“Decade” is a 3 LP compilation that covers Neil Young’s output from Buffalo Springfield in 1966 up until 1976 (hence the title). I originally owned the 2 CD version which I got after my interest was piqued by Neil Young’s appearances on the Crosby, Stills & Nash comp we talked about yesterday, I replaced that with the 3 LP version earlier this year.

Complied by Mr Young himself with (reproduced) hand written notes about each song, it covers almost every album Young was involved with during that 10 year period. There were also previously unreleased songs for the Young faithful. The best of those being “Down To The Wire”, a shelved Buffalo Springfield item featuring Mac Rebbenack aka Dr John on piano and “Winterlong”, which was later covered by the Pixies on Neil Young tribute album “The Bridge” in 1989 (The Bridge is a school for children with severe speech and physical impairments which Young’s son Zeke, who was born with cerebral palsy,  attended after Young helped co-found the school and ra annual benefit concerts to support it).

Songs that this album introduced me to that I still love and play often would include Buffalo Springfield’s psychy “Mr. Soul” which has a little of Pink Floyd’s “Lucifer Sam” about it, the beautiful but tragic “The Needle And The Damage Done” which describes the effect of heroin addiction on many people Young knew but particularly Danny Whitten and lastly the epic “Cortez The Killer” the tale of Hernán Cortés conquest of the Aztec’s and Moctezuma between 1519 and 1521, all set within weaving guitar lines and killer solo’s, the type of which I usually have no time for but this is different. The song was banned in Franco’s Spain where Cortés was revered.

If you are at all interested in finding out about Neil Young “Decade” would be a very apposite place to start. 

Cortez The Killer - https://youtu.be/uX9k9aoX6gk?si=kL8okeXVYVY5cXxj