Neil Young - the needle and the damage done, 1972

"Ever since I left Canada about five years ago or so and moved down south, I found out a lot of things that I didn't know when I left. Some of 'em are good, and some of 'em are bad. Got to see a lot of great musicians before they happened, before they became famous, y'know, when they were just gigging, five and six sets a night... things like that. And I got to see a lot of great musicians who nobody ever got to see for one reason or another. But, strangely enough, the real good ones that you never got to see was... 'cause of heroin. And that started happening over and over. Then it happened to someone that everyone knew about. So I just wrote a little song."