Jewel’s ‘Needle and the Damage Done’

I like to – every now and again – throw a curveball at you with something I post. I sure don’t want you getting bored or complacent and thinking you can tune in any ol’ time and just pick up some oddball garage rock or a classic rock ROIO.

Hence today’s post.

I know very little about Jewel. I’ve heard the song that made her famous: “You Were Meant For Me” (ha! Tell me that song’s not in your head right now!); I know she can yodel; and I know she’s really attractive. Beyond that, I dunno....

So it came as a surprise to me to learn that she regularly performs the Neil Young classic “The Needle and the Damage Done” when she plays live. I found out about this yesterday, when Jewel was on the Howard Stern show. At Howard’s request she played her version of the song he said “wrecks him every time.”

Without a doubt Jewel brings something different to her version of “Needle.” She doesn’t have the intimate feeling of loss that drove Young to write the song, but she struggled a lot on her way to where she is and I have no problem with her putting her own emotions to such a heavy song.

To my knowledge, although Jewel regularly performs “The Needle and the Damage Done” live, it has never been officially released. The track here is a YouTube rip – it is not from the Stern show, btw; I don’t know where it was recorded. On a quality note, I’ve found some new software that pulls stuff from videos at a higher bit rate, bringing a slightly better sound than previous YouTube stuff I’ve posted.

The Needle and the Damage Done (Neil Young cover).mp3