Information AboutNeil Young |
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Neil Percival Kenneth Robert Ragland Young (born November 12 , 1945 ) is a Canadian Singer-songwriter whose work is characterized by deep throat singing, distinctive guitar work, and an almost instantly recognizable nasal tenor voice. Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments—including piano, banjo, and harmonica;his style of Hammer-on Acoustic Guitar and often idiosyncratic soloing on electric guitar are the lynchpins of a sometimes ragged, sometimes polished, yet consistently evocative sonic ambience. Although Young has experimented widely with differing music styles,-tinged Folk Rock , as heard in songs such as " Heart Of Gold " and " Old Man ," or a grinding, lumbering form of hard-rock,as in songs like " Cinnamon Girl " and " Southern Man ." Young first came to prominence as a member of the folk-rock band Buffalo Springfield in the mid- 1960s and then as a solo performer backed by the band Crazy Horse . He reached his commercial peak during the singer-songwriter boom of the early 1970s with the albums '' After The Gold Rush '' and '' Harvest '' as well as with Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young . He has long been distrustful of commercial management in the music business, and has at times created highly accessible and durable popular music while at other times has indulged in outlandish and uncompromising experiments that have left audiences, critics, and—in one notable case—his record label baffled. Young has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame . In 2000 , the cable music channel VH1 ranked Young 30th on a list of the Top 100 Artists of Rock and Roll. He was also 30th on VH1's list of Top 100 Hard Rock Artists. Young has directed or co-directed a number of Film s using the Pseudonym Bernard Shakey, including ''Journey Through the Past'' ( 1973 ), ''Rust Never Sleeps'' ( 1979 ), ''Human Highway'' ( 1982 ), and '' Greendale '' ( 2003 ).http://hyperrust.org/Words/Shakey.html He is also an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and small farmers, having co-founded the Benefit Concert Farm Aid , and in 1986 , helped found The Bridge Schoolhttp://www.bridgeschool.org/ together with his wife Pegi. EARLY YEARS Neil Young was born in Toronto to Sportswriter and Novelist Scott Young and Rassy Ragland Young. He spent his early years in Omemee , a small country town which he later memorialized in his song "Helpless". A bout with Polio at the age of six left him with a weakened left side, and he still walks with a slight limp. His parents Divorce d when Young was twelve, and he moved with his mother back to the family home of Winnipeg , Manitoba , where his music career began. During high school in Winnipeg, he played in instrumental rock bands, one of which, the Squires, had a local hit called "The Sultan." He later worked the folk clubs in Winnipeg, where he befriended Guitar ist Stephen Stills and Joni Mitchell , and also spent a summer in Thunder Bay, Ontario , playing at local clubs. In 1966, after an aborted record deal on the Motown label with the Rick James -fronted Mynah Birds , Young and Bass player Bruce Palmer relocated to Los Angeles , where they joined Stills, Richie Furay , and Dewey Martin to form Buffalo Springfield . A mixture of folk, country, Psychedelia , and rock lent a hard edge by the twin lead guitars of Stills and Young made the Buffalo Springfield a critical success, and the first record '' Buffalo Springfield '' ( 1967 ) sold well after Stills' topical song "For What It's Worth" became a hit. Things did not go smoothly for long, however, and distrust of their management as well as the arrest and deportation of Palmer exacerbated already strained relations between group members. A second album, '' Buffalo Springfield Again '', was released in late 1967 but two of Young’s three contributions were actually solo tracks recorded apart from the rest of the group. In many ways, these three songs on ''Buffalo Springfield Again'' are harbingers of much of Young's later work in that, although they all share deeply personal, almost idiosyncratic lyrics, they also present three very different musical approaches to the arrangement of what is essentially an original folk song. "Mr Soul," the only Young song of the three that all five members of the group perform together, is driven by a fat guitar riff that owed more than a little to the Rolling Stones ' " (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction ." In contrast, "Broken Arrow" was confessional folk rock of a kind that would characterize much of the music that emerged from the singer-songwriter movement. Young’s experimental production intersperses each verse with snippets of sound from other sources, including opening the song with a sound bite of Dewey Martin singing "Mr. Soul" and closing it with the thumping of a heartbeat. "Expecting to Fly" was a lushly produced Ballad featuring a string arrangement that Young's co-producer for the track, Jack Nitzsche , would dub "symphonic pop." In May of 1968 the band split up for good, but in order to fulfill a contractual obligation, a final album, '' Last Time Around '', was compiled primarily from recordings made earlier that year. Young contributed the songs “On the Way Home” and “I Am a Child,” although he sang lead only on the latter. BREAKTHROUGH AS A SOLO ARTIST After the breakup of Buffalo Springfield, Young signed a solo deal with Reprise Records , home of his compatriot, Joni Mitchell , with whom he shared a manager, Elliot Roberts. Young and Nitzsche immediately began work on Young's first solo record, '' Neil Young '' (January 1969 ), which received mixed reviews. In a 1970 interview , Young deprecated the album as being "overdubbed rather than played," and the quest for music expressing spontaneity of the moment has in fact long been feature of his career. Nevertheless, the album contains some tunes that remain a staple of his live shows, most notably "The Loner." For his next album, Young recruited three musicians from a band called The Rockets: Danny Whitten on guitar, Billy Talbot on bass guitar, and Ralph Molina on Drums . These three took the name Crazy Horse (after the historical figure of the Same Name ), and '' Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere '' (May 1969 ), is credited to "Neil Young with Crazy Horse." Recorded in just two weeks, the album opens with one of Young's most familiar songs, Cinnamon Girl," and is dominated by two more, "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "Down by the River," that feature lengthy jams showcasing a sympathetic accompaniment by Crazy Horse of Young's idiosyncratic guitar soloing. Shortly after the release of ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'', Young agreed to join Crosby, Stills, And Nash , who had already released one album as a trio. Over the next 24 months, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young would perform at Woodstock , release the album '' Déjà Vu '' ( 1970 ), release a single of Young's " Ohio ," and record a summer concert tour, which was released the following year under the title '' Four Way Street '' ( 1971 ). “Ohio” was written following the Kent State Massacre on May 4 , 1970 , and was a staple of anti-war rallies in the 1970s. Young was still performing it 20 years later, by which time he often dedicated it to the Chinese students who had been killed at Tiananmen Square Protests Of 1989 . Also that year, Young released his third solo album, '' After The Gold Rush '' ( 1970 ), which featured, among others, a young Nils Lofgren , Stephen Stills , and CSNY bassist Greg Reeves. Aided by his newfound fame with CSNY, the album was a commercial breakthrough for Young and contains some of his best known work. Notable tracks include the title track, with dream-like lyrics that run a gamut of subjects from drugs and interpersonal relationships to environmental concerns, as well as Young’s controversial and acerbic condemnation of Racism in " Southern Man ," which, along with a later song entitled "Alabama," later prompted Lynyrd Skynyrd to decry Young by name in the lyrics to " Sweet Home Alabama ." With CSNY splitting up and Crazy Horse having signed their own record deal, Young began the year 1971 with a solo tour entitled "Journey Through the Past." Later, he recruited a new group of country-music session musicians, whom he christened The Stray Gators, to record much of the new material that had been premiered on tour for the album '' Harvest '' ( 1972 ). Catching the mood that would soon lift the Eagles to superstardom, ''Harvest'' was a massive hit and "Heart of Gold" became a US number one single. Another notable song was " The Needle And The Damage Done ," a lament for, in Young’s own words, "all the great art that never got out because of Heroin ." The album's success, however, caught Young off guard, and his first instinct was to back away from stardom. In the handwritten liner notes to the '' Decade '' compilation, Young described 'Heart of Gold' as the song that "put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there." On 8 September 1972 , the Academy Award -nominated actress Carrie Snodgress gave birth to Neil Young's first child. The boy, Zeke, would later be diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy . THE DITCH TRILOGY Although a new tour had been planned to follow up on the success of ''Harvest'', it became apparent during rehearsals that Danny Whitten could not function due to Drug Abuse . On November 18 , 1972, shortly after he was fired from the tour preparations, Whitten was found dead of an Overdose . Young described the incident to '' Rolling Stone ''’s Cameron Crowe in 1975 ,http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/9102786/neil_young_the_rs_interview " {Link without Title} were rehearsing with him and he just couldn't cut it. He couldn't remember anything. He was too out of it. Too far gone. I had to tell him to go back to L.A. 'It's not happening, man. You're not together enough.' He just said, 'I've got nowhere else to go, man. How am I gonna tell my friends?' And he split. That night the coroner called me from L.A. and told me he'd ODed. That blew my mind. Fucking blew my mind. I loved Danny. I felt responsible. And from there, I had to go right out on this huge tour of huge arenas. I was very nervous and . . . insecure.” The album made in the aftermath of this incident has often been described by Young as his “least favorite record,” and it is, in fact, one of only two of Young’s early recordings that has yet to be re-released on CD (The other being the soundtrack album '' Journey Through The Past ''). Nevertheless, '' Time Fades Away '' ( 1973 ) occupies a unique position in Young’s discography as the first of three albums known collectively as the "Ditch Trilogy." In the second half of 1973, Young formed The Santa Monica Flyers, with Crazy Horse's rhythm section augmented by Lofgren on guitar. Deeply affected by the drug-induced deaths of Whitten and . In Young's own opinion, it was the closest he ever came to art, but the question of whether this is based on musical merits or the biographical significance of Young "exorcizing his demons" remains to be seen. While his record company delayed the release of ''Tonight's the Night,'' Young recorded '' On The Beach '' ( 1974 ), which dealt with themes such as the downside of fame and the Californian lifestyle. Like ''Time Fades Away'' and ''Tonight's the Night'', it sold poorly but would eventually become a critical favorite, presenting some of Young's most original work. In a review of the 2003 re-release on CD of ''On the Beach'' Derek Svennungsen describe the music as "mesmerizing, harrowing, lucid, and bleary," http://www.independent.com/a&e/soundfury904.htm a characterization that many would say is apt of the entire Ditch Trilogy. ZUMA AND BEYOND Young reformed Crazy Horse with Frank Sampedro on guitar as his backup band for '' Zuma '' ( 1975 ). Many of the songs are overtly concerned with failed relationships, and even the epic " Cortez The Killer ," outwardly a retelling of the Spanish Conquest of South America from the viewpoint of the Aztec s, can be seen as an allegory of love lost—something that didn’t save it, however, from being banned in Franco 's Spain . The following year, Young reunited with Stephen Stills for the album '' Long May You Run '' ( 1976 ), credited to the Stills-Young band, but many of the dates on the follow-up tour were cancelled midway when Young walked out, later sending Stills a Telegram that read: "Funny how some things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach, Neil." In 1976, Young performed with The Band , Joni Mitchell, and other rock musicians in the high profile all-star concert The Last Waltz . The release of Martin Scorsese 's movie of the concert was delayed while Scorsese unwillingly re-edited it to deemphasize the lump of cocaine that was clearly visible hanging from Young's nose during his performance of "Helpless." '''' ( 1978 ) also featured Nicolette Larson and Crazy Horse and became Young's most commercially accessible album in quite some time and, marked by a return to his folk roots. Young next set out on the lengthy "Rust Never Sleeps" tour, in which each concert was divided into a solo acoustic set and an electric set with Crazy Horse. Much of the electric set was later seen as a response to punk rock's burgeoning popularity. "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" compared the changing public perception of Johnny Rotten with that of the recently deceased Elvis Presley , who himself had once been disparaged as a dangerous influence only to later become an Icon . Rotten, meanwhile, returned the favour by playing one of Young's records on a London radio show. The accompanying albums '' Rust Never Sleeps '' (new material, recorded in front of a live audience but essentially a studio album) and '' Live Rust '' (a mixture of old and new, and a genuine concert recording) captured the two sides of the concerts. A movie version of the concerts, also called ''Rust Never Sleeps'' ( 1979 ), was directed by Young under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey. Young was suddenly hip again, and the readers and critics of Rolling Stone voted him Artist Of The Year for 1979 (along with The Who), selected Rust Never Sleeps as Album Of The Year, and voted him Male Vocalist Of The Year as well. EXPERIMENTAL YEARS The 1980s were a lean time for Young both critically and commercially. After providing the incidental music to a Biopic of Hunter S. Thompson entitled '' Where The Buffalo Roam '', he recorded '' Hawks & Doves '' ( 1980 ), a folk/country record. '' Re-ac-tor '' ( 1981 ), once again with Crazy Horse, was a façade of distortion and feedback obscuring a relatively weak selection of songs, but his strangest record of the decade came with '' Trans '' ( 1982 ). Recorded almost entirely with Vocoder s, Synthesizer s, and other devices that modify instruments and vocals with electronic effects, it is sometimes considered an experiment to find technology that would become a means to communicate for Young’s son (with his wife Pegi), Ben, who has severe Cerebral Palsy and cannot speak. Fans were baffled by the radical forms of this album and Rockabilly -styled '' Everybody's Rockin' '' ( 1983 ), and record company head David Geffen even sued Young for making "unrepresentative" music that did not sound like Neil Young. '''' ( 1987 ) fulfilled his contract with Geffen, and Young was finally able to switch labels. Signing with Warner Brothers and returning to Reprise Records, Young produced '' This Note's For You '' ( 1988 ) with a new band, The Bluenotes, whose name rights were owned by musician Harold Melvin . The addition of a Brass section provided a new Jazz ier sound and the title track became his first hit single of the decade. Accompanied by a witty video which parodied corporate rock, the pretensions of advertising and Michael Jackson in particular, the song was initially banned by MTV (although the Canadian music channel, MuchMusic ran it immediately) before being put into heavy rotation and finally given the MTV Video Music Award For Best Video Of The Year for 1989 . After Melvin sued over the use of the Bluenotes name, Young renamed his back-up group "Ten Men Workin'" for the balance of the concert tour. Young also contributed to that year's CSNY reunion ''American Dream'' (1989), though tensions with the band were always high. BACK TO COUNTRY-ROCK ROOTS '' Freedom '' completed the return to form, a mixture of acoustic and electric rock dealing with the state of the US and the world in 1989, alongside a set of love songs and a version of the standard "On Broadway." '' Rockin' In The Free World '', two versions of which bookended the album, again caught the mood. Some say it became a ''de facto'' anthem during the fall of the Berlin Wall , a few months after the record's release. However, most Germans don't remember the song being related to the reunification, understandably so, since the lyrics are not about political repression. Like Bruce Springsteen 's " Born In The U.S.A. ", the anthemic use of this song was based on largely ignoring the verses, which evoke social problems and implicitly criticize American government policies. By 1990 , Grunge Music was beginning to make its first inroads in the charts and many of its prime movers, including Nirvana 's Kurt Cobain , were citing Young as an influence, which led elements of the press to give him the somewhat dubious title "The Godfather of Grunge." Using a barn on his Northern California ranch as a studio, he rapidly recorded the aptly titled '' Ragged Glory '' with Crazy Horse, whose guitar riffs and feedback driven sound showed his new admirers that he could still cut it. Though the music was not quite as intense as the actual grunge bands themselves, no one could mistake Young's "Country Home" for " Smells Like Teen Spirit ." Young then headed back out on the road with Alternative Rock elder statesmen Sonic Youth as support. Their influence could be clearly heard on the accompanying home video and live album, '' Weld '', which also included a bonus CD entitled '' Arc '', a single 35-minute-long collage which consisted mostly of Feedback and guitar noise. ''Arc'' was later sold separately. Young's next move was another return to country music. '' Harvest Moon '' ( 1992 ) was the long awaited sequel to ''Harvest'' and reunited him with some of the musicians from that session, including Linda Ronstadt . The title track was a minor hit and the record was reviewed and sold equally well, containing songs such as "From Hank to Hendrix " and "Unknown Legend", a tribute to his wife, and his resurgent popularity saw him booked on '' MTV Unplugged '' in 1993 . That year, he contributed music to the Soundtrack of the Jonathan Demme movie '' Philadelphia '', and his song "Philadelphia" was nominated for the Academy Award For Best Song , losing out to Bruce Springsteen's contribution to the same film. A summer tour covering both Europe and North America with Booker T. And The MGs (with whom he played two songs at a 1992 Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden ) was widely praised as a triumph. On a few of these dates, the show ended with a rendition of "Rockin' in the Free World" played with Pearl Jam . Young was back with Crazy Horse for 1994 's '' Sleeps With Angels '', a much darker record. The title track told the story of Kurt Cobain's Suicide , after Young had tried to contact the singer prior to his death. Cobain had quoted Young's "It's better to burn out than fade away" (a line from " Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) ") in his Suicide Note . Other songs dealt with drive-by shootings ("Driveby"), Environmentalism ("Piece of Crap") and Young's own vision of America (the archetypal car metaphor of "Trans Am"). Still admired by the prime movers of grunge, Young performed with Pearl Jam at the MTV Music Awards, which led to a joint tour, with the band and producer Brendan O'Brien backing Young. The accompanying album, '' Mirror Ball '' ( 1995 ), recorded as live in the studio captured their loose rock sound. After composing an abstract, distorted feedback-led guitar instrumental soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch film '' Dead Man '' Young recorded a series of loose jams with Crazy Horse that eventually appeared as the disappointing ''Broken Arrow''. This return to Crazy Horse was prompted by the death of mentor, friend, and longtime producer David Briggs in late 1995. The subsequent tours of Europe and North America in 1996 resulted in both a live album and a tour documentary directed by Jim Jarmusch. Both releases took the name ''Year of the Horse''. In 1997, Young joined the H.O.R.D.E. Festival 's sixth annual tour along with Beck and Morphine . It was particularly notable for a Chicago show which was all but rained out {Link without Title} . In 1998 , Young shared the stage with legendary rock band Phish at the annual Farm Aid concert. Weeks later, he invited them to headline both nights of the Bridge School Benefit concert. Young asked Phish to be his backing band for a 1999 European tour, but they declined. He remains close with the band today. The decade ended with '' Looking Forward '', another reunion with Crosby, Stills and Nash. The subsequent tour of the United States and Canada with the reformed super quartet was a huge success and brought in earnings of $42.1 million, making it the eighth largest grossing tour of 2000. Neil's next album, the subtle, understated, acoustic '' Silver & Gold '' (2000), was a marked departure. It was also his most personal record for a long time, which he underscored with a mini-tour of solo acoustic shows. He continued his trend towards personal music with ''Are You Passionate?'' ( 2002 ), an album of love songs dedicated to his wife, Pegi. IN THE AFTERMATH OF 9/11 Young's " concert he performed a Cover Version of John Lennon's " Imagine ". Young hauled out his concept album '' Greendale '' in 2003 -- about an extended family in a small town called Greendale, and how they're torn apart by a murder. ''Greendale'' the album version was recorded with Crazy Horse members Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina. This tale of the Green family also resulted in a movie called ''Greendale'', written and directed by Young (again using his "Bernard Shakey" pseudonym) and starring a few of his friends that act out and Lip Sync the songs from the album. The film was indeed thoroughly experimental, from Young's rambling on-stage between-song narratives, to his reading apparent transcriptions of these ramblings in the liner notes. "When I was writing this I had no idea what I was doing, so I was just as surprised as you are," Young said later. Young toured extensively with the ''Greendale'' material throughout 2003 and 2004 , first with a solo, acoustic version in Europe, then with a full-cast stage show in North America, Japan , and Australia . While audience reaction was sometimes mixed (drunken requests for "Southern Man" being an aesthetic impediment at most Young performances), the live stage version of Greendale was for many critics the most satisfying incarnation of the material, and bootlegs of the shows have been widely traded. The second half of each concert consisted of high-decibel renditions of Young classics such as "Hey Hey, My My," "Cinnamon Girl," "Powderfinger," and Rockin' In The Free World , as well as rarities such as "The Losing End," "The Old Country Waltz," and "Danger Bird." Young spent the latter portion of 2004 giving a series of intimate acoustic concerts in various cities with his wife, Pegi, who is a trained vocalist. Reports out of the Young camp in early 2005 had him booking time in a Northern California recording studio to work on material that is a closely held secret. In 2002, ''Q'' Magazine named Neil Young in their list of the " 50 Bands To See Before You Die ." HEALTH SCARE, RECOVERY, AND MOST RECENT WORKS On March 31 , 2005 , Young was admitted to a hospital in New York for treatment for a brain Aneurysm . He was treated successfully by a minimally invasive Neuroradiology procedure. Prior to undergoing the procedure, he wrote the first eight songs of a new album, '' Prairie Wind '', in Nashville , with session musicians that included regular Young sideman Ben Keith on lap and pedal Steel Guitars . The last two songs on the album were written after his aneurysm procedure. Many of the songs, such as "Fallin' Off the Face of the Earth," seem to be inspired by Young's brush with mortality, the recent death of his father (who suffered Senile Dementia ), as well as a connection with his Manitoba roots. Two days after the procedure, Young was forced to cancel a scheduled appearance on the Juno Awards telecast when the area where the surgeons did his procedure (via the Femoral Artery ) suddenly began to bleed. He next performed on July 2 , 2005 , at the close of the Live 8 concert outside of Toronto . He presented a new song, a soft hymn called "When God Made Me," and ended with "Rockin' In The Free World." He began his set with a cover of the Canadian folk classic "Four Strong Winds" by Ian & Sylvia Tyson. On September 28 , 2005 , ''Prairie Wind'' was released as a regular CD, a special limited-edition CD and DVD package, and on vinyl. In an interview given to ''Time'' Magazine , Young revealed that he had planned to keep the news of his aneurysm private until he had the bleeding scare, in which case he decided to make news of his condition public. In '', a film made by Jonathan Demme, was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival . Filmed at the Ryman Auditorium during the premiere of ''Prairie Wind'', it includes both new and old songs as well as behind the scenes commentary by Young, his wife Pegi and others. In April '', one of whose songs is called "Let's Impeach The President ." Recorded using his famous Les Paul electric guitar, "Old Black", along with Chad Cromwell (drums), Rick Rosas (bass) and Tommy Brea (trumpet), it is intended to be a stinging rebuke of President George W. Bush and the War In Iraq . It is currently available for free listening online. {Link without Title} . OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS Young was inducted into the for his solo work and again in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield. He has also directed three movies under his pseudonym Bernard Shakey, and released them through his own Shakey Pictures imprint: ''Journey Through the Past'' ( 1973 ), ''Human Highway'' ( 1982 ) (starring new wave band Devo ), and ''Greendale'' ( 2003 ). The bonus DVD s included in both versions of ''Greendale'' and in ''Prairie Wind'' are also directed by Young under the Bernard Shakey alias, and all of Young's home video and DVD releases have been co-released under the Shakey Pictures imprint. As one of the founders of Farm Aid, he remains on their board of directors. For one weekend each October, in and his daughter, like Young himself, has Epilepsy . Young was nominated for an Oscar in 1994 for his song "Philadelphia" from the movie of the same name. Bruce Springsteen ended up winning the award for his song "Streets of Philadelphia" from the same movie. In his acceptance speech, Springsteen said that "the award really deserved to be shared by the other nominee's song." Young owns Vapor Records , who have signed such artists as Jonathan Richman , Tegan And Sara and Catatonia . Since 1995 he has been part owner of Lionel, LLC , a company that makes toy trains and railroads. In a "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list in the June 1996 issue of ''Mojo'' Magazine , Young was ranked number 9. TRIVIA
DISCOGRAPHY In Buffalo Springfield
In Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Solo
Unreleased
Film, video and DVD
BIOGRAPHIES
REFERENCES
NOTES SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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