Is 'Man Needs a Maid' ridiculous?

and i also love the musical arrangement. this is one of my fave NY songs.

I love how the feeling of loneliness is so palpable, and the line about falling in love with the actress is classic. However, I still can't get into that arrangement.

And then the whole thing drops off, he sings 'When will I see you again?' and I'm sobbing.

1) Man has bitter and disillusioned thoughts about women and relationships. Maybe he's been burned by a previous relationship. Anyway, he's feeling pretty cynical ("Man need a maid").

2) Man gets lonely and starts to attribute affection to all sorts of female gestures ("I fell in love with the actress").

3) Man finally slowly leaves his unloving and unlovable state of mind and cautiously starts developing ideals about a sound relationship again ("When will I see you again?").

What's all the fuss about? It's a song about someone who gets bitter and then slowly wakes up to the beauty of love again. The feminists must have been pretty stupid back then if the couldn't see that. Or?

Jack Nitzsche's orchestration is pretty much on the limit, but these days, I find it hard to imagine the song in a country setting. I agree with Debito that the line about falling in love with the actress is really beautiful, and that has a lot to do with the dynamics of the orchestration. I remember having read that Young was talked into these heavy symphonic sounds by Nitzsche, but I might be wrong.

'There's A World' sucks, though, for me that is the only song which scars the record.

And I've always liked that he eventually ended up with the actress he's talking about.

Did I ever back that opinion up with an embarassing display of whiskey-fueled fisticuffs? God, I hope not...

Love the orchestration, though. He's playing around with '60s pop-pomp. Not so unusual if you've ever heard anything by Blood, Sweat & Tears, Laura Nyro, the Beatles, Burt Bacharach, or any vintage Phil Spector or Shadow Morton production.

I'm not sure Neil does irony (or if he does, he doesn't do it v. well.) He's sort've like Dylan w/out any of the Eng lit filters (metaphor/synonym+antonym etc.) - he just comes out and says a man needs a maid rather than 'won't you please crawl out my window' or whatever. I don't know if that makes this v. problematic song better or worse, it's that old thing abt when does 'honesty' become offensive.

A simple prop to occupy my time.

Good point! It's quite possible that it would have been a better song, had it stopped after the actress part. But it doesnt't, and that's also why I totally can't see why anybody would be offended by it, or find it unlikeable. That would be, unless they're:
1) Extreme, dogmatic, more-feminist-than-thou kind of stalinistic 1970ies politically correct hags gone sour & stale.
2) Plain ol' stupid.

Lyric: I dunno. I think it's quaint.

"Fix my meals and then go away"

'Welfare Mothers', on 'Rust Never Sleeps', is a much more offensive NY track.

Instead, he used strings, horns, chimes, and whatnot to make damn sure that we all heard him say that he needs a maid to cook, clean, & leave. It's like he wanted the listener to hate the song.

I bet he still lets out an evil cackle or two when he thinks about all the buzzes this song has killed over the years.

The next thing you know, chimes and cellos are striking melodramatic poses, and Neil is loudly and repeatedly insisting that A MAN NEEDS A MAID. Then someone is sure to say that the lyrics are demeaning to women, and someone else will reply that they are actually wistful and touching, and a third person will say oh, give the poor guy a break, he was wearing a back brace when he wrote that. You and your friends aren't laughing anymore, but off in the distance, you can almost hear Neil chuckling.

He could have delivered those lyrics in a mellow fashion, and nobody would have given them a second thought. Instead, he brought an entire orchestra in to poop on your party. Good one, Neil...

"A Man Needs A Maid," on the other hand, is a sad little song, so the epic strings seem out of place.

The song= a guy looking around his grubby apartment, and wishing a woman was there to pick up all his crusty socks and empty bottles.

The production=an armored viking looking over some great vista while eagles circle overhead.

This is exactly the kind of 'look' I'm going for ... I think it sounds kind of deadpan, flat, sorrowful and beautiful. Maybe I could be the feminazi you need.

""A Man Needs A Maid," on the other hand, is a sad little song, so the epic strings seem out of place."

I think this is true - the strings on this song are funny. It's partly because the strings are so rich and his voice is so thin and cracking too.

'Welfare Mothers', on 'Rust Never Sleeps', is a much more offensive NY track.

??!!!

At least, it seemed that way to me. To my friends, it just seemed like I was living in a disgusting apartment.

They were nice enough to keep coming over, though, and some nights, after having a few drinks, I'd start to describe my dark emotional vistas. My friends never shared my fascination with this topic, however. "Quit bitching and start cleaning," was their advice.

In retrospect, they were 100% correct, and I'm damn glad that I never used a bombastic string section to try to convince them otherwise.

it deserves an r&b cover -- by r kelly?

When will I see you again?

is speculation as to whether the dude should get a maid really worth the corny, overdone instrumentation

"listening to neil young sing about women is like watching a cop eating donuts."

haha! Yes, exactly.

adamrl needs a maid

but it does sound like he just wants some chick who'll clean up his shit. it's kinda amazing that he thought he could get away with that in 1972 (the height of bra-burning feminism, ya know).

There is such a thing as singing as a character, ya know.

the most basic connection a human can make

More basic: I just shook hands with a homeless-/street-paper vendor.

Doped-up makes it hard to get things done around the house.

I thought that maybe I would get a made = I'll stop where I can, get some fried eggs and country ham