"Mr. Soul" is a song recorded by the Canadian-American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song "For What It's Worth", rele ...

in 1967. It was released June 15, 1967, as the B-side to their fourth single "

Bluebird The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the order of Passerines in the genus ''Sialia'' of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. ...

" and later included on the group's second album ''

Buffalo Springfield Again ''Buffalo Springfield Again'' is the second album by Buffalo Springfield, released on Atco Records in November 1967. It peaked at #44 on the Billboard 200. In 2003, the album was ranked number 188 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the 500 gr ...

''.

Background

"Mr. Soul" is about

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fur ...

's personal problems with fame and disregard towards rock stardom. It was written by Young after experiencing an epilepsy attack after an early show with Buffalo Springfield in San Francisco. Many people in the audience were questioning if it was part of the act. While being a patient at

UCLA Medical Center Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (also commonly referred to as ''UCLA Medical Center'', "RRMC" or "Ronald Reagan") is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United ...

, he wrote the song once he was awake and recovering and told to return for further tests. The lyrics had reflected Young's experience, feeling as though he was about to die. Thereupon, he was advised by his doctor to never take

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...

or any other hallucinogenic drugs. Composed on an acoustic

twelve-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...

, the dark and moody song is in

double drop D tuning Double drop D tuning: DADGBD, also known simply as double drop D, is an alternative guitar tuning: both E strings are tuned down ("dropped") one whole step (2 frets) to D rather than E as in standard tuning (EADGBE). Uses of double dropped D tu ...

, which Young used in a number of other songs, such as "

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

" and "

Cinnamon Girl "Cinnamon Girl" is a song by Neil Young. It debuted on the 1969 album ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'', which was also Young's first album with backing band Crazy Horse. Songwriting Music Like two other songs from ''Everybody Knows This ...

". On the third track of ''

Sugar Mountain – Live at Canterbury House 1968 ''Sugar Mountain – Live at Canterbury House 1968'' is a live album by Canadian / American musician Neil Young. On November 8–10, 1968, Young performed three solo acoustic shows at Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This album is ...

'', Young stated that, "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". The main riff of the song is based on a modified version of the riff used in

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

" Can't Get No Satisfaction" Young subsequently recorded several other versions of the song, often with marked stylistic changes. The song has been described by music writers as

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers s ...

, psychedelic rock, and hard rock. An excerpt of a live version of the song, is heard in the song "Broken Arrow" (1967), with the sounds of cheering crowds, taken from the cheering for the Beatles.

Cover versions and variations

Young has frequently performed the song both solo and with various backing bands. Live recordings appear on ''Sugar Mountain – Live at Canterbury House 1968'', 1993's ''

Unplugged Unplugged may refer to: *Acoustic music, music not produced through electronic means * "Unplugged" (B.A.P song), 2014 * "Unplugged" (''Modern Family''), a 2010 episode of ''Modern Family'' Albums and EPs * ''Unplugged'' (5'nizza album), 2002 * '' ...

'' and 1997's '' Year of the Horse'' with Crazy Horse. In addition, Young re-recorded the song in a synthrock style on his 1982 album ''

Trans Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning "across", "beyond", or "on the other side of". Used alone, trans may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trans (festival), a former festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom * ''Trans'' (fil ...

'', with vocals processed with a

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

; a live performance of this version also appears in the film '' Solo Trans''. During the 2016 Bridge School Benefit concerts, Young guested with Metallica to perform an acoustic cover of the song. Cher recorded a cover of the song for her 1975 album ''

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

''. In 2004, Rush covered the song on their cover EP of songs from the 1960s, '' Feedback''. The song has also been recorded by the

Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 193 ...

in December 1968, but was not released until 1984 on their studio album ''Nice Guys''. Iron & Wine covered the song on his live album '' Iron & Wine Live Bonnaroo'', released in 2005.

The Icicle Works The Icicle Works (also known as Icicle Works in the United States) are an English alternative rock band and were named after the 1960 short story "The Day the Icicle Works Closed" by science fiction author Frederik Pohl. They had a top 20 UK hi ...

covered the song on the 12" version of All the Daughters (Of Her Father's House).

Personnel

* Stephen Stillsguitar, backing vocals *

guitar, lead vocals *

Richie Furay Paul Richard Furay (born May 9, 1944) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member (with Buffalo Springfield). He is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bru ...

guitar, backing vocals * Dewey Martindrums *

Bruce Palmer Bruce Palmer (September 9, 1946 – October 1, 2004) was a Canadian musician best known as the bassist in the seminal Canadian-American folk rock band Buffalo Springfield, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Early y ...

bass guitar

References

{{authority control 1967 songs Buffalo Springfield songs Neil Young songs Rush (band) songs Songs written by Neil Young

Accolades

2021 Peabody Award Winner for Documentary