F*Words: My Life of Film, Food, Feminism, Fun, Family, Friends, Flaws, Fabric, And The Far Out Future by Jeanne Field

Ben Keith, Tim Drummond, Neil, Tim Mulligan - ~1972
(Click photo to enlarge)
Some people lead charmed lives. There is extra grace involved when the person who lives that life is as charming and irresistible as Jeanne Field in her book F*Words: My Life of Film, Food, Feminism, Fun, Family, Friends, Flaws, Fabric, And The Far Out Future .

Author and traveler Jeanne Field crossed paths with Neil Young and many others back in the late 1960's and into the 1970's. Field's autobiography includes going on the road making a film with CSNY in 1970 after working on “Woodstock”. The footage they shot became the backbone of “Journey Through The Past”. She also worked on David Lynch’s “Eraserhead” and “The Last Waltz”. Then, along with L.A. Johnson, she worked on “Human Highway”, “Rust Never Sleeps” and “Solo Trans".

Her book, “F*Words” has a lot of remembrances of living on the ranch, touring with Neil Young and making films.An excerpt regarding Neil Young and L.A. Johnson during the Harvest recording sessions from F*Words: My Life of Film, Food, Feminism, Fun, Family, Friends, Flaws, Fabric, And The Far Out Future :

Larry [L.A. Johnson] reported that Neil was completely enthralled with the filmmaking process. He was hard at work on a new album which would become “Harvest”, but he was devoting a lot of time to getting southern footage (for "Southern Man") and Nashville footage (a great scene with a barge being launched into the Cumberland River). Larry took him to his mother, Margaret’s, hometown, Americus, Georgia where Larry reunited with the old black couple who had taken care of him as a baby. After that trip, we spent time on the ranch filming Neil and the musicians (Kenny Buttrey, drums, Tim Drummond, bass, Jack Nietzsche, piano, Ben Keith, slide guitar) that producer Elliot Mazer had introduced Neil to in Nashville.

Setting up in an old barn on the ranch, they put in a stage and left the hay bales. You had to sit on something. The hillside facing the barn had a herd of buffalo which would run toward the barn every afternoon around 5pm. Maybe they wanted to harmonize or were just enjoying the music. I felt very privileged to be there, listening to those wonderful songs that have become Neil classics, "Are you Ready for the Country", "Alabama", and "Words - Between the Lines of Age" (which we always sang as "Between the ears of Tas", honoring our little dog). It was a great part of my production assistant job.

F*Words: My Life of Film, Food, Feminism, Fun, Family, Friends, Flaws, Fabric, And The Far Out Future

by Jeanne Field
(LA Johnson took the cover photo in 1971)

Jeanne Field -- to a degree -- is another voice of her generation, beginning in the 1940's and continuing until the present. She lived in magical times and has met and befriended some remarkable people in her book where she encounters Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Gregory Peck, Harold Lloyd, Buckminster Fuller, Bill Murray and many more fascinating people who are the generation's archetypes.

Jeanne Field didn't make these connections out of ambition. She was adventurous but practical enough to have made it through the turbulence. Usually, she was just looking for a job, and ended up with amazing people with great work ethics and our reading is rewarded with sharing her time behind the scenes with people of substance, even genius. Practicality can lead you to magic, she might say.

She tells us that "each person has an amazing story, whether told through a novel like Carol Shields' "The Stone Diaries" or described in terrifying detail in "Anne Frank's Diary" ".

Teenagers back in the 1960's may recognize themselves in many of Field's journeys. But will "millennials" of today? Will today's young seeker see that our journeys don't have to be planned, that one can stay open, resilient, letting nothing bring you down while realizing that simple choices can lead to magic? Hopefully not after finishing reading F*Words: My Life of Film, Food, Feminism, Fun, Family, Friends, Flaws, Fabric, And The Far Out Future by Jeanne Field

During her years in the entertainment industry, Jeanne Field has worked as a distributor, camera assistant, editor, producer (in film and theater), agent and manager. Her production work includes documentaries such as Michael Wadleigh’s Academy Award winning “Woodstock,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz” and another Academy Award winner, Sarah Kernochen’s “Marjoe.” She also worked on four feature-length films and videos with Neil Young, two one-hour videos with Joni Mitchell, “The TVTV Show” (for NBC), feature films “Eraserhead” (directed by David Lynch) and “Uforia” (directed by John Binder), and many other films and television shows. 

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HOW TO WIN BOOK COPY OF F*Words: My Life of Film, Food, Feminism, Fun, Family, Friends, Flaws, Fabric, And The Far Out Future by Jeanne Field

A lucky Thrasher's Wheat supporters will be eligible to win a copy of the book F*Words: My Life of Film, Food, Feminism, Fun, Family, Friends, Flaws, Fabric, And The Far Out Future by Jeanne Field ". We truly appreciate being able to do what we do here at TW, and we love being able to give something back in return.

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Entries must be emailed to thrasher@thrasherswheat.org with SUBJECT line: CONTEST - F*Words by Jeanne Field

Deadline: Thursday, March 31, 5PM EST

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Don't Be Denied!

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