Two Folk Stars You Might Not Have Realized Sang on These Iconic Neil Young Songs

“Old Man” and “Heart of Gold” are two of the most iconic and well-known songs in the Neil Young discography, but fewer people realize that they’re not only listening to one folk-rock star on these tracks. They’re actually listening to three: Young, Linda Ronstadt, and James Taylor.

As musicians are wont to do in Nashville, the three folk stars ended up in the studio halfway by chance. The three artists had just appeared on The Johnny Cash Show in Music City when Young invited Taylor and Ronstadt to sit in on a session Young had scheduled later that day.

That chance collaboration made all the difference.

These Neil Young Tracks Feature Two Folk Stars In Their Own Right

In early February 1971, Neil Young joined Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor at the Ryman Auditorium for a taping of The Johnny Cash Show. Young made his appearance in the middle of writing the album that would eventually become Harvest the following year. After the taping was over, Neil Young invited Ronstadt and Taylor to the studio while he tracked the songs “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold.” On the former song, Taylor picked up a six-string banjo tuned like a guitar, adding the clangy countermelody overtop Young’s guitar. Ronstadt and Taylor both sang backup vocals.

Producer Elliot Mazer later described the fateful overnight session, saying,
“Neil, Linda, and James came into the control room, sat down on the couch. We put up the mics and rolled the playback right through the big speakers we had in there. That’s how they cut those background vocals. Normally, you’d put on the headphones and get in a separate room and do it that way. But this worked out great and kept the live feel intact.”

Ronstadt shared similarly fond sentiments in an interview with Mojo (via Far Out Magazine). “I had to get up on my knees to be on the same level as James [on the couch] because he’s so tall. Then we sang all night, the highest notes I could sing. It was so hard, but nobody minded. It was dawn when we walked out of the studio.”

“I can’t remember why Neil wanted me to sing with him,” she added. “I guess he just figured I was there and could do it. But we went in there, and they were doing “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man,” and I thought they were such beautiful songs. I loved them.”

The Inspiration And Lasting Influence Of The Two Songs

“Old Man” and “Heart of Gold” are two songs that easily fall into the same Neil Young era. Both softer offerings with gentle palm mute percussion, Young wrote these tracks while dealing with a back injury that made it difficult to play his electric guitar. Young wrote the first track as an ode to Louis Avila, an older man who served as the caretaker for Broken Arrow Ranch, which Young bought for the modern-day equivalent of around $2.7 million in 1970. 

“Heart of Gold” was an equally retrospective track, although less chronologically oriented. Instead of narrating the similarities between a young narrator and the old man he’s singing to, “Heart of Gold” seemed to be that same narrator contemplating what he and the old man were looking for in the first place. The songs became instant classics, with “Heart of Gold” topping the charts as Young’s only No. 1 U.S. single.

Still, this mainstream success had consequences. In the liner notes for his 1977 album Decade, Young wrote of “Heart of Gold,” “This song put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch—a rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there.”

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