One of the great villains. And a metaphor of the New World being devoured by the Old. The song was banned in Spain by Franco.
'' Cortez the Killer is one of Young's most evocative time-travel songs, culminating in an emotional last verse in which the sudden switch to first person lends a three-dimensional depth. The lyrics conjure up a ruthless conqueror undone by love left behind, though listening to it, I think of not only Cortez but Howard Hughes, Orson Welles, Michael Jackson and - Neil Young. Just twenty-nine years old, Young had already realised that dreams can cost you everything - and that even the great ones can morph into nightmares.
It's amazing that this band of lunatics ever got through 'Cortez' Poncho: ' I had some angel dust. Conned Billy into smoking it with me. We recorded Cortez.' I'm sitting there nodding out. That was the take. I had the song turned all around I thought the second chord was the first chord. It's only three chords.'
From Jimmy McDonough's biography of Neil Young,'Shakey'
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