Neil Young News

Graham Nash discusses photography, musical friends, CSN box sets, and tentative CSNY tour plans for 2006 (via Bad News Beat).

Some random blogs on the "Heart of Gold" film.

From The Daily Vanguard - Portland State University by Brian Smith:

"You know, the world's not all bad when a film like this can get made -- can get out there and be seen by people. It's like passing beauty around in a tin cup.

"Neil Young: Heart of Gold," directed by Jonathan Demme and starring the music legend himself, is hands down some of the most beautiful and gorgeous filmmaking to grace the screen in years. There are close-ups that make the eyes of the viewer feel as if they are watching pure, unfiltered art unfold like a well-preserved tapestry. There are tracking shots and slow pans that literally take the breath away. There is an honesty to the camera angles, an unobtrusiveness that is so refreshing, that one wishes that Mr. Demme was required to give a film class to every aspiring filmmaker.

"Heart of Gold" quite simply is a film that they don't make any more. In fact, it's a wonder that they did."

From big bloo sky:

"Jonathan Demme and Neil Young delivered what will become the yard stick by which all concert films that follow will be measured. Heart of Gold is a minimalist, stark document of and testament to the genius of Neil Young and the music he has been creating over the past three, almost four, decades."

The Great Whatsit » Searchin’ for a heart of gold:

"As for me and Stephanie: at one point in the second set, during the duet between Neil and Pegi in ”Comes a Time,” she leaned over to say she was in heaven. We couldn’t have predicted that we’d get three songs from Harvest Moon (1992), which was released only a few months after our wedding and provided the soundtrack to a good portion of our first years of marriage, including afternoons in the park with guitars and friends to sing these very songs. Stephanie used Harvest Moon to win me away from my ’80s new wave myopia and toward her country origins. If you’ve heard her harmonize to that album you know why I remain hooked."

From Monsters and Critics by Ron Wilkinson:

"If you liked "Stop Making Sense," the Talking Heads filmapalooza, you will appreciate the point of view and exacting portraits of the band members in this film. It was important to Neil that every one be given substantial camera time.

And this is not flashy, special effects camera time, this is long and slow shots where the viewers actually get to experience the personalities of all of the players, not just Neil. That is loyalty, generosity and just plain guts.

Nothing new to Neil, and nothing new to his fans, at least the ones who know him."

East Valley Tribune (Arizona) by Barry Koltnow:

"The scary question: "Do you like what you see in the mirror each morning?"

"I'm not particularly happy with what I see in the mirror," Neil Young says with no attempt at selfcensorship. "When I wake up, I feel like I'm 24 years old, and I've got a lot of things to do. I've got to get a cool car and go for a ride.

All those kinds of things. Then I look in the mirror and I say, 'Oh, now I remember. I'm married, I have a family, we have this school that my wife started, there are battles still to be fought and I don't know if I'm making a big enough difference.' That's what I see in the mirror."

"A long time ago, maybe in my early 20s, I decided that I was going to try to sing about things that really mattered to me. Sure, sometimes I'm totally self-engrossed in my own trip, but at other times, I am concerned about what's going on in the world. There are just so many injustices, so many inaccuracies and so many unbalances. I feel a need to illuminate them."