STEVE YOUNG - LYRICS Steven Timothy Young, 12th July 1942 - 17th March 2016 Compiled by Robin Dunn assisted by Chrissie van Varik. Please note that this list should be regarded as a ‘work in progress’. We don’t claim definitive knowledge about Steve Young’s recorded and composing output and welcome corrections and/or new information. Many folks will have greater knowledge than we about the details on many of these tracks - musicians, dates of recordings, background etc. As anyone with any experience of these things knows, something new and unexpected is always turning up! If anyone epitomises the title of our website it has to be Steve Young. He covered the full gamut of folk, country, blues, and rock ‘n’ roll. Not so well known with the general music-buying public he was nevertheless a huge influence on contemporary and upcoming folk and country musicians many of whom went on to become famous in their own right. Perceived as somewhat of an independent country and folk outsider he was a pioneer of the country rock, Americana, and Alt. Country sounds and often seen as the original so called ‘outlaw’ a label later adopted and inculcated by Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson among others. However, Steve Young’s repertoire was much wider and varied. Steve Young was born on 12th July 1942 in Newnan, Georgia. He grew up in Gadsden, Alabama, and in Texas, as the family regularly moved around in search of work. By the time he completed high school he was playing and writing songs that incorporated influences of folk, blues, country and gospel that he absorbed whilst travelling throughout the South. However, his fondness for playing politically charged folk songs, including Bob Dylan’s material, made him unpopular in some parts of the Deep South. In 1963, after spending a year in bed (with his guitar) recovering from a gunshot wound after being held up and left for dead in Beaumont, Texas, he fled to California with two Gadsden folk musicians, Richard Lockmiller and Jim Connor, who had a deal with Capitol Records as Richard & Jim. He toured with them and in 1964 they recorded an album that includes three of his compositions. Soon after he moved to New York City and became affiliated with the burgeoning Greenwich Village folk music scene. He settled in California in 1964. In the late 60s he worked with Van Dyke Parks and was member of the psychedelic country band Stone Country which recorded one self-titled album released in 1968. A year later Young issued his solo debut, ROCK SALT & NAILS, a country-rock excursion featuring cameos by Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman, and Gene Clark. There are unmistakable parallels between Steve Young and Gram Parsons (see our Lyric List https:// robindunnmusic.wordpress.com/gram-parsons/). Both were southerners with an attitude, brimming full of astonishing music each of whom found their way to Los Angeles at the end of the 1960s and were instrumental in forging what became known as Country Rock. Gram Parsons made his first mark on record with the International Submarine Band, Steve Young with Stone Country. By 1969 they were A&M label stable-mates imbuing California rock with southern sensibilities and a harsh, honest, wrenching country passion. Both now have cult followings, recognised as pioneers and consciences of a then new country music movement. His most famous album and song is no doubt the 1972 SEVEN BRIDGES ROAD reissued over the years in different track combinations. The likes of Hank Williams Jnr., Ian Matthews and Tracy Nelson, have recorded Steve Young songs. ‘Seven Bridges Road’, has been covered by many artists including Joan Baez, Rita Coolidge, Iain Matthews and Dolly Parton. The song gave Young his closest brush with stardom when The Eagles released their live recording of it as a single in 1980 which reached 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. Other Young songs made famous by big-name artists were ‘Montgomery in the Rain’, which was recorded by Hank Williams Jr in 1977, and ‘Lonesome, On’ry and Mean’, the title song of Waylon Jennings’ 1973 album which helped establish Jennings’s “outlaw” persona. He appeared in the 1975 film HEARTWORN HIGHWAYS along with then upcoming radical new wave country singers such as Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Steve Earle. Much to the disappointment of devoted fans over his long, nearly fifty-year, career Steve did not have a huge output in terms of his own recordings but along with his own material he contributed to the work of numerous musicians. Despite being held in such high esteem, Steve only ever flirted with the charts never rising beyond a loyal cult following. Nevertheless, his wide, varied and high-quality output was always interesting and massively influential covering a variety of styles. In the mid-seventies he released fine albums including RENEGADE PICKER, NO PLACE TO FALL and TO SATISFY YOU. A singer, tunesmith, and purveyor of what he dubbed "Southern music" - a brew of country, folk, rock, blues, gospel, and Celtic styles - Steve Young was a songwriter's songwriter, an acclaimed performer whose work found its greatest commercial success in the hands of other artists and earned him praise from the likes of Waylon Jennings, Townes Van Zandt, and Lucinda Williams. He spent the 1980s touring the world, garnering a reputation as a standout live performer, releasing occasional records like 1982's TO SATISFY YOU, 1986's LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL (recorded in Sweden), and 1987's transcendent LONG TIME RIDER, a limited edition home recorded cassette tape for sale to concert attendees. In 1991 he issued his first concert recording, SOLO/LIVE, an acoustic collection summarizing his career to (the then) date along with pop and soul covers like ‘You Don't Miss Your Water’ 1 and ‘Drift Away.’ A second album on Watermelon, SWITCHBLADES OF LOVE, followed two years later and continued his creative renaissance, but he fell silent for much of the rest of the '90s. In early 1999, he returned with the curious folk/Celtic influenced, PRIMAL YOUNG on Appleseed. SONGLINES REVISITED, Vol. 1 appeared in 2006 - but no Vol 2! In 2007 another and superb live (and very hard to come by) album was issued - STORIES ROUND THE HORSESHOE BEND. See the full list below. Thereafter, Steve gave occasional live performances and spent his spare time in his home recording studio. Subsequent to a fall Steve died in Nashville 17th March 2016. His son, Jubal Lee Young, a singer/ songwriter in his own right, posted a eulogy online: "While it is a sad occasion, he was also the last person who could be content to be trapped in a broken mind and body. He was far too independent and adventurous. I celebrate his freedom, as well, and I am grateful for the time we had. A true original." ALBUMS (There are many and various CD reissues; we have focussed on what we consider are the key ones) 1964 - THE THINGS THAT TROUBLE MY MIND - Dick Weissman (Capitol Records) Steve plays guitar. 1964 - RICHARD & JIM - FOLK SONGS AND COUNTRY SOUNDS (Capitol Records) Steve plays guitar. 1968 - STONE COUNTRY (RCA Victor) 1969 - ROCK SALT & NAILS (A&M) 1972 - GOSPEL SNAKE (Kim-Pate Records.) Privately recorded album by The Homestead Act on which Steve was a session musician. It included a couple of his compositions. 1972 - SEVEN BRIDGES ROAD (Reprise) 1975 - JIM CONNOR - PERSONAL FRIEND OF ARTHUR KUYKENDALL, MONK DANIEL & CLUNY RAKESTRAW (RCA) Steve plays lead guitar and composer of one song. 1975 - HONKY TONK MAN (Mountain Railroad) 1975 - SEVEN BRIDGES ROAD (Blue Canyon reissue with some track changes. See notes) 1976 - SEVEN BRIDGES ROAD (UK reissue on SONET SNTF705 as per Blue Canyon tracks) 1976 - RENEGADE PICKER RCA (RCA Victor) 1978 - NO PLACE TO FALL (RCA) 1981 - TO SATISFY YOU (Rounder) 1981 - SEVEN BRIDGES ROAD (Round Records reissue) 1984 - OLD MEMORIES (Country Records) 1984 - HONKY TONK MAN (reissue) (Rounder Records) 1986 - LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL (Mill) 1987 - LONG TIME RIDER (private recording by Steve Young initially sold on cassette tape at live concerts.) 1990 - LONG TIME RIDER (VooDoo - rerelease on CD. Available on YouTube) 1991 - SOLO/LIVE (Watermelon) 1993 - SWITCHBLADES OF LOVE (Watermelon) 1994 - LONESOME ON’RY & MEAN: STEVE YOUNG 1968 - 1978 (Raven - Compilation CD) 1994 - HONKY TONK MAN (reissue) (Drive Archive) 1999 - PRIMAL YOUNG (Appleseed) 2001 - RENEGADE PICKER/CO PLACE TO FALL (BMG-Camden - two CD reissue of above albums) 2005 - SEVEN BRIDGES ROAD - reissue Reprise/Rounder) with extra tracks. (Bongrass Records) 2005 - SONGLINES REVISITED VOLUME ONE (Starry Pyramid) 2007 - STONE COUNTRY - reissue with two bonus tracks (REV-Ola) 2007 - AUSTRALIAN TOUR EP (Death Valley Records) 2007 - STORIES ROUND THE HORSESHOE BEND (Starry Pyramid - live) 2008 - LONG TIME RIDER (Afterburn Records - limited edition Australian reissue) 2016 - HEARTWORN HIGHWAYS - ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK (Light in the Attic box set - see below) 2017 - SEVEN BRIDGES ROAD - THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS (Expanded reissue on Ace) 2017 - HONKY TONK MAN (reissue) (Big Pink) 2017 - LIVE AT STUDIO KAFE 7/10/1990 (KAFE - download) 2019 - LIVE IN HOLLAND 1993 (Strictly Country Records (SCR)) Recordings from the albums also appear on numerous compilation albums. Steve Young also played on many recordings by other artists. The main ones are included here but we are happy to add others that might be suggested. Take care if collecting - there are a few musicians named Steve Young who are not our Steve Young and some sites erroneously credit this Steve Young as playing on certain tracks! One example is Jon Gailmor’s 1980 perfectly fine album, Gonna Die With A Smile If It Kills Me. According to Jon Gailmor the Steve Young playing piano on a couple tracks on this album was working at Vermont Public Radio (and was still there for a good few years) and is not our Steve Young.