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Neil Young
After Neil Young left the Californian folk-rock band Buffalo Springfield in 1968, he slowly established himself as one of the most influential and idiosyncratic singer/songwriters of his generation. Young's body of work ranks second only to Bob Dylan in terms of depth, and he was able to sustain his critical reputation, as well as record sales, for a longer period of time than Dylan, partially because of his willfully perverse work ethic.
From the beginning of his solo career in the late '60s until the late '90s, he never stopped writing, recording, and performing; his official catalog only represented a portion of his work, since he kept countless tapes of unreleased songs in his vaults. Just as importantly, Young continually explored new musical territory, from rockabilly and the blues to electronic music. But these stylistic exercises only gained depth when compared to his two primary styles: gentle folk and country-rock, and crushingly loud electric guitar rock, which he frequently recorded with the Californian garage band Crazy Horse.
Throughout his career, Young alternated between these two extremes, and both proved equally influential; there were just as many singer/songwriters as there were grunge and country-rock bands claiming to be influenced by Neil Young. Despite his enormous catalog and influence, Young continued to move forward, writing new songs and exploring new music. That restless spirit ensured that he was one of the few rock veterans as vital in his old age as he was in his youth.
Born in Toronto, Canada, Neil Young moved to Winnipeg with his mother following her divorce from his sports-journalist father. Young began playing music in high school. Not only did he play in garage rock outfits like the Esquires, but he also played in local folk clubs and coffeehouses, where he eventually met Joni Mitchell and Stephen Stills. During the mid-'60s, he returned to Toronto, where he played as a solo folk act. By 1966, he joined the Mynah Birds, which also featured bassist Bruce Palmer and Rick James. The group recorded an album's worth of material for Motown, none of which was released at the time.
Frustrated by his lack of success, Young moved to Los Angeles in his Pontiac hearse, taking Palmer along as support. Shortly after they arrived in L.A., they happened to meet Stills, and they formed Buffalo Springfield, who quickly became one of the leaders of the Californian folk-rock scene. Despite the success of Buffalo Springfield, the group was plagued with tension, and Young quit the band several times before finally leaving to become a solo artist in May of 1968. Hiring Elliot Roberts as his manager, Young signed with Reprise Records and released his eponymous debut album in early 1969.
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Neil Young with Crazy Horse: World Record
by Doug Collette
In its own peculiar way, World Record is as confounding as the previous two albums by Neil Young with Crazy Horse. Yet it's far more compelling, this despite its comparably impromptu, borderline sloppy nature. This title might be heard as a progression from or an extension of Colorado (Reprise, 2019) and/or Barn (Reprise, 2021, except that the occasionally excessive air of spontaneity that permeates the material and the performances begs the question of how Rick Rubin contributed to this recording ...
Continue ReadingHarvest 50th Anniversary Edition (CD/DVD)
by Doug Collette
To hear and see Neil Young express such deep-seated personal contentment near the end of his film Harvest Time is to understand more fully why he would go to some lengths to curate a box set of the album upon which the movie is based. While some of the content enclosed on the CDs and DVDs in the 50th Anniversary Edition of the 1972 album has been in unofficial circulation for awhile, immersion in the collection vividly depicts the vagaries ...
Continue ReadingThe Book of Neil (Young): How the Godfather of Grunge Became an Influencer of Jazz
by Kelley Suttenfield
As a child of the '70s, Neil Young's music was some of the first I heard played on the radio. Heart of Gold must have been piped into every café, truck stop, and grocery store in Central Virginia, where I spent my formative years. And if you were taking a road trip, scanning the stations meant you could easily hear it multiple times in one afternoon. Astonishingly, it remains his only number #1 hit to this day. Out of such ...
Continue ReadingNeil Young - To Feel The Music: A Songwriter's Mission To Save High-Quality Audio
by Doug Collette
To Feel the Music: A Songwriter's Mission to Save High-Quality Audio Neil Young and Phil Baker 242 Pages ISBN: #1948836386 BenBella Books 2019 In his introduction to To Feel The Music, Neil Young ascertains that the point of decline in the sound quality of modern music began with the compact disc. In his mind and to his ears, that physical manifestation of the advent of digital sound constitutes an abhorrent occurrence for ...
Continue ReadingNeil Young & The Promise of The Real: Earth
by Doug Collette
Ninety-plus minutes of performances recorded live on tour in 2015, then interspersed with sounds of the planet natural (birds and thunder) and manufactured (car traffic and trains), Neil Young's double-CD Earth documents his social concerns and the synergy he's developed with his most recent accompanists, Lukas Nelson and The Promise of the Real. A song selection spanning the rock icon's career, plus one unreleased number (an ode to the weed movement Seed Justice" was originally and cryptically titled I Won't ...
Continue ReadingNeil Young: Special Deluxe A Memoir of Life & Cars
by Doug Collette
Special Deluxe: A Memoir of Life & Cars Neil Young 384 Pages ISBN: # 0399172084 Blue Rider Press 2014 It's hard to believe Special Deluxe is written by the same man who wrote Waging Heavy Peace (Blue Rider Press, 2012). Neil Young sounded so selectively obsessive on that glibly titled and not so well-edited autobiography, his focused and conversational writing here, from the very preface on, is the proverbial breath of ...
Continue ReadingNeil Young: Waging Heavy Peace
by Lloyd N. Peterson Jr.
Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace502 pagesISBN: 9780339159466Viking2012An argument can be made that the three greatest artists in the history of contemporary rock music are Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Neil Young, in no particular order. The most controversial amongst the three would be Young. This of course comes from the fact that Young seems to almost purposely take the path that defies commercial success but it's also a ...
Continue ReadingNeil Young - Live At Massey Hall 1971 (2007)
Source:
Something Else!
There's just something about Neil Young. His present-day persona along with his musical past form a sort of rolling time capsule in my head. Very strange, much like the man himself. This particular album, recorded 1971 at Toronto's Massey Hall, showcases Young and his songwriting at an early career peak. Played on acoustic guitar and sometimes piano, Young definitely had that audience in full control. Many of the songs, new at the time, went on to become part of his ...
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Neil Young - Prairie Wind (2005)
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Something Else!
By Mark Saleski No harm meant by this remark: I'd rather listen to John Mayer than Elliott Smith. So there, I've said it. Not to illustrate that I've got no indie cred. That I apparently have no taste in music. Not even to piss off the legions of Smith fans. No, that is not the point. The point ... is that this stuff is completely and utterly subjective. Further, there are really no objective measures for the 'goodness' of the ...
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Neil Young and the International Harvesters - A Treasure (Reprise, 2011)
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Music and More by Tim Niland
Rock and roll legend Neil Young was a bit of a journeyman in the 1980's, investigating several forms of music from proto-techno to sad-eyed balladry. This previously unreleased live album from 1985 with a group he called The International Harvesters was one of his most successful groups of the period. Country music had always played a part in Young's music from his early days in Buffalo Springfield through country tinged folk projects like Comes a Time. This album shows his ...
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Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II (2007)
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Something Else!
By Mark Saleski I love to read negative reviews of albums put out by aging rock stars. They're predictable in a comforting sort of way. A big chunk of them say that the artist hasn't been any good since the blah blah" release. Of course, the time span between now and then can usually be measured in decades. Then there are the reviews that try to be efficient in their clever put-down of the musician, pointing out that the artist ...
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Neil Young and the International Harvesters - A Treasure (2011)
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Something Else!
Time to rethink Neil Young and the 1980s. A Treasure, featuring live songs from a 1984-85 tour with a group of Nashville pros, is the sixth release in Young's ongoing Archives Performance Seriesand it shines a spotlight on an often overlooked period between 1979's Rust Never Sleeps and Freedom a decade later. Young tinkered, and sometimes failed, throughout the decade. The throwback country-inflected album he'd constructed prior to these concerts, appropriately titled Old Ways, had just been rejected by his ...
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Neil Young - Living with War (2006)
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Something Else!
By Mark Saleski The debate had become predictable; maybe a little sad, too. An artist was coming out with a protest record. You could hear the bluster from miles away. Folks twisted themselves into spittle-flecked knots in the attempt to dress down the album as insincere, misguided, vain, self-absorbedgo ahead, pick your own adjective. Add to this the obligatory They're just musicians, they should keep their mouths shut" line of reasoning and well, there's your template for debate. I'm not ...
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Neil Young: Spring Tour
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JamBase
TOUR STARTS APRIL 15 IN DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA Neil Young has announced a solo Spring tour set to begin April 15 in Durham, NC. The performances will feature classic tracks as well as songs from his most recent album, Le Noise. Check out all the dates below. Young is set to appear with a reunited Buffalo Springfield at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. TOUR DATES
04/15/11 Fri Durham Performing Arts Center Durham, NC 04/17/11 Sun Landmark Theater Richmond, VA ...
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Neil Young: Le Noise Film
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JamBase
LE NOISE OUT NOW Le Noise is the new album from Neil Young. Director Adam CK Vollick filmed Young performing each of the album's eight tracks. Shot at producer Daniel Lanois' home studio in Silverlake, CA, the 39 minute film is entirely in black and white and features the actual performances used on the record. He walked in the door and I put an acoustic guitar into his hands, one that I had been working on to build a new ...
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Neil Young - Le Noise (2010)
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Something Else!
By Nick Deriso Even after a damaging season of loss, Neil Young remains, as always, restless and relentlessimbuing the modernistic, reverb-soaked Le Noise" with a kind of anti-melancholy. He hasn't stopped searching for light in the darkness and, even now, somehow never sounds quite the same from album to album. This time, Young partners with producer Daniel Lanois (Peter Gabriel, the Neville Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, U2), recording alone with his guitar in an atmosphere that sounds ...
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Neil Young to Tour Gulf Coast
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JamBase
FIRST GULF COAST DATE CONFIRMED AT THE HARD ROCK IN HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA
With his solo tour beginning in select cities in the U.S. and Canada throughout July, Neil Young has announced that he will also play Gulf Coast cities affected by the BP oil spill.
From NeilYoung.com:
September 23 at the Hard Rock in Hollywood Florida is now confirmed. Tickets are already on sale. Other dates will be announced that are surrounding this show in Florida and on the Gulf ...
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