New Mama
"New Mama" is a song by Neil Young, first recorded for his 1973 album Tonight's the Night.
The song is said to have been inspired by the birth of Zeke (born 1972), 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'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.
Young has referenced the song at least twice; first on the 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]
References
- The Mojo Collection (4 ed.). Canongate. 2007. ISBN 9781847676436.
- Bielen, Kenneth G. (2008). The Words and Music of Neil Young. Praeger. p. 32. ISBN 9780275999025.
- Woodstra, Chris; Bush, John; Erlewine, Stephen Thomas, eds. (2007). All Music Guide Required Listening: Classic Rock. Hal Leonard. ISBN 9780879309176.
- Williams, Paul (2011). Neil Young: Love to Burn. Omnibus. pp. 92, 128. ISBN 9780857127334.