The lyrics tell the story of someone who killed his lover by shooting her after feeling unable to continue from the emotional highs of their relationship.[6] Young himself has provided multiple explanations for the lyrics. In an interview with Robert Greenfield in 1970, a year after the song was released, Young claimed that "there's no real murder in it. It's about blowing your thing with a chick. It's a plea, a desperate cry."[5] Later, when introducing the song in New Orleans on September 27, 1984, Young said that the song depicts a man "who had a lot of trouble controlling himself" who catches his woman cheating on him, then meets her down by the river and shoots her.[5][7] According to Young, the local sheriff comes to the man's house and arrests him a few hours later.[7]
"Down by the River" begins with electric guitars followed by bass guitar and snare drum before the vocals begin.[6] The vocal sections are taken at a slow tempo.[6] There are long instrumental passages after each of the first two refrains, during which Young plays short, staccato notes on his guitar and incorporates distortion.[6] The song is composed in the key of E minor. The verse follows a chord progression of Em7-A while the pre-chorus is Cmajor7-Bm-Cmajor7-Bm-C-Bm-D and the chorus is G-D-D-A.
Upon the single release, Record World said that Young "sparkles in this solo outing which has some 'Hey Joe' influence in it."[8]Cash Box called an "excellent sample of [Young's] soloist strength."[9]Rolling Stone critic Rob Sheffield called "Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand" the "key tracks" on Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, calling them "long, violent guitar jams, rambling over the nine-minute mark with no trace of virtuosity at all, just staccato guitar blasts sounding as though Young is parachuting down into the middle of the Hatfield-McCoy feud."[10] In one solo, the same staccato note is repeated 38 times. In 2015, Phish guitarist, Trey Anastasio wrote, "If I was ever going to teach a master class to young guitarists, the first thing I would play them is the first minute of Neil Young's original "Down by the River" solo. It's one note, but it's so melodic, and it just snarls with attitude and anger. It's like he desperately wants to connect."[11] Brett Milano of udiscovermusic.com rated Young's guitar solo as one of the 100 all-time greatest, stating that "it begins with almost nothing – the pure menace of one note played again and again – and builds to a pile of hulking riffs.[12]
Live performances vary from shorter solo acoustic performances, as on the Crosby Stills Nash & Young release 4 Way Street, to twelve minutes long, as on the Live at the Fillmore East release featuring Crazy Horse. At the Rock Am Ring in Germany in 2002, Young, backed by Booker T Jones, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Frank Sampedro, played "Down by the River" for over 27 minutes.[13] At Farm Aid 1998, Young joined Phish—who headlined that year's festival—during the band's jam out of "Runaway Jim", leading them into a 20-minute version of "Down by the River". Neil Young and Promise of the Real played a 20-minute version of this song at Desert Trip. In 2016, Neil Young and Promise of the Real played a 36+ minute version of the song to open their set at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee.[14]
A CSNY performance of the song from September 1969 was included in the 1971 documentary Celebration at Big Sur.
Young performed it with CSNY on the ABC TV show the Music Scene in 1969.
Joey Gregorash covered this song in 1971 gaining a lot of airplay in Canada, and reaching #6 on the RPM Magazine charts.[15]
An acoustic version by the Indigo Girls appeared on their 1995 live double CD 1200 Curfews; the song had been a staple of their early 1993 shows and featured a cello and violin solo by Jane Scarpantoni and Scarlet Rivera respectively.
Canadian musician Edwin borrows elements of the song in his 1999 song, "Trippin'".
Singer/musician Norah Jones was joined onstage by Neil Young for an acoustic version of "Down by the River" on Day 2 of the 2014 Bridge Benefit concert.[17][18]
Norah Jones also performed a cover of "Down by the River" in her online brief concert of November 5, 2020, one of a series that she posted online during the COVID-19 pandemic.[19]
