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Will to Love

"Will to Love"
Will to Love promo single cover.jpg
Cover to promo single backed by "Cortez the Killer"
Song by Neil Young
from the album American Stars 'N Bars
Released 1977
Genre Rock
Length 7:11
Label Reprise
Songwriter(s) Neil Young
Producer(s) Neil Young
David Briggs
Tim Mulligan
American Stars 'N Bars track listing
"Star of Bethlehem"
(6)
"Will to Love"
(7)
"Like a Hurricane"
(8)

"Will to Love" is a song written by Neil Young that was first released on his 1977 album American Stars 'N Bars. A promotional single of "Will to Love" was released, backed with a live performance of "Cortez the Killer."

"Will to Love" had been intended for Young's never released Chrome Dreams album. He recorded the song alone in a single take on a two track cassette tape, sitting in front of a fireplace playing acoustic guitar. He used a fader and applied stereo vibrato to achieve a fish sound. He also overdubbed percussion, bass and vibraphone himself. He claims to have mixed the song the same night he recorded it and it was completed in about 8 hours.

Young claims to have never sung the song again after the initial recording. He has stated that he is unable to sing it again since he can't remember the melody, since all the verses came out differently. But according to music journalist Nigel Williamson, Young did rehearse the song for his 1976 Long May You Run album, but gave up on re-recording it because he felt it wasn't coming out right. According to Theodore Gracyk, "Will to Love" would have been included on a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album had the quartet been able to match the power of Young's solo recording.

The singer of "Will to Love" imagines himself to be a salmon swimming upstream to mate and struggling to survive. He sings that "I'm a harpoon dodger/I can't, won't be tamed."Village Voice critic Robert Christgau says that Young "turns into a salmon while masturbating in front of the fireplace." Author Ken Bielen describes the theme of "Will to Love" as being the instinct to love and reproduce. Author David Downing describes the theme as being the hopelessness but necessity of the search for God and love.


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