Neil Young: My Defining Moment - One wrong note opened the door to a new world
Neil Young recalling how a musical mistake led to a magnificent moment in AARP:
There I was, 18 years old, standing on a small stage in a smoky coffeehouse in Fort William, Ontario. My band consisted of two friends, Bob and Ken, on drums and bass. It had been a good set, and we were into our last number, “Farmer John.” Three chords pounded over and over as we approached the end of the song. As I began my usual solo, Bob hit a cymbal crash that struck me differently. Ken hit his bass extra hard. Somehow I started on the wrong notes, lower than the ones I was trying to hit, but it didn’t sound bad. I slipped up to the higher notes and something happened. I lost track of time. My fingers were flying all over the neck! I reached down and turned my amp up all the way, then I just took off. Hyperventilating, I felt a cold breeze behind my eyes. Time stood still as we slashed and bashed at those three chords with power that seemed to come from somewhere else. It was the first time.
After the set ended, the crowd was going crazy, screaming and clapping as we left the stage. I felt amazing! A great local guitarist approached me from the audience. “What the hell was that?” he asked. “I have never heard you play like that. I have never seen anything like that. What happened? Where did you learn that?”Also, the deadline for entering contest for free passes to "An Evening With Neil Young" is Wednesday, February 24, 5PM EST. Details for entering contest for free passes at CONTEST: "An Evening With Neil Young" Free Passes .
Don't Be Denied!
Labels: neil young
by thrasher@PermaLink: 2/23/2016 07:28:00 PM
7 comments
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7 Comments:
THIS NOTE'S FOR YOU, NEIL!
There's a reason why it bombed on release and hasn't been available for 30 odd years...
Oh really? And what might that be our dear Andy? Please enlighten us.
Ok Andy, I'll bite. Here's the real question for you:
Human Highway or Storytone?
In your negative eyes, which one's worse? Please provide detail.
And throwing you a bone, please list your all-time 5 worst Neil Young albums (or movies/tours/songs/projects).
Have fun!
Take my advice
don't listen to me
Storytone by some distance.
It's one of Neil's 'goofy' projects with a message that gets lost in a cliche of humor that back fires - it's interesting at best. Showing it next to Rust will confirm all of that Neil's best film by a distance - the reason why? THE SONGS.
My roadeye negative eyes....
Fork In The Road
Are You Passionate
Landing on The Water
Storytone#Life
Broken Arrow
Greendale
The Monsanto Years
All records that had messages lost in a morass of below par songs.
How many of us play these records?
Worst live show
02 Arena 2013 - endless jams self indulgent
I'm an coming music artist i have been working on my music over 2 years now without know progress until i saw an advert on online here on this web site. On how someone was been helped by the members of the donilluminatimember@yahoo.com i have no choice than to also ask them for help which i did. I'm here this today to give you this good news that i have also got my help too from this same illuminati group i want to use this opportunity to tell the people out there that this is real. as i also had my doubt at first but now i have see they power and lover
Andy, something tells me you didn't have to think too long to come up with your negative list! I agree with much, but here are my thoughts:
Fork In The Road
Absolutely agree--very weak work.
Are You Passionate
Agree, but I don't hate it--some of the music and lyrics work.
Landing on The Water
STOP. Landing on Water is very good. It's when Neil started to wake up, and lyrically and melodically it's highly underrated. I also like the "modern" sound.
Take my advice, don't listen to me--Hippie Dream is a great song!!!
Storytone#Life
Both are far from his best, but I really liked Life. Good follow up semi-return to form after Landing on Water. Mideast Vacation, Long Walk Home, Inca Queen, Too Lonely, Prisoners, We Never Danced. Some very catchy songs mixed in with solid lyrics.
Broken Arrow
Average at best--too meandering, I give it a C or C-.
Greendale
Respectfully, you're wrong. Solid album which could have been great. I hate the album version of "Be the Rain" though it smoked live.
The Monsanto Years
Absolutely agree--terribly weak work/effort.
All records that had messages lost in a morass of below par songs.
I agree that on balance Neil gets lost when he tries to preach about topical/political messages. I've always felt that he fails when he "tries" to write songs. That's just not one of his natural abilities, especially these days.
Worst live show
02 Arena 2013 - endless jams self indulgent
I 100% agree that the 2013 tour was terrible. Very boring and self indulgent. Noise just for the sake of noise--no melodic playing. Brutally bad to my ears and senses.
**Thankfully he followed up that terrible tour, with two of his all-time best. Acoustic 2014 and Promise of the Real 2015. Great stuff!
Take my advice
don't listen to me
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