According to Young in his memoir Waging Heavy Peace, the songs on the album represent a variety of different themes.

Some of the songs had been recently written, while others dated back to his time with Buffalo Springfield: "The songs were gathered from the past and the future, mostly dreams, nothing concrete; they were mostly created as vehicles for record-making, like "Here We Are in the Years," or personal expression and longing, such as "I’ve Been Waiting for You."

Young would also revisit the melody of "The Emperor of Wyoming" during his mid-1980s country era, recording the song with lyrics as "Leaving the Top 40 Behind.

"[9] Musicians on "The Emperor of Wyoming" were Neil Young – guitar; Jim Messina – bass; George Grantham – drums; Also – strings.

The guitar driven rock song employs D modal tuning, which Young learned alongside Stephen Stills, who used it on "Bluebird.

The musicians on the track were Neil Young – guitar, pipe organ, vocal; Jim Messina – bass; and George Grantham – drums.

Young wrote the song before his time in The Mynah Birds, while playing coffee houses in Michigan, across the border from Ontario.

"[9] He explained further to a concert audience: "We had come out of the Chess Mate Club and found out that someone had left with part of our car and we had to wait for a while in this restaurant.

Musicians were Neil Young – vocal; Ry Cooder – guitar; Jack Nitzsche – electric piano; Carol Kaye – bass; Earl Palmer – drums; Choir: Merry Clayton, Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Gloria Jones, Sherlie Matthews, and Gracia Nitzsche.

"I've Loved Her So Long", in addition to Young on vocals; Ry Cooder on guitar; Jack Nitzsche on electric piano; Jim Messina on bass; and Earl Palmer on drums; had Merry Clayton, Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Gloria Jones, Sherlie Matthews, and Gracia Nitzsche on backing choir, and the additional instruments of piano, trumpet, trombone, oboe, clarinet, strings and timpani.

The song would be included in setlists during Young's 1969 tour with CSNY, with Graham Nash providing harmony vocals.

"[17] Young would later perform the song live with a full electric band in 1973 and release it as a B-side of the "Time Fades Away" single.

The bulk of the album's songs were recorded at various Los Angeles studios with David Briggs between August and October 1968.

In an April 1970 interview with Elliot Blinder for Rolling Stone, he explains the difficulty of such a record-making method, and his satisfaction with the result in the case of "I've Been Waiting for You": "All those things were played at different days, every instrument.

[20] In the Decade liner notes, Young states that the track features "Jim Messina on bass.

[21] In the biography Shakey, Briggs states that "the unique guitar tone on both "The Loner" and "I've Been Waiting For You" was achieved by "putting Neil’s guitar through an organ Leslie, not even through an amp, just the Leslie into the board"[9] David Briggs successfully offered beer to help Young relax while recording the vocal for "The Last Trip to Tulsa."

Young explains in Waging Heavy Peace: "Soon Briggs discovered that I needed to drink some beer to do vocals.

I was very unsure of my singing, especially after my previous experiences in the studio with Greene and Stone producing Buffalo Springfield.

It loosened me up quite a bit, and I actually sang a song, “Last Trip to Tulsa,” that was about ten minutes long, without overdubs.

[9] In the Decade liner notes, Young recalls recording the track: "Jack Nitzsche & I did this one together.

Jack Nitzsche had previously helped Young record the song "Expecting to Fly" for Buffalo Springfield Again.

Young would recall his relationship with Nitzsche in a December 1995 interview with Nick Kent for Mojo Magazine: "Jack taught me a lot: I mean, he'd already worked as an arranger for Spector and had played piano on recording sessions with The Rolling Stones.

45s would be coming in every week and I remember the day we got the first Jimi Hendrix Experience single - this was way before the first album had been released - and all of us were just awe-struck at how 'raw' the guy sounded.

"[26]Arrangements on "The Old Laughing Lady", "String Quartet from Whiskey Boot Hill" and "I've Loved Her So Long" by Young, Jack Nitzsche and Ry Cooder.

Copies of the original mix on vinyl are now rare and much sought-after by Neil Young fans who believe that the remix diminished the songs, especially "Here We Are in the Years".

It was released on audiophile vinyl in December 2009, both individually and as part of a box-set of Neil's first four LPs available via his official website.

[29] High resolution digital files of both the CSG and non-CSG albums are available to subscribers on the Neil Young Archives website.

Young promoted the album through solo acoustic appearances at coffee houses and folk venues in New York, Ann Arbor, Ottawa and Toronto.

In late October 1968, he appeared nightly for a full week supporting Joni Mitchell at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village.

In February 1969, Young would begin touring with Crazy Horse, with whom he began recording his follow up album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere in January.