The Neil Young song Rick Rubin couldn’t live without

By editorial board on March 3, 2024

In the opening of his book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin says: “Creativity is not a rare ability.

Rick was always open to listening to new music when he was younger. He references classical music, punk, and folk music in the form of Bach, Ramones, and Simon and Garfunkel.

There is only one thing that he looks for in an artist and in the music he listens to, and that is best represented in the Neil Young track that he includes on his Desert Island Discs playlist.

‘I Believe In You’ was written by Neil Young in the ‘70s and is one of the more popular songs featured on his After the Gold Rush record. Since its release, it has been covered by artists who love it, including Rita Coolidge, Robin Zander and Linda Ronstadt. Rick Rubin is also on the list of adoring fans of the song.

“The song had such an overwhelming effect on me that I had to pull off the road,” he said, “It felt like my heart stopped. It felt like I was just in this other experience. There was some feeling of death related to it, too, but it didn’t feel scary or bad; it just felt beautiful and connected and expansive. It was fantastic. Those are the moments I’m looking for.”

 Neil Young on hip-hop:  “This is the shit that’s going to keep music alive – don’t close it off because you don’t understand it.”

Throughout his extensive career, he has continually pushed musical boundaries, exploring new sounds and styles while maintaining an unmistakable authenticity.

This versatility and commitment to artistic integrity have earned him widespread acclaim and solidified his status as one of the most influential and enduring figures in rock music history.

However, for Young, who holds a strong interest in wordplay and the lyrical aspect of songwriting, the emergence of hip-hop presented an intriguing opportunity which he believed would transform music for the better.

During an interview with Rolling Stone in 1993, Young proudly declared, “I love rap!” before singling out Ice-T as a particular favourite from the scene. Furthermore, the Canadian singer-songwriter also hit out at the critics of the genre, explaining how they’d have likely had an issue with Bob Dylan when he first emerged.

He continued: “It’s speaking to the people on the streets. It’s a whole new way of communicating that’s so open to saying exactly what the hell’s on people’s minds in a clever way, a way that you can listen to and move your body to. Similar to, like, ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues.’ Dylan is early rap. What the hell’s the difference?”

Young concluded: “This is the shit that’s going to keep music alive – don’t close it off because you don’t understand it.”

While many musical predictions can come back to make the perpetrator look stupid after the passing of 30 years, Young was proved astute in making the prophecy. In recent years, members of the hip-hop community have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which further proves its credentials as a serious musical genre.

Although rappers aren’t as musically inclined in a traditional sense and may not be able to play instruments, they make up for these inadequacies with qualities elsewhere. If everybody was graced with the same set of skills, then the musical landscape would be a monotonous sea of beige, and its constant evolution is vital to keeping the art form fresh.

 

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