David Bowie Covers Neil Young's "I've Been Waiting For You"

Tell you what, after seeing a cover like this, one really begins to wonder where one has been over the past decade...

Here's a terrific cover by David Bowie of Neil Young's song "I've Been Waiting For You", live in concert in Berlin, 2002 on YouTube.

In an article on David Bowie in The Kansas City Star By TIMOTHY FINN (May. 09, 2004) on artistic relevance, musical innovation and why he is still a rebel:

Bowie: "When things go bad, I've always looked to my peers and, in a way, my musical mentors to see what they've done in similar situations. Neil Young and Bob Dylan have done similar things: They have both made a few disastrous albums, but they always end up coming back to the point of what they started in the first place.

You've got to go back to what you were doing when you were rooting around with experimentation, ideas that are going to work for me, not my audience."

From Powell's Books , David Bowie on Neil Young:

Bowie: "There's youthful redemption in everything he [Neil Young] does, a joyfulness about being an independent thinker in America.'

On the 2002 album Heathen Bowie covers Young's song "I've Been Waiting For You". Incidentally, the riotous guitar treatment is by Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and former Nirvana drummer.

More on other musicians covering Neil Young songs.

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Words: Between the Lines of Waging Heavy Peace

Here's a YouTube video of "Words" by Neil Young at Malahide Castle, Dublin, Ireland on 29.06.08.

Seems a bit appropriate given the recent news that Neil Young is writing an autobiography tentatively titled "Waging Heavy Peace".

WORDS
Someone and someone were down by the pond
Looking for something to plant in the lawn.
Out in the fields they were turning the soil
I'm sitting here hoping this water will boil.

When I look through the windows and out on the road
They're bringing me presents and saying hello.

Singing words, words between the lines of age.
Words, words between the lines of age.

If I was a junkman selling you cars,
Washing your windows and shining your stars,
Thinking your mind was my own in a dream
What would you wonder and how would it seem?

Living in castles a bit at a time
The King started laughing and talking in rhyme.

Singing words, words between the lines of age.
Words, words between the lines of age.

More on Neil Young's autobiography "Waging Heavy Peace".

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More Details on Neil Young's Upcoming Autobiography "Waging Heavy Peace"

Neil Young @
2008 Berlin Film Festival
Photo by Markus Schreiber

The news that Neil Young is writing an autobiography seems to be taking the publishing world by storm (to a degree).

Likewise, Neil fans seem somewhat divided on the effort tentatively titled "Waging Heavy Peace". Fan comments range from the book is a distraction from the music, to we'll never live to see it a la Archives delays, to this being another brick in the artistic creativity wall.

From National Post by Ben Kaplan:

News that Neil Young would be penning his autobiography took the Canadian book world by storm Tuesday. Hot on the heels of the bestselling Life by Keith Richards, Young’s autobiography might be the only Canadian rock memoir to present any kind of sales rival to the skull ring-wearing Rolling Stone.

...

“A memoir coming from Neil Young — if, in fact, he’s written it, he’s honest, he can write, he has a good editor and lots of photos — will sell tons,” says Jack David, publisher of ECW Press, a 37-year-old Canadian publishing house that specializes in pop-culture books, including a memoir from Rush drummer Neil Peart. “We turn down two celebrity memoirs for each one that we publish because either they can’t write, their story isn’t interesting or else they aren’t willing to be honest. Keith’s book did all those things, and we have to expect the same from Neil.”

...

Grant Lawrence, music aficionado, memoir writer and CBC Radio 3 host, says that a book by Young is a can’t-miss publishing event. “If you’re a fan of a band, what does a fan want? Access. A fan wants to go backstage,” says Lawrence, author of Adventures in Solitude, recently shortlisted for the $60,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction. “What does an autobiography promise? The ultimate backstage access — it’s really a simple formula.”

Rock memoirs, whether they’re by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Anne Murray, Bob Dylan or Steven “Popcorn” Adler, have provided a boon to the ailing book biz. An article in the April issue of Billboard magazine entitled, “How Rock Music is Saving Book Publishing” mentioned that a musician’s automatic fan base make a US$75,000 writer’s advance seem like money well spent.

“The amount of rock books on the market is crazy — even Sammy Hagar’s book did well,” says Lawrence, adding that Stompin’ Tom Connor’s 900-page autobiography sits like a prized possession on his bookshelf. “From Neil, I want to hear about Winnipeg in the ’60s. What was it like for him growing up as a teenager in an isolated city in the middle of Canada? Don’t get me wrong, I want backstage access, but I’ll be disappointed if we don’t get some Canadiana from Neil.”

Of course, a U.S. publisher might not push Young to delve too deeply into his Canadian roots, and the singer’s certainly forged a uniquely roundabout path. From his brain aneurysm to Woodstock; Crosby, Stills & Nash to his son Ben’s battle with cerebral palsy and his own epilepsy, the 65-year-old has lived more than enough to fill the pages of several memoirs.

...

Still, ECW publisher David has his money on Neil.

“Does anyone want to read about Stephen Harper or Dalton McGuinty? I don’t think so,” David says. “Fans are fanatics, they want to read about their heroes and I think, at this point, there’s few people who have the allure and stature of Neil.”

Our thoughts?

First, the title “Waging Heavy Peace”. We love it and dearly hope it sticks. In a way, it's a play off the Living With War title. Sort of the flip side of the same coin. He once called Phil Ochs' music "Heavy Metal Folk", in a similar vein to LWW.

Neil's still clearly living with waging heavy metal peace... as many of us are.

Also, not insignificantly, it seems that the pivotal song in the new film Life is "Ohio". The song has Kent State footage and other signs of the times. The Vietnam war protests deeply impacted Neil.

Any insight into his mindset during this time would be a fantastic revelation & riveting reading

We don't think this will be like Dylan's Chronicles. Neil has always been much more literal than Dylan. Dylan is downright inscrutably cryptic and often says/writes exactly the opposite of what he means.

While we think many would prefer NY stick with music and leave books to others, this could be quite significant. A future biographer would never have access to the inside story. We've long maintained that we barely know NY. Less than 10% perhaps.

This is an opportunity to set the record straight in his own way, while he still can. Neil's father suffered from Alzheimers so we think with NYA#1 finally coming out, the aneurysm, Ben & L.A. passing, he feels the time has come to pass on some lessons. Maybe some band will read it and take something away? Pearl Jam just said that they owe NY for sticking it out for 20 years and couldn't have done it without Uncle Neil's advice.

As for the timing of the announcement, it makes sense that this news comes out now after all the blowback on the Buffalo Springfield tour delays.

In particular, its insightful that the book is written "in the moment" with flashbacks. If that's its final form, folks will probably have issues that the book isn't linear or something. However, after listening "Hitchhiker", this totally makes sense to use flashbacks as a narrative device. If it works like the song "Hitchhiker", it'll be devastatingly effective.

Also, it would be fascinating if Neil actually addressed the whole muse thing. While anything could happen, it seems that a considerable contract has been signed and the PR machine has already cranked up. Sometimes it can be hard to backtrack on these commitments. The release date is Fall 2012. So we'll predict Summer 2013 at the earliest.

Anyways, the title is really sinking in and hope it sticks. Hopefully, the publishers don't decide to consider some of the ridiculous tweets we're seeing like "An Old Man Looks At His Life", etc.

More on living with waging heavy metal peace and Neil Young's Autobiography "Waging Heavy Peace".

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Comment of the Moment: *28* minute "No Hidden Path"

No Hidden Path, London - 3/9/08
Photo by Dan on Flickr

Quite a bit of reaction to the YouTube video recently posted of Neil Young blazing through a *28* minutes version of "No Hidden Path" at Rock in Rio in Madrid on the 2008 Europe tour.

The Youtube video was posted in response to all of those who are beseeching the release of Trunk Show -- still unreleased on DVD 2 years following its one week limited theatrical run.

Here's one comment that really sums up what Neil is all about and captures what many see as his core creative work aesthetic. The comment thread keys off a comment that after viewing the YouTube video, it is simply amazing that this guy was pushing 65 when recorded.

"What is the wrong side of 60?" you ask.

Sorry, it was not intended to be obscure. For many musicians, anything _over_ 60 would be the wrong side. The evidence is everywhere. Reaming off some names without too much thought: Bowie, Jagger, Townshend, Santana, McCartney, Page, Osterberg, and dare I say it (hell yes, I do), Stills, Nash and Crosby.

Less unkindly, most of these people probably still do a good concert, and I don't doubt that most of them put some fucking hard work into it. The thing is, they're not going to provide too many surprises. And that's what sets Young apart from them and so many others. He still takes big risks, and he does what he's always done as a stage musician, which is to get something different out of the song every time he plays it - as someone put it, possibly one of the musicians I just maligned above (approximate quote): "Neil doesn't play a song the same way twice. Hell, he doesn't even play it the same way once."

The performance of No Hidden Path sums that attitude up, and apart from anything, he rocks fucking hard, not just in that song, but throughout a 2 hour plus concert.

He's by no means unique in being a good, old, musician. Remember the blues guys, quite a lot of them seemed to just get _better_ as they got older. But in the rock idiom? I really can't think of anyone else of Young's age pulling off the kind of concerts that he does. The man's a phenomenon.

And, to throw in an (unrelated to your comment) aside, I refuse to complain about his ticket prices, his side projects, his cussedness, his Archive delays, and everything else that seems to piss people off. For two reasons: one, that from what I can work out, he's a flawed but extremely decent human being who managed to become hugely successful and wealthy yet avoided becoming an arseholish egotist (I am looking in particular at Mr Sumner and Mr Hewson)[ed:?]. And more importantly, because when he's gone, he's gone. There'll be no replacement, and a $200 ticket will start to look like it was a damned good deal after all.

By the way, I'm in Asia, and the last time he played Japan was 2003. I've seen him once live, and that's it. Out here, we don't get to bicker over the cost of tickets. We watch the cat on DVD, not in some nice theatre.

If you'd like to see another stunning rendition of NHP, check out the 2nd part of 10/23/07 in Boston.

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“Waging Heavy Peace”: Neil Young's Upcoming Book

There's been quite a bit of commentary of late on what's up with Neil Young's muse.

Earlier, Stephen stills gave an interview where he explained that the reason for the latest delay in the 2012 Buffalo Springfield tour was due to Neil writing a book. Stills added: "Don't mess with the muse, man."

From Neil Young Joins the Rock Star Memoir Parade - NYTimes.com By JULIE BOSMAN:

Neil Young, easily one of the most influential and enigmatic musicians of his generation, will write a memoir, his publisher said on Monday. Blue Rider Press, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, acquired the book after several years of discussions with Mr. Young, said David Rosenthal, the president and publisher.

“He’s been very busy playing and touring and making records, and the guy has 100 things going on all the time,” Mr. Rosenthal said.

“He felt that this was a really propitious moment to try and put some stuff down on paper.” The book, tentatively titled “Waging Heavy Peace,” will be released in fall 2012. Mr. Young has already finished writing “a good deal of material,” Mr. Rosenthal said. “The intention is to cover pretty much everything — growing up, music, life,” he added.

“I am astounded at his memory for detail.”

From Rolling Stone By Andy Greene:

"I felt like writing books fit me like a glove," Young said in a statement. "I started and I just kept going. That's the way my Daddy used to do it on his old Underwood up in the attic. He said, 'Just keep writing, you never know what will turn up.'"

From The Bookseller by Charlotte Williams:

Publishing director Tony Lacey acquired the title, currently titled Waging Heavy Peace, for Viking in the UK, with David Rosenthal buying world print, e-book and audio rights for Blue Rider Press, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, through Elliot Roberts, Young's manager at Lookout Management in LA

Lacey said: “We’ve read about 40,000 words, he’s writing it at the moment. It’s done in the present and then flashes back to stuff about his father, stuff about his bands in the 1970s and ‘80s and the drug casualties, parts about buying his ranch in Northern California.

It’s very vivid.”

Rosenthal said: "This promises to be a revealing, intimate book that will provide the window into Neil's life and career that fans and admirers have always wanted."

Thanks Harold & Liza & Scott!

More on Neil Young books and reviews.

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1987 Winnipeg Rock Reunion with "Shakin' All Over"

1987 Winnipeg Rock Reunion with Neil Young, Burton Commings and Randy Bachman - "Shakin' All Over".

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Neil Young @ Dreamforce 2011 Opening Keynote

(Above clip with Neil starts @ T=14m53s)

Neil Young was featured at the Keynote Address for the Dreamforce 2011 Conference at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco last month.

Neil discussed his LincVolt project, which used the Chatter application by Salesforce, which is a cloud-based CRM tool.

Neil used Chatter to collaborate with everyone who worked on the LincVolt car and its technology and film. Neil found the tool to be instrumental to the project's success.

Neil Young & Marc Benioff
Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco - August 31, 2011
Photo by Jakub Mosur

More on Neil Young Chatters @ Dreamforce 2011.

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