“Old Man” by Neil Young

"Old Man" comes from Neil Young's 1972 album Harvest and went out as a Reprise single that spring, reaching four in Canada and 31 on the Hot 100. Young wrote it for Louis Avila, the caretaker of the Broken Arrow Ranch in Northern California that he bought in 1970, and it holds a young man's life up against an old man's and finds them needing much the same things.

Young plays acoustic guitar and sings, James Taylor adds a six-string banjo tuned like a guitar plus harmony vocals, and Linda Ronstadt joins on backing vocals. Ben Keith's pedal steel weeps around the edges, Andy McMahon plays piano, and Tim Drummond and Kenny Buttrey keep the rhythm easy. Elliot Mazer recorded it and produced it with Young, and the whole thing aches with plainspoken country warmth.

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