| "Powderfinger" | |
|---|---|
| Song byNeil Young | |
| from the albumRust Never Sleeps | |
| Released | July 2, 1979 |
| Recorded | October 19, 1978 |
| Studio | McNichols Sports Arena, Denver |
| Genre | Rock |
| Length | 5:30 |
| Label | Reprise |
| Songwriter | Neil Young |
| Producers |
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"Powderfinger" is a song written byNeil Young, first released on his 1979 albumRust Never Sleeps. It subsequently appeared on several of Young's live recordings. A 2014Rolling Stone special issue on Young ranked it as Young's best song ever.
It has been covered byBand of Horses,Cowboy Junkies,Beat Farmers,Rusted Root,Jazz Mandolin Project,Feelies spin-off Yung Wu,Car Seat Headrest, andPhish. TheAustralian rock bandPowderfinger took their name from this song.
It is ranked number 450 onRolling Stone's list ofThe 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[1]
"Powderfinger" is the first song of the second, electric, side ofRust Never Sleeps.Allmusic critic Jason Ankeny describes the song, following the album's mellower, acoustic first side, as "a sudden, almost blindsiding metamorphosis, which is entirely the point — it's the shot you never saw coming."[2] The lyrics are the posthumous narration of a young man[3] who attempts to protect his family against an approaching gunboat.[2][4][5] He realizes that all of the older men are unavailable, leaving him "to do the thinking". After initial indecision, he eventually takes action, and is ultimately killed.[2][4] He describes his death with the gruesome line "my face splashed in the sky."[3]Johnny Rogan describes the last verse as the character's "movingepitaph":[4]
The lines about fading away so young echo the line "it's better to burn out than to fade away", which Young sings on the opening song ofRust Never Sleeps, "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)".[6] Ankeny feels that the song's first-person narrative "evokes traditional folk storytelling" but the music is "incendiary rock & roll", and praises the "mythical proportions" of Young's guitar solos as the story approaches its "harrowing" conclusion.[2] Allmusic critic William Ruhlmann described the song as "remarkable", considering it the best of the great songs onRust Never Sleeps.[7] Rogan describes it as one of "Young's great narrative songs" and "almost cinematic in execution."[4] Rogan also praisesCrazy Horse's backing as "ideal" and permitting Young to "invest the song withepic significance."[4]Rolling Stone critic Paul Nelson compared the violence in the song to the helicopter scene withRobert Duvall in the movieApocalypse Now in that it is "both appalling and appealing — to us and to its narrator — until it's too late."[8] According to Nelson, it generates "traumatizing" tension and "unbearable" empathy and fascination as he "tightens the screws on his youthful hero with some galvanizing guitar playing, while Crazy Horse cuts loose with everything they've got."[8] Nelson points out that the music incorporates "a string of ascending [guitar] notes cut off by a deadly descending chord", what criticGreil Marcus described as "fatalism in a phrase".[8]
Rolling Stone contributing editor Rob Sheffield calls "Powderfinger" "anexorcism of male violence with shotgunpower chords rising to the challenge ofpunk rock."[9] Author Ken Bielen compares "Powderfinger" tofilm noir because the narrator has died before the song begins, and notes that the song "has remained in high regard over the decades."[3] Bielen regards the theme as "the tragic and wasteful loss of youth to conflicts between countries and their leaders.[3] Nelson suggests that although it opens the Crazy Horserock 'n' roll side of theRust Never Sleeps, it is the album's "purest folk narrative".[8] OnRolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list they state that on "Powderfinger" "Young's guitar hits the sky like never before."[10] CriticDave Marsh claimed that "Young wrote as brilliant a statement of Americannihilism and despair as any rock writer has created."[11]
Young recorded a solo acoustic version of "Powderfinger" at Indigo Ranch Recording Studio inMalibu, California in September 1975, and intended it for his unreleased mid-70s albumChrome Dreams.[13][14] He later sent the tape to his friendRonnie Van Zant ofLynyrd Skynyrd who were to use the song on their next album.[6][13] However, Van Zant died in a plane crash in October 1977, and Lynyrd Skynyrd never recorded the song.[6][13] The song was officially released in an electric version on Young's 1979 album with the bandCrazy Horse,Rust Never Sleeps. The Indigo take was released in 2017 onHitchhiker alongside other tracks from the session.
