Neil Young

Outspoken rocker of many years standing has recently announced his marriage to actress Daryl Hannah. He spent time in Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, reunited with him in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but has mainly been a solo force, albeit backed by Crazy Horse for a lot of the time. His Harvest album is one of those "all-time classics" beloved of rock journos. And he continues to write, record & sing. So here's a few of his best:

Cinnamon Girl (live)

Heart of Gold (live)

This Note's For You

Rockin' In The Free World

Harvest Moon

Silver & Gold: Neil Young
A sitdown performance, either in a chair playing guitar, or at a piano, from 1999. He played many pleasant songs, including my favourite, Harvest Moon.

CSNY - Deja Vu
Concert film from 2008, covering the 2006 tour trying to influence the US Mid-Term Elections, and generally make clear how cross Neil Young is with George W. Bush. There were plenty of comments from supporters and critics, although I had to laugh at the people bemoaning their political material, as if CSNY have never been like that. It was pretty obvious how much Neil Young was calling the shots, though. A good programme, though, and I'm impressed by the musical ability and some of the songs. Oh, and the moral message.

Neil Young: Heart of Gold
A somewhat ponderous opening depicts the various band members in taxis on their way to the gig at the Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, in 2005, before the main concert, as Neil plugs his 'Prairie Wind' album, but makes sure to belt out the big hits along the way, too. Well worth seeing.


Neil Young: Music in Review
A fairly serious look from his early start in the Buffalo Springfield, and his ups & downs in his solo career, veering from slow & thoughtful to reckless & rocking. Biographers and other music journos argued over his greatest successes. By the time of the 80s, they were skipping a lot to lead up toward the present day, where he wears his elder statesman tag with pride. He gets credit for not scorning punk but welcoming it.

Neil Young - The Hurricane - Live
Interesting mix of footage from Farm Aid and I assume Saturday Night Live. A happy blend of the familiar and the less so, but at least named as such.

Discovering: Neil Young
Born in Toronto in 1945, and after some tough breaks, he started playing ukulele before his teen years. He met Stephen Stills, and had modest success with Buffalo Springfield. He got a solo deal with Reprise, and then got together with Crazy Horse. His 2nd solo LP was a winner, and then he hit really big with After The Goldrush and Harvest. To counter this success, he made a purposely less mainstream trilogy of LPs. Things picked up again in the late 70s. Made experiments in the 80s, leading to Geffen suing him. He went back to Reprise, and became seen as a icon to the Grunge generation. He continued to wrong-foot people with his records. He suffered a brain aneurysm in 2005, and continues to flex his political mood.

Video Killed The Radio Star: Neil Young
Directors Tim Pope and Julian Temple talked about diverse songs such as People On The Streets, This Note's For You and Harvest Moon. Neil really embraced the value of doing videos, using different styles to achieve memorable complements to his songs.

He'll be joint-headlining music festival British Summer Time next July in Hyde Park, London, with Bob Dylan.

He's also got an album out for the holiday season - "Songs for Judy" is something of a compilation project.

He's made waves about the BST festival, complaining about sponsors Barclaycard for links to fossil fuels, and from which Barclaycard have withdrawn their link to the festival.

His ex-wife Pegi has died of cancer. She was 66

https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/01/r-i-p-pegi-young-dead-66

They were together for nearly 40 years from 1978, and together they had 2 children.

RIP 

Discovering: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
A harmonic supergroup marred by a frequent lack of personal harmony. The main trio came from the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Hollies, and had hits like Marrakech Express, placing them in the counter culture. But then Neil Young joined up, and they had songs like Ohio and Our House. Their line-up split and reformed several times, whilst Crosby had drug issues. When they had sales troubles in the 90s, Young helped them find a new record deal. They're all in the R&R HoF twice.

He this week released a "lost" album, Homegrown, which entered the charts at #2 (making it a golden oldies 1-2 with Dylan).

He's another act who's sold catalogue rights.

The Big Interview w/Dan Rather - Neil Young
From 2016, and Neil plugged his PONO sound system. He recounted some of his story when asked, batted away cheap questions, agreed that he could be a stickler where music is concerned, how he still loves Stephen Stills, less so for Graham Nash, still smokes grass, told anecdotes about Heart Of Gold and Harvest Moon, his concern for his son Ben, backing the Bridge School for the previous 30 years, and how he's shy and insecure really.