Happy 71st Birthday Neil Young!!! Long May You Continue To Run & Run

"Happiness is the valuable commodity and that's what makes life good."
~~Neil Young
Photo by Matt Furman for The Wall Street Journal
(Click photo to enlarge)

Happy 71st Birthday Neil Young!!! Long May You Continue To Run & Run.



From last year's celebration, we have an exclusive interview with author Harvey Kubernik on his new book "Neil Young - Heart of Gold". Details @ EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Author Harvey Kubernik on "Neil Young - Heart of Gold" Book on 11/12 @ 11:12 A.M. on WBKM.org .


Audience sings Neil Young Happy Birthday at end of Vancouver concert, 11/11/2012. Band gives Neil birthday scarf gift.

So. Looking for somewhere to go and celebrate Neil's birthday? Check Neil birthday events around the world Celebrations of Neil Young's 71st Birthday: Saturday, November 12 .



So Happy Birthday Neil!

Long may you run. It's all just a magical ride. enjoy.

namaste,
the thrashers

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Shirt of the Moment: Celebrating Neil Young's Birthday

Here's yet another Shirt of the Moment of Mark with his mom, who is celebrating her 92nd birthday.

Happy birthday Mark's mom! Your son must be quite proud of you to fly the fly the colors in both Neil and your honor. :)

As we announced earlier, the Thrasher's Wheat Anniversary T-Shirts production has been quite a humbling experience to see their safe and happy arrival around the world.

Again, thanks to all -- as we noted earlier -- 2016 is the year that we here at Thrasher's Wheat are celebrating our 20th anniversary of archiving Neil Young's music and rustie fan communities.

We love to see folks letting their freak flags fly. So, got a Shirt of the Moment shot?! Send it to us at thrasher@thrasherswheat.org

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Leonard Cohen: 1934 - 2016

Leonard Cohen: 1934 - 2016
Leonard Cohen has passed away at age 82.

Most would agree that two of Canada's finest musical heroes are Leonard Cohen and Neil Young. Actually, both are true North American icons, if you will.

In November, 2013 in Vancouver, both Leonard Cohen and Neil Young played concerts on back to back nights at the Rogers Arena. The two evenings made for some interesting comparisons and contrasts for those fortunate to have attended both shows.

If you missed the experience, lucky for us, we have an in-depth review from Restless and Real "Neil Young and Leonard Cohen: A Canadian Homecoming" by Douglas Heselgrave:

Cohen’s Canada is infinitely smaller than Young’s.

The vast spaces and highways that connect our nation’s few big cities offered a vision of freedom and discovery for Young that was never explored by Cohen who contented himself with trawling the backstreets of post-war Montreal. His is a place of darkened cafes and smoky nights, and when nature intrudes at all, it is sensed from a distance or heard through the window. Rivers are far away, lulling and sacred and for Cohen the perfect aid to seduction. Hearing the boats go by, the running water reminds the listener of the passage of time. With the realization that ‘this too shall pass’, what better way to spend our limited time than locked in one another’s arms? For all of Young’s perceived hippie optimism, his songs are often darker than Cohen’s.

Rivers in his songs aren’t preludes to romance or the soundtrack of seduction; in Young’s art rivers are full of regret and death with bad deeds just around the corner. With the white boat coming down to bring murder and disaster, Neil is the everyman, all of our ancestors, who had to deal in the moment. When he sings, ‘Daddy’s rifle in my hand felt reassuring’, nobody who hears it feels any better or believes that safety is at hand.

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For all of Young’s hipster cred, cardigans and trim beards were in short supply as the majority of Neil’s audience appeared to be comprised of rugged looking people who appeared like they had spent their lives working with their hands, planting trees or building houses. It seemed as if the term “salt of the earth” was invented for them as a shuffling parade of calloused, wind-blown and rain-swept individuals with calloused hands, tousled hair and faded lumberjack shirts past security to find their seats.

When Neil Young and Crazy Horse took the stage to the sounds of the Canadian national anthem, 17,000 surprised-looking people got to their feet. In over 30 years of attending musical events, this was the first time I’d ever heard a concert begin this way in Canada. While a friend sarcastically leaned over and said, ‘Neil’s sure milking the Canadian thing! He’s been in America too long!’ the majority of the crowd was moved, some to tears, before the band had played a single note. And, when they did start playing, the effect was astonishing: in one movement, the people who had just sat down, shuffled to their feet again as Crazy Horse’s music had a tribal, almost mystically transformative, effect on the crowd. It was a truly amazing spectacle to see a stadium full of mostly middle-aged people fall under Young’s spell as they began to lurch and sway in unison like Neanderthals around a campfire.

It wasn’t so much a concert as a primal communion in which the disparate crowd of laborers, lawyers, bankers and hippies swayed towards catharsis as they were bathed in drenching feedback. Nearly two hours later, just over half the time that Leonard Cohen typically plays for, the audience and the band were drained by the time the last notes of “Roll another Number” reverberated around the arena. Even though they looked like they could have played longer, Young obviously knows when the audience has been satiated; Crazy Horse’s music is a heady brew that needs to be sipped cautiously.

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Like Neil Young’s crowd, Leonard Cohen’s audience also spans a wide range, but to judge by outward appearances, his is comprised of a seemingly more well-heeled and polished collection of people than had turned out the night before. Both crowds were peppered with people from many generations, from the young kids in their twenties trying to catch the last hippie wave from Neil Young’s guitar to the bearded nouveau bohemians who hoped to soak in the elegance of the fin de siècle despair illuminated in so many of Leonard Cohen’s songs.

In concert, Leonard Cohen doesn’t create the same kind of tribal, primal communion that Neil Young conjured; his show relied far more on elegance rather than the powerful pagan energy that the guitarist commanded. With Cohen at the helm, the words and music waltzed and swayed like a joyous mass for hopeless sinners who had somehow conned their way into paradise. The love that the audience showered Cohen with wasn’t like the unruly fist pounding worship that greeted Neil Young; it was quite unlike anything I’d experienced before. The instant Cohen skipped onto stage, a radiant, physical, wave of love that caught me in the back of the throat, pulsed through the stadium as more than a few people around me burst into tears.

The only other time I’d experienced anything close to that was when I heard the Dalai Lama speaking on his birthday to a crowd of Tibetans in India.

Complete in-depth review on Restless and Real "Neil Young and Leonard Cohen: A Canadian Homecoming" by Douglas Heselgrave.

Leonard Cohen: 1934 - 2016 Oh Canada!



"There is a crack
A crack in everything
That's how the light gets in"

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Take The Fork in the Road and Get on That "Peace Trail"

A Metaphorical "Fork in the Road"

While everyone is picking up the pieces, we here @ TW are looking forward to this weekend's Celebrations of Neil Young's 71st Birthday on Saturday, November 12 . Definitely something worth celebrating and rejoicing how lucky we are as music fans in this day and age.

As you may or may not have noticed, we put out a few thoughts last week on the 2016 elections. There were a number of key passages, but we'll just mention this one:

Basically, the best we can all hope for at this point, is the utter, complete destruction of the two party monopoly system. The demise of the Republican party is well underway, but this could be the final election for the traditional Democratic party as well. If that is the outcome of the Nov 8 election, than it will be for the good of all of us in the long run. Likewise, with the implosion of the credibility of the monopolistic mainstream media, Trump will have achieved a true trifecta win.

There's a lot of wailing going on right now. But the demise of the Major Parties is needed because they have absolutely zero concern for the interests of the "Ordinary People".

We supported Bernie Sanders during the primaries. And to be crystal clear, we did not any, way, shape or form support Donald Trump or contribute to his victory. If the Democrats had nominated the better candidate at the convention and run Sanders against Trump, we feel Bernie would have beaten The Donald. Hence our statement above, which is a logical follow-on to previous observations in May, 2016. (Just so you're aware of consciousness, full disclosure and total transparency).

But who cares what we think. From a comment by Ian:

I'll say this once: no matter who won or lost the election, there would have been plenty of sore losers on the other side. Kind of happens when voting between two monumentally unpopular candidates. Putting side all my other feelings for the moment, I think we need a time for healing and unity. I know, "as if"... but still, we have to try. Pretty much every four to eight years, we end up with a president that almost half the country wishes weren't there. No matter what side you're on, we've all been there before, to paraphrase David Crosby.

Congratulations if your man won, but those who voted for him will have to recognize that a substantial part of the elecorate does not like the guy you picked. It was true of Obama; it is true of Trump. Jabbing and taunting is not going to help mitigate hard for feelings, nor pave the way for the country to move forward together. While sore losers are unattractive and can waste lots of energy, it's just as off-putting and counterproductive to be a prideful, ungracious winner. That's why both candidates have striking a conciliatory tone in their public comments. Both victory and defeat should be borne with dignity, humility, and grace. Those words have been largely absent from this election cycle, but we need them now. The divisions in our country are especially clear when the candidate who wins in the electoral college has narrowly lost the popular vote, and that's not even giving voice to those who voted third party or "other". No matter who wins, it's almost never by universal consensus; it certainly was not in this case, and it's up to us as a community to acknowledge and take responsibility for this reality. It is incumbent on winners to show compassion and empathy. "Do you think that you believe in yours more than they do theirs somehow, when you see the flags of freedom flyin'?" All I'm really asking is for winners to acknowledge the feelings and concerns of losers as real and valid. It's hard to make progress when you can't even get that far. At the least, giving people a bit of space to come to terms may earn you some goodwill.

One more thing: there are just too many artificial divisions in this world. Whether it's by race, gender or sex, religion, or income--or elitists vs. "just plain folks". All of this grouping of people into "us" and "them" is false and damaging. We've been doing it for a long, long time and that's one of the greatest reasons we've gotten to where we are now. It's important to acknowledge and celebrate our differences, but also to realize what transcends these divisions: our common humanity, our Universal Self, that is much greater than the things that can seem to separate us and is ultimately unbreakable, even if we can't see it. Our brains and senses get confused, leading us to think that there is necessarily anything dividing us from our neighbors, but the further I go in life, the clearer it becomes to me that all of this divisiveness and duality is illusion. It's a powerful illusion, that has given rise to vicious cycles. But it is my hope that we can overcome this suffering and these seemingly fractured, confusing experiences. The first step may be for everyone to close their eyes at least once a day; try to drain from their minds the overwhelming stimuli of our chaotic external world for a time,; and search genuinely and earnestly to see what may lie within each and all of us.

"These experiences are fleeting; they come and they go. Bear them patiently, Arjuna. Those who are not affected by these changes, who are the same in pleasure and pain, are truly wise..." (Bhagavad Gita 2:14-15).

Thanks you Ian! And especially that quote from Bhagavad Gita.

As everyone knows, the Bhagavad Gita ties into Neil Young, of course.

And why the heck is a music blog discussing politics, heaven forbid?!. Or religion?

Maybe because life is complicated? Or have we just taken the less traveled fork in the road on our journeys?

Searching for the Heart? Or the Key?

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Celebrations of Neil Young's 71st Birthday: Saturday, November 12

Neil Young's 71st birthday is this weekend, Saturday, November 12.

Here are some celebrations planned around the world.

11/12
8-12 PM
JP's Lounge
Baldwinsville NY

8 acts, including "Acoustic Rust".

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The Tribute-Concert to celebrate Neil Young's 71st birthday!!!
The Tuscany Band
(Are Buonamici-Lead vocal, guitars, hands percussions;
Sergio Bardi-Lead guitar, harmonica, vocals;
Simone Avallone-Bass, guitar, vocals;
Sergio Leonetti- Drums, guitar, vocals)
will present some Young's greatest hits
on Saturday night 12 November
in "Studio 73" pub & bar near Pescia (PT) - Italy.

This the full program:
MOTHER EARTH
THE EMPEROR OF WYOMING ("Ontario"-Vocal version)
DOWN BY THE RIVER
COWGIRL IN THE SAND
LOVE BURN
CINNAMON GIRL
OHIO
HEART OF GOLD
SAIL AWAY
OLD MAN
COMES A TIME
FOUR STRONG WINDS
POWDERFINGER
LIKE A HURRICANE
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU
LOVE AND ONLY LOVE
WHO'S GONNA STAND UP
ROCKIN'IN THE FREE WORLD

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This Saturday 11/12, a Neil-themed show in Carpinteria, CA w/ the band, Claude Hopper. Also, Shakey Zimmerman from SF Bay Area. This is Pat Nevins' electric outfit who does all Neil and Dylan. Gonna be a special night here here on the West Coast.

http://www.plazatheatercarpinteria.com/shakey-zimmerman-claude-hopper
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/835958599840489/

Let me

Thanks Chris !

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As everyone knows, next week will be Neil Young's 71st birthday.

A tribute to Neil will perform songs from his extensive back catalogue by:

Maya McCourt, Tom Hyatt, Jack Harris, Nick Edward Harris, Amy Gillespie, Mahoney & The Moment, Spy From Moscow, Stephen Hallam, and the Gold Rush band.

Venue: The Slaughtered Lamb, Farringdon, London from 7.30pm on NOV 12
Tickets: Via WeGotTickets

Thanks growl & Steve! Enjoy and be sure to send us a report.

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Bushnell, Keltner & Young: "Peace Trail" Now Due on December 9

Paul Bushnell, Neil Young & Jim Keltner

Neil Young's new album "Peace Trail" is now due for release on December 9 -- a week later than previously announced.

"Peace Trail" was recorded with Jim Keltner on drums, and Paul Bushnell on bass.

The track-listing for Peace Trail:

1. Peace Trail
2. Can’t Stop Workin’
3. Indian Givers
4. Show Me
5. Texas Rangers
6. Terrorist Suicide Hang Gliders
7. John Oaks
8. My Pledge
9. Glass Accident
10. My New Robot

The album can now be pre-ordered on Amazon.com: Neil Young - Peace Trail


PRE-ORDER: Neil Young - Peace Trail

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Yes, There's Corruption on THE HIGHEST FLOOR (and most of the floors below, too) : Yet More Inconvenient Truth in Greendale

'She was welded to the eagle's beak
sun green leaned into that megaphone
and said, "truth is all i seek" '
"Sun Green" by Neil Young
With all eyes of the world focused on the approaching Election Day, Tuesday, November 8, there comes a time to pause, reflect and breath.

As you may have noticed lately, we did a little update on the right sidebar. When we did this back in 2008, we heard all sorts of howls about how we were politicizing a Neil Young blog. The horror. But this go around in 2016 ... nothing. Crickets. Who cares right?

The Lesser of 2 Evils Is Still Evil

Actually, we're no longer Lookin' For A Leader because "We're The Ones We've Been Waiting For".

And in a link sent over to us years ago:

"Many people will read this post, and posts like it, and shrug their shoulders saying that there’s always going to be corruption. True; however, there are degrees of corruption. When empires such as the U.S. attain a certain level of corruption that reaches the point where it becomes engrained within the fabric of society, and you couple that with zero accountability for the super rich and powerful, you have the ingredients for societal collapse. We are rapidly approaching this point, and I personally don’t think there’s any way to stop it."

The fact of the matter is that -- as usual -- many are looking at everything all wrong. As thrashette commented recently ... people are really voting for the Vice Presidential candidates Tim Kaine (D) and Mike Pence (R). Why? Because both candidates Hillary Clinton (D) and Donald Trump (R) are so grossly damaged and flawed in every conceivable respect that neither will be able to go a full 4 year term of office.

Mike Pence (R) and Tim Kaine (D)
U.S. Vice Presidential Candidates
Which One Will "Get Lucky" by 2020?

The levels of corruption are so off the charts historically it really is truly breathtaking in not only the magnitude and scope, but in the sheer levels of depravity and evil. Oh sure politicians have been grifting cash from day one, but things have gone far, far beyond pay to play.

Basically, the best we can all hope for at this point, is the utter, complete destruction of the two party monopoly system. The demise of the Republican party is well underway, but this could be the final election for the traditional Democratic party as well. If that is the outcome of the Nov 8 election, than it will be for the good of all of us in the long run. Likewise, with the implosion of the credibility of the monopolistic mainstream media, Trump will have achieved a true trifecta win.

As many of our long time readers here at Thrasher's Wheat know, we have long since declared "The Inconvenient Truth of Greendale".

Mainly this observation centered on the album's environmental call to action and it's plea to respect Mother Nature and all of her creations. But environmentalism is but just one of the many themes of Neil Young's 2003 album Greendale, which we once boldly declared "the most important album of 2003, the musical equivalent of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring".


Greendale Graphic Novel
By Joshua Dysart/Cliff Chiang
The really, truly inconvenient truth of Greendale is its uncomfortable confrontation with themes such as the power of mass media and global corporations, loss of personal freedoms and privacy, destruction of the environment, rampant fraud and corruption, an out of balance government and breakdown of the family. All of which we've detailed before here, here, and here.

And, yes, there is corruption on the highest floor. Quite obviously... at least to us from where we stand. Maybe not to you. Maybe not yet. But if it is not obvious to you as of yet, hopefully it will be before it's too late. Not to sound ominous here or anything, but into your life it will creep.
(See The Illusion of The Matrix Shatters: Corruption, Fake News & The Big Shift. Because, you really can't handle the truth... nor do you want to.)

We all remember those post 9-11 days when so much made so little sense. For us, Greendale was like a sledgehammer to the anvil of truth and awakened this blog from it's post-9/11 dormancy. We can specifically recall receiving a comment back in late 2002/early 2003 which said: "Something has gone seriously wrong."

But what? How? And more importantly, how to fix this derailed streetcar named "Democracy"?


Officer Carmichael Pulling Over Jed
' "Carmichael you asshole,"
the new widow sobbed beneath her veil,
"shot down in the line of duty
is this how justice never fails?" 'Over the intervening years, we've often alluded to the problem and solution. Sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely. And while we could just type it all out plainly in all caps HERE'S THE PROBLEM and HERE'S THE SOLUTION, we know that this approach will not work. Here's why.

Everyone has to find their own truth and deal with it. Right now, our truth and our solution is likely to be so vastly different for so many that to do so would be unhelpful. That said, anyone who puts in the effort can find that liberating freedom, inner peace and unconditional love. At this point, we would like to add that the Earth's challenges are not going to be solved politically. Nor will they be resolved with economic, social or military solutions either. We must admit after many years of long hard thinking and discussion is that we have is a spiritual and moral crisis. IOW, all of the corruption must be purged in order for us all to transcend to a better way of life while traveling on the human highway here on EARTH..

Just remember, "It's all illusion anyway".

“You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.
You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
~~ The Matrix

But do not get trapped in the duality of the Matrix. It's not simply a choice between a red pill and a blue pill. It's about dropping the "Psychedelic Pill".


A Psychedelic Pill
When Neil says drop the "Psychedelic Pill", recall that his mother had told him a trip was a fall... and don't mention babies at all... never. Yet you must use discernment at all times.



So onward towards the looming "Big Shift"... Only through awareness, consciousness, disclosure and transparency can we set our course and sail to that new home in the sun.

There comes a time and that time is NOW.


You can make a difference if you really try so be the rain!
... or just be the wheat...

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TRIBUTE: NEIL YOUNG BIRTHDAY NIGHT @ THE SLAUGHTERED LAMB, LONDON - NOV 12 2016

As everyone knows, next week will be Neil Young's 71st birthday.

A tribute to Neil will perform songs from his extensive back catalogue by:

Maya McCourt, Tom Hyatt, Jack Harris, Nick Edward Harris, Amy Gillespie, Mahoney & The Moment, Spy From Moscow, Stephen Hallam, and the Gold Rush band.

Venue: The Slaughtered Lamb, Farringdon, London from 7.30pm on NOV 12
Tickets: Via WeGotTickets

Thanks growl & Steve! Enjoy and be sure to send us a report.

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