The Needle And The Damage Done

"Milk blood to keep from running out" Definite double meaning 1) Re-injecting blood to get high 2) Using/ stealing from family members to get dope money

Supposedly, as the story goes, one of the members of Crazy Horse (whose name escapes me at the moment) got addicted to heroin. So Young kicked him out of the band, gave him a plane ticket and $50 to go to LA, enter rehab and clean himself up. Instead, he spent the money on more heroin and ended up Oding. Very sad.

And the "milk blood" line is about how junkies draw their own blood and re-inject it to get a mild high.

If you like this song, you'll like the whole album Tonights The Night - another band member ODed, so everyone in Crazy Horse just got piss drunk and recorded the whole album in pretty much one take. All kinds of slurred words, missed tempos and stuff - but it's absolutely amazing nonetheless.

I'm not even going to begin to point out the meaning of this song to you. To quote from the master himself, Bill Hicks, (drug addicts) "they are sick, they are not criminals". I guess you have no real compassion for people. You can't just make a broad generalisation that all drug addicts want to be addicts. I'm going to stop now before I get angry...

This song reminds me on Layne Staley. The article in Rolling Stone( 1996- I think ) magazine about Layne was titled>The Needle And The Damage Done. I dont know when this song was written, but its like he is singing about him. Layne, I love you.

"The worst drugs are as bad as anybody's told you. It's just a dumb trip, which I can't condemn people if they get into it, because one gets into it for one's own personal, social, emotional reasons."

-John Lennon

My father was a big Neil Young fan, and I eventually became one too. He told me this was about infamous Sid Vicious, the bassist for the Sex Pistols in the '70s. Sid was never a heroine drug addict until meeting Nancy Spungen, a heavy heroine addict and overall drug abuser. Sid fell for her and eventually became one too, and so Nancy dragged her man down with her to the grave. He did love her, and before his death, he was kicked out of the Sex Pistols to spend his last days with his hopeless addiction, and eventually dying in 1979 after Nancy.

I don't know about sympathy...the song seems to be more of a warning about the dangers of drug abuse. He has been around a lot of folks that couldn't get enough, turned into junkies, and are "like a setting sun" pushing themselves to an inevitable end.

"I've seen the needle and the damage done A little part of it in everyone"

Way out there and over analysing just want to put my 2 cents worth in like everybody else has and it's probably been said before but I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH!!!

Anyway back to my point:

"I've seen the needle and the damage done A little part of it in everyone"

Man-kind is always addicted to something Whether it be drugs, alcohol, gambling, women

But when he sings "But every junkie's like a settin' sun." Just like his rendition of Imagine after 9/11... He sang: "Imagine no possessions I wonder if I can." As opposed to Lennon's: "if you can"

I say to Neil's last line instead of "But every junkie's like a settin' sun" I say: And everyone's like a setting sun

I think it's about heroin and a friend of his getting addicted and how sad it was to watch him waste away. Maybe, only possibly, could it be about David Crosby (?). It's one of the reasons he left CSNY because of David's addiction and I heard they were pretty close...but these are only thoughts. Thanks! Love ya! ~~Tessa~~

i love this song. it's very true, and an amazing way to express the habits of a junkie....oh, and for those who dont know, the like "milk-blood to keep from running out", while sickening, is true. severe addicts do milk their own blood, then re-inject it. Since they've been doing heroin for so long, their blood has enough to give them a fix.