Bob Dylan and Neil Young have long been excellent friends. The duo, who first banded together in the mid-70s, regularly covered each other’s songs and shared very nicely on stage. It was a friendship based on mutual respect and art, with both a folk-rock style that excelled them as the voices of their generations. But there’s one Neil Young song that Dylan has always hated.
Bob Dylan is undoubtedly one of the most influential musicians in history. The freewheel’s troubadour broke ground with his folk style and narrative songwriting and quickly gained notoriety, wealth and widespread fame. Eventually he pushed everything in when he became ‘electric’. The problem with working out a successful path is that many people will often find a similar path to the holy grail using your blueprints. Of course, there were singer-songwriters before Dylan, but no one took the spotlight like Mr. Zimmerman did not, and this encouraged many others to get to the center as well.
This meant that a sudden influx of folk-rock performances was cleared up by record companies across the country, giving Dylan enough competition for his folk-rock crown. Generally, the singer took it in his stride, but soon enough he became impatient with what he considered to be a deliberate copy of his work and style. During the sixties, many people followed Dylan’s roadmap to success, not only in their style but also in their songwriting, and The Beatles were the most famous person in their personal storytelling structure for songs – something the band wanted to acknowledge.
When the seventies break and Dylan’s initial impact is buried in the collective consciousness, Dylan becomes a little more impatient because his influence is not as widely acknowledged as it should be. One song in particular pushed Dylan over the edge, “The only time it bothered me was that someone sounded like me was when I lived in Phoenix, Arizona, around ’72, and the big song back then was ‘Heart of Gold.’ ‘, ”The singer told SPIN.
The song is one of Young’s biggest hits, reaching number one spot on the Billboard 100 and Neil Young being the first Canadian to do so. But for Dylan, the closeness of the track to his own style, now a little less sought after than before, was too much: ‘I hated it when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I listened to ‘Heart of Gold’. I think it’s been at number one for a long time, and I would say, ‘Shit, it’s me. If it sounds like me, it has to be me too ‘, “he added.
Vocally, Young’s tone is obviously far removed from Dylan’s variable output, but the similarities in style are there for all to see and hear. This may have something to do with the conception of the song because Young apparently also never really was a fan of the song – despite its success or maybe even why. “This song put me in the middle of the road,” Young wrote in the notes for Decades. Referring to the ‘ditch trilogy’ of subsequent albums, he said: ‘Traveling there quickly became a boredom, so I was on my way to the ditch. A rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there. ‘
‘Heart of Gold’ has the habit of splitting Neil Young fans in the middle. It’s a song built on deep rich sentiment and the simplicity of its metaphor (mining for a heart of gold) or a commercially driven platitude like a Hallmark card. Whichever side you choose, just know that Bob Dylan not only hates the greatest song of Young’s career, but Neil Young as well.
