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"Powderfinger" opens the second side of Neil Young's classic Rust Never Sleeps album, heralding the record's shift from the delicate and elegiac acoustic approach of the first half to the desperate, corrosive sound of Crazy Horse in full electric stride; it's a sudden, almost blindsiding metamorphosis, which is entirely the point -- it's the shot you never saw coming. As the centerpiece of Young's epic meditation on history, mortality, and violence, "Powderfinger" is, like so many of the album's songs, an epitaph. Set in the Old West, it tells the story of a young man left virtually alone to defend his family and frontier settlement against attack, sacrificing his life not in a blaze of glory but in the paralyzed grip of indecision and fear. Although "Powderfinger"'s vividly poetic first-person narrative evokes traditional folk storytelling, Crazy Horse's performance is pure, incendiary rock & roll, with Young's riveting guitar solos expanding to mythic proportions as the song builds toward its harrowing climax. "Just think of me as one you never figured/Would fade away so young/With so much left undone," the fallen hero sings from beyond the grave, echoing Rust Never Sleeps' central and oft-quoted maxim that "It's better to burn out than to fade away"; of course, for better or worse, rock & roll guarantees your immortality either way."
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"Discussing the opening song "With No Shoes", Burgess said he and Mark Collins wanted to make something between Solid Air (1973) by John Martyn, which was owned by the former, and Smash Hits (1968) by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, which was owned by the latter. The song's title was taken from Kung Fu, where the character Kwai Chang Caine refrained from wearing shoes. "North Country Boy" discusses a man attempting to cheer himself up; Burgess said this person was himself, explaining that he remade "Girl from the North Country" (1963) by Dylan from a man's perspective. For it, Burgess said he and Collins tried to mix the work of the Rolling Stones and Simon & Garfunkel. "Tellin' Stories" was initially named "Laughing Gravy", a reference to Laurel and Hardy, with some of the lyrics being influenced by John Wesley Harding (1967) by Dylan. It is a neo-psychedelia song that evokes This Is the Sea (1985)-era the Waterboys. Rob Collins did not like the initial version of the song done at Windermere, suggesting they rework the melody, which eventually happened. This alteration prompted Burgess to re-do the lyrics. Collins also proposed adding a drum-and-guitar break between each verse and chorus section. Rowlands' contribution to the track saw the addition of a countdown during the introduction; it was originally from 1 to 10, but was edited to only include 1, 2, and 9."
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"the stately backing is what we've come to expect from Beirut, with swaying accordion, rich brass, lively piano, and trebly strums, all in all more like a 2010 Williamsburg performance. By the time Condon switches things up, repeating, "Oh, the sound will bring me home again," over wordless backing vocals, he might as well be describing the warm, cozy but still distinctive feeling "East Harlem" has achieved."
