3 Neil Young Bangers That Foreshadowed Grunge

In the late 1960s, Neil Young formed Buffalo Springfield in Los Angeles with Bruce Palmer, Dewey Martin, Stephen Stills, and Richie Furay. They played psychedelic folk rock, but there was something about the way Young played guitar that differentiated Buffalo Springfield from like-minded folkies at the time. Later, when Young assembled his backing band, Crazy Horse, he further increased the volume of country and folk, later earning the nickname the Godfather of Grunge.

So let’s travel back to a time when grunge was something you might try to remove from dirty jeans and revisit three pioneering bangers by Neil Young.

“Cinnamon Girl”

If you are an aspiring grunge rocker, there are two essential lessons you’ll want to absorb from Neil Young: tune your low guitar string down to D, and buy a fuzz pedal. “Cinnamon Girl” features an epic guitar riff by Young. However, beneath the ear-bleeding distortion is the kind of sweet melody that also translates to an acoustic guitar. See Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged set. Or just watch Young’s.

“Down By The River”

Sticking with Young’s first LP with Crazy Horse, “Down By The River” also appears on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The title echoes the disillusion that defined grunge in the 1990s, proving the endurance of restless youth. But here, Young plays a dark blues that suggests a jealous man has killed his lover. When Meat Puppets released their iconic second album in 1984, they continued Young’s punk Americana, which Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden brought to mainstream audiences when grunge broke in 1991.

“Cortez The Killer”

On Young’s epic from Zuma, you’ll notice a blueprint for Pearl Jam’s music. Out of all the Seattle bands, Pearl Jam is most associated with classic rock in the 1970s. “Cortez The Killer” is an electrified and jam-oriented folk song from 1975 that feels like an ancestor to many tunes on Vitalogy. By their third album, Pearl Jam had tried to claw back whatever normalcy they could after they’d become rock stars. Like Young, they revolted against their own success and opted instead for uncompromising rawness. It all came full circle when Young collaborated on an album with Pearl Jam in 1995 called Mirror Ball.

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