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An unofficial news blog for Neil Young fans from Thrasher's Wheat with concert and album updates, reviews, analysis, and other Rock & Roll ramblings. Separating the wheat from the chaff since 1996.
In December 2012, PBS | American Masters broadcast the documentary film "Inventing David Geffen. American Masters: Inventing David Geffen
is "an unflinching portrait of Geffen, who narrates his unorthodox rise
from working class Brooklyn boy to billionaire entertainment power
broker in extensive interviews."
Interviewees include Neil Young,
Elliot Roberts, David Crosby,
Henry Diltz, Gary Burden and many others.
From the unaired interview with David Crosby on working with Geffen and his clients, Neil Young and his manager Elliot Roberts. (Ed. note, unedited raw transcript)
David Crosby:At some point, he [Geffen] and Elliott [Roberts] parted ways and we went with Elliott and and I don't even remember if there was a specific issue or if it was just a drift in directions.
We certainly were noparty. We were not easy to handle.
And we would periodically, you know, argue with ourselves and Neil. Neil was a lot like David.
Neil came in to see us and was planning to leave. We were a vehicle. We made that record. He knew what that record would do and he had every intention of making a solid record right afterwards and going on.
And Elliott managed him extremely well, very diligently, and still does.
Elliotthandles Neil extremely well. It's that thing of building something with the intention of, you know, leapfrogging it. That was always there in their plan, you know. And on one level, here he was building a community, was building something that they could be proud of, it was building, you know, the most successful artists and the best singer songwriters. On another level, he was building something he could sell.
In December 2012, PBS | American Masters broadcast the documentary film "Inventing David Geffen. American Masters: Inventing David Geffen
is "an unflinching portrait of Geffen, who narrates his unorthodox rise
from working class Brooklyn boy to billionaire entertainment power
broker in extensive interviews."
Interviewees include Neil Young,
Elliot Roberts, David Crosby,
Henry Diltz, Gary Burden and many others.
David Geffen, Elliot Roberts, & Neil Young Frame from 'Inventing David Geffen': American Masters
"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
From the unaired interview with Gary Burden on working with Geffen and his clients, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: (Ed. note, unedited raw transcript)
Gary Burden:Yeah, he [Geffen]was very much like someone on the outside who really wanted to be in on the inside.
And there were there were incidences of a dark manifestation of the people who thought of him in a certain way, you know, but for the most part, it was like sort of good natured, you know, the photograph of David with the rose in his mouth and his shirt is all wet and he's all wet.
Thatillustrates how he he wanted to hang out all the time, not all the time, but he wanted to hang out with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and one day and he would come and he would sort of maybe pontificate or he would he would be very opinionated. And sometimes that would rattle people or would piss them off. And one time he was on like a rant of some kind. And he was at Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young House where they were recording and they picked him up and threw him and just threw him in and nobody said a word.
They just tossed him in the pool and he made something out of it. In the end, he came out. He had put the rose in his mouth, you know, so it all worked out.
Interviewer: But that was sort of the spirit that was pretty good natured, you know, doing that. And he had you know, he he would come down on people and things as well, you know? I mean. He was on a path and he would remove obstacles or smooth the road.
Gary Burden: He describes it that he wanted every single one of these artists that believed him to become a star.
Crazy Horse's drummer Ralph Molina was interviewed recently by Perfect Sound Forever's John Wisniewski & Jason Gross on working with Neil Young and he shared a few interesting details on his 50+ year career in music. (thanks Richard T & Dr J!)
Perfect Sound Forever:What kind of equipment (drums, sticks) do you like to use?
Ralph Molina: I have an old Ludwig set that I've used on many recordings
and tours. It's like wearing a comfortable old shirt.
Last couple tours,
I used Craviotto [drums]- the Ducks' drummer [Johnny Craviotto] began
building them. Neil asked if I'd use them and I said 'fine.' But I
prefer my Ludwigs. I started with Promark [drumsticks], 5b sticks, down
to 7a Promark. Now I use cool rods. While recording Greendale, I
was using sticks, and I was so much louder than Neil and Billy for those
songs, I picked up a pair of [Promark] Cool rods, and the feel and
blend was aces. I hit hard enough on my drums, with touch of course,
that I've used them the last couple of tours.
PSF: Any fun(ny) Neil stories to share? The best
I've heard is when he rowed Graham Nash to a lake/pond on his property,
with barns on each side blasting out music, and Neil yelling "I want to
hear more left barn!"
RM: Of course, but you'll have to read my book. There are too many.
PSF: So, you have a book coming out?
RM: Not 'til after I'm through playing.
PSF: It was just announced that a live album is coming out in February called Way Down in the Rust Bucket. Any thoughts on that particular show that was recorded for the album?
RM: That album was recorded during what we called 'the bar, club tour.'
We were really grooving, getting ready to go out on the Ragged Glory
tour. I remember Neil calling me, excited as crap- 'Ralph, you've got
to hear these tracks, shows we found, it's the real shit man.'
Me, I
don't get excited, LOL.
He said he was so happy that he had, I think he
said, 8 cameras filming the show. He said we did 3 sets that night. I
never thought we did 3 sets, but we did. It was from the Catalyst, a
bar, club near San Francisco. But I've got to say, it was great.
After
those shows, we were all hot and ready to go on our tour.
From what I
remember, we were having too much fun. But I must say, 'great call,
Neil,' to record that particular show.
I guess he felt it would be a
magical night. It was.
Full interview with Ralph Molina on Perfect Sound Forever's by John Wisniewski & Jason Gross.
For more on upcoming "WAY DOWN IN THE RUST BUCKET" -- both a film and double album -- by Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse, scheduled for release on February 26, 2021, see here.
RARE OUTTAKE: "Mr. Soul" in Berlin 1982 - Neil Young & TRANS Band
"Mr. Soul" - Berlin 1982
Neil Young, Nils Lofgren & Bruce Palmer
Neil Young's film "Berlin" played this past weekend in Hearse Theater | NYA and the following song "Mr. Soul" is an outtake from the film. (Thanks Harm!)
"Neil Young in Berlin" (1983), directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, is with The Trans Band and filmed in concert on Oct 19, 1982 at Deutschlandhalle, West Berlin, West Germany.
And might that be Producer David Briggs @ ~1:30???
David Briggs (?) Joe Lala & Neil Young
Sure looks like it Briggs.
Step aside, open wide, it's Mr Soul!
"Neil Young in Berlin"
(VHS tape box from TW Archives)
In December 2012, PBS | American Masters broadcast the documentary film "Inventing David Geffen. American Masters: Inventing David Geffen
is "an unflinching portrait of Geffen, who narrates his unorthodox rise
from working class Brooklyn boy to billionaire entertainment power
broker in extensive interviews."
Interviewees include Neil Young.
Elliot Roberts. Gary Burden.
David Geffen, Elliot Roberts, & Neil Young Frame from 'Inventing David Geffen': American Masters
From the unaired interview on working with Geffen and his clients, such as Neil Young: (Ed. note, unedited raw transcript; see comments below)
Elliot Roberts:From the very word go, and so we thought we were very lucky and again, meeting those two girls first as the first two clients we both had that David had and that I had it, when people ask me, even though I've been with Neil Young now 41 years, who's the biggest influence and what's the biggest influence in your career and how you forged a company and why you fought for artist rights and why you've never had contracts with people.
And and it was Laura and Joni, and they actually shaped how we thought the business should be run and how we thought artists should be treated. ...
That whole music scene right after I went out with Joan the very first day in the studio, and David Crosby was producing Joan's first album, the very literally the very first day in the studio. John and I are in the studio and an engineer casually mentioned the Buffalo Springfield are in the room next door.
And Joan says, Oh, Eliot, you've got to come with me and meet Neil. You're going to love this guy. She knew him from Toronto and they had been friends from the folk circuit and they'd spent a lot of time together. So we went that after jam session, we went into room B. Knock on the door and the Springfield are in there and Neil's in there and. We go out to dinner that night and I'm living on the floor at B Mitchell Reid's house at this time, and Neil had just taken a house with this woman and QIO for rent and he says, hey, you can rent the room at my place if you know you're sleeping on the floor.
Anyway, within like three weeks, I was working with the Springfield and I could tell they were breaking up. And I had already started a. Felt that Neil and I were really in sync on just about everything that we thought and we thought we were starting to have a very, very close relationship. And I'm talking to David all the time and their break, you know, and then Crosby and Stills, Stills and I have a good relationship and they're starting and then Graham comes into town one day. We all go to the to the whisky and he comes over to Joan's house. By now, we're all living in Laurel Canyon. And and I'm telling David, you got to get your ass out here because there's all these amazing, not good but amazing artists. And I can only do so much. And I need your help. Come on out here. And over a period of time, he did. He came out and over a period of time, weeks and months, it wasn't very, very long.
But by that time, Crosby, Stills and Nash had been formed. I had formed it with David and David had to do all the negotiating for us. And it was a very hard thing to do. And I had called David and I said, listen, I've got the Buffalo Springfield on Atlantic. I've got Crosby on the birds, I have Graham Nash on a Universal. I'm dealing with the people and I don't know how to get them off of all these labels. David said, you deal the band, I'll leave this to me and I'll come up with something. And he did. He came out, we barnstormed and he came up with all these trades and he negotiated with Ahmed and with Clive. I think it was Walter Yetnikoff. Yeah, I think it was actually Walter and then Clive. Yeah.
Because I think Walter was still there when Crosby was a bird, so he needed the birds released. Then Walter left. Clive came in and that's when Pocho he made the rest of the of this of these deals to actually free these artists. And we got Stephen off, Stephen and Graham and David on Atlantic. We got David offered Neil off Atlantic on to Warner Brothers, where I was able to make a solo deal with Jerry Wexler. Story with Jerry was again was an important to David. He dealt with David much more than I did. Jerry was a friend, but he he did a lot more business with Neil.
"After the Gold Rush" by Neil Young 
>> Pre-Order on Amazon.com << 
Human Highway
Concert Review of the Moment
This Land is My Land
FREEDOM In A New Year
*Thanks Neil!*
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The Unbearable Lightness of Being Neil Young
Pardon My Heart
"We're The Ones 
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