Hitchhiker

Recorded under a full moon in late 1976, Hitchhiker captures an unaccompanied Young at his most penetrating and stripped down. Though several of these songs later became staples (“Pocahontas,” “Ride My Llama,” the haunting “Powderfinger”), they never sounded quite as pure as they do here—never quite captured that elusive balance of ethereal and elemental that makes Young such a legend. First written off by record labels at the time as little more than a set of demos (in Young’s telling, at least), Hitchhiker stands now as a beautiful, singular document—and it's lightning in a bottle.