“Heart of Gold”

NEIL YOUNG

A back injury played a part in inspiring Neil Young to write the biggest song of his career. Standing up with an electric guitar hurt, so he sat down and created a series of softer ballads, including the sentimental “Heart of Gold.” He recorded it at a Nashville session the day after making an appearance on Johnny Cash’s ABC variety show, which was taped at the famous Ryman Auditorium, the home of the Grand Ole Opry. Two other artists on that episode—James Taylor and the not-yets-uperstar Linda Ronstadt—were invited to the Music Row studio to sing backup. The song hit No. 1, but the scale of its success irked Young. In the liner notes for a later album, he wrote, “This song put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch.” Young may have shunned the mainstream, but a new vocal band, America, fully embraced it with their debut single, “A Horse With No Name”— which sounded a lot like Young’s song and wound up replacing “Gold” at No. 1.