Neil Young's Muse: The Passion, The Pathos & The 4%

Discussing "The Muse"
Moderator Jaan Uhelszki & Neil Young
SXSW Keynote Address, Austin, Texas - March 16, 2006
photo by Michael Weintrob, Groovetography
With virtually every album that Neil Young has released since 2000, his fans, listeners and critics have routinely questioned his artistic muse. (See 2001's Road Rock, Live, 2002's Are You Passionate?, 2003's
Greendale, 2005's Prairie Wind, 2006's Living With War, 2007's Chrome Dreams II, 2009's Fork In The Road, 2010's Le Noise, 2012's Americana & Psychedelic Pill, 2014's A Letter Home & Storytone, 2015's The Monsanto Years, 2016's Earth, Peace Trail.)

During this period, we here at Thrasher's Wheat have been engaged in a pretty interesting exercise in this discussion and ongoing analysis of "The Muse" of Neil Young.

And then there are those in "The 4%" -- which we'll come back to below.

And -- right on cue -- comes Neil Young + Promise of the Real's new song "Children of Destiny" featuring an orchestra in the studio. The new song's "patriotic" video seems to have really hit a nerve with some -- as we noted on the 4th of July -- managing once again to both polarize his fan base and inflame critics.

Inflamed and polarized to such a degree that Neil Young issued a statement essentially saying that he won't quit no matter what.

Pearl Jam band members have discussed their experience with Neil Young and "The Muse" at length. Eddie Vedder says: "He's getting closer and closer to the core." (Full interview here.)

Graham Nash has revealed some of the origins of Neil Young's passionate following of "The Muse". (Full interview here.)

Back in 2006, at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, during Neil Young's keynote address, he said:

"'The one constant is not to let yourself get distracted when a song is trying to find you. Once you have an idea with music, nothing else matters but that idea. Your responsibility to the muse is to follow it.... There's nothing more important ... Commitments are one of the worst things for music making - they're annoying.'"

During Young's address on artistic creativity, he went on to explain the muse:

"I'm proudest of my work when it comes really fast [and] I don't edit it. It's the purest form of creativity ... you just have to be there.

You can't worry about the result while you're in the midst of creating. Afterwards, you can scrap it, record it or dump it in the editing bin. But, when you're terrified, you know you're on the right track.

Now, there are big breaks and [then] it's just like a dam bursting. I used to write a song every day.

People want to know why you don't make your most famous record over and over again. Because it's death."

So what it seems to have come down to back in 2009 with the latest batch of new songs from the album "Fork In the Road" is that there seems to be a huge divide between fans who are comfortable with Neil following "The Muse" and those who steadfastly refuse to allow Neil's creativity to deviate from their own desires.



It has all been quite fascinating. Here's a brief rundown on some posts which generated hundreds and hundreds of comments between impassioned Neil fans around the world:

- The Myth of Washed Up Neil (140+ comments)

- So Who's Really Washed Up? (30+ comments)

- Yonder Stands The Sinner (25+ comments)

- Life in the Neil Young Cocoon (15+ comments)

- "Fork In the Road" - New Video! (70+ comments)

- Those New Songs: Falling From Above (80+ comments)

- Comment of the Moment: Yonder Stands The Sinner (40+ comments)

- A Battle Raged on the Open Page: Can You Change Your Mind? (30+ comments)

- "Optimal" Neil Young Fans (10+ comments)

- Comment of the Moment: "Chaos Is Good" says Neil Young

- Doubters: There's A Hole in the Neil Young Fanbase (19+ comments)

- The Essence of "The Doubters": Neil Young & Crazy Horse Concert Reviews (40+ comments)

Well, here's another perspective on whether Neil has a wheel in the ditch or a wheel on the track by Not Above Suspicion:

Here's my perspective. Neil's recent albums have not excited me as much as much of his earlier work.

Using 10 years and looking at his out put since the CSNY Looking Forward, I'd be hard pressed to put any the albums containing "new" material in my favorites category and I'd have to put LF, AYP and LWW close to the very bottom of any albums Neil has done solo or in a group. I also agree that the general antipathy toward those albums is unlikely to be subject to revisionist appraisals as was the case with TFA, TTN and OTB.

CDII is probably my favorite of the albums. It does contain some old material and it still would probably be somewhere in the middle of my ranking of all his albums. I like S&G, Greendale and PW but I'd probably put them all in the lower half of a ranking.

So, to that extent I am in agreement with those who state Neil's recent work is not on a par with much of his earlier work. I'd be more inclined to say he hasn't delivered the "great" albums that he produced, if not consistently, frequently in the past.

Of course, he and I are both much older now. Honestly, I don't think anything, music or otherwise, can excite and move me as much today as it could when I was young.

I also think that Neil is using the latter portion of his career and the almost unique luxury he has in terms of his relationship with the recording industry to release whatever strikes his fancy at a given moment without regard for any of the factors usually considered. This is not really something new for Neil but in the past even his "challenging" albums seemed more internally diverse musically and topically. now, to an extent, you do get "here's 10 songs one after another that all reflect this attitude and feeling that occupied my thoughts the last month or so." there is an element of unrelenting self-indulgence present, and it's likely that factor which accounts for wide variance in opinions.

Some people (not surprisingly from almost exclusively the cadre of his biggest fans) are closely attuned to Neil's "self." Probably because: (a) they are extremely interested in what Neil is feeling and thinking and the songs and albums provide clues that they value in an "extra-musical" sense; and (b) those people just happen to have "selves" that are more similar to Neil.

That's not being sycophantic, which connotes a sense of uncritical adoration and often insincerity. Neil might just be the last person allowed to "narrowcast" from a major record label.

I think some of today's critics just don't know what to make of someone who is allowed to break all the rules and isn't relegated to the underground of obscure corners of the internet and self-published CDs.

Criticizing Neil for failing to deliver things with broad appeal might be accurate but is similar to criticizing health food stores for not delivering sugary treats.

-- Not Above Suspicion

David Geffen, Elliot Roberts, & Neil Young
Frame from 'Inventing David Geffen': American Masters
(Click photo to enlarge)
In 2012, we posted preview trailers for the upcoming documentary film 'Inventing David Geffen': American Masters.

Which, of course, reminded many of Neil Young's "lost '80's" due to the infamous Geffen lawsuit. This in turn, coincidentally led to the following article which examines the legal nightmare from a different angle. From How Neil Young Became the First Artist to Get Sued for Not Being Himself By Susan Alexander:

What? How can you get sued for not being yourself?

Writing for Rolling Stone, music journalist Don McLeese explains:

Neil Young is the only artist in the history of modern recording to be sued for refusing to be himself. The suit, filed by Geffen Records, Young’s label for much of the Eighties, charged that he was violating his contract by recording ‘unrepresentative’ albums. In other words, Neil Young wasn’t making Neil Young music.

The problem with Geffen’s suit was that there has never been any such thing as a ‘representative’ Neil Young album. Young has made a decades-long career out of keeping his fans guessing what he’ll do next.

Even before he signed with Geffen, his ever-changing style included raw and edgy, melodic and romantic, dark and melancholic, acoustic and electric, and introspective and retrospective, with a bit of punk thrown in for good measure, all backed by whatever band he’d assembled at the time. It’s just how he worked (and still does).

This post explores how Young has managed to maintain an ongoing state of creative flow throughout his career. Even when he was creating to order for a record company, and even during the litigation that ensued.

As we’ll see, he did so by mastering the art of self-renewal, which is something we can all learn to do.

Regular readers of this blog's comments know that there has been a disturbing pattern over the years where virtually every artistic and business decision Neil has made has been ripped to shreds. We're not even going to begin to link to the dozens and dozens of examples we've documented over the years, but this post contains a link summary.

Which led us to the creation of the "Muse Poll" in order to see if we could determine the extent of dissatisfaction and tension amongst Neil Young fans. And -- in not too big a surprise -- the vitriol of negative Neil comments is in no way whatsoever reflective of the larger Neil community.


So, as you can see, after all this wailing, bitching and moaning about those lame new songs and Neil being a washed up rock star a grand total of 4% of fans have a problem with Neil's course. That's right -- 4%!!! (Polls are still open below, so stand and be counted).

So, before we go, we'll conclude with this comment by Not Above Suspicion:

Apart from the obvious reality that different people have different opinions and some people like things others dislike, why would anyone be against him releasing more rather than less? Who is hurt by music being made available?

If you don't like it, don't buy it. then you can't even claim the loss of $15. Those who want it can buy it. The implication of some that Neil is harming his legacy strikes me as being both silly and no one's business other than Neil's.

Personally, I want to hear everything he's ever done. I won't like it all but I'm actually a good bit more interested in what he's doing now and thinks enough of to prepare for release than I am the 339th (random number) version of Powderfinger, even if that 339th version of Powderfinger is a sure thing.

In keeping with some of our recent analysis, what do you think? Should Neil follow his muse? Or, do you have "doubts"?


So why did you vote the way you did? Please comment below.

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