Neil Young Biography

Birth of Neil Percival Young, later singer songwriter, guitarist and major Canadian rock figure.

Moves through Winnipeg's early music scene, where his first serious bands begin to develop.

Fronts The Squires, a Winnipeg instrumental and garage rock group from his early career.

Records The Sultan with The Squires, one of his earliest commercial releases.

Writes Sugar Mountain, later one of his most enduring early autobiographical songs.

Co-founds Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin.

Joins The Mynah Birds shortly before moving to Los Angeles and forming Buffalo Springfield.

Records Broken Arrow, showing his early interest in fragmented arrangements and studio experimentation.

Records the debut Buffalo Springfield album, introducing his songwriting to the Los Angeles folk rock scene.

Writes and records Mr Soul, one of his defining Buffalo Springfield songs.

Appears on Last Time Around as Buffalo Springfield dissolves after a short but influential run.

Releases his self-titled debut solo album after leaving Buffalo Springfield.

Writes Cinnamon Girl, one of the key songs from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

Records Down by the River, built around long electric guitar passages with Crazy Horse.

Releases Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere with Crazy Horse, establishing his electric guitar style.

Writes Ohio after the Kent State shootings, turning protest into one of CSNY's defining singles.

Releases Deja Vu with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young during the supergroup's peak period.

Releases After the Gold Rush, combining acoustic songs, electric rock and environmental imagery.

Performs solo acoustic concerts that later feed important archival releases from the early 1970s.

Releases Heart of Gold, his only United States number one single.

Releases The Needle and the Damage Done, a stark song about addiction and loss.

Releases Harvest, his biggest commercial album and the home of Heart of Gold.

Releases Time Fades Away, a live album documenting a difficult post-Harvest tour.

Releases On the Beach, a bleak and influential album from his mid-1970s period.

Releases Tonight's the Night, shaped by grief over the deaths of Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry.

Releases Zuma with Crazy Horse, introducing Cortez the Killer.

Releases Long May You Run with Stephen Stills as the Stills-Young Band.

Releases American Stars n Bars, including Like a Hurricane.

Releases Comes a Time, returning to a polished country folk sound.

Releases Hey Hey My My, linking rock survival with the phrase rust never sleeps.

Releases Rust Never Sleeps, moving between acoustic songs and fierce electric performances.

Releases Trans, using electronic textures and vocoder effects during his Geffen period.

Co-founds Farm Aid with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp to support family farmers.

Releases This Note's for You, criticising commercial sponsorship and advertising in music.

Releases Rockin in the Free World, one of his best-known political rock songs.

Releases Freedom, restoring his commercial and critical momentum at the end of the 1980s.

Releases Ragged Glory with Crazy Horse, renewing his reputation for loud electric guitar rock.

Releases Weld, a live album capturing his noisy early-1990s tour with Crazy Horse.

Releases Harvest Moon, a warm acoustic sequel in spirit to Harvest.

Writes Philadelphia for Jonathan Demme's film, earning major award recognition.

Releases Mirror Ball with Pearl Jam, linking his work to the grunge generation.

Releases Prairie Wind, recorded after a health scare and centred on memory, family and mortality.

Releases Living with War, a direct protest album responding to the Iraq War era.

Releases Psychedelic Pill with Crazy Horse, featuring long-form electric guitar performances.

Releases Barn with Crazy Horse, recorded in a restored nineteenth-century barn.

Releases Before and After, reworking older songs in a continuous solo acoustic sequence.