Song · Neil Young
“Unknown Legend” by Neil Young
Released 1992
“Unknown Legend” by Neil Young appears on 7 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 2009 and 2024. It was first released in 1992. Its best result is #180 on the WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,271 indie & aaa song of all time.
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"Unknown Legend" turned up on Neil Young's 1992 album Harvest Moon, but it had been around much longer, going back to around the time of Comes a Time in 1978, and critics have heard that record's kinship in it, "Motorcycle Mama" above all. It rides a plain, folky guitar figure, with Linda Ronstadt joining in on the refrains and Ben Keith's pedal steel adding touches that Young's biographer Jimmy McDonough heard as proud but sad. Young and Keith produced it together.
The song sketches a woman who used to work in a diner and ride around on a Harley-Davidson and is now bringing up two kids; Young drew her from more than one real person. Sent to radio only as a promo single, it still reached 38 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 752 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2010 | 563 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Ultimate Road Trip Songs (2010) | 885 |
| 2016 | 525 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Countdown 2016 | 913 |
| 2020 | 1542 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2023 | 218 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
| 2024 | 180 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
| 2024 | 269 | KEXP | The Best Opening Tracks of All Time | 738 |
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