Neil Young has performed ‘Pardon My Heart’ for the first time in 50 years. Check it out below.
On Christmas day, Young shared a clip of him performing ‘Silver and Gold’ for the first time in almost 20 years. As the video cut off at the end, he could be heard saying: “Is that our first fireside session?”
Now, he’s shared a second “fireside” session via his website. Introducing the clip, Young wrote: “Hello again folks. Pretty laid back versions here. This is our second fireside of the season….. Love to all of you. Peace.” Click here to watch it.
The song comes from Young’s 1975 album ‘Zuma’ and has only been played live twice before. The first time, he debuted the track in May 1974 at a surprise late-night set in New York. “This is a love song. It’s one of the saddest love songs I’ve ever heard,” he told the crowd at the time, per Rolling Stone.
Then, in August of that year, he played the track live again during Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young‘s reunion tour stop at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
The song was recorded in June 1974, and featured Tim Drummond on bass, and the Crazy Horse rhythm section of Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot on background vocals. Once the track was completed, it sat in the vault for over a year.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 1974, Young said: “[Joni Mitchell] writes about her relationships so much more vividly than I do.” He continued: “I guess I put more of a veil over what I’m talking about. I’ve written a few songs that were as stark as hers. Songs like ‘Pardon My Heart’, ‘Home Fires’, ‘Love Art Blues’… almost all of ‘Homegrown‘. I’ve never released any of those. And I probably never will. I think I’d be too embarrassed to put them out. They’re a little too real.”
‘Pardon My Heart’ was released only a few months later on ‘Zuma’, but his album ‘Homegrown’ didn’t see the light of day until 2020 – some 45 years after it was completed.
Confirming its release, Young wrote: “I apologize. This album Homegrown should have been there for you a couple of years after Harvest. It’s the sad side of a love affair. The damage done. The heartache. I just couldn’t listen to it. I wanted to move on. So I kept it to myself, hidden away in the vault, on the shelf, in the back of my mind….but I should have shared it. It’s actually beautiful. That’s why I made it in the first place.
“Sometimes life hurts. You know what I mean,” he added. “This is the one that got away. Recorded in analog in 1974 and early 1975 from the original master tapes and restored with love and care by John Hanlon.”
In a five-star review of ‘Homegrown’, NME shared: “The hip-shakin’, joint-rollin’ title track – which would first be aired on 1977’s ‘American Stars ‘N Bars’ alongside ‘Star of Bethlehem’ – is proof, too, that Neil Young has always known how to have fun, but – as with the drawn-out release of ‘Homegrown’ – it will always be on his terms.”
In recent years, Young has increasingly broken out songs from his extensive back catalogue. In October he was joined by Stephen Stills – formerly his bandmate as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – to perform their song ‘Hung Upside Down’ for the first time in 57 years.
The on-stage appearance was part of the 2024 Harvest Moon benefit gig in Lake Hughes, California. Hosted by Neil Young, the event saw various famous musicians come together to raise funds.
Then, in September, it was reported that Young had performed his elusive 1977 song ‘Hey Babe’ live for the first time ever.
He wrote and released ‘Hey Babe’ along with Crazy Horse, Linda Ronstadt and Nicolette Larson as part of his eighth studio album ‘American Stars ‘N Bars’. For the 47 years since its release, the song was just one of two tracks off the record that had never been performed live, alongside ‘Will To Love’.
