Mr. Soul
| "Mr. Soul" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Buffalo Springfield from the album Buffalo Springfield Again | ||||
| Released | November 18, 1967 | |||
| Recorded |
January 9, 1967 and April 4, 1967 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock[1] | |||
| Length | 2:35 | |||
| Label | Atco | |||
| Writer | Neil Young | |||
| Producer |
Richie Furay Jack Nitzsche Stephen Stills Neil Young | |||
| Buffalo Springfield Again track listing | ||||
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"Mr. Soul" is a song written by Canadian rock musician Neil Young, and first recorded by folk rock band Buffalo Springfield and released on their second album, Buffalo Springfield Again. It was originally recorded on January 9, 1967 at Atlantic Studios, New York with an additional recording on April 4, 1967.
Young wrote the song after being treated for a seizure disorder.[2] Composed on an acoustic twelve-string guitar, the dark, moody folk tune is in double-drop D tuning, which Young used in a number of other songs, such as "Ohio" and "Cinnamon Girl".[3]
The common album version and the mono single have completely different guitar solos (the mono single mix has never been reissued).
On track 3 of the album Sugar Mountain - Live At Canterbury House 1968, Young said, "A lot of songs take a long time to write. Generally they take an hour and a half, two hours to write. But this one took only five minutes." It may have been written quickly because it is a simple remake of "Satisfaction" by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
An acoustic version was performed with CSNY at Woodstock in August 1969 and has not been officially released.
Young subsequently recorded several other versions of the song, often with marked stylistic changes. Of all of Young's songs, "Mr. Soul" has been released the most times.
Remakes and other releases
A new recording of this song in a synth-electric style was included on Young's 1982 album Trans, with vocals processed with a vocoder.
In addition to these versions—the original album and Trans--"Mr. Soul" also appeared in an acoustic live version on Unplugged and Sugar Mountain - Live At Canterbury House 1968, and a live acoustic band version on Year of the Horse, as well as on the collections Retrospective, Journey Through the Past and Young's Decade.
The song was adapted by rock band Rush and featured on the 2004 covers album Feedback. The song is also regularly covered during live performances by jam-band Widespread Panic. The song was also covered by The Icicle Works as a B-side to the single "All the Daughters (Of Her Father's House)".
British band Diesel Park West have the song as a staple of their live set and a live version can be found on their 1990 compilation album "Flipped".
The song has also been covered by The Bluetones and features as a B-side to the mail order only single "4-Day Weekend" and the subsequent B-side compilation album A Rough Outline: The Singles & B-Sides 95 - 03.
Possibly the oldest cover version of Mr. Soul is the version that appears on the self-titled album by Turkish band Mavi Işıklar originally released on the Turkish Sayan label in 1968 and re-issued on the German Nexus label in 1998.[4] Their version is partly phonetecially sung and has some adapted lyrics. It can be heard on YouTube.[5]
The song has also been recorded by the Everly Brothers in December 1968, but was not released until 1984 when it showed up on the Everly Brothers' Nice Guys album. The Everly's version has been produced by Jack Nitzsche and also features on the compilation Hard Workin Man: The Jack Nitzsche Story, Vol. 2.
References
- ↑ "The Acid Trip: A Complete Guide to Psychedelic Music", Vernon Joynson, (Babylon Books, 1984), ISBN 0907188249 , p.60
- ↑ McDonough, Jimmy. Shakey: Neil Young's Biography. New York: Anchor, 2003, p. 194.
- ↑ McDonough, Jimmy. Shakey: Neil Young's Biography. New York:Anchor, 2003, p. 194.
- ↑ https://www.discogs.com/Mavi-Isiklar-Mavi-I%C5%9F%C4%B1klar/release/1827212
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vo7NHOaWhs&feature=youtu.be&t=19s
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