[3] AllMusic critic William Ruhlmann said the words were "an impressionistic musing by a man who is contemplating the start of a new romantic relationship".
[3][4][5][6][8] This is apparent from the opening lines "My life is changin' in so many ways/I don't know who to trust anymore" before he starts singing about thinking of getting a maid.
[7] Responding to the accusation of sexism from literal readings of the song, Young once pointed out that "Robin Hood loved a maid long before women's liberation".
[13][14] The Harvest recording begins with Young on solo piano with the orchestral accompaniment joining after the first statement of "a man needs a maid".
[3][4] Sam Inglis, however, claims that the orchestra "underline[s] the dynamics of Young's performance in the same way a film composer might reinforce the twists and turns of some high melodrama".
[6] Rolling Stone ranked "A Man Needs a Maid" as the #62 all time Neil Young song, calling it "a moving union of grandeur and vulnerability".
[15] Rolling Stone critic John Mendelsohn described it as being "particularly interesting" for how Young "treats his favorite theme — his inability to find and keep a lover — in a novel and arrestingly brazen (in terms of our society's accelerating consciousness of women's rights) manner".
[16] The New Rolling Stone Album Guide critic Robert Sheffield described the lyrics as being "unintentionally hilarious".
[17] Pitchfork critic Mark Richardson said the song is "one of [Young's] stranger creations, an affecting portrait of loneliness undercut with a clumsy, lunkheaded chorus refrain, the sincerity of which has never been quite clear".