Down by the River

Young wrote Down by the River on the same day as Cinnamon Girl and Cowgirl in the Sand, when he had the flu and a fever of 103 degrees. In his memoir he said that a song in E minor he had heard on the radio, "Sunny or something like that", kept looping in his head, and that he changed the chords until it turned into this one. The band recorded it in late January 1969 at Wally Heider Studios in Hollywood. The released version was edited down from extended performances and in places combines several takes. Young said the band had the vibe but the performances ran long and sometimes fell apart, so the weak parts were removed.

In a 1970 interview he rejected the reading of the song as a murder ballad, saying "There's no real murder in it" and describing the ending as a plea and a desperate cry. He credited Danny Whitten's guitar parts, along with those on Cowgirl in the Sand, with making the song happen.

Live

Young, Crosby, Stills and Nash performed it on ABC television on their 1969 tour. Fan-kept set list counts rank it ninth most played, with 617 performances. Rolling Stone noted that a Denmark performance with the Chrome Hearts in 2025 lasted about nine minutes, against 24 minutes in Dresden in 2014. A version recorded at Wally Heider on 17 January 1969 runs 9:03 and closes Early Daze.