Transformer Man

In 1984, two years after signing Neil Young, Geffen records sued Young for intentionally not sounding like himself by making "uncharacteristic and uncommercial music". During his five brutal years at Geffen, Young made back to back forays into different genres including rockabilly on Everybody's Rockin' and electronic music on Trans. Young responded to Geffen's 3 Mil suit with his own 21 mil countersuit and both were eventually dropped. He returned to Reprise and his senses as the decade drew to a close.

"Trans was about all these robot-humanoid people working in this hospital and the one thing they were trying to do was teach this little baby to push a button. That's what the record's about. Read the lyrics, listen to all the mechanical voices, disregard everything but that computerized thing, and it's clear Trans is the beginning of my search for communication with a severely handicapped nonoral person. 'Transformer man' is a song for my kid. If you read the words to that song - and look at my child with his little button and his train set and his transformer - the whole thing is for Ben."-Neil Young


TRANSFORMER MAN