman record the other day. She’s a new singer/songwriter and I said to myself, this girl is f*cking great, she’s got the light. That’s when I realized I didn’t have the light” he told Spin magazine in 1988.

Neil Young recorded with Tracy Chapman

Neil Young’s wish to take her on the road as his opening act came true later on. He also played on her second album “Crossroads”, released in 1989. He played the acoustic guitar and piano in the track “All That You Have Is Your Soul”.

She was asked by Hot Press in 1998, what it was like to work with names like Neil Young, Vernon Reid and members of Bruce Springsteen‘s band on that album. “It wasn’t that unexpected, at least for me. There were some people who thought the second record was more controversial, and others thought it wasn’t as good. I think the record company certainly weren’t happy with that. But I guess I had no expectations that it would be received in the same way that the first record was. You can’t expect that people will like everything that you do. I think also some part of the acclaim and success around the first record was due to the fact that it was the first. You’re only brand new one time.”

They had the same manager and she performed at his charity shows

Curiously, she was also managed by Elliot Roberts, who had been the longtime manager of Young, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell. Also in 1988, Young mentioned Tracy Chapman performed several times over the decades on Neil Young’s charity show “Annual Bridge School Benefit”. She was part of that in 1988, 1989, 1991 and 2001. The goal of the show was to fund The Bridge School, a non-profit organization in Hillsborough, California for children with severe speech and physical impairments.

She also was part of another Neil Young charity project, “Farm Aid”, which was idealized by him, Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp, to benefit small American farmers. So far Tracy released 8 studio albums, the most recent one being “Our Bright Future” (2008). She spent years away from the spotlight but returned in the last couple of years being part of special performances. Some of her most famous songs are “Fast Car” and “Baby Can I Hold You”.