New Mama

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"New Mama" is a song by Neil Young, recorded initially for his 1973 album Tonight's the Night .

It is said to have been inspired by the birth in 1972 of Zeke, his son with Carrie Snodgress. [1] It is a slow song with sparse instrumentation—guitar, piano, and vibes.

Critics have described the song as "tender" [2] and "poignantly lovely," [1] but noted also that while it offered "some hope in family life," Tonight's the Night as a whole, an album of mourning, "did not offer solutions to the personal and professional problems it posed." [3]

New Mama (first verse)

New mama's got a sun in her eyes
No clouds are in my changing skies
Each morning when I wake up to rise
I'm livin' in a dreamland.

Stephen Stills recorded the song for the 1975 album Stills . Young referred to the song on his 1982 album Trans , in the song "Transformer Man" ("Every morning when I look in your eyes, / I feel electrified by you"), and in "Big Time", a song from his 1996 album Broken Arrow ("I'm still living in dreamland"). [4]

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References

  1. 1 2 The Mojo Collection (4 ed.). Canongate. 2007. ISBN   9781847676436.
  2. Bielen, Kenneth G. (2008). The Words and Music of Neil Young. Praeger. p. 32. ISBN   9780275999025.
  3. Woodstra, Chris; Bush, John; Erlewine, Stephen Thomas, eds. (2007). All Music Guide Required Listening: Classic Rock. Hal Leonard. ISBN   9780879309176.
  4. Williams, Paul (2011). Neil Young: Love to Burn. Omnibus. pp. 92, 128. ISBN   9780857127334.