Like a Hurricane

Zoo Freaks, get ready to be blown away as the Zoo Crew spins Like a Hurricane by Neil Young from the Decade compilation! This electrifying track, first released on the 1977 album American Stars 'n Bars, was born out of a wild, cocaine-fueled night in July 1975. Neil Young, unable to sing due to a vocal cord operation, whistled the melody while scribbling lyrics on a scrap of newspaper in the back of his friend Taylor Phelps’s 1950 DeSoto Suburban after a bar-hopping adventure in Los Angeles. As Young recalled in his memoir Waging Heavy Peace, they stopped at Skeggs Point Scenic Lookout to do “a few lines of coke,” and that’s where the iconic line “You are like a hurricane, there’s calm in your eye” took shape. The song captures unfulfilled desire, inspired by a woman Young spotted in a crowded bar but didn’t pursue, as Phelps later confirmed, “It didn’t happen, he didn’t go home with her.”

The recording process for Like a Hurricane was as raw as its emotion. Young brought a rough draft with just two lines to his band Crazy Horse, and after ten days of struggling to find the right arrangement, they stripped it back to a simple setup with Young playing chords on a Univox Stringman keyboard mounted in an old pump-organ body. The master take, recorded on November 29, 1975, at Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch, was actually a run-through to show the band how the song went. As guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro told biographer Jimmy McDonough, “There was no beginning, no count-off, it just goes woom!” The result was an eight-minute tour de force of searing guitar solos and haunting longing, with Young singing both harmony parts himself, as he explained in Shakey: “It was a sketch. I went in and I sang both harmony parts, the low one and the high one—and that’s the way the record is.”

Young drew inspiration from Del Shannon’s 1961 hit Runaway, noting in Shakey that the bridge in Like a Hurricane mirrors the chord progression of Runaway’s “I’m a walkin’ in the rain” section, creating a similar sense of opening up. The song’s raw energy has made it a staple of Young’s live performances, appearing on albums like Live Rust, Weld, and even an organ-driven Unplugged version in 1993. Fans on Reddit’s r/neilyoung community have debated the best renditions, with some praising the Live Rust version for its intensity and others cherishing a 1997 HORDE festival performance where a thunderstorm added natural sound effects, as one fan recalled: “It was thundering and lightning, and Neil gets on stage and says ‘Nice lights.’” Covers by artists like Jason Isbell and Roxy Music have also kept the song alive, with Bryan Ferry’s elegant take hailed as “transcendent high art” by one Reddit user.

Neil Young, born November 12, 1945, in Toronto, Canada, kicked off his musical journey in Winnipeg after his parents’ divorce. As a teenager, he played in bands like The Squires, honing his skills in local coffeehouses and covering Shadows instrumentals. In 1966, Young moved to Los Angeles, where he co-founded Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, blending folk, rock, and country into a pioneering sound. After the band’s breakup in 1968, Young launched his solo career with the self-titled album Neil Young, followed by Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere with Crazy Horse in 1969, which introduced his raw, distorted guitar style. His work with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in 1970, including the chart-topping Déjà Vu, cemented his status as a rock icon. Young’s career, spanning over 45 years and 35 studio albums, is marked by his refusal to be tamed, as he once sang in Will to Love, constantly shifting between folk, grunge, and experimental genres.

Stay connected with Neil Young through his official website, the Neil Young Facebook page, his Instagram, and his X account, where he shares updates on tours, archival releases, and his ongoing environmental activism. Fans can dive deeper into his world at Thrasher’s Wheat, a dedicated fan site with news, reviews, and concert stories. The Neil Young Fans Facebook Group is another vibrant community where Zoo Freaks can join discussions, share rare bootlegs, and celebrate Young’s legacy. So, crank up Like a Hurricane, let those guitar riffs wash over you, and keep rockin’ with the Zoo Crew!