Neil Young wrote his best-selling album Harvest while convalescing from a back issue on his brand new ranch in northern California. When he purchased the ranch, the care-taking couple stayed on to tend it for him. Famously, he wrote “Old Man” about the husband of the couple. The song was the second single from the album, his second Top 5 hit in a row and one of only 3 Top 5 hits he ever had in the US.
Stephen Marley is one of Bob Marley’s many children and one of four who used to make up the Melody Makers. As you might imagine about a cover by a Marley, Stephen’s version is a reggae version. But he keeps some of the country elements of the original, most notably the pedal-steel guitar—not an instrument you expect in a reggae music. For the first 10 seconds, before Marley’s voice comes in, it’s prominent enough you think it might be country.
But even though there’s pedal steel, it’s still unmistakably reggae, from the keyboards to the vocals to the rhythm section. The pedal steel is most prominent around the main hook, but the other guitars have effects on them that make them sound dubby and that’s especially apparent in the outro, which gets a little bit closer to dub as the band vamps for a bit.
Wonderful.