Like a Hurricane
by Neil Young
- 117
- BPM
- C major
- Key
- 8B
- Camelot
- 44
- Danceability
- 2
- Acousticness
Neil Young wrote "Like a Hurricane" in July 1975, when an operation on his vocal cords left him unable to sing. He wrote it sitting at Vista Point on Skyline, said to be the highest point in San Mateo County, and he whistled the tune. The bridge into the chorus came from Del Shannon's "Runaway".
The recording happened in the White House studio at Broken Arrow Ranch. Crazy Horse first tried it with two guitars and no keyboard. Then Sampedro improvised a version on a synthesizer, and Young picked up his guitar and played along. The engineer started the tape only after realizing what was going on. The released take starts abruptly. Young said the bass plays just four notes and the drumbeat never changes, and that it only sounds fast because everything swims in circles. The vocals went on later at the Village studio in Los Angeles, after his voice had recovered.
The band premiered the song in March 1976 at a concert in the UK. It came out on American Stars 'n Bars in 1977, and an edited single followed on August 8, 1977, with "Hold Back the Tears" on the B-side. Young has played it on nearly every tour since.
Like a Hurricane runs at 117 BPM, the tempo of pop, funk and disco-leaning dance. In classical terms it sits in moderato territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.05 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 513 ms. It is in C major, Camelot 8B, which shares its notes with A minor and mixes cleanly with F major and G major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.