There's no small controversy over the meaning of this song. Some think it is set during the Civil War, with the attackers being Union soldiers. Others say that the "White Boat" is actually a Coast Guard Cutter, and the family being attacked are involved in drug running or operating an illegal distillation business. Young himself might not know. He wrote two other songs around this time that were also filled with imagery from early America: "The Old Homestead" and "Captain Kennedy." He told the New Musical Express: "Those songs are like a landscape, I don't think with those songs – I get myself to a certain place, open up and they just come to me."
Young offered this song to Lynyrd Skynyrd, but they never recorded it. Skynyrd and Young have a history of mutual admiration that is often misunderstood, as "Sweet Home Alabama" is sometimes thought to contain a dig at Young ("I hope Neil Young will remember, a southern man don't need him around anyhow"). Any "feud" was good-natured - the line in "Sweet Home Alabama" was really Skynyrd making the point that not everyone from the South is a regressive redneck. In 1977, the band's plane crashed, killing their lead singer, guitarist and a backup singer. It's possible that they would have recorded "Powderfinger" for their next album, but after the crash, Young decided to record it himself and included it on his Rust Never Sleeps album.
Young recorded this with Crazy Horse. It was the first time since 1975 that he had recorded with the band.
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