Neil Young’s musical sophistication is underestimated. Many people love his songs, of course. He’s an iconic performer, rocker, and songwriter; someone who’s always gone his own way, whatever the fashions of the moment might be.

His lyrics are often straightforward and simple, sometimes almost child-like. He seems to write his songs right from his heart and soul, with very little filter and (I suspect) rewriting. They can be hit-or-miss, but few would deny that he’s hit the target many times.

Partly because of the directness of his lyrics, the musical part of his writing is taken for granted. He uses basic folk and rock and roll chords, right? Well, yes… and no. He does use those chords, but frequently in unexpected combinations, or with unusual extensions (he likes major 7ths, for example, which are not typical in the genres he normally works in).

He’ll land on melody notes that aren’t in the basic chord triads (and there’s also that unmistakable voice). He can also write some rangy melodies. All of these traits are on display in the song I’m considering today – ‘Old Man’; from 1972, almost 50 years ago.

‘Old Man’ starts with an intro of two chords, and then adds a vocal over them. This section is unconventional not only harmonically, but because it doesn’t recur in the body of the song. It does come back as an outro, or tag. This is a move you don’t hear much. The chords:

||: 6/4 F |4/4 D :||

Not only does he go back and forth from 6/4 to 4/4 (the rest of the song stays in 4/4), it’s also harmonically ambiguous – we don’t know yet what key we’re in. Additionally, he messes around with the major 7th (on the F chord) on the guitar. As I said before, that’s not unusual for Young.

The Verse chords are interesting in that he explores the intro’s F to D chord connection, but from the other side – now we’re solidly in the key of D… but he’s adding an out-of-key F chord (he prepared us for it in the intro) that plays an important part in the progression:

|| D F | C GC | D F | C F | D F | C GC | D C | F G ||

Moving to the Chorus, the song stays in D, but drops some (diatonic) minor chords into the mix, after nothing but major chords:

||: D | Aminor E minor | D | Aminor E minor :||

Regarding the melody, in the Verse it goes from a C down more than an octave to an A below C – a not insignificant stretch of an octave and a minor third. It winds along in a satisfying way, ending on that low A to C.

But what comes next (the Chorus) is the big melodic surprise – he jumps up to an A above C, which was the previous high note. A jump of an octave and a 6th that makes the vocal range of the song a full two octaves! So wide that many people would consider it unwise, if not unsingable. Yet who writes and sings it? Down-home folk rocker Neil Young.

The guy has always been full of surprises. It’s unwise to make assumptions about his songwriting. I have no idea if he knows an A chord from a Z chord, but who cares? He’s got a lot of tricks up his sleeve. In his unique way, he’s very crafty.

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