Ever seen that shot of a lanky kid in a high school yearbook, staring into the lens with an intensity that seems a bit much for tenth grade? That's Neil. Before the flannel and the "Godfather of Grunge" label, there was a skinny Canadian kid trying to find a sound that didn't exist yet. Most people hunt for young Neil Young pictures expecting to see the 1970s icon with the sideburns and the Martin guitar, but the real treasure is further back. We're talking 1963 Winnipeg. We're talking Rick James and a stolen hearse.
The Winnipeg Years and the Squires
In 1963, if you were looking for Neil, you’d find him at Kelvin High School. Or rather, you’d find him ditching Kelvin High School. There’s a specific photo of the Squires—his first real band—where Neil is standing on the far left. He looks like a nerd. Honestly. He’s got these thick-rimmed glasses and a short, sensible haircut that his mom, Rassy, probably approved of.
The Squires were an instrumental band, heavily into The Shadows. If you look closely at those grainy black-and-white snaps from the 4-H club dances in Manitoba, you’ll see Neil clutching a Gretsch 6120. He hadn't found "Old Black" (his famous 1953 Les Paul Goldtop) yet. He was just a kid in a suit jacket trying to mimic Hank Marvin’s surf-rock tremolo.
Barney Charach took some of the most famous shots of this era. One shows the band in 1964, looking remarkably clean-cut. It’s jarring. You’ve got this guy who would eventually define "rugged" looking like he’s ready for a debate club meeting. But the eyes are the same. That focused, almost uncomfortable stare was there from the jump.
The Motown Misfit: Neil and Rick James
This is the part that sounds like a fever dream, but the pictures prove it happened. By 1966, Neil had moved to Toronto and joined a band called the Mynah Birds. The frontman? A young Rick James (then known as Ricky James Matthews).
There are very few high-quality young Neil Young pictures from this specific lineup because they were only together for a flash. But there is one iconic promo shot of the band. Neil is standing there in a pea coat, looking deeply out of place next to the soul-infused swagger of the rest of the group.
They actually signed to Motown. Imagine that. Neil Young on the same label as The Supremes. The band fell apart when Rick James was arrested for being AWOL from the Navy, but those photos of Neil in the "Yorkville scene" show a massive shift. The hair is getting longer. The suits are gone. He’s starting to look like the guy who would eventually write Cowgirl in the Sand.
That Famous Hearse and the L.A. Breakout
After the Mynah Birds tanked, Neil and bassist Bruce Palmer did something legendary. They bought a 1953 Pontiac hearse named Mort, stuffed their gear in the back, and drove illegally to Los Angeles.
If you want to understand the vibe of early Buffalo Springfield, look for the pictures of that hearse. It’s the ultimate symbol of Neil’s "Shaky" persona. There’s a photo of Neil and Stephen Stills standing by the Pacific Ocean in 1967. Neil is wearing that famous fringed buckskin jacket.
Jini Dellaccio, a legendary photographer who didn't even start shooting rock bands until she was in her 40s, captured some of the most striking portraits of him during this time. She once asked him to get on the roof of a house in that fringe jacket and "fly like a bird." She actually held onto the shots for years because she thought they made him look "too beautiful" or sometimes "too old" because of the way the light hit his face.
The Henry Diltz Connection
If there’s one person responsible for the young Neil Young pictures we all have plastered on our walls, it’s Henry Diltz. Henry was a musician himself who just happened to pick up a camera. He became a fly on the wall for the Laurel Canyon scene.
He captured Neil at his most unguarded. There’s the 1971 shot at Broken Arrow Ranch. Neil is sitting on a hay bale in a barn, playing a Martin guitar. This wasn't a staged PR shoot. Henry was just hanging out with Neil and his ranch foreman, Louis Avila—the man who actually inspired the song "Old Man."
Why These Early Images Matter
- Documentation of Evolution: You can literally see the "greying" of his spirit. He goes from a smiling kid in Winnipeg to a somber, brooding artist in the span of five years.
- Style Influence: The patched jeans and flannel weren't a costume; they were a result of living in a van and then a ranch.
- The "Shaky" Mystery: Photos from the Tonight's the Night era (around 1973) show a Neil that looks genuinely haunted. These aren't just celebrity portraits; they're evidence of a man grieving for his friends Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry.
Spotting the Fakes
In the age of AI, you’ve gotta be careful. Real young Neil Young pictures have a certain "grit." If you see a photo where his skin looks too smooth or his 1953 Les Paul has the wrong number of knobs, it’s probably a fake.
Authentic shots from the late 60s often show him with his signature sideburns and a very specific slouch. He’s almost always leaning into something—a microphone, a guitar, or a car. He never looks like he wants his picture taken. That’s the giveaway. If he’s smiling directly at the camera like a Sears catalog model, it’s probably not him—or he was being forced by a manager he’d fire three days later.
The best way to see the real deal is to dive into the Neil Young Archives. He’s meticulously documented his own life, often including "contact sheets" where you can see the frames he rejected. These rejected shots often tell more of the story than the ones that made the album covers.
If you’re looking to start your own collection or just want to understand the history, your next step should be checking out the work of Joel Bernstein. He was Neil’s long-time photographer and archivist who took the famous "hitchhiking" cover for After the Gold Rush. Looking through Bernstein's lens is the closest you'll get to being in the room when the 70s began.
