In 1975, his old friend Stills comes to the islands with his band, Crosby, Stills and Nash, to make an album with Neil. The other is “A Man Needs a Lei,” but the less said about that one, the better. Two controversial tracks from around this time are “Cook the Killer”, wherein Neil vents his anger at 18 th century explorer James Cook for being the first European to establish contact with Hawaii, which resulted in the destruction of the indigenous culture. This may be a result of drug-induced paranoia in the early 70s, as he turns out a series of downbeat albums following his worldwide hit “Tiki of Gold.” He also acquires what some say is an unhealthy obsession with the island’s volcanoes. He never abandons his Hawaiian affinities, though, turning out songs such as “Coconut Girl” (which starts out “I wanna live with a coconut girl / I could be happy the rest of my life with a coconut girl…” and is famous for it’s one-note uke solo), “After the Lava Rush,” and “Like a Volcano” (chorus: “You are like a volcano / There’s lava in your eyes…”). They write a song called “Kahuna Sunset” together, but it’s not released till decades later.Īs the 60s become the 70s, Neil becomes known for the feedback and distortion he applies to his electric ukulele, and the series of albums he records with local band Crazy Crab.
One of the earliest is “Haleakala Mountain” (“Oh to live on Haleakala Mountain, with my ukulele and a hula girl too…”)Ī band called Buffalo Springfield passes through Hawaii on tour and Neil opens for them, striking up a friendship with Stephen Stills, the band’s guitarist. Hawaii Neil soaks in the folk, country, and rock stylings of his peers on the mainland and merges them with traditional Hawaiian music, soon writing his own songs. He’s soon in high demand performing at luau’s and hotels across the islands. Young Neil adapts well to his new tropical surroundings and gets even deeper into the ukulele in it’s homeland. Join me now as we enter an alternate world, a world where Neil’s sportswriter father, Scott Young, is offered a job in Hawaii, taking his son with him. He’s also quoted in Shakey: A Neil Young Biography as saying he first started to play music on a plastic ukulele, going on to “a better ukulele to a banjo ukulele to a baritone ukulele – everything but a guitar.”
In Neil Young’s recent acceptance speech at the Canadian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame ceremony, he mentioned his dad buying him a ukulele as a kid.
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