A-Z Songbook, Country & Folk, Intermediate Acoustic

The Needle And The Damage Done chords by Neil Young

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The Needle And The Damage Done | Chords + Lyrics

Intro

| D Dsus2 | Dsus2/C | G6/B | Gm6/Bb |
| C C6 | Fmaj11 Fmaj7 Fmaj7sus2 | Esus4 | E (A) |

Verse 1

Verse 2

I hit the city and I lost my band
I watched the needle take another man
Gone, gone, the damage done

Instrumental

| D Dsus2 | Dsus2/C | G6/B | Gm6/Bb |
| C C6 | Fmaj11 Fmaj7 Fmaj7sus2 | Esus4 | E (A) |

Verse 3

I sing the song because I love the man
I know that some of you don’t understand
Milk blood to keep from running out

Verse 4

I’ve seen the needle and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie’s like a settin’ sun

Outro

| D Dsus2 | Dsus2/C | G6/B | Gm6/Bb |

The Needle And The Damage Done Chords: Learn the progressions

This Neil Young classic is essentially just one 8-bar chord progression on repeat.

The intro, instrumental, and outro are the same as the verse, just slightly more elaborate. This is clever as it leaves more room for the vocal, but maintains the theme.

The chords you see above may look very complex, but they are based on a logical pattern that will make sense once you have the TAB.

Here’s a link to the TAB part of this lesson: The Needle And The Damage Done – Guitar Lesson with TAB.

Let’s take a look at the instrumental section with Roman Numerals. The first line is in the key of D, the second is in the key of C.

Here’s the verse with Roman Numerals, all Neil has done is take stuff out!

There’s TAB for both sections of this classic so it’s obvious what to play. Once you’ve got that down, reading the chords and lyrics above will be easier. Believe it or not, the complicated chord names will even be helpful!

Having studied that TAB and played along with Neil, you only need this simple chord chart.

The Needle And The Damage Done Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro

Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: The Needle And The Damage Done Chord Chart PDF.

This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: The Needle And The Damage Done iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.

Neil Young has inspired countless artists!

Released as a B-side to Old Man, during Neil’s best years, the early ’70s, this is one of Mr. Young’s best compositions.

Not just appreciated by his audience, it has also inspired many other artists, do compare Needle And The Damage Done with Jewel’s You Were Meant For Me, for example.

Another more widely known example of Neil’s influence is on the Grunge bands that came up during the ’80s and early ’90s, the punk rock attitude that Neil became known for even dubbed him the father of grunge.

Two great examples of this are R.E.M. who clearly listened to My My, Hey Hey and then wrote The One I Love.

The other example is Pearl Jam, a band Neil ended up collaborating with in 1995 on his 21st studio album, Mirror Ball.

This seemingly careless attitude Neil has of leaving mistakes in and refusing to edit is down to his debut solo album being edited and then sounding lifeless.

Ironically, that album bore his name (Neil Young, 1970), he later commented that it was “overdubbed rather than played”.

The Needle And The Damage Done Chords | Related Pages

The Needle And The Damage Done | Guitar Lesson + TAB

The Needle And The Damage Done TAB lesson.

With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play The Needle And The Damage Done by Neil Young using TAB and chord analysis.

| Dsus2 | Dsus2/C |
I caught you knockin’ at my cellar door…

Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics

When you can play The Needle and the Damage Done chords, try these five tunes from the songbook.

Neil Young tunes

Neil Young wrote The Needle And The Damage Done.

Neil Young started out with Buffalo Springfield, briefly joined Crosby, Stills & Nash, and collaborated with Pearl Jam but is best known for his solo career.

His best tunes include Harvest Moon, Heart Of Gold, Old Man, The Needle And The Damage Done, My My, Hey Hey, and Like A Hurricane.

Neil Young on the web

About me | Dan Lundholm

Dan Lundholm wrote this guitar lesson about The Needle And The Damage Done chords.

This was a guitar lesson about The Needle And The Damage Done chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.

Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.