Neil Young is one of the most prolific songwriters of all time, but he does have a strange secret up his sleeve. Over the course of a six-decade career, Young has contributed over a thousand songs, and his discography is jam-packed to the gills. It includes some of the iconic songs of innumerable generations, but it also makes a number of mistakes. Covers are something that it doesn’t often include, though.
In the 1960s, artists frequently covered the music of influential musicians who had come before them. The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones were all happy to add a host of cover songs to their albums in a bid to help boost the track numbers and help them to pump out full-length records, as well as pay tribute to the heroes who had come before them. However, Young typically saved his covers for important events.
Young has covered a wide range of musicians, such as The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, and many more. However, there was one artist whom he accidentally covered when composing one of his original songs, ‘Ambulance Blues’. On that song, Young acknowledged that he had plagiarised the opening melody of folk guitar legend Bert Jansch.
“Ambulance Blues,” which is taken from Neil Young’s renowned album On The Beach, is said to have been inspired by a number of things, including an apparent negative review, the 1945 film All Along the Navajo Trail, and the general idea of balancing the trauma of the past with the possibility of the future. Many people rightly regard the nine-minute song as one of Young’s best creations; at times, it sounds like an internal monologue set to music. But the subtle opening line was not just lifted, it was plagiarised from Jansch.
Regarding the use of Jansch, Neil Young stated as part of Shakey: “I always feel bad that I stole that melody from Bert Jansch.” F-k. Have you ever heard “The Needle of Death”? That melody was so beautiful to me. I had no idea that “Ambulance Blues” begins in the same way. Although I was aware that it sounded like something he did. I realised that I had stolen his thing when I listened to the record again afterward. I was very sorry for that.
The Scottish folk musician’s song “Needle of Death,” which appeared on his self-titled debut LP in 1965, is frequently regarded as his best composition. Jansch drew inspiration for the song from the death of his friend Buck Polly. It also reflects the alarming rate at which heroin addictions were spreading across the nation at the time. Jansch spoke movingly of Polly’s passing. He stated, “We [Jansch and Polly] went up to Goodge Street, a pub there called Finch’s.” Buck scored from a dealer. And the next day, I’d heard he’d died.”
Two years prior to penning “Ambulance Blues,” Young had tackled a narrative akin to this one in his 1972 song “The Needle and the Damage Done.” That song would be about his former partner with Crazy Horse, Danny Whitten, who also succumbed to heroin addiction.
Jansch had a significant impact on Young, who considered himself to be one of the industry’s key guitarists. Young said of Bert Jansch in 1992, “He’s on the same level as Jimi Hendrix.” “His debut album is incredible. It was from England, and “The Needle of Death“. Which is such a lovely and ferocious song, really captured my attention. That guy had such talent. Years later, I wrote the melody for “Ambulance Blues” on “On the Beach” by completely styling the guitar part from “Needle of Death.” Someone else brought it to my attention because I was completely unaware of it.
Young would cover “Needle of Death” for his 2014 album A Letter Home, perhaps as a final dig at Jansch. This would be the ultimate tribute to both the song and the man who wrote it.
