"Mr. Soul" is a song by Neil Young recorded by the Canadian-American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a Canadian-American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1966 by Canadians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin (musician), Dewey Martin and Americans Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely know ...

in 1967. It was released June 15, 1967, as the B-side to their fourth single "

Bluebird The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous passerine birds in the genus ''Sialia'' of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. Bluebirds lay an ...

" and later included on the group's second album ''

Buffalo Springfield Again ''Buffalo Springfield Again'' is the second album by Buffalo Springfield, released on Atco Records in October 1967. The album features some of the group's best-known songs, including " Mr. Soul", "Bluebird", " Expecting to Fly" and "Rock & Roll Wo ...

''.

Background

"Mr. Soul" is about

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

's personal problems with fame and disregard for rock stardom. It was written by Young after he had an epilepsy attack after an early show with Buffalo Springfield in San Francisco. (Many in the audience wondered if the attack was part of the act.) While a patient at

UCLA Medical Center Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (also commonly referred to as UCLA Medical Center, RRMC or Ronald Reagan) is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United S ...

, he wrote the song once he was awake and recovering and told to return for further tests. The lyrics reflected Young's experience, feeling as though he was about to die. Thereupon, he was advised by his doctor to never take

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

or any other

hallucinogenic drugs Hallucinogens, also known as psychedelics, entheogens, or historically as psychotomimetics, are a large and diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, moo ...

. Composed on an acoustic

twelve-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 string (music), strings in six Course (music), courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lo ...

, the dark and moody song is in

double drop D tuning Double drop D tuning: DADGBD, also known simply as double drop D, is an alternative guitar tuning: both E strings are tuned down ("dropped") one whole step (2 frets) to D rather than E as in standard tuning (EADGBE). Uses of double dropped D tun ...

, which Young used in a number of other songs, such as "

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

" and "

Cinnamon Girl "Cinnamon Girl" is a song by Neil Young. It debuted on the 1969 album ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'', which was also Young's first album with backing band Crazy Horse. Songwriting Music Like two other songs from ''Everybody Knows This ...

". On the third track of ''

Sugar Mountain – Live at Canterbury House 1968 ''Sugar Mountain – Live at Canterbury House 1968'' is a live album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young. On November 8–10, 1968, Young performed three solo acoustic shows at Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The album is compi ...

'', Young stated that, "A lot of songs take a long time to write. Generally they take an hour and a half, two hours to write. But this one took only five minutes". The main riff of the song is based on a modified version of the riff used in

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

" Satisfaction" Young subsequently recorded several other versions of the song, often with marked stylistic changes. The song has been described by music writers as

folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

, and R&B. In a contemporary review of the song, ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' called it "a rhythmic, funky-filled stanza". An excerpt of a live version of the song is heard in the song "Broken Arrow" (1967), with the sounds of cheering crowds, taken from the cheering for

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

Cover versions and variations

Young has frequently performed the song both solo and with various backing bands. Live recordings appear on ''Sugar Mountain – Live at Canterbury House 1968'', 1993's ''

Unplugged Unplugged may refer to: *Acoustic music, music not produced through electronic means * "Unplugged" (B.A.P song), 2014 * "Unplugged" (''Modern Family''), a 2010 episode of ''Modern Family'' Albums and EPs * ''Unplugged'' (5'nizza album), 2002 * '' ...

'' and 1997's ''

Year of the Horse ''Year of the Horse'' is a 1997 American documentary film directed by Jim Jarmusch, following Neil Young and Crazy Horse on their 1996 tour. An accompanying live album by Neil Young & Crazy Horse was released in 1997. It offers a different trac ...

'' with

Crazy Horse Crazy Horse ( , ; – September 5, 1877) was a Lakota people, Lakota war leader of the Oglala band. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by White Americans, White American settlers on Nativ ...

. In addition, Young re-recorded the song in a

synthrock Electronic rock (also known as electro rock and synth rock) is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s when rock b ...

style on his 1982 album ''

Trans Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning "across", "beyond", or "on the other side of". Used alone, trans may refer to: Sociology * Trans, a sociological term which may refer to: ** Transgender, people who identify themselves with a gender that di ...

'', with vocals processed with a

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...

; a live performance of this version also appears in the film ''

Solo Trans ''Solo Trans'' is a concert film by Neil Young, directed by Hal Ashby and released in 1984. It was recorded at the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio on September 18, 1983, during Young's ''Solo Trans'' tour. Originally released on only LaserDisc, the fil ...

''. During the 2016

Bridge School Benefit The Bridge School Benefit was an annual charity concert usually held in Mountain View, California, every October at the Shoreline Amphitheatre from 1986 until 2016 with the exception of 1987. The concerts lasted the entire weekend and were org ...

concerts, Young guested with

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

to perform an acoustic cover of the song. Cher recorded a cover of the song for her 1975 album ''

Stars A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...

''. In 1984, new wave band

Wire Train Wire Train was a San Francisco-based alternative rock band, who released six albums in the 1980s and 1990s. History The band was formed in 1982 as the Renegades by two students from San Francisco State University, Kevin Hunter and Kurt Herr. T ...

covered the song as a bonus track of their album '' In A Chamber''. In 2004, Rush covered the song on their cover EP of songs from the 1960s, ''

Feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause and effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handle ...

''. The song has also been recorded by

The Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close-harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly and Phillip "Phil" Everly, the duo combined elements of rock and roll, country, ...

in December 1968, but was not released until 1984 on their studio album ''Nice Guys''.

Iron & Wine Samuel Ervin Beam (born July 26, 1974), better known by his stage name Iron & Wine, is an American singer-songwriter. He has released six studio albums, several EPs and singles, as well as a few download-only releases, which include a live alb ...

covered the song on his live album '' Iron & Wine Live Bonnaroo'', released in 2005.

The Icicle Works The Icicle Works (also known as Icicle Works in the United States) are an English alternative rock band, named after the 1960 short story "The Day the Icicle Works Closed" by science fiction author Frederik Pohl. They had a top 20 UK hit with " ...

covered the song on the 12-inch version of All the Daughters (Of Her Father's House). Model Zero covered the song on their self titled album from 2019.

Personnel

Stephen Stills Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Crosby, Stills & Nash; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; and Manassas (band ...

guitar, backing vocals *

guitar, lead vocals *

Richie Furay Paul Richard Furay (born May 9, 1944) is an American musician and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member (with Buffalo Springfield). He is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey ...

guitar, backing vocals * Dewey Martindrums *

Bruce Palmer Bruce Palmer (September 9, 1946 – October 1, 2004) was a Canadian musician best known as the bassist in the folk rock band Buffalo Springfield, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Early years Palmer was born in Li ...

bass guitar

References

{{authority control 1967 songs Buffalo Springfield songs Neil Young songs Rush (band) songs Songs written by Neil Young