Red Hot Chili Peppers and Neil Young

Twitter / @flea333

Here's a recent Tweet from Red Hot Chili Pepper's Flea:

"Neil young is the only rock musician that was important culturally in the 60's who is still truly relevant and pushing the envelope today."

In a RollingStone.com article "The Immortals: 50 Greatest Artists of All Time", Neil Young comes in at #34. The writeup is provided by the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea:

"There's a rare contradiction in Neil Young's work.

He works so hard as a songwriter, and he's written a phenomenal number of perfect songs. And, at the same time, he doesn't give a fuck. That comes from caring about essence. There can be things out of tune and all wild-sounding and not recorded meticulously. And he doesn't care. He's made whole albums that aren't great, and instead of going back to a formula that he knows works, he would rather represent where he is at the time. That's what's so awesome: watching his career wax and wane according to the truth of his character at the moment. It's never phony. It's always real.

The truth is not always perfect. "

In a 2004 RollingStone.com article, Flea on Neil Young & Crazy Horse:

"I can't say enough about how much I love Crazy Horse.

The sound is so deep, the groove is so deep -- even when they're off, it still sounds great, because they feel it so much. I don't usually go for that approach. I like Sly and the Family Stone, Miles Davis and Mingus. I like consummate steady musicianship. I grew up on jazz. I didn't listen to rock music until I played in my first rock band when I was in high school. I went from progressive to Hendrix to funk to full-on L.A. punk. That's when I had the realization that emotion and content, no matter how simple, were valuable.

A great one-chord punk song became as important to me as a Coltrane solo, and I've had the same feeling about Neil Young. He changed the way I thought about rock music. As a bass player, I used to be into very boisterous, syncopated and rhythmically complex songs.

After hearing Neil, I appreciated simplicity, the poignancy of 'less is more.' "

"A Man Needs A Maid"
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Neil Young Honored As MusiCares Person Of The Year

Also, see Red Hot Chili Peppers Cover Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere".

More on other artists influences and Neil Young.

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