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or YOUR COUNTRY's FLAG. Thank you!!!)
An unofficial news blog for Neil Young fans from Thrasher's Wheat with concert and album updates, reviews, analysis, and other Rock & Roll ramblings. Separating the wheat from the chaff since 1996.
Labels: birthday, neil young
by thrasher@PermaLink: 11/13/2025 09:59:00 AM
0 comments
UPDATE:
In keeping with traditions, Neil Young is 80 years young today, November 12. So Happy Birthday Neil!!! Of course -- naturally - long may you run.
2025's “Love Earth Tour” of Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts demonstrated once again the enduring strength, stamina and grace that is the essence of the man we simply call "Neil".
As noted on Neil Young's 75th birthday, his outstanding moral character can be demonstrated with his efforts for The Bridge School (USA) and Farm Aid (USA), as just two examples.
In 2011, Neil Young was honored with the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award at Canada's Juno Awards. The award honors a Canadian artist whose humanitarian contributions have positively enhanced the social fabric of Canada and recognizes Young's compassionate legacy behind events such as Farm Aid, Live 8, and Bridge School Concerts.
As we have noted previously, rarely -- if ever -- has a single artist supported so many causes, for such a sustained period, raising considerable funds and awareness while reaching out to millions and millions around the world. When reviewing a listing of benefit concerts that Neil Young has played over the years, one is struck by the sheer diversity of causes he has supported over his 45+ year career.
One could contend that no other artist has made such an impact on causes involving social justice -- or a better moral character. As we documented in 2010, The Charitable Mr. Neil Young Keeps On Giving & Giving & Giving.
You get the idea. He's got a heart of gold.
So Happy Birthday Neil!
Long may you run. It's all just a magical ride. enjoy.
Also, check out Scotsman's 2023 posting on Neil's birthday @ Patreon.
The great @Neilyoung turns 80 tomorrow.
— Stereogum (@stereogum) November 11, 2025
To celebrate, we asked 80 artists including Jeff Tweedy, Dave Matthews, Brittany Howard, Michael Stipe, Open Mike Eagle, Jewel, Tom Morello, Kurt Vile, Perfume Genius, and A-Trak about their favorite Neil song: https://t.co/JWycpc5YV8
Labels: birthday, neil young
by thrasher@PermaLink: 11/12/2025 12:18:00 AM
10 comments
So what’s new about the Mirror Ball in this vinyl box set?The four songs John Hanlon remixed are “I’m the Ocean,” “Big Green Country,” “Truth Be Known,” and “Throw Your Hatred Down,” and they sound very, very subtly different from the originals. Young’s vocals were famously buried on Mirror Ball, and Hanlon has extracted them for more legibility and nuance; the drums have a slightly different character, and the three-guitar morass of Young, Stone Gossard, and Mike McCready takes on a minutely different grain and luster. But surprisingly, there are noticeable differences beyond those four songs. “Song X” and “Act of Love” are presented in alternate mixes as well, with certain vocal refrains that are either absent (“Song X” is missing its first two choruses of “hey-ho, away we go”) or appear early (the titular refrain for “Act of Love” comes in one verse sooner than it used to).And “Peace of Love” now bears an extended ending, with more than a minute and a half of abstract guitar feedback that’s never been heard before. I think the rest of “Peace and Love” might be a different mix, too, but I can’t be positive about that, nor can I say for sure whether anything else in the remaining tracks has changed. “Downtown” sounds the same to my ears, but “Scenery” is such a thick, dense stew that subtle mix changes would be difficult to pinpoint. The two remaining songs, “What Happened Yesterday” and “Fallen Angel,” feature just Young’s voice and pump organ, so any minor mixing shifts to those would be negligible.In short, this Mirror Ball is not exactly the Mirror Ball you grew up with.The differences—in both the new Hanlon remixes and in the unadvertised alternate mixes, which if I had to guess were made by producer Brendan O’Brien during the 1995 sessions and left forgotten on the unused analog assembly reels—may jump out to the devoted who know this album back to front. But I think most people will either not notice them or be more than satisfied with their richness and fullness.Cutting from analog slightly softens the heavy electric tone of the three-guitar ensemble and marginally strips some of the power out of Jack Irons’s propulsive drums. After spending entirely too much time thinking about it, I’m currently of the mind that the original Mirror Ball’s thick, chewy sound has a bit more fire to it, but the difference is so small that I expect I could just as easily find things I like better about the 2025 version in a future listen.
Labels: neil young, vinyl
by thrasher@PermaLink: 11/10/2025 12:22:00 PM
3 comments
The following guest post is by Laura Aboli @ https://t.me/LauraAbolichannel
“The enemy planted weeds among the wheat while everyone slept. When the servants saw what had happened, they wanted to rip the weeds out immediately. But the farmer said no, because in doing so, they’d destroy the wheat too.”
If what we’re witnessing really is a global cleanup, a dismantling of entrenched evil, a war being fought in the shadows, then it makes sense that it can’t happen all at once. You can’t purge a system this vast, without damaging what’s still worth saving. The corruption, the deception and the rot are woven into everything: politics, media, finance, even the structures that hold daily life together.
To pull it out too fast would collapse the whole field, so the process has to be gradual, strategic, almost surgical. It’s demolition, but done with precision; one beam at a time, so the house doesn’t crush the people still living inside.
And maybe that’s why it feels slow, why justice seems delayed, because what’s unfolding is not chaos, but a carefully executed plan focused on long lasting results rather than immediate fickle victories.
In the parable, the farmer says…
“Let both grow together until the harvest.”
Only when the wheat is mature can the weeds [tares/chaff] be gathered and burned without harm. Perhaps that’s where we are now, the waiting before the harvest. The moment before the great separation.
The time will come when the field is cleared, the truth revealed, and every root exposed to the light.
I pray for that moment.
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
https://t.me/LauraAbolichannel
"The Harvesters" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, ~1565
+ see comments below
Labels: #BigShift, #disCERNment, truth
by thrasher@PermaLink: 11/09/2025 07:25:00 AM
23 comments
A new Timeline Concert of the Moment is now streaming on Neil Young Archives. (Thanks the rider!)
The latest Timeline Concert is Neil Young w/ The Santa Monica Flyers from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada @ McMaster University on October 28, 1973.
Concert Review by Carol Ann Wilson - The Silhoutte
via Sugar Mountain
The recording is of note because of its unique history. The concert was recorded by a woman for her husband who could not attend and was never intended for distribution. The tape was found by Chad Silva owner of the record store, Flashbacks Records in Hamilton. (See back story on NYA | T-C)
More on Neil Young Archives Timeline Concerts.
Here is a listing of all of the Neil Young concerts on the NYA Timeline.
Also, see Timeline Concert Highlights on Neil Young Archives | Only Castles Burning | SubStack.
Labels: archives, concert, neil young, neil young archives, nya, setlist, tour
by thrasher@PermaLink: 11/06/2025 11:29:00 AM
1 comments
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