Look, guys, forget the VIetnam stuff, forget the "protest song" nonsense, forget all of this over-analysis. 23-year-old Neil Young isn't thinking about ascribing all of this symbolism to the imagery. C'mon now. He wants the lyrics to be cool-sounding, he wants the visual picture a listener might get to be graphic, and in this case, mysterious, and he wants the song to speak to people in a positive way! That's what he's done his whole life! The song has got to sound good, too. But if the lyrics aren't cryptic and maybe a little bit dark - if the song JUST sounds good - then it isn't Neil Young - it's THE EAGLES. And who the hell wants to sit around listening to the Eagles? Not me.
You've got to look at the chorus, first off, which is repeated and is the title of the song. Don't let it bring you down / it's only castles burning - like the Hendrix song "Castles made of Sand" - everything ends, everything eventually dies, everything goes back into the earth that gave birth to it. Even majestic, beautiful, powerful things like giant redwoods or manmade things like a castle. He could have said, "...it's only castles crumbling", but that wouldn't have sounded as cool. Plus, Neil has always had this theme of things burning - he likes that image. (e.g. song - "Burned", lyric from "Thrasher": "...burned my credit card for fuel..." "I Am a Child": "what is the color, when black is burned?" etc., etc.
All the other lyrics in the verses are about the passage of time: being young/growing old (another Neil Young theme e.g. "Heart of Gold", "Old Man", etc.; life/death; having sight and understanding, being blind (not literaly but figuritively) to the world around us and gaining wisdom through experience and observation after having lived and paid attention.
Neil is wanting to help us here, guys. Contibute to the betterment of human kind in some small way. If someone is bummed because they lost something or someone, or they're just lost in general, Neil has offered up this little gem to maybe shed a little light on things. Hey buddy, it's going to get better, life is like that -- but you can't give up on me, now. You're got to stay up. Have courage. After all, if you look for it, there's always a "white can lying in the gutter in the lane when you're walking home alone"
Look, guys, forget the VIetnam stuff, forget the "protest song" nonsense, forget all of this over-analysis. 23-year-old Neil Young isn't thinking about ascribing all of this symbolism to the imagery. C'mon now. He wants the lyrics to be cool-sounding, he wants the visual picture a listener might get to be graphic, and in this case, mysterious, and he wants the song to speak to people in a positive way! That's what he's done his whole life! The song has got to sound good, too. But if the lyrics aren't cryptic and maybe a little bit dark - if the song JUST sounds good - then it isn't Neil Young - it's THE EAGLES. And who the hell wants to sit around listening to the Eagles? Not me.
You've got to look at the chorus, first off, which is repeated and is the title of the song. Don't let it bring you down / it's only castles burning - like the Hendrix song "Castles made of Sand" - everything ends, everything eventually dies, everything goes back into the earth that gave birth to it. Even majestic, beautiful, powerful things like giant redwoods or manmade things like a castle. He could have said, "...it's only castles crumbling", but that wouldn't have sounded as cool. Plus, Neil has always had this theme of things burning - he likes that image. (e.g. song - "Burned", lyric from "Thrasher": "...burned my credit card for fuel..." "I Am a Child": "what is the color, when black is burned?" etc., etc.
All the other lyrics in the verses are about the passage of time: being young/growing old (another Neil Young theme e.g. "Heart of Gold", "Old Man", etc.; life/death; having sight and understanding, being blind (not literaly but figuritively) to the world around us and gaining wisdom through experience and observation after having lived and paid attention.
Neil is wanting to help us here, guys. Contibute to the betterment of human kind in some small way. If someone is bummed because they lost something or someone, or they're just lost in general, Neil has offered up this little gem to maybe shed a little light on things. Hey buddy, it's going to get better, life is like that -- but you can't give up on me, now. You're got to stay up. Have courage. After all, if you look for it, there's always a "white can lying in the gutter in the lane when you're walking home alone"
@Mrtuck "Find someone who's turning, and you will come around."
@Mrtuck "Find someone who's turning, and you will come around."
Find someone to connect with, and you'll be okay.
Find someone to connect with, and you'll be okay.
@Mrtuck I really needed this right now, thank you!
@Mrtuck I really needed this right now, thank you!
@Mrtuck - I dont know if you'll see this 6 years later but you nailed it right there. Amazing.
@Mrtuck - I dont know if you'll see this 6 years later but you nailed it right there. Amazing.