Gary Burden: 1933 - 2018

"Best Art Direction on a Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package"
Jenice Heo, Gary Burden and Neil Young
Grammy Award Pre-telecast Ceremony, Los Angeles, Jan 31, 2010
Photo by Matt Sayles/Associated Press
Gary Burden, music album designer, long time collaborator and "friend for life" of Neil Young, has passed away. Gary was 84, according to a statement by Neil Young.

Gary Burden -— who is best known for designing some of rock’s most iconic album covers, including Young’s On the Beach and Joni Mitchell’s Blue -— has known and worked closely with Young for decades. In 2010, Neil Young won his first Grammy Award for best art direction on a boxed or special limited edition package by Gary Burden and Jenice Heo for the boxed set “Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 (1963-1972).”



From a statement by Neil Young:

"My friend for life, Gary was my art director, creating album covers with me for almost 50 years, beginning with After the Gold Rush and ending with Paradox and Roxy, my next two albums.

I still have some covers for unreleased albums that we made together. They are coming. We probably made 40 covers. I lost count. In the last twenty, thirty or so years, Gary has worked alongside his talented and beautiful wife, Jenice, at R. Twerk & Co, as we have continued on a life-time of making album covers, laughing, loving acoustic music and so many other things. My heart is heavy."

(See more on Full statement by Neil Young on death of Gary Burden.)

In an exclusive interview on Human Highway.org with Gary Burden of R.Twerk & Co., the artist, art director, and designer talks about his journey along the Human Highway.

Gary Burden
Apple Presentation
(Click photo to enlarge)
Here's an interesting snippet:

Q: Besides the archives, a favorite Neil album design of yours?

Gary Burden: My favorite album cover that I have made, ever, is Neil Young’s “On the Beach.” This cover is loaded with information! From the styles of clothing and objects to the Coors can to the headline of the newspaper of the day of the photo shoot.

My final “gift” to the viewer/consumer was printing the tacky floral designs inside the sleeve.

That one blew the mind of the record company. Not in a good way!

(Complete interview on Human Highway.org with Gary Burden.)

"On The Beach" -- the final link of Neil Young's Ditch Trilogy -- is considered by many fans to be one of his best and their most favorite of all Neil Young album covers and artwork. Designed by Gary Burden, photographed by Bob Seideman, and graphic lettering by Rick Griffin, the cover is quite enigmatic with a Cadillac car fin jutting from the sand like a crashed rocket being buried by time. A shoeless Neil stares out into the ocean near a forlorn potted palm. A jaunty yellow beach umbrella matches Neil's jacket. The yellow theme is even continued with a Coors beer can on the table. Inside the album, things become even more crpytic with the album's liner notes.

10 Gary Burden Album Cover Designs: (Thanks !)

1. Neil Young - On The Beach
2. Neil Young - Time Fades Away
3. David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name
4. The Eagles - One Of These NIghts
5. Neil Young - Mirror Ball
6. Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
7. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu
8. Neil Young - Dreamin' Man
9. The International Harvesters - A Treasure
10. Crosby, Stills, Nash - Crosby, Stills, Nash

Collage via Joni @malibuheaven15h

From Gary Burden's website -- which has a wealth of details on the making of NYA -- here are a few snippets:

"It may have been 20 years in the making but it was one of the most enjoyable and collaborative projects I've ever worked on.

I have been working with Neil on album covers since his release of After the Gold Rush in 1970. I would listen in on Neil's recording sessions, I mean really listen to the music, and most of the time the music will tell me what the design wants to be. I'd present my ideas to Neil, and he'd give me his own ideas and feedback, and we would incorporate both into the album design.

Neil is a prolific writer and a has great vision. It's nice to collaborate with someone that doesn't do design, they see beyond the boundaries we put on ourselves and push us further. Neil doesn't understand the concept of "we can't do that," and his ideas almost always end up being right.

Neil had the idea for the Archives 20 years ago, back in 1989. At first, the Archive was going to be all of his work up until 1989, but as we worked with our archivist and gathered more and more material, we realized we would have to break it down into periods. We just had too rich a volume of visual material and music. When we started to think about how to present it, we quickly realized there just wasn't the kind of technology back then to fully implement Neil's vision.

We waited for CD's to come out, and then we realized that they wouldn't be what we needed. When DVD's were first introduced, we thought for sure we hit the jackpot, but even that wasn't enough. When Blu-Ray was launched we knew we had what we needed technologically to tell this story."

There are many other fascinating insights into the designing of NYA on Gary Burden's website including details on the box graphic art, the poster, the stash box, and book. Also, see YouTube video of Gary & photographer Henry Diltz discussing their work together.

In addition to recognizing Burden, his wife Jenice Heo created the box top art.


Neil Face With Hand
by Jenice Heo

Interview: Gary Burden (Album Cover Artist) on World Cafe: Sense of Place - LA

Lots of Neil comments @ ~19:00.

Travel Through Laurel Canyon With Album Cover Artist Gary Burden

Check out this video of an unusual interview today with Art Director and album cover artist Gary Burden as he takes us up and down laurel canyon and discusses his experience living there in the 60s and 70s. After meeting Mama Cass Elliot in the mid-sixties (she hired him to design her kitchen) he began to design album covers - first for The Mamas and Papas then Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joni Mitchell, The Doors, Steppenwolf and many many Neil Young albums. If you are of a certain age you own his work. We drive thru Laurel Canyon where he and everybody else in the music scene, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, Frank Zappa all lived very near each other, many on Lookout Mountain. An insider’s look at Laurel Canyon.

More on Laurel Canyon in the 1960's is the definitive analysis of what was happening there and making it very CLEAR ... Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream by David McGowan.

Gary Burden: 1933 - 2018

"He was a great man and a true artist. Rest in peace my old friend."
-- Statement by Neil Young.

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POSTER: PARADOX Film Directed by Daryl Hannah w/ Neil Young + Promise Of The Real

PARADOX
Director: Daryl Hannah
w/ Neil Young + Promise Of The Real & Willie Nelson
(Click photo to enlarge)

Here is the poster for the film PARADOX directed by Daryl Hannah with Neil Young + Promise Of The Real and Willie Nelson.

Netflix.com will stream the film globally on 23 March, the same day as the release of the movie's soundtrack.

In a statement, Hannah said,

"Paradox sprung up spontaneously and unexpectedly, like a peculiar dandelion, popping up between the cracks in the pavement. We were fortunate to find this brief window of opportunity to share the love for the natural world, each other and for the precious seeds of creativity and life. We are all thrilled the film will premiere at SXSW and that Netflix will be sharing it with the world."

Daryl Hannah

More on Cover & Track Listing: PARADOX Soundtrack Album - Neil Young + Promise Of The Real, April 20 Release.

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CONCERT ANNOUNCEMENT: Neil Young + Promise of the Real @ Festival d'ete de Quebec, July 5, 2018

Neil Young + Promise Of The Real
Telluride, Colorado - 9/30/16
Photo by thrasher

Neil Young will play a concert at the Festival d'ete de Quebec on July 5, 2018, according to CTV News.

The Festival will be July 5 – 15 at various venues around Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Also, Foo Fighters, Beck, The Weeknd, Future, Shawn Mendes, Patrice Michaud, The Chainsmokers, Lorde, Avenged Sevenfold and the Dave Matthews Band have been tapped to headline the 11 nights of the festival. Sturgill Simpson, John Butler Trio, Phoenix, The War On Drugs, The Soul Rebels, Chromeo, St. Paul & The Broken Bones are just a few of the hundreds of other acts aboard for FEQ ’18.

Unlike major commercial music events which strictly check ticket purchases, the publicly supported festival encourages fans to share passes which cost as little as Can$100 ($78 US) for all 11 days. The Festival d'ete de Quebec, as it is known in French, makes up for its inexpensive tickets with its vast size of 100,000 capacity at the main stage, the scene of the 1759 battle in which British forces decisively defeated France.

Also, see CONCERT ANNOUNCEMENT: Neil Young + Promise of the Real - Arroyo Seco Weekend, Pasadena, CA, June 23, 2018 .

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Cover & Track Listing: PARADOX Soundtrack Album - Neil Young + Promise Of The Real, April 20 Release

The soundtrack album for PARADOX, the Daryl Hannah directed Shakey Pictures film featuring Neil Young + Promise Of The Real, will be released on April 20 (420, get it?!).

The "futuristic, free-form frontier tone poem" will premiere at the SXSW Film Festival at the Paramount Theatre, Austin, TX, on March 15, 2018 at 7:00pm.

Track Listing:
1. MANY MOONS AGO IN THE FUTURE
2. SHOW ME
3. PARADOX PASSAGE 1
4. HEY
5. PARADOX PASSAGE 2
6. DIGGIN' IN THE DIRT – CHORUS
7. PARADOX PASSAGE 3
8. PEACE TRAIL
9. POCAHONTAS
10. COWGIRL JAM
11. ANGEL FLYING TOO CLOSE TO THE GROUND
12. PARADOX PASSAGE 4
13. DIGGIN’ IN THE DIRT
14. PARADOX PASSAGE 5
15. RUNNING TO THE SILVER EAGLE
16. BABY WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO?
17. PARADOX PASSAGE 6
18. OFFERINGS
19. HOW LONG?
20. HAPPY TOGETHER
21. TUMBLEWEED

PARADOX
Director: Daryl Hannah
w/ Neil Young + Promise Of The Real & Willie Nelson

As we reported last month, a new Neil Young film will premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. The film's director is Daryl Hannah and the Producer credits are "Bernard Shakey" and "Elliot Rabinowitz" (Neil & Roberts).

From SXSW Film Festival listing:

Time is fluid in this far-fetched, whimsical western tale of music and love.

Somewhere in the future past, The Man In the Black Hat hides out between heists at an old stagecoach stop with Jail Time, the Particle Kid, and an odd band of outlaws. Mining the detritus of past civilizations, they wait… for the Silver Eagle, for the womenfolk, and for the full moon's magic to give rise to the music and make the spirits fly.

We have a particular interest in the film as we attended the Neil Young + Promise Of The Real concerts in Telluride, Colorado in 2016 where the band performed in full retro Western outfits for the film.

Neil Young + Promise Of The Real
Telluride, Colorado - 9/30/16

Photo by thrasher

More at SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX, March 9–18, 2018.

More on the dream weekend when Rusties did a take over of a small town ski resort for a weekend for Neil Young + Promise Of The Real concerts in Telluride, Colorado in 2016.

Oh, what a weekend ... probably one of our top Neil and rustie experiences of our lifetimes!

UPDATE:
From Rolling Stone:

So here's what we know about the feature-length directorial debut from Splash/Kill Bill star Daryl Hannah: It's described as both "a whimsical Western" and a "Loud poem"; her significant other Neil Young is in it; he performs in full old-timey frontier guard [sic, garb?] with the band Promise of the Real; Willie Nelson drops by as well; and there are characters named the Particle Kid, Jail Time and the Man in the Black Hat. Everything else is up for grabs, but whether this is a masterpiece or a magnificent, flaming car wreck, the chance of us being bored is exactly zero-point-zero percent.

(Thanks for linkage RS, but AI robot spell checkers are only so useful. We're staying on the human highway.)

Additional Screenings For Paradox: (Thanks Shakeyjrc!!!)

-03/23/18 IFC Center NYC
http://www.ifccenter.com/films/paradox/

-03/24/18 Music Box Theatre Chicago, IL with Neil and Daryl Q/A
https://www.musicboxtheatre.com/films/paradox

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Comment of the Moment: In Defense of Neil Young's Late-Late Style

"Rockin' in the Free World"

Neil Young + Promise of the Real
Telluride, Colorado - 10/1/16

Photo by thrasher

The Comment of the Moment is from Minke T. who posted a recent comment on CONCERT ANNOUNCEMENT: Neil Young + Promise of the Real - Arroyo Seco Weekend, Pasadena, CA, June 23, 2018 on Neil Young's musical shifts and twists:

Off topic: In defense of Neil Young’s late-late style.

I was thinking in what blessed times we live – musically speaking.

Neil Young has given some real great records over the last years, and regularly bestows us with gems from his long and (in)glorious past. Although we meet sceptics here on this highly appreciated site – and of course they have a full right to be disappointed – it is not what I experience. If we listen closely to NY’s output over the last ten years, we see many peaks and few real misses. He has been versatile, adventurous, experimental, but also moving, politically engaging -- and extremely professional. There is such richness in his output that we are left gawking. And yes, there are quirks, in his activism for better sound, his commercial strategies, musically too.

But the series starting with Fork in the Road (yes, folks, I like that album), through Le Noise, Psychedellic Pill (but no, I do not rate that one as high as some do here), and especially Storytone and Peace Trail, is of astounding quality.

In my view his alliance with The Promise, although I applauded it at first, because I grew tired of the sluggish sound Crazy Horse was developing, has not turned out to be very felicitous. On stage The Promise is capable to bring out from NY some of the deep cuts that need a lighter sound (White Falcon style) and a more frisky bounce but on record they are brewing a soup in which the ingredients do not mix well. Monsanto Years was not good (although it contains a few good songs), and The Visitor, although a good notch better, is not entirely satisfying in the end either.

But something else has been fermenting in NY over the last years. Just listen attentively to NY solo or in small company – not the six-man band of The Promise – and you’ll hear what I mean.

The record I keep returning to most is the Solo Storytone album. Although the version with the band and orchestra is definitely a satisfying listen, and I see why NY had so much fun doing it, the solo versions bring out the best of the songs and the man, and is absolutely absorbing. What a sparse, spright, well-crafted, sweet, emotional album that is. The playing is wonderful, the sound very intimate. This is the great lateness that NY is capable of. Put it next to Hitchhiker, one other great record of the last years, and be astounded by the differences.

While Hitchhiker exhales the typical mid-seventies atmosphere of loneliness and despair, the marihuana and booze, the Storytone songs have a lightness, efficiency in expression, and fragility that is extremely moving and captivating. The songs are simpler, the playing almost self-effacing. The production, by the way, is great (get off this Briggs-thing, people).

I have been thinking a lot about late style. The fact is that with the passing of the years the lives of the artists, their capacities, the sources of inspiration and the character of the audience are changing. This urges them to reinvent oneself. With NY’s voice getting thinner over the years and losing its firmness in the higher registers, his strength is in his intimate voice, lower, sometimes almost whispering. The expressiveness is astounding. Listen to a ditty like ‘I want to drive my car’. Despite its simple lyrics and superficiality, and the almost primitive accompaniment, it absolutely grips the attention. This is NY’s late style. Almost every other song on that album can be taken as an example of the density, efficacity of NY’s late inspiration. Tumble Weed, When I Watch You Sleeping, Who’s Gonna Stand Up, let them spin and let yourself be taken in by their minimalist delicacy.

Almost on a same par is Peace Trail, sparsely instrumentated with only bass and drums. Although it has an incidental lesser song (Glass Accident), and the entire album has a more experimental approach in sound and accompaniment than Storytone, its approach is similar. Not the boisterous rock attitude of the Nelsons or the hefty ponderosity of late Crazy Horse, but letting silence work.

Both albums, Storytone Solo and Peace Trail, by the way, have a consistency in tone, performance and atmosphere we encounter in few of NY’s albums. We can only wonder why the critics and larger audiences haven’t paid more attention to these albums. They should be on top of everybody’s lists and range among the alps in NY’s oeuvre.

With his latest album, The Visitor, NY unfortunately moved in another direction. Although the record certainly has its fabulous moments, it fails to enduringly captivate. The sound is not right. I never liked Lukas Nelson’s guitar tone, and his style certainly disagrees with NY’s sound and style. The arrangements are muddy, the tone not consistent. On the good side, Corey McCormick is one of the grooviest bass players NY has worked with, and Micah Nelson brings out an irony and madness that was absent in Crazy Horse (there was humor there, of course, but a much rougher, pre-punk version of it). On the whole, one is left with the feeling something is missing. NY’s ailing voice, also his inner voice, one feels, is drowned out. Lateness needs sparsity and a careful listening, like a whisper.

Lateness is exactly this: knowing how to deal with your diminishing muscularity. It is about compensating strength with expressiveness, beauty with message. It is about digging to the essence. Just think of the artists who not only were capable to sum up their careers in late age, but also achieved great heights by exploring and exploiting their fragility. One artist who has, although in an entirely different vein, fruitfully explored his lateness, was Johnny Cash, who made his best records, solo, under guidance of Rick Rubin. He too was able to dive inward and draw on his immense experience and musicality. Or Billie Holiday. Or Leonard Cohen. This turn inward to one’s basis is extreme.

Although I doubt NY’s ability and wish to do large tours, I am sure he will be capable of giving us great records and explore his lateness further.

Thanks for everything T&T,
Greetings from Europe

Thank you so much Minke for the well made points here on Neil Young's musical meanderings.

Some excellent points. We'll just say this about Neil + POTR, watching them play together up close many times over the past several years, we've rarely seen Neil play with such joy, freedom and abandon. Also, initially, he seeme to really relish the coaching/teaching aspects of his role directing the younger guys. And the feedback together was a delight to behold.

We firmly beleive that in the long run, we'll see and hear some much more interesting stuff as they mature into more than just a backing back for Neil covers, as others have remarked.

More from the concert rail on Neil Young + Promise of the Real
Telluride, Colorado - 10/1/16.

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