Thrasher

This has to be one of the greatest songs of the 20th century.

This song has always haunted me with it's timeless criticism of capitalistic values, human nature and the means people will sacrifice to reach an end, or possibly just a luddite's lament.

The valuable contributions in this thread about his breakup with CSN are very keen or at least his relationship with the producers that pushed the band into a corner, likely solves the "rose clipped by the bullwhip" lyric which has always troubled me, never really fit in with the rest of the scornful theme.

Then again the entire song may be a criticism of technology of which agriculture was the first incarnation. Humans stopped hunting and gathering the moment they figured out how to use the earth as a tool and not a gift. Thrashers two lanes wide conjures images of International Harvester combines in Kansas.

Basic overtones of the grim reaper also consume this song from beginning to end an inevitable death everyone faces, even if they catch an hour on the sun.

Neil makes it clear that even though adoption of this technology was not his choice he will eventually succumb to the same consequences as everyone else.

Neil Young's best song. And, even though it might have been inspired by the CSN&Y break-up, sure, there's obviously more to it.

Ok, this song brings TEARS TO MY EYES every time I hear it. Which can be quite inconvenient in the middle of a workday. But seriously, this song brings back this whole part of me. The part of me that went to rainbow gatherings and saw hippie dreams die. It reminds me of that one scene from Easy Rider where they visit the failing commune.

Although he has gone on record as saying that this song was about his departure from CSNY, I can't help but think that its about something larger and more metaphorical.

It is all about Csny and the hippies, and an whole generation! His songs is always like that, they cover alot of ground. Like Powderfinger, Its about a whole genaration. He is simply the best.

So much... I get things out of Neil Young songs that i doubt he meant to put there, but isn't that what makes great artists great?? My favorite line... "Me I'm not stopping there [hotel of lost companions] got my own row left to hoe... Just another line in the field of time.." ...awesome!

I have two very good friends I didn't have to leave like Neil Diamond, because I am very ill and they are very important for me, but in my youth I learned the chords and played the song on my guitar. I lost the ability long ago but I came back a few weeks ago and I will never forget it. It has always been one of my best loved song I could play.

I always thought that this song was about a man setting out to "find himself" once his beliefs get knocked down. "The aimless blade of science chopped the Pearly Gates." Like after science says that they've basically disproved religion, all these people just become depressed and lonely while one man doesn't take it, and sets out to find answers, to find himself, to find god. I had no clue this was about Neil leaving CSN&Y...........it's actually kind of a let down because this is one of my very favorite songs and I thought it meant more than it does.

One of my favourite Neil Youg songs... I heard this a couple of years ago, in the first week of my first term of university. A lot of my friends from back home stayed there, and are still there (I'm from very rural, mainly agricultural county in England)... Some I was glad to leave behind, others less so. This just reminds me of that feeling... and the lyrics seem to apply a great deal to that situation... the people you leave behind seeming to stay the same, while you move on. Not at all what it was originally about probably but that's just what it means to me.

Neil leaving CSN and the hippie generation as it descended into hopeless depravity, because the ideals had been shattered and there were still plenty of drugs left. While the hippies lost sight of the goal and turned toward their addictions to get them through, Neil searched for the deeper truths by seeking a simpler, more honest life.

"I searched out my companions, they were lost in crystal canyons," sounds like a reference to CSN's cocaine habits. The line "They were lost in rock formations," furthers the sentiment.

Throughout the song, there are endless references to an earlier return to nature and a more simple life. This song was written long before Rust Never Sleeps, so perhaps he was foreshadowing his future return into the past (ie. Comes A Time as a reprise to Harvest).

The line, "When the thrashers come and I'm stuck in the sun like dinosaurs in shrines/Then I'll know the time has come to give what's mine," is loaded with meaning. It sounds like Neil stating he'd rather live an honest, simpler life rather than deal with the huge rock star excess he experienced during the early-mid 70s. He would rather choose a life outside the limelight and articulate his own personal vision (no matter how unpopular), rather than be written down in history books as a faded rock god whose only work will be remembered as an artifact from the 60s/70s ("dinosaurs in shrines"... a huge theme regarding Rust Never Sleeps). And he succeeded in doing his own thing rather than pleasing the critics (see his discography throughout the 80s). Ironically, by rebelling against the norm and never selling out, he became a rock god.

Sorry this is long, but this is one of the most loaded songs ever written.