‪"This Old Guitar": Farm Aid 2005‬‏

Neil Young with Emmylou Harris & Willie Nelson perform "This Old Guitar" live at Farm Aid 2005 in Tinley Park, Illinois on September 18, 2005.

An excellent video.

Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp founded Farm Aid in 1985 and serve on the board of directors. The three agreed that family farmers were in dire need of assistance and decided to plan a concert for America.

More on Farm Aid 2011 in Kansas City, Kansas on August 13.

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PureTone: The Lincvolt Cloud Based Audio System

Linc-Volt Press Conference with Neil Young
Hollywood, FL -September 23, 2010

Here's some news on Lincvolt -- Neil Young's car designed to re-power the American Dream.

The latest developments involve PureTone -- a cloud based audio system for Lincvolt. From Lincvolt Gazette:

Lincvolt will feature the world's best sounding audio system, PureTone.

Taking full advantage of Cloud based libraries of recordings by your favorite artists, Lincvolt will simply sound like no other car on earth. Lincvolt passengers will enjoy PureTone "Studio Quality Sound," the actual sound heard by the artists and producers when they created the original recordings, making Lincvolt audio sound superior in quality and digital resolution to any music ever heard in a car.

In other LV news, a film on the making of Lincvolt is in production.

More adventures of Lincvolt on the Under The Hood blog.

Get behind that wheel! Thanks k!

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The Power of "Powderfinger"

"Violet wastes energy chatting to Rose while she's rocking to Powderfinger"
Posted by Gary C. on Facebook

Apparently, the ad above is a real campaign by EnergyAustralia.com

Figure them as one you'll never figure...

Anywho, "Powderfinger" is one of Neil's most enduring and beloved songs in his vast catalog. Curiously omitted from his latest album A Treasure, the song "Powderfinger" was a setlist regular during the 1984-1985 International Harvesters tours.

We've always found the analysis of Neil Young lyrics to be quite fascinating.

And we're not the only ones. Of all the mail and comments that we receive here at Thrasher's Wheat, nothing compares with how frequently the topic of "Powderfinger" comes up. While many long time fans sort of roll their eyes at the subject, it seems that no other song so transfixes the more "casual" fan.

A quick recap. The definitive lyrics analysis of "Powderfinger" was done by Mark "Powderfinger" Klus way back in 1995 on the rust@fish server. Mark "Powderfinger"'s original analysis was quickly dissected and expanded.

But even today, the question of what does the song "Powderfinger" mean continues to be the source of endless theories.

So here's another take on "Powderfinger"...

From Shelter me from the Powder in the Finger by Phil T:

It's straight forward enough (to me)actually.

The visual imagery as described - the boat coming up the river, light's siren's, numbers - is obviously the boat belongs to some authority of some type - "when the first shot hit the dock, I saw it comin...." I take to be he sees the boats guns firing in a show of dominance by the people in the white boat, not a shot AT "22", I've always imagined him high up on a hill watching the boat getting closer and their shot he sees is as in them saying "we just destroyed the dock, what are YOU going to do to US"?

Well he aims his daddy's gun and he shoots back at them of course, and no matter WHAT the result of 22's shot the result is he gets killed immediately "then I saw black and my face splashed in the sky", black being the lights going out when you are shot in the head and your face splash in the sky is I think very literal - his face is in a hundred million pieces in the air, and is not something HE is seeing.

As to "shelter me from the powder and the finger". Well remember, he was simply left in charge as everyone but mom is gone, and it would have been nice if those I guess responsible for the white boats arrival were there to help do something about it, but instead it's him at 22, not wanting to have to defend it, but he does because he's the man and he was left in charge by the powers that be, and he's sorry because he is going to miss his sweetheart.

And "cover me in the thought that pulled the trigger" might refer more to his eulogy or to an inscription on his headstone and his thought that he is sorry he didn't defend well enough and to that it was his job at all. As noted above, "22" was never supposed to be in this situation and is why you'd never have figured he'd go in this manner......

Got a hunch on what "Powderfinger" is all about? Drop a comment below.

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A Candid Conversation with Cameron Crowe on Neil Young

Rolling Stone: So Hard to Make Arrangements for Yourself, Neil Young interview by Cameron Crowe, 1975

A most enlightening interview with Cameron Crowe on recent Neil Young developments.

Cameron Crowe -- whose improbable rock & roll journey is most extraordinary -- captured some of the earliest extensive print interviews with Neil Young in Rolling Stone magazine in the mid 1970's, reveals his latest encounters with Neil.

From Exclusive: Music Matters – A Candid Conversation with Cameron Crowe – The Uncool by Vinyl Films and Greg Mariotti:

Q: What about a review that you wish you could rewrite? I saw your San Diego Door review of Neil Young’s Harvest in 1972 and you (like many critics) trashed it pretty good.

Cameron Crowe: I remember being really disappointed by Harvest because I heard all those songs on the bootleg of I’m Happy That Y’all Came Down. All that stuff that showed up later on the Massey Hall album that was finally released. I just initially felt like some of Harvest was overproduced.

Q: Any songs from that album that really stand the test of time with you?

Cameron Crowe:Sure. “Out on the Weekend” was the song that played as we rolled up to the property that became where we shot We Bought A Zoo. It really completed the whole vision of it and we knew we needed to shoot there. Some of Neil Young’s best writing is on that album. Usually I’m fine to have the demo of a song I love. I don’t even need drums. Just the singer and the song…

The whole Jack Nitzsche overblown “There’s a World” stuff on Harvest disappointed me. But the songs over time, you just go ‘Oh My God.’ The strings were meant to be there. But still, nothing beats the versions you hear on Massey Hall. Much the same way, there’s bootlegs of Neil playing in ‘92/’93 which is where the version of “Cortez The Killer” that we used in Almost Famous came from. It’s just really hard to top solo, acoustic versions of those songs. That’s just where I sit as a Neil fan. It’s the same with a lot of other artists as you read the early reviews I did for the Door and L.A. Times. I’m always fighting for the most original version of the song.

If you come to me and say that you have the greatest band version of a song or a shitty demo where you can barely hear the vocals where it was first written in a back room at the guy’s house, give me that one. Give me the versions of “Watching the Wheels” and “Grow Old With Me” that John Lennon wrote with his son, Sean, crying in the background. Or even the demo of Marvin Gaye working out “Sexual Healing” in his living room in Belgium. The best! Almost every time, those are always going to be the most brilliant interpretations of the song. But that’s just me.

Q: What has happened with your long-planned Neil Young book with photographer/Young archivist Joel Bernstein? Is it a traditional bio or do you have something else planned?

Cameron Crowe:I do. I have a changing concept. We were going to do the cover of Rolling Stone around the times of Archives Vol. 1. The time to get with Neil up at his ranch kept changing due to other projects. We finally got up there after Archives Vol. 1 was released and he was working on Dreamin’ Man. Anyway, we did the most amazing interview with Neil. He said it was the last interview that he would ever do. It was a career spanning interview.

We drove around his ranch and talked about everything. Rolling Stone had a hard time scheduling it since Archives Vol. 1 had already come out. Then I heard from Neil and he said that he was coming down to L.A. and wanted us to hear his new album that he was working on which turned out to be Le Noise. So now we do more interviews based on those songs and the creation of that album. We had a big session that was not unlike the Bob Dylan Biograph session where he was talking about songs. Track by Track. What inspired them, what they remind him of today. Just amazing stuff.

Now, the entire thing is awaiting the release of Archives Vol. 2 or it got me thinking that we now have enough material to do a Conversations With Neil Young book. Which would be just as thorough as we were able to be with Billy Wilder. That feels like it would really create a difference with the Shakey book and be a wonderful thing for fans to hear Neil talk about his music through the years in Q & A form.

Q: What did you think of the first volume of the Neil Young Archives?

Cameron Crowe: Brilliant, and just perfectly complex and beautiful. You don’t think of Neil Young as being a techhead but he is as geniously precise as any R&D guy you could ever meet.

The Archives are the two sides of his brain on full throttle – the techie and the dreamer.

Thanks Matt!

Complete interview with From Cameron Crowe – The Uncool by Vinyl Films and Greg Mariotti.

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Comment of the Moment: Richie Furay's Friends & Faith

Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Neil Young
Buffalo Springfield at the Santa Barbara Bowl on June 7, 2011
Eleanor Stills Photography | © Eleanor Stills 2011

The recent reunion tour of Buffalo Springfield has really struck a deep chord with many old -- and new -- music fans.

When witnessing the reunion ourselves, one of the most amazing things about it -- besides that it happened at all -- was that not only did it work, it worked wonderfully well.

Rolling Stone editor David Fricke said:

"Reuniting is no big deal anymore, everyone does it.

The remarkable thing about Springfield is they sounded as great as they did. There was a connection there that clearly had not been broken."

Which brings us to this rather provocative Comment of the Moment on Buffalo Springfield's Richie Furay Looks Back & Forward by BIGCHIEF:

There should be a separate category in the 'R&R Hall Of Fame' for musicians who's marriages have survived throughout the duration of their musical career. They would most certainly be few in number.

For Richie Furay, his example is a perfect testimony of a man who had his priorities in order.

Putting all of ones hopes in the business of Rock-N-Roll and the people associated within it has been the downfall of many who didn't have a back up plan in the event of failure. What happened in the life and career of Richie Furay may have resulted in a less than favorable outcome had being a successful Rock Star been his only option. Having been a founding member of 'The American Rolling Stones' could only have had implications of super-stardom on a young mans ego, only to have the dream implode before its full potential was realized.

Attempts to duplicate the short lived success he experienced with the Buffalo Springfield, either as a solo artist or as a member of various groups,failed to deliver the level of success that Stephen and Neil eventually had enjoyed as solo artists. Never the less, he continued forward with moderate success rather than succumbing to the ranks of obscurity as Dewey Martin and Bruce Palmer had.

As it became obvious to Richie that it might be a while before the Springfield re-grouped, he resorted to plan B. It was then that Richie began to prioritize and came into the knowledge of the truth that each of us have certain callings and gifts in this life and while it may be a noble dream for some, not everyone who has aspirations of becoming a 'RockStar' will have that become a reality in their life.

This is the part that may be a tad too 'religious' for some. For others, it is the ONLY reason that Richie Furay's life has 'all of a sudden' become like a fairy tale come true. As a man who put God before his own aspirations and dreams and decided long ago to make being a RockStar a hobby rather than a full time job, he now finds himself in the center of his dreams, although awake, living out the RockStar fantasy as he always dreamed it could be, while his marriage and integrity is still yet intact. It says in the Bible, the manual for life that Richie faithfully lives by, that "if you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, that all things will be added unto you"!

Richie Furay is an inspiration to me.

When Neil said "Now I ain't sayin who was right or wrong", when asked recently about the drama that imploded the band some 40 yrs ago, richie said that he can't even remember any such drama other than to say that it makes more interesting press to add some infighting to the mix. While that may be a little naive to dismiss any notion of conflict, it's just not in Richies nature to point fingers, especially now.

This Buffalo Springfield reunion is Richie Furay's dream coming to pass.

It is his reward for living a life with a balanced sense of priorities. It's bigger than the sum of the characters involved. So big that Neil and Stephen have taken time out of their 'big' careers to become sidemen in a band with Richie at the center.

How big is that?

Thanks BIGCHIEF! A lot to ponder here.

Some of have taken issue with BIGCHIEF's comment (see here).

It's hard to argue that the reunion tour of Buffalo Springfield after 42 tours is a musical miracle that we're all blessed to be part of. Truly blessed.

Now to what one attributes this fortuitous alignment of the moon and the stars is a whole another matter. You gotta have faith, one might say.

Now we ain't sayin who was right or wrong -- BIGCHIEF or Anonymous. Because, to know is not to know.

But we will say this. If someone pours their heart into making what they feel is a valid point and you have an issue with that, fine. But do not go and tear it down with a tossed off putdown. Please provide us with your reasoning and logic commensurate to the crafting of the original post. You owe it to the original commenter. And to Richie. And The Buff. And their fans.


Coexist, dude.

namaste

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"The American Beatles": Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Here's an excerpt from the new book Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970, by David Browne on the U.K. debut (at Royal Albert Hall) of the band dubbed "the American Beatles" -- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young:

After opening with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," the seven-minute Stills homage to former girlfriend Judy Collins that had become one of their signature songs, their utter self-confidence kicked in. As Paul McCartney looked on, they sang one of his own songs, "Blackbird," from the White Album.

CSNY had tackled it before, including at Woodstock the previous summer, but tonight it was a declaration of their eminence: It practically declared that they were picking up where the Beatles had left off. (To their credit, they sang it lovingly, with Stills holding a long, raspy note in the "dark black night" line that made the song their own.)

The rest of the show broke with tradition in numerous ways.

For the first, acoustic half, the four sang some songs as a quartet, others separately, others with a combination of the four. Like their garb, the songs mirrored their diverse personalities and lifestyles. Crosby’s "Triad" openly coaxed a girl into having a ménage à trois; Nash introduced "Our House," about the cozy, music-and-lovemaking existence he had back home in Laurel Canyon with his girlfriend Joni Mitchell. (He also told the crowd it was from a new album they’d just completed, to be called Déjà vu.) Young’s "The Loner" seemed to be as much about himself — the way he worked on his own schedule, at his own pace, on his terms—as about the song’s borderline-stalker character.

More excerpts of Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970by David Browne.

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Buffalo Springfield's Richie Furay Looks Back & Forward, Re-affirm's Reunion in February 2012

Richie Furay
THE DENVER POST | Cyrus McCrimmon

Richie Furay re-affirm's Buffalo Springfield's reunion in February 2012 in an important video and article on the band's co-founder in The Denver Post by Jeremy P. Meyer:

In the 1980s, he gave up being a professional musician and focused instead on being a pastor — devoted to the faith he found during a troubled time in his marriage. His marriage to Nancy survived and is in its 44th year.

Since 1983, Furay has been pastor of Calvary Chapel in Broomfield.

On a recent Sunday, Furay played guitar with the band and preached a sermon for nearly an hour on the final chapter of the Book of Daniel .

"Most of the people here know him as Pastor Richie and don't know anything about this other stuff," said Scott Sellen, worship leader at Furay's church and multi-instrumentalist in his band.

Years ago, Sellen gently encouraged Furay to begin performing again, at first as a duo with Sellen.

More members were added, and now the Richie Furay Band includes Furay's daughter, Jesse Lynch; Sellen's son, Aaron; and drummer Alan Lemke.

Every Sunday , the band gathers on a stage in the cinder-block church, playing upbeat devotionals with a country-rock feel as tight as any professional group.

Tonight, the band will play at Denver's Bluebird Theatre, with a song list that spans Furay's career — from Buffalo Springfield and Poco to recently written tunes.

Even though Furay is a rock pioneer, his band still has difficulty getting in-state gigs.

"I don't think Colorado has been kind to Richie," Sellen said. "But he's got more history than anyone in Colorado."

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