“Like a Hurricane” by Neil Young

"Like a Hurricane" landed on Neil Young's American Stars 'n Bars in 1977, but he'd written it two summers earlier, in July 1975, at a time when he couldn't even sing: he was recovering from an operation on his vocal cords. He first unveiled it on stage with Crazy Horse in the UK in March 1976.

The recording happened almost by accident. At the White House studio on Young's Broken Arrow Ranch, the band were trying to cut it with two guitars and no keyboard when Sampedro started improvising on a synthesizer; Young grabbed his guitar and fell in, and the engineer only started the tape once he caught on, which is why the take bursts in so abruptly. Billy Talbot's bass sits on a handful of notes, Ralph Molina's beat never changes, and that dead-steady floor is what lets Young's electric guitar go up in flames, long wild runs that swirl round and round and feel faster than they are. The vocal came later, at the Village studio in LA, once his voice had healed.

Young produced it with David Briggs, with Tim Mulligan recording and lending a hand in production, and Reprise put out an edited single that August, backed with "Hold Back the Tears".

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.