Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young didn’t do a lot of forward-looking work after 1970’s Deja Vu, but their travails sure inspired Neil Young to write some great songs. The most devastating could be 1979’s “Thrasher,” where he makes it quite clear why he walked away from the supergroup. “So I got bored and left them there,” he sings. “They were just dead weight to me/Better down the road without that load.” Ouch. Broadly speaking, it’s a song about moving forward, even when it’s painful and difficult, to avoid becoming a fossil. He also recalls watching “that great Grand Canyon rescue episode” of a TV show. Some people thought he was talking about The Brady Bunch, but it ran when he was a child so it’s probably a 1950s western.
Up until last year, Young hadn’t played the song since the 1978 Rust Never Sleeps tour, but then out of nowhere he busted it out at a Los Angeles theater show. “I haven’t done it that much in my life,” he said. “Because at a very vulnerable moment I read something about it. Just like the worst fucking review I’ve ever read. So, for all you reviewers, if you feel like your words don’t mean anything, you’re probably right. In that case, they were damaging.” Well, maybe the fact it won this poll will reassure him that “Thrasher” is indeed a beloved song.
from the film “Rust Never Sleeps” (1979)
