Down by the River

"Down by the River"
Song by Neil Young from the album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Released	May 14, 1969
Recorded	January 17, 1969
Genre	Blues rock
Length	9:13 (and other live performance variants)
Label	Reprise
Writer	Neil Young
Producer	Neil Young David Briggs
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere track listing
"Round & Round (It Won't Be Long) (3) "Down by the River" (4) "The Losing End (When You're On)" (5)

"Down by the River" is a song composed by Neil Young. It was first released on his 1969 album with Crazy Horse, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Young explained the context of story when introducing it in New Orleans on September 27, 1984. It depicts a man who catches his woman cheating on him, then meets her down by the river and shoots her. A few hours later the sheriff comes to his house and arrests him.^[1] In the liner notes of his 1977 anthology album Decade, Young states that he wrote "Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand" while delirious in bed in Topanga Canyon with a 103 °F (39 °C) fever.^[2]

Personnel

• Neil Young - electric guitar, vocal
• Danny Whitten - electric guitar, backing vocal
• Billy Talbot - bass
• Ralph Molina - drums, backing vocal

Performances and covers

Live performances vary from shorter solo acoustic performances, as on the Crosby Stills Nash & Young release Four Way Street, to twelve minutes long, as on the Live at the Fillmore East release featuring Crazy Horse. At the Rock Am Ring in Germany in 2002, Young, backed by Booker T Jones, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Frank Sampedro, played "Down by the River" for over 27 minutes.^{[3][citation needed]} At Farm Aid 1998, Young joined Phish—who headlined that year's festival—during the band's jam out of "Runaway Jim", leading them into a 20-minute version of "Down by the River". The Boston-based band SHED recorded a live 33 minute version that was included on their EP "5 Sticks", recorded in August of 2011.

Guitarist Roy Buchanan recorded a cover version of "Down by the River" on his 1971 album Buch and the Snakestretchers, and on his 1978 album You're Not Alone. The Meters, The String Cheese Incident, Dave Matthews Band, Indigo Girls, Low/Dirty Three, Tall Firs, McKendree Spring, Michael McDonald, The Mother Hips, Norman Whitfield & The Undisputed Truth and Buddy Miles also cover this song. The song appears on the Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds 2007 live release Live at Radio City. Robert Plant borrows the line, "Be on my side, I'll be on your side, there is no reason for you to hide," in the live versions of "Dazed and Confused" and "How Many More Times" recorded in 1970 at Royal Albert Hall (from the "Led Zeppelin DVD").

Canadian musician Edwin borrows elements of the song in his 1999 song, "Trippin'".

Notes

1. ^ "An Introduction to "Down by the River", by Neil Young". http://www.thrasherswheat.org/fot/down-by-the-river.htm. 
2. ^ Rogan, Johnny (2000). Neil Young, Zero to Sixty: A Critical Biography. Music Sales Distributed. pp. 187. ISBN 0952954044. 
3. ^ "HyperRust: Tour 2002". HyperRust. http://hyperrust.org/Tour2002/?R40. Retrieved 2009-05-12. 

External links

• "An Introduction to "Down by the River", by Neil Young". http://www.thrasherswheat.org/fot/down-by-the-river.htm.