Neil Young followed the massive commercial success of Harvest by recording three albums so raw and abrasive that critics called them the “Ditch Trilogy.” He drove his career off a cliff on purpose, rejecting the smooth country-rock sound that had made him a star because he found success boring. He has been swerving between brilliance and chaos ever since.

This episode traces Young from his childhood in Winnipeg through Buffalo Springfield, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, the Harvest success he ran from, and the restless five decades of musical reinvention that followed.

• He deliberately followed the number-one album Harvest with the harsh, uncommercial Tonight’s the Night
• The “Ditch Trilogy” of Time Fades Away, On the Beach, and Tonight’s the Night baffled fans but became cult classics
• He has released over forty studio albums across folk, rock, grunge, electronic, and orchestral genres
• He removed his entire catalog from Spotify in 2022 over concerns about misinformation on the platform