Hawks & Doves Splits Neil Young Down the Middle, Acoustic Grief on One Side and Flag-Waving Bar Songs on the Other

Neil Young’s Hawks & Doves runs just 30 minutes, and it splits into two clear parts. One side gathers older, quiet material recorded earlier. The other side turns fast toward country and flag songs, cut in a hurry. The record does not cover the line between them. It shows it plainly.

The Running Order

Here’s how the nine tracks lay out, with times:

#	Track	Time
1	Little Wing	2:12
2	The Old Homestead	7:43
3	Lost in Space	4:20
4	Captain Kennedy	2:52
5	Stayin’ Power	2:19
6	Coastline	2:28
7	Union Man	2:11
8	Comin’ Apart at Every Nail	2:40
9	Hawks & Doves	3:27

“Little Wing” opens the album small and sure, a short, quiet sketch that sets the tone for the first half. “The Old Homestead” is the exception, a long piece running seven minutes that carries most of the weight on that side, thick and strange next to everything near it. “Lost in Space” fills space without adding much, and “Captain Kennedy” closes the first half with plainer, stronger writing.

The second half opens with “Stayin’ Power,” a track that begins the run of country and flag songs without doing much beyond that. It does not embarrass the record, but it does not earn a second look either.

“Coastline” moves with more energy, a loose number built for motion. “Union Man” is plain and funny, a light strike at union meetings dressed up as a cheerful tune. “Comin’ Apart at Every Nail” hits harder than the title suggests, a stronger cut than most of what sits near it. The closing title track, “Hawks & Doves,” ties the two parts together in name if not in sound, a country tune that closes things out without settling much.

Two Sides, One Record

	First Side	Second Side
Feel	Old, easy	Fast, direct
Best track	The Old Homestead	Comin’ Apart at Every Nail
Weak spot	Lost in Space	Stayin’ Power
Pace	Easy	Quick

One review in the Village Voice praised the record for its warm, familiar quality. Another review, from a separate record guide, said the older, quieter material had lost its strength by this point in Young’s career. Both judgments point at the same record from opposite ends.

Hawks & Doves sits between two ideas, not one great one. It has four or five songs worth keeping and four or five that feel like filler dressed up as an idea. The good half beats the bad half, barely.

The Notebook