Neil Young
photo: billyshiverstick · cc0 ↗Neil Young grew up on the rock and roll of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard before channeling that raw energy into a decades-long career split between fragile acoustic balladry and ragged, distorted guitar excess. Songs like "Heart of Gold" show the tender side; "Like a Hurricane" and "Hey Hey, My My" show the other, feedback-driven one, a duality that made him a touchstone for singer-songwriters and the grunge generation alike. That restlessness across genres left a template that later folk-rock artists, Bright Eyes among them, drew on directly.
enthusiast, ear-level: the raw, swaggering rock and roll energy Young grew up idolizing before turning it into his own noisier guitar language.
listen forPlay 'Heartbreak Hotel' against the driving garage-rock stomp of Young's early 'Cinnamon Girl' — the tempo and drama are different, but the same unpolished, hip-driven urgency is underneath both.
enthusiast, ear-level: riff-driven electric guitar as the lead voice of the song, a template Young grew up on and later stretched into extended, distorted guitar excursions.
listen forSet Berry's tight, chugging 'Johnny B. Goode' riff beside the sprawling, feedback-heavy 'Like a Hurricane' — same rock and roll backbone, blown out to nine minutes.
enthusiast, ear-level: unhinged, shouted vocal urgency and a refusal to play it safe, an early influence Young carried into his loudest, most abrasive recordings.
listen forCompare the wild-eyed holler of 'Tutti Frutti' to the ragged catharsis of Young's 'Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)' — both treat vocal abandon as the whole point.