Like a Hurricane

Listen while you read:  Live Rust 1972

Once I thought I saw you in a crowded hazy bar
Dancing on the light from star to star
Far across the moonbeam, I know that's who you are
I saw your brown eyes turning once to fire

You are like a hurricane, there's calm in your eye
And I'm getting blown away to somewhere safer where the feeling stays
I want to love you, but I get so blown away

I am just a dreamer, but you are just a dream
You could have been anyone to me
Before that moment you touched my lips
That perfect feeling when time just slips away
Between us on our foggy trip

You are like a hurricane . . . 

~ Neil Young

Well, that was predictable, wasn't it? But despite the onset of Hurricane Irma, "Like a Hurricane" is my favorite Neil Young song. Although he wrote it in 1975 (pretty much in a drunken, stoned stupor with laryngitis, no less), it did not really reach the public until 1977's American Stars & Bars. It had been released as a single before then, but didn't take off until the album came out. Since then, it has become one of Young's most often performed songs. The video linked above is from a performance during the "Live Rust" tour. Sure, there are some on-stage theatrics, but the recording is pretty good.

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen Neil Young in concert, most recently one year ago this month with Promise of the Real, but there was one concert that stands out most for me. I was in the third row at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. I can't recall the exact date, but if I connect it to my own personal life events, I would guess that it was somewhere between 1979 and 1981. And I think it was Neil Young solo with a back-up band that wasn't Crazy Horse. (I could be wrong about this.) Anyway, what I remember is that Neil did "Like a Hurricane" with an industrial-sized fan blowing on him, and that simple effect was amazing. I felt like I was in the storm. Maybe I was buzzed and maybe I wasn't, but that didn't matter. "Like a Hurricane" has always had the power to send me to some other place.

Dave Marsh, who in my opinion is the god of rock critics, referred to the song as an eight-minute tour-de-force of electric guitar feedback and extended metaphor. "Smokey Robinson meets Jimi Hendrix on Bob Dylan's old block," said Marsh. Sounds right to me. Young has referenced Del Shannon's "Runaway" as an influence, saying that the the chords in the bridge ("You are like a hurricane . . . ") are the same chords as those in the "Runaway" line, "I'm a-walkin' in the rain." Hmm . . . I can hear it. And talk about extended metaphor, there's rain in both songs.

And there's rain in Florida. While it looks like my county is out of the cone at this point, that does not mean that there won't be damage. I am looking for distraction from worry anywhere I can find it.

And on cue, my son just suggested we go get a beer. Wait up, Sam!