Neil Young's new release ""World Record" w/ Crazy Horse is now available for pre-order. Order here (Please shop locally & independently. But if you can't, we appreciate your supporting Thrasher's Wheat by clicking this link
or YOUR COUNTRY's FLAG. Thank you!!!) ADVERTISEMENT
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.
One man, one guitar, one big sound. Neil Young orchestrated his solo concert Friday – the first of two-sold shows at the Chicago Theatre – for maximum impact. He started slow and quiet and built to a rafter-rattling finale.
An early acoustic tune nailed the night’s theme, which focused on contrast and conflict. Instead of blowing out the chorus to sing-along proportion, Young kept “Helpless” shivery and small. Dwarfed against the vastness of an endless Canadian sky described in the song, Young’s tenor conveyed even more vulnerability than usual.
When the guitarist shifted into electric mode, he also amped up the drama. Young brought an orchestral dimension to the arrangements, expanding the approach he used on his latest solo album, the Daniel Lanois-produced “La Noise,” to older songs such as “Ohio” and “Down by the River.”
Intimacy cuts both ways. Acoustic instruments, soft tones, delicate timbres — the “Unplugged” approach reliably draws us close. But, really, communion occurs just as intimately within an ear-piercing, teeth-rattling cacophony.
Neil Young has spent decades swinging between these extremes. During his measured performance Friday night at the Chicago Theatre, his first of two this weekend, he calmly and ably applied both tactics. He spoke to the hooting, sold-out crowd softly, in gentle and sometimes acoustic songs, but occasionally he carried a big, sonic stick. Nothing new, nothing life-altering, just solid and intense.
Alone on stage, with only an array of instruments and a cigar-store Indian as company, Young, now 65, spent much of the evening shuffling back and forth as if he couldn’t remember where he’d left something. Dressed in jeans, T-shirt, a white blazer and a Panama hat, he looked every bit the kooky Santa Monica beachcomber. He acted it, too — frowning at the floor, pacing the stage restlessly between and during songs, muttering to himself and whispering to the Indian.
...
Maximum volume, curtains of distortion, a wail of sound. No one orchestrates noise like Young, and it maintains its own weird intimacy — the sound surrounding us, squeezing us, compressing the space and intensifying his simple words.
Just because Neil Young is a force of nature himself does not mean he’s not subject to similar forces. But if lesser artists get blown whichever way fashion points, and often down paths they’ve followed many times before, the forces that drive Young are much harder to predict, with the artist responding to his elusive, ephemeral muse with equally inspiring and inscrutable results. The man’s got more classic albums to his name than most, and just as many unremarkable ones, but the reason we care is that every once in a while he still releases a great one.
That Young remains as vital as ever was underscored by last year’s solo disc Le Noise, which featured the singer accompanying himself with rumbling walls of weird, reverberating guitars, but Young’s been further emphasizing the point with his current solo tour. Taking a page from the theatricality of fellow eccentric Tom Waits, the atmospherically lit Young stood center stage at the Chicago Theatre surrounded by an array of tantalizing options. There were the pianos. The pump organ. The pair of differently prepared acoustics. And waiting in the wings his souped-up Gretsch White Falcon with the funky output and, of course, his iconic Les Paul, “Old Black.” Throughout the night, Young would wander from instrument to instrument, teasing the crowd with his potential choice. Once or twice Young stood by the life-sized wooden Indian he takes on tour with him and commiserated in pantomime.
Of course, by now Young’s strategy is largely set even if its presentation makes it seem more spontaneous. He placates with crowd with a few familiar standards before apparently leaping off into parts unknown, though of course the singer’s been rigidly drawing from the same small pool of songs for most of this tour. In Friday night’s case, the first of two shows, it meant starting seated and acoustic with renditions of “My, My, Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue),” “Tell Me Why” and “Helpless,” and with those reliable numbers out of the way the “wandering” began. With mock indecision, Young progressed through a setlist that offered the bulk of Le Noise, from the haunting “Peaceful Valley Boulevard” to the harrowing “Hitchhiker,” juicing the night with nods to the past, whether solid solo-electric versions of “Ohio,” Down by the River” and “Cinnamon Girl” or a noodly “Cortez the Killer” and “After the Gold Rush” on the pump organ.
...
The setlist may be the same from night to night, his presence may be slightly aloof, but when you’re talking one-of-a-kind there’s really no such thing as run of the mill. Given the mediocre meandering of his many erratic peers, the guy’s consistency as a live performer alone deserves deference if it doesn’t always inspire awe.
Neil Young will be performing tonight at Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL. Special guest Bert Jansch will open concert.
Detroit 'Rock City'? Detroit IS a Rock-N-Roll Town.
More live albums have been recorded here than anywhere else on the planet. Any rock critic will tell you that Detroit audiences can be tough customers. Any Rock Star or group that passed our way will tell you that Detroit can make you or break you. Until last night.
You see, last night we were host to one Neil Young and he broke us. Maybe it was because the 'tuff crowd' chose instead to go to the 'Joe' downtown to yell at the Red Wings or maybe went across the street to cheer on the Tigers. Detroit was a busy town last night. Those of us that chose instead to go to the 'Fox' and take in a concert were moved in a different kind of way.
Actions speak louder than words and last night he spoke volumes although his words were few. As Neil slowly strolled onto the stage he was greeted to a standing ovation. Before he even picked up an instrument he walked to the edge of the stage and in a sincerely humble way he began to applaud the audience for what seemed to be an eternity. Long enough to be certain that every heart in the house was warm enough to begin an other worldly journey to a place where no other artist has ever gone.
Neil Young has proclaimed membership in Detroit's growing booster club.
Early in his solo show on Wednesday night (May 4) at the Fox Theatre, Young -- who first came to town in 1965 to record at Motown with his band the Mynah Birds -- altered the lyrics of 'My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)' to sing that 'Detroit city,' just like rock 'n' roll, 'will never die,' to an appropriate roar from the sell-out crowd of 5,000. He also managed to sneak a Red Wings reference into 'You Never Call,' although given the results of Wednesday's game at Joe Louis Arena we may want to ask him to sing about the San Jose Sharks when he plays Friday night (May 6) in Chicago.
He even called the Fox 'the most beautiful theater in the United States of America.'
"When OHIO was written 40 years ago it was a thing done on instinct.
I felt moved to do it and I'm glad I had Crosby Stills and Nash there with me. 40 years later I feel the same way. It was all just too real and that hasn't changed. To those who knew the 4 and survived to see today, I say peace and love be with you."
- Neil Young
For the 40th anniversary of the Kent State tragedy, Neil Young made a statement on his "LIVING WITH WAR TODAY" website on the song "Ohio" he recorded with Crosby, Stills, & Nash that went on to become an anthem to a generation.
The LIVING WITH WAR TODAY website also reprints a letter by the mother of slain student Jeffrey Miller -- one of the four dead in Ohio. If you have not read her heart wrenching letter yet, we urge you to do so.
Also, the LWW page highlight's Thrasher's Wheat post on the anniversary. So that's kinda cool although this is one of the saddest things we've ever blogged...
On Monday, May 4, 1970 at 12:24 PM, twenty-eight Ohio National Guardsmen began shooting into a crowd of student anti-war protesters at Kent State University. In thirteen seconds, the guardsmen had fired sixty-seven rounds and four students lay dead.
Immediately after the Kent State shooting (sometimes referred to as the "Kent State Massacre"), Neil Young composed the song "Ohio" after looking at photos appearing in Life magazine. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young went to the studio and recorded the song which was released to radio stations shortly after the killings. Soon, the lyrics "Four dead in Ohio" became an anthem to a generation.
In the liner notes of the Decade album, Neil wrote:
"It's still hard to believe I had to write this song. It's ironic that I capitalized on the death of these American students. Probably the most important lesson ever learned at an American place of learning. David Crosby cried after this take."
"What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?"
The four killed and nine wounded were all full-time students.
Students and National Guard Clash at Kent State, Ohio
The events of May 4, 1970 have been extensively detailed since that day and there still remain many unresolved inconsistencies surrounding the activities of the Guardsmen and students.
"Gotta get down to it Soldiers are cutting us down Should have been done long ago."
Jimmy McDonough writes in the Neil Young Biography "Shakey" about the song "Ohio": "In ten lines, Young captured the fear, frustration and anger felt by the youth across the country and set it to a lumbering D-modal death march that hammered home the dread." (Listen to clip of "Ohio")
"Tin Soldiers" & President Nixon
Crosby once said that Young calling Nixon's name out in the lyrics was 'the bravest thing I ever heard.' Crosby noted that at the time, it seemed like those who stood up to Nixon, like those at Kent State, were shot. Neil Young did not seemed scared at all.
When asked about releasing the song "Ohio", Graham Nash responded:
"Four young men and women had their lives taken from them while lawfully protesting this outrageous government action. We are going back to keep awareness alive in the minds of all students, not only in America, but worldwide…to be vigilant and ready to stand and be counted… and to make sure that the powers of the politicians do not take precedent over the right of lawful protest."
A video collage of still images commemorating the 36th Anniversary of the killing of four college students by National Guardsman at Kent State in 1970
Start and end sequence of a 1 hr documentary special by Germany's WDR TV. Coverage originating from major U.S. networks. TV Teams of NBC, ABC and CBS had been present.
YouTube Video - In 1970, in response to Nixon's widening of the Vietnam War into Cambodia, students throughout the US protested. Nixon sent the National Guard to restore order to the Kent State campus. The resulting consequences changed the course of the war.
Student Video Project of Kent State Massacre May 4, 1970.
The youth do protest today. In the beginning of the Iraq War, there were some huge protests. My dad marched with me on Washington and told me it reminded him of May Day. In the late nineties, there were some pretty significant anti-globalization protests. There are tons of small - but often effective - protests in the environmental movement, and a huge, annual protest at the School of the Americas. When I was in college, there was a wave of succesful living wage campaigns on college campuses, including mine.
But I would suggest two reasons we don't protest as often - or as big - as our parents: First, I'd imagine we're more cynical than the boomers were.
Second, the mainstream media these days ensures that even the most succesful protests get little air-time. It always vastly underestimates the numbers, and brands the entire event by focusing entirely on the most extremist, least sympathetic factions. In college, I saw this happen in every large-scale protest in which I ever participated. This lack of coverage contributed to the perception that we don't protest, which perhaps ultimately became a self-fulfilling prophesy. Given the futility of our protests, I for one stopped protesting in the old-fashioned way and started blogging.
Maybe we just weren't doing it right, but civil disobedience, like democracy, doesn't work without a functioning press.
Of course, I'd be open to suggestions from the veterans of the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam movement. But, to no baby boomer in particular, I have to ask, why aren't you on the streets again? Or are you?
It’s an honor to share this space with all of the posters here, especially Mrs. Holstein, whose measured response is truly inspirational. Encouraging too, because of the obvious lessons learned. The Kent State shootings have always been a personal embarrassment for me, because at the time I absolutely fell into the “they probably deserved it” camp, and its companion sentiment, “had they not been protesting when they weren’t supposed to be, nothing would have happened.” I was about 11 at the time, the product of a very conservative community, and would not hear “Ohio” for years to come. We were so sheltered at the time, that it took a new friend and his mother, transplants from another state, for me to hear my first anti-Vietnam sentiments from someone I actually knew. Even my fellow Nixon loving friends laughed at my thick headedness on the subject. But then Watergate hit, and everything I had ever believed in became subject to doubt, bringing me face to face with my ignorance. “Ohio” cemented things for me still further.
For me now it’s a matter of awareness. I had my views relative to my exposure at the time, protesters came to their views based on their exposure to a newer, revolutionary awareness. And then there were those who were caught in between, who were getting there gradually, but needed one more push to cross over. This is one of the more crucial effects of Kent State, and to a lesser extent “Ohio”. The event shocked a lot of people into finally accepting what they had already begun to suspect on their own- that things were spiraling out of control, and that there simply wasn’t enough righteous basis to the war to counter the suspicion. I attended a lecture a while back describing the social significance of Neil’s songs, and “Ohio” received a lot of attention. I’ll never forget the ravaged expression on the face of a Vietnam war vet there, who described his emotions when he first heard the song in country. Already in a state of agitation when confronted with his own involvement in the war, he very nearly lost his faith in America on the spot, and described to just what extent the songs images haunted him for years to come.
The song, then as now, is inspired confirmation driven home in the most unambiguous of all ways, through music, imagery, and above all, the power of words. Those words will never grow stale, no matter how many times they’re repeated, and no matter what era they are applied to. “What if you knew her, and found her dead on the ground?” Has a more chilling question ever been uttered in song form? How about “We’re finally on our own?” Has the truth of this statement ever been more relevant than it is for the world we occupy right now? I won’t get into all the reasons why I think this is so, but sad to say, we’ve lost a lot of steam. Never mind our “elected” officials, there is precious little to protect us from the direction this country is headed. Riot police and SWAT teams crushing anti-WTO demonstrations before they even get started, crushing ear drums with noise weapons, a complicit media branding the protesters as anarchists, or under reporting demonstrator numbers, if they report them at all. Or “restless consumers” captivated by “bread and circuses”.
Thanks Thrasher for the post, and for a reminder that the work is not finished, that we cannot allow the “four dead” to die in vain. Thanks for shining a spotlight on a song and an event that serve very effectively to remind us all once again: “How can you run when you know?”
Immediately after the Kent State shooting on May 4, 1970, Neil Young composed the song "Ohio" after looking at photos appearing in Life magazine and then taking a walk in the woods. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young went to the studio and recorded the song which was released to radio stations shortly after the killings.
The film Fire in the Heartland: Kent State, May 4th, and Student Protest in America is the story of a generation of students at Kent State University, who believed in the 1960s and 1970s that they were not being told he truth about racism, the violence of police and military against protestors, and the long American involvement in the Vietnam War; some paid for their questioning of authority with their lives and all were forever changed.
Fire in the Heartland: Kent State, May 4th, and Student Protest in America is a documentary film about a generation of young people, who stood up to speak their minds against social injustice in some of our nation’s most turbulent and transformative years, the 1960s through the 1970s. On May 4th, 1970, thirteen of these young Americans were shot down by the National Guard in an act of violence against unarmed students that has never been fully explained. Four, Jeffery Miller, Sandy Scheuer, Bill Shroeder and Allison Krause, were killed.
Immediately afterward the largest student strikes and student protests in history swept across 3,000 campuses nationwide.
DominoesMovie — July 16, 2009 — http://dominoesmovie.com "Ohio" (antiwar anthem) - Neil Young / CSNY singing Vietnam War protest music
A revised take on Neil Young's sixties anthem, "Ohio", performed by the Mellow Yellow Experience and featuring Congo-born rapper, Cadoux Fancy of Mic Criminals. As violent changes sweep the Middle East in 2011, the comparisons to the U. S. protests in the 1960s can not be avoided. Wael Ghonim is right: this is "Revolution 2.0"
Here's a comment in response to Chris Varias' weird review from GeoCorneliussen:
A long time ago, Neil Young announced to the world and his fans that he was not here to be a human jukebox. Young has held one constant throughout his entire career ( a career that started in the 1960's) . He has always said upfront that the music comes first and if there's any success to be had from it, that will have to come second. Only hardcore Neil Young fans know that he quit the band Buffalo Springfield on the verge of their greatest success because he thought the band had compromised it's musical goals. Neil Young fans are never surprised when Young does something unexpected, on the contrary, they would be disappointed if he didn't.
I know better than to expect Neil Young to respond to the day's news with self-important stage patter. As long as he keeps singing about love and war, though, that's enough for me.
Neil Young will be performing tonight at Aronoff Center, Cincinnati, Ohio. Special guest Bert Jansch will open concert.
Concert Review of the Moment: Neil Young - Tower Theater 4/30/11
There are those rare reviews that we actually print out on occasion to read at a more leisurely pace.
Such is this one which is one of the finest concert reviews we've read in awhile -- a very evocative and atmospheric report on the Neil Young concert at the Tower Theater on April 30, 2011 by Amused Cynic:
This seemed as much an acting role as a musical performance, but I’m not quite sure who the character was?
He wore a white sportcoat over a T-shirt and jeans, topped off with a straw Panama hat. He looked sort of like a tall, gangly Leon Redbone. The set had the feel of a living-space, but an eccentric one–at times it reminded me of an attic, or an old loft. I half expected to see clouds of dust, and cobwebs. Later, as he roamed among the furnishings wordlessly, looking at them if he was deciding to sit down, or play one of the keyboards (and sometimes seeming to consult quietly with the cigar store indian) it made me think of an avuncular version of the Phantom of the Opera in his subterranean hideout.
Between songs he would roam, like an absent-minded professor who had forgotten why he had come upstairs, but then he would approach an instrument, seize it and play with conviction. There was almost no direct acknowledgement of the audience, almost no conversation–any communication directed at us in particular was woven into the song.
It was as if he inhabited this odd space, and we were watching him through a huge two-way mirror, seeing him clearly while he could only catch faint glimpses of us, and really was barely aware that we were there.
"I went lookin' for Bin Laden aboard Air Force One": Neil Young's Mideast Vacation
"I went lookin' for Bin Laden aboard Air Force One"
Neil Young with Crazy Horse performed "Mideast Vacation" from 1987's Life at the Bridge School Benefit concert on Oct. 10, 2001. This marked Neil Young's first post 9-11 performance (note NYFD hat) at the zeitgeist of 2000's paranoia.
The original key lyric "I went lookin' for Khaddafi [Libya's Muammar Gaddafi] Aboard Air Force One" was changed for the concert to "I went lookin' for Bin Laden aboard Air Force One".
Well, just another song in a long line of Neil Young prophecies, 1986's "Mideast Vacation" captured at the zeigeist of 1980's paranoia.
"I went lookin' for Bin Laden aboard Air Force One" But I never did find him And the C.I.A. said Son, You'll never be a hero ......Your flyin' days are done It's time for you to go home now Stop sniffin' that smokin' gun."
~~Neil Young, "Mideast Vacation, 1987
Thanks Morton in Norway for the timely reminder...
)
>> Pre-Order on Amazon.com << 
Human Highway
Concert Review of the Moment
This Land is My Land
FREEDOM In A New Year
*Thanks Neil!*
![[EFC Blue Ribbon - Free Speech Online]](http://www.thrasherswheat.org/gifs/free-speech.gif)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Neil Young
Pardon My Heart
"We're The Ones 
Thanks for Supporting Thrasher's Wheat!
This blog 
(... he didn't kill himself either...)
#AaronDidntKillHimself
Neil Young's Moon Songs
Civic Duty Is Not Terrorism
Orwell (and Grandpa) Was Right
What's So Funny About 
