Information AboutNeil Young |
Neil Percival Young1 OM (born November 12 , 1945 , Toronto, Ontario ) is a Canadian Singer-songwriter , Guitarist , and Film Director from Winnipeg , Manitoba . His work is characterized by deeply personal lyrics, distinctive guitar work, and signature nasal -esque Acoustic Rock (as heard in songs such as " Heart Of Gold " (), "Harvest Moon" and " Old Man ") and Electric -charged Hard Rock (in songs like " Cinnamon Girl ", " Rockin' In The Free World " and " Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) "). In more recent years, Young has started to adopt elements from newer styles of music, such as Industrial , Alternative Country and Grunge , the latter of which was profoundly influenced by his own style of playing, often bringing him the title of "the Godfather of Grunge ". 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 concerts, together with his wife Pegi. Young remains a Canadian citizen and refuses to become a U.S. citizen even though he has lived in the U.S. for "so long" and has stated, about U.S. elections, that he has "got just as much right to vote in them as anybody else."http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1110988,00.html/ BIOGRAPHY Early years Neil Young was born in Toronto to sportswriter and novelist Scott Young and Rassy Ragland , who had moved to Toronto from their family home of Manitoba to pursue a sport journalism career. Neil spent his early years in the small country town of Omemee , in southern Ontario . A bout of Polio at the age of 6 left him with a weakened left side, and he still walks with a slight limp. He lived in New Smyrna Beach, Florida to recover; his mother later moved there permanently. Winnipeg Bands His parents divorced when Young was 12, and he moved with his mother back to the family home of Winnipeg , Manitoba , where his music career began. When Neil Young arrived in Winnipeg from Ontario, he already knew what it was like to be uprooted, since his family had gone wherever his father's career in journalism had taken him. But after the break-up of his parents' marriage, Neil and his mother Rassy settled into the working class suburb of Fort Rouge where the shy, dry-humoured youth enrolled at Earl Grey Junior High School. It was there that he met Ken Koblun, later to join him in The Squires , and there that he formed his first band The Jades . While attending . In the 2006 film ''Heart of Gold'' Young relates how he used to spend time as a teenager at Falcon Lake, Manitoba where he would endlessly plug coins into the jukebox to hear Ian Tyson 's " Four Strong Winds ." In 1965 Young toured Canada as a solo artist. In 1966, he joined relocated to Los Angeles . Young has admitted in an interview that he was in the United States illegally until receiving a green card in 1970.http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/9102786/neil_young_the_rs_interview Buffalo Springfield Once they reached Los Angeles, Young and Palmer met up with Stephen 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 Buffalo Springfield a critical success, and their first record '' Buffalo Springfield '' (1967) sold well after Stills' topical song " For What It's Worth " became a hit - aided by Young's melodic harmonics played on electric guitar. Distrust of their management and the arrest and deportation of Palmer exacerbated already strained relations among group members and led to Buffalo Springfield's demise. 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. 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 1968, the band split up for good, but in order to fulfill a contractual obligation, a final album, '' Last Time Around '', was recorded, primarily from recordings made earlier that year. Young contributed the songs "On the Way Home" and "I Am a Child", singing lead on the latter. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and solo success After the breakup of Buffalo Springfield, Young signed a solo deal with Reprise Records , home of his colleague and friend Joni Mitchell , with whom he shared a manager, Elliot Roberts. Young and Nitzsche immediately began work on Young's first solo record, '' Neil Young '' (November 1968), which received mixed reviews. In a 1970 interview, {Link without Title} Young deprecated the album as being "overdubbed rather than played," and the quest for music that expresses the spontaneity of the moment has long been a 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 Young's idiosyncratic guitar soloing accompanied sympathetically by Crazy Horse. Young reportedly wrote both songs on the same day, while nursing a high fever of 103 °F (39.5 °C) in bed. Shortly after the release of ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'', Young reunited with Stephen Stills by joining '', the musicians frequently argued, particularly Young and Stills, who both fought for control.McDonough, Jimmy. ''Shakey: Neil Young's Biography'', p. 324 " Ohio " was written following the Kent State Massacre on May 4 , 1970 , and was a staple of anti-war rallies in the 1970s. The song was quickly recorded by CSNY and immediately released as a single, even though CSNY's "Teach Your Children" was still climbing the singles charts. Many believe that the release "Ohio" as a single cut into the sales of "Teach Your Children" and prevented that song from reaching the top ten. In the late 1970s and for much of the 1980s, Young refrained from performing "Ohio" live, as he considered the song to be dated. In the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre , however, Young revived the song in concert, often dedicating it to the Chinese students who were killed in the massacre. Interestingly, Crosby, Stills & Nash, as a trio, also returned the song to their live repertoire around the same time, even though Young had provided the lead vocals on the original recording. 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. Young also recorded some tracks with Crazy Horse, but dismissed them early in the sessions. 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). ''Harvest'' was a massive hit (especially with the country-music crowd) and "Heart of Gold" became a US number one single. Another notable song was " The Needle And The Damage Done ," a lament for talented artists who died because of heroin addiction.'' Live At Massey Hall ''. Introduction to "The Needle and the Damage Done". 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 September 8th 1972, the Academy Award-nominated actress Carrie Snodgress , with whom he had been living, 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, 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, '' Time Fades Away '' (1973), has often been described by Young as "my 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 ''). The album was recorded live over a tour where Neil struggled with his voice and called David Crosby and Graham Nash to help perform the music. The tour was also notable as Linda Ronstadt began touring as the opening act for the Time Fades Away tour. ''Time Fades Away'' occupies a unique position in Young’s discography as the first of three albums known collectively as the " Ditch Trilogy ," and has also been referred to as the "Doom Trilogy" by some writers. In the second half of 1973, Young formed The Santa Monica Flyers, with Crazy Horse's rhythm section augmented by Nils 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.Jimmy McDonough, ''Shakey: Neil Young's Biography'' (Random House, 2002) 433 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 described the music as "mesmerizing, harrowing, lucid, and bleary,"http://www.independent.com/a&e/soundfury904.htm a characterization that many would say is an apt description of the entire Ditch Trilogy. ''Zuma'' and beyond After completing ''On the Beach'', Young reunited with ''Harvest'' producer Elliot Mazer to record another acoustic album, '' Homegrown ''. Most of the songs were written after Young's breakup with Snodgress, and thus the tone of the album was somewhat dark. Though the album was very near completion, Young decided to drop the album and release ''Tonight's the Night'' instead, at the suggestion of The Band bassist Rick Danko .McDonough, Jimmy. ''Shakey: Neil Young's Biography''. p. 469 Young further explained his move by saying: "It was a little too personal... it scared me".McDonough, Jimmy. ''Shakey: Neil Young's Biography''. p. 469 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 Mexico 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 ; the follow-up tour was ended midway through by Young, who sent Stills a Telegram that read: "Funny how some things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach, Neil."McDonough, Jimmy. ''Shakey: Neil Young's Biography''. p. 502 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." http://www.exclaim.ca/index.asp?layid=22&csid1=1741 Young later said, "I'm not proud of that," according to one of his biographers. '''' (1978) also featured Nicolette Larson and Crazy Horse and became Young's most commercially accessible album in quite some time, 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, culled from live recordings, but featuring studio overdubs) and '' Live Rust '' (a mixture of old and new, and a genuine concert recording) captured the two sides of the concerts, with solo acoustic songs on side A, and fierce, uptempo, electric songs on side B. 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. 1980s - 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. Many 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 - i.e. music that did not sound like Neil Young. Young later stated that he would have preferred to release the songs featuring the Synclavier and Vocoder as an EP, and that their inclusion with the Hawaiian-themed rockabilly was a mistake. In 1983, Young worked with British video director Tim Pope, making two videos - "Wonderin'" and "Cry, Cry, Cry." In 1985, he reunited with Crosby, Stills and Nash at Live Aid at Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Stadium . The two songs that they played, "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" and " Daylight Again /Find The Cost of Freedom," were the first songs they had played as a quartet in front of a paying audience since 1974. '''' (1987) fulfilled his contract with Geffen, and Young was finally able to switch labels. Signing with Warner Brothers (which distributed Geffen at the time) 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 '' (1988) and CSNY played a few benefit concerts. Young, however, refused to book a full tour with CSN and the foursome would not embark upon a nationwide tour until 2000. 1990s - return 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 and Pearl Jam 's Eddie Vedder , cited Young as a major influence. Using a barn on his '', which also included a bonus CD entitled '' Arc '', a single 35-minute-long collage of Feedback and guitar noise that Neil included, evidently at the suggestion of Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore . {Link without Title} ''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, as well as singers Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor . 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. His resurgent popularity saw him booked on '' MTV Unplugged '' in 1993. In 1992 he accompanied fellow Winnipeg ger Randy Bachman on "Prairie Town," a song that recounts their days in the Winnipeg music scene of the 1960s. 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 '' backing Young. The accompanying album, '' Mirror Ball '' (1995), recorded as live in the studio captured their loose rock sound, and featured the standout track "I'm the Ocean." The year of 1995 also featured Young's entry into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame . After composing an abstract, distorted feedback-led guitar instrumental soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch 's Acid Western film '' Dead Man '' Young recorded a series of loose jams with Crazy Horse that eventually appeared as the critically denigrated '' Broken Arrow ''. The 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 participated in the H.O.R.D.E. Festival 's sixth annual tour. In 1998, Young shared the stage with the rock band Phish at the annual Farm Aid concert, and later offered them an opportunity to headline both nights of the Bridge School Benefit concert. Phish passed on Young's offer and also declined Young's later invitation to be his backing band on a 1999 tour. {Link without Title} 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. Young's next album, '' Silver & Gold '' (2000), contained a number of understated songs with personal lyrics, which was promoted through a mini-tour of solo acoustic shows. This style was continued in '' Are You Passionate? '' (2002), an album of love songs dedicated to his wife, Pegi. In the aftermath of 9/11 Young's 2001 single "" concert he performed a Cover Version of John Lennon's " Imagine ". In 2002, ''Q'' Magazine named Neil Young in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die." 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. Recent events 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 Neuroradiological 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 Guitar s. 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 in Winnipeg when the area where the surgeons did his procedure (via the Femoral Artery ) suddenly began to bleed. Young finally was able to return to Winnipeg in 2006 with Crosby, Stills and Nash. He next performed on July 2 , 2005 , at the close of the Live 8 concert in Barrie, Ontario . 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, after which he decided to make news of his condition public. In 2006, '''', a film made by Jonathan Demme , premiered at the Sundance Film Festival . Filmed over two nights at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee 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 2006, Young confirmed on his website http://www.neilyoung.com that he was going to release an album full of protest songs, titled '' Living With War '', one of whose songs is titled " 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 was intended to be a stinging rebuke of President George W. Bush and the War In Iraq . The album was recorded in a two week period in April, and was then made available over the internet from 28 April 2006 before being released as a CD on 5 May. '' Living With War '' was Young's most talked about release for years, creating heated political debate and a return to form with perhaps his most critically-acclaimed album since the early 1990s "Godfather of Grunge" era when he was hailed as major influences on grunge pioneers Pearl Jam and seminal indie band Sonic Youth among others. In April 2006, it was announced that Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young would embark on their "Freedom Of Speech Tour '06" with Chad Cromwell and Rick Rosas making up the rhythm section. The tour would see them play dates all across North America. The entire '' Living With War '' album was performed on the tour, in addition to other CSN and Neil Young classics such as " Ohio " and " Rockin' In The Free World ." In September 2006, the first release from his long awaited '' Archives '' project was announced. '' Live At The Fillmore East '' features a live set with Crazy Horse including Danny Whitten from 1970. Young had stated in interviews that the release would be followed by a much larger box set of recordings from his early career. In October 2006, it was announcedhttp://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=174244 that a rough-mix version of ''. It was announced January 16 , 2007 that the next release in the ''Archives Performance Series'' project would be from January 19 , 1971 where Neil performed at Toronto's Massey Hall. The new release, titled '' Live At Massey Hall '' was released March 13. The first installment of Young's oft-delayed box set '' and 3 DVDs comprising unreleased studio and live recordings, film footage, photographs and personal letters. Also accompanying the release is a 160-page book. It was announced in August 2007 that Neil Young's Greendale will be made into a graphic novel. A release date has yet to be confirmed. On August 15, 2007, Neil played a new album for 100 people at Reprise Records entitled '' Chrome Dreams II ''. ('' Chrome Dreams '' was an album Neil scrapped back in 1977, and was the name of 2 different bootlegs.") The new album runs 60+ minutes and includes two giant songs that time in at 18:30 and 13:00, respectively. Drawing from three songs written previously, and 7 new songs it is said "the latest Neil Young is a very diverse recording." It appears from those who heard it (although not officially stated) that the classic and longest unreleased song "Ordinary People" is on the cut. There is a new section on Young's site entitled "N Y Times" and features additional news. The album is set to be released October 16, 2007, followed by a 7 week tour starting October 13, hence the reason for the Archives Vol. 1 delay until, according to Rolling Stone, February 14, 2008. Now comes word of bonus CDs that will accompany Chrome Dreams II. The bonus CD's will include a track from the Toronto 'Riverboat' performances in February 1969. The news confirms that 'The Riverboat' will be disc 1 of the Archives Performance Series and will be included in the Archives Volume 1. Young currently lives on a 1500-acre (6 km&2) ranch in Woodside, California , called Broken Arrow. He also owns property in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and on the islands of Hawaii. ACHIEVEMENTS Young was inducted into the , and again in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield. He has also directed four movies under his pseudonym Bernard Shakey, and released them through his own Shakey Pictures imprint: '' Journey Through The Past '' (1973), '' Rust Never Sleeps '' (1979) '' 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 film '' Philadelphia '' (Bruce Springsteen ended up winning the award for his song " Streets Of Philadelphia " from the same film). In his acceptance speech, Springsteen said that "the award really deserved to be shared by the other nominee's song." That same night, Tom Hanks accepted the Oscar for Best Actor and gave credit for his inspiration to the song "Philadelphia". 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. Young has twice received honorary doctorates. First in 1992, an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay , Ontario and secondly in 2006, an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from San Francisco State University . The latter honour was shared with his wife Pegi for their creation of the Bridge School. In a "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list in the June 1996 issue of ''Mojo'' Magazine , Young was ranked number 9. In 2000, Young was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame . In 2001, Young was awarded the Spirit of Liberty award from the civil liberties group People For The American Way . In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Neil Young 2 #34 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time .3 In a "Greatest Living Songwriters" list in 2006 by Paste Magazine Young was ranked number 2 behind Bob Dylan . INSTRUMENTS Neil Young is a collector of second-hand guitars, but in recording and performing, he frequently uses just a few instruments. As explained by his longtime guitar technician Larry Cragg in the film '''', they include:
In a large garage underneath his Woodside ranch, Young also maintains a large private collection of classic Detroit-made American cars. POPULAR CULTURE
DISCOGRAPHY See Also: Neil Young discography See also the discographies for Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young BIOGRAPHIES
NOTES REFERENCES
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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