Danger Bird

"Danger Bird" is a song written by Neil Young. It was first released on his 1975 album with Crazy Horse, Zuma. A live version was also released on the 1997 album Year of the Horse. Music and lyrics "Danger Bird" was recorded in two different sessions several weeks apart that were put together by co-producer David Briggs. It and the more famous "Cortez the Killer" are two songs on Zuma in which Young and Crazy Horse return to the style of songs like "Down by the River" with long feedback-heavy guitar passages. It is styled as a slow folk song in a minor key. The music provides an intense, brooding atmosphere. In some of the verses a member of Crazy Horse takes the lead vocal while Young provides a backup vocal singing different words. The lyrics to "Danger Bird" reflect the disintegration of Young's relationship with Carrie Snodgress. Some of the lyrics, including the lines "'Cause you've been with another man/There you are and here I am," were originally written for an unreleased song titled "L.A. Girls and Ocean Boys" that was inspired by a trip Young made to visit Snodgrass in which he found out she had been cheating on him. Music critic Johnny Rogan interprets the titular bird as a "metaphor for a doomed relationship." Rogan finds some hopefulness in the final lines "And though these wings have turned to stone/I can fly, fly fly away." Music journalist Nigel Williamson is reminded of imagery from Young's 1968 song "The Loner" by the line "Danger bird, he flies alone." Music author Ken Bielen finds additional themes in the song as the comfort we find in complacency and our fear of being vulnerable, for example in line in which the titular bird sings that "freedom's just a prison." Young said of "Danger Bird" that "that's a wild song. It's so slow and great. Isn't it slow? Briggs always wanted to remix it. I like the mix. A combination of two songs. 'L.A. Girls and Ocean Boys' I never recorded, but it's part of 'Danger Bird.' Hey, sometimes that's what happens—one song doesn't come out, I'll be writin' another and say 'Oh, that fits.' Bang! Drop it right in."