Interviews with Neil Young: BBC Radio 4 Front Row, NPR Fresh Air & KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic

Neil Young
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Two very excellent interviews with Neil Young from BBC's Radio 4 Front Row by John Wilson and NPR's Fresh Air by Terry Gross.

The BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Front Row, Neil Young interviewed is summarized by Tony H. from Newbury, UK as follows:

- re Americana songs - Neil said he wrote some of the arrangements for the Squires in c.1964 after hearing Tim Rose's version of Oh Suzannah. So at 48 years until a release these must now hold the Neil record for longest "unreleased" songs!

- writing Waging Heavy Peace about the early years was one of catalysts for Americana

- he also said he sung GStQ at school in Canada and the it came back to him when they were recording the album. He liked the way the tune had ambiguous origins and meaning for both sides of the US War for Independence

- most Americana songs were recorded within 3 takes except GStQ that needed 6

- as Anon mentioned there's enough original material recorded immediately after Americana to fill a double CD, including one 26 min track

The conversation also touch on playing with Crazy Horse and Living with War\Ohio and protest\ folk songs in general. Neil was asked if he could imagine his own songs become future "folk" standards - he replied he didn't think of them that way and was always looking to the next thing

(Thanks Tony!)

From Neil Young: The Fresh Air Interview : NPR:

Interview Highlights

On 'She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain'

"I heard that song back in 1964, and I was really into the groove and the melody and the fact that it was an old song with a new melody and old lyrics. And then, when I did it in 2012, I started relating more to the lyrics and started doing more research on the lyrics. I actually got into what the lyrics were really about more than I was in 1964. I chose a few verses that emphasized a certain darkness, but they were all the original verses. ... Because I felt that the music was like a studious type of thing, it was like, 'Well, we're looking at something here. This is kind of historic stuff.' And I'm using the folk process to change it, which is fair game — but I'm still keeping the message of the original songs."

On his song 'Love and War'

"The song says, 'When I sing about love and war / I don't really know what I'm saying.' And I think that sums it up. Because they're very deep subjects. You can't possibly know what it means to somebody else. War to one person may mean a justified thing that's happening for a very good reason, and another person may think that's a terrible thing and never should have happened. And another person will be thinking that he lost his sister or his brother or his mother in the war and it was a waste of time. And another person could be thinking the exact opposite: that his brother went to war and gave his life for our country. So you can't really have an opinion, although I have opinions and I've had them and I've made very loud statements about things. But that's the way I felt at the time. When I did the Living With War album, I was very outspoken about the anger I felt about certain things that were happening at that time in history. But again, I was no more right than the people who believed in it because it was such a big thing — how can you know? How can you know all of the reasons and everything that's happening? I just don't enjoy war. I'm not like a fan of war. And love can be very damaging, and it can be very good. So you just don't know where to go with these things. So I wrote about that — the quandary of not knowing what to do with any of those things. It's kind of a useless point of view."

Also, interview on Neil Young & Crazy Horse Live at KCRW on Morning Becomes Eclectic 06.05.12.

Great, revealing interviews with Neil.

Fantastic to hear that another double CD of material has been laid down. 26 minute tracks!

As always, it's a wonderful time to be a Neil Young fan.

Take us to the portals!

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