So there’s this folk singer. Steve something. Can’t remember his last name. He does covers and his own songs.

I ask him if he’ll play some Neil Young. Well, I shout it out. I yell “Play some Neil Young!” And he does. He plays “Mr. Soul”. I am happy.

But he says Neil Young didn’t write it. He says Neil Young just sang it. He says Stephen Stills wrote it.

I tell him Neil Young wrote it. I shout it out because I am drunk.

He directs me to this older man at a table who is apparently the source of this information. The man tells me he knows for a fact that Stephen Stills wrote the song.

Now, I think I know where this confusion arises. At the beginning of “Broken Arrow,” another of Young’s songs on the album, there is a sample of a live-in-the-sudio performance of “Mr. Soul” featuring Stephen Stills singing the lead. So the guy got mixed up. [Editor’s Note: I have read elsewhere it’s actually Dewey Martin, their drummer. Regardless, it is not Neil Young singing in that version. It is both established fact and incredibly obvious it is not Neil Young singing, as it sounds nothing like Neil Young and he’s not that talented a singer.]

Anyway, we bet on it. A pint.

So I get people to look it up. Some nice guy gives me his blackberry and I show it to the guy. “Writer: Neil Young.”

The man tells me I’m wrong, Stephen Stills wrote the song.

No free pint (not that I needed one).

What an asshole. If you’re going to make a bet, stick to it. Or don’t wager something you’re not willing to give up.

But the guy who gave me his blackberry was nice. So thanks, strange man.

“Broken Arrow” by Neil Young, performed by Buffalo Springfield