The Ragged Glory sessions took place in April 1990 at Young's Broken Arrow Ranch.

Like Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, the album features many extended guitar jams, with two songs stretching out to more than ten minutes.

In an October 1990 interview with Rolling Stone's James Henke, Young compares the two albums: "It's probably closer to that record than anything else I've done.

[10] The song "Days that Used to Be" is inspired by Bob Dylan's "My Back Pages" and employs the same melody.

The closing track, "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)", uses the melody of the folk song "The Water Is Wide".

I'm just an old folkie; I can't find my acoustic guitar anymore, that's the problem [laughs].

"[7] Outtake and B-side "Don't Spook the Horse" was promoted as a "special profane bonus track".

"[7] The song title was inspired by the band's tendency to lose their nerve and ability to play with feeling when there is a sense they are being watched or judged.

Guitarist Poncho Sampedro explained in a March 2021 interview for Rolling Stone: "John Hanlon was a new guy and we didn't know him.

'"[10] In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Kurt Loder hailed Ragged Glory as "a monument to the spirit of the garage - to the pursuit of passion over precision" and calling it "a great one".

[23] The CD single culled from the album, "Mansion on the Hill", included the otherwise unreleased song "Don't Spook the Horse" (7:36).

Toronto-based band Constantines recorded a version of "F*!#in' Up" in Winnipeg,[24] which surfaced as the B-side to their "Our Age" 7"[25] in November 2008.

Scottish heavy metal band The Almighty recorded the song and included it as a B-side (with an uncensored title) to their "Out of Season" single in 1992.

[28] In December 2018 Young revealed in a post on his Archives website that during the process of remastering the album, engineer John Hanlon discovered 38 minutes of unreleased music from the recording sessions (featuring "five songs, with two versions of one, and one long extended take of another").

The expanded set, named Ragged Glory II, was expected to be released on CD, vinyl and Hi-Res audio in 2020 but was delayed.

[6] In February 2021, the album was again announced, now titled Smell the Horse, containing all of Ragged Glory as well as "four added tracks", and was set for release later that year, but was eventually pushed back to 2023.