Interesting interview on For Neil Young, a Journey Through Rock and Rust - NYTimes.com By PHIL PATTON:
Mr. Young says he believes that listening to music in the car is the best way to judge its quality.
“You can tell a great song if you listen in the car,” Mr. Young said. “Why? Because if you are listening in the car, you have a changing picture. You are also distracted by driving. You are doing two things at once, which is really good for music. The soundtrack to the landscape? There you go.”
Mr. Young said he did not, however, write music in a car, save one experiment, the rock opera “Greendale,” released over 2003 and 2004 with an accompanying film and graphic novel. “I wrote the songs while driving around on my ranch in a 1951 Plymouth. When I got an idea, I would just stop and write. When whatever I was thinking was gone, I would just drive on another three or four hundred yards. When I got another idea I would stop again.”
...
As a musician who uses the phenomenon of rust as a leitmotif in his songwriting, Mr. Young explains his attraction to old cars, even ostensibly lifeless ones, in human terms.
“If you go for a walk in a junkyard, every car is talking to you,” he said. “There are voices. It’s like a cacophony of sound. Every car has got people in them. There are junkers, all piled up, but if you get close to them there’s history in every one of them: the families that grew up in those cars, the kids, the lovers. Everything that happened in those cars, it’s all right there. That’s why I love cars. They all have a soul and story to tell.”
Full interview at For Neil Young, a Journey Through Rock and Rust - NYTimes.com.
Also, see Neil Young Conversation with Jonathan Demme.
Saw both shows at Massey and can't wait to re live the experience!!
ReplyDeleteNice comment about cars containing the ghosts of former owners and their lives. Not even ghosts, actually... it's like Neil is saying that he's literally transported through time and space as an observer to the stories each car tells.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like something a writer of fiction would say. I could see Stephen King describing something like that if, say, he wrote a book of short stories centered around a junk yard. Or something.
Everything Neil does chokes me up. I don't know why? When I was a kid I would listen to the music and sing along. As an adult, watching the videos and hearing the music hits me in a different way. A new understanding after the loss of innocence? Who knows? I didn't cry when my father died yet, the thought of Neil not being with us one day cripples me. I will always carry him in my heart.
ReplyDeleteI note they got the name of Neil's upcoming bio wrong. OOps
ReplyDeleteHey, saw him at the Hippodrome in Baltimore (Hey, Neil, that was me who yelled out, "Welcome to the Hippie Dream!"). Like Eric at Massey, I can't wait to relive the experience in full Demme splendor.
ReplyDeleteJim in DC
Gateway of Love...
as a kid we lived with my dad's folks in Jessup, PA. for a while. Their house was next to a small junkyard. I used to go play in the old abandoned junkers (to their unknowingness). I used to get that feeling of "history" in the cars, even as a small kid, just like Neil's saying. i always wondered who ahd owned them and why they were in the junkyard now. This was back in the early 50's ..........Rock and Rust!
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to 'Mother Nature on a Rant'?
ReplyDeleteSince the release of 'Americana', there haven't been any rambling incoherent posts every three minutes...
Wow, how inclusive, and accepting of others!
ReplyDeleteYou can listen to the Fresh Air interview for that, Jonathan. I wish this album was just a bad joke.
ReplyDeleteI work on/restore old cars. If you listen, they will talk to you. and, nothing smells better than old metal!
ReplyDeleteDo you ever hear the rapes and murders and stupid fucks and drunks and DUI assholes killing people?
ReplyDeleteHey Thrash, the trolls are back. I think you really need to do something about moderation around here.
ReplyDeleteYea. like moderate the Neil worship in here. Mine was a perfectly legitimate comment on this whole voices of cars "phenom" unless you're the type who believes in reincarnation but never from some serial killer or rapist. Always a genius or some such. If you're too insecure to hear it then maybe you shouldn't be a Neil fan or a contributor here.
ReplyDeleteMatthew - lighten up man - it was a joke...albeit at MNOTR's expense...which I guess makes me a meanie - I had enjoyed her rants somewhat...
ReplyDeleteI worship the man and openly admit it. You should see the car I'm doing now, Anon.
ReplyDeleteHey Anon,
ReplyDeleteSeriously.... My treat:)
Without imagination and love you will always be fated to trolling.
ReplyDelete@dean farinha-
There is no question that a kind and loving spirit is guiding Neil. Your words could easily be my words.
It is not worship. It is inspiration.
I haven't cried yet either.