Mr. Soul
| Mr. Soul | |
|---|---|
| Buffalo Springfield | |
| publication | June 15, 1967 |
| length | 2:35 |
| Genre (s) | Folk rock |
| Author (s) | Neil Young |
| Label | Atco Records |
| album | Buffalo Springfield Again |
Mr. Soul is a Buffalo Springfield song written by Neil Young . It was released in mid-1967 as the B-side of their fourth single, Bluebird .
background
Mr. Soul was written by Neil Young after he had an epilepsy attack at an early concert with Buffalo Springfield . Some people in the audience had wondered if that was part of the show. He wrote the song while recovering at UCLA Medical Center. The lyrics reflect Young's feeling that he was going to die. A doctor advised him never to take LSD or other hallucinogenic drugs.
The somber song uses the dropped-D vibe that Young also used in songs like Ohio and Cinnamon Girl .
On the 1968 album Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House , Young stated:
“It takes a long time to write a lot of songs. Generally speaking, it takes an hour and a half, two hours to write. But this only lasted five minutes. "
Young later recorded other versions of the song, often with significant changes.
Cover versions and variations
Young has often performed the song solo and with various backing bands. Live recordings appeared in 1968 on Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House , in 1993 on Unplugged and 1997 on Year of the Horse with Crazy Horse . Young also recorded the song on his 1982 album Trans in synth rock style, in which the vocals were processed with a vocoder; a live performance of this version also appears in the film Solo Trans . During the Bridge School Benefit Concerts in 2016, Young played an acoustic version with Metallica .
Cher recorded a cover of the song for her album Stars in 1975 . The song was also recorded by the Everly Brothers in December 1968 but was not released until 1984 on their studio album Nice Guys. In 2004 Rush recorded the song on Feedback , their cover EP with songs from the 1960s. Iron & Wine played the song on the 2005 live album Iron & Wine Live - Bonnaroo .
Musician
- Neil Young - guitar, lead vocals
- Stephen Stills - guitar, backing vocals
- Richie Furay - guitar, backing vocals
- Dewey Martin - drums
- Bruce Palmer - bass guitar
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mr. Soul - Buffalo Springfield | Song info. Retrieved April 4, 2020 (American English).
- ^ Johnny Rogan: Neil Young: Zero to Sixty - A Critical Biography . Music Sales Distributed, 2001, ISBN 978-0-9529540-4-0 , pp. 109 .
- ↑ James McDonough: Shakey: Neil Young's Biography . Anchor, New York City 2003, ISBN 978-0-679-75096-3 , pp. 194 .
- ^ Daniel Kreps, Daniel Kreps: See Metallica Perform With Neil Young, Cover the Clash at Bridge School. In: Rolling Stone. October 23, 2016, Retrieved April 4, 2020 (American English).