A recent comment by Art Symbol sent us over to a link by Dutch journalist Constant Meijers from Neil Young's time in Amsterdam following the final CSNY 1974 tour show at Wembley Stadium in London.
Wembley Stadium, London, 1974-09-14
(details @ Photo of the Moment)
Constant Meijers had intimate access to Neil's entourage as Neil tried to figure out his next move following the massive success of the CSNY 1974 stadium tour. Meijers is the author of the concert review of Neil Young's Tonight's
the Night tour in London, 1973, that was part of the album's liner notes.
"Welcome on Miami Beach, Ladies and Gentlemen!"
During the compiling of the Decade album, Neil
Young did not forget his brief stay in Amsterdam in September 1974. One
of the innersleeve photos, showing Neil and his guitar on a bed, was
taken in a hotel room at the Amsterdam Memphis Hotel by official
CSN&Y photographer Joel Bernstein. (see top photo)
This is an account of Neil’s stay in Amsterdam, told by Constant Meijers,
which was published in Muziekkrant Oor, giving an exclusive, albeit
shortened, version of his account of Neil Young’s stay. It was
originally intended to be published as a chapter of The Loner - A
Biography Of Neil Young.
This article has been painstakingly translated into English by Peter Didderiens. The pictures were taken by Gijsbert Hanekroot.
Here is the story of "10 days with The Loner" by Constant Meijers.
Reflections
Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot
Fun read! Wonder if he trimmed those sideburns?
ReplyDeletedefinitely some history from back in the day.
ReplyDeleteand yep, he did trim those sideburns ... and everything else.
we recall seeing the RNS tour and going "is that Neil"?? He was so clean cut w/ short hair and fresh shave. No scruffiness at all.
The sideburns came back w/ a vengeance for Shocking Pinks tour.
We sort of did the same time then. "is that really Neil"?? He looked like some sort of Elvis impersonator.
if you check out Neil pictures, he's never looks the same in any 2 images. quite uncanny.
Interesting read - thanks to Art for flagging. I'm particularly intrigued by mention of Neil having a saxophone! Don't remember that coming up before...
ReplyDeleteI'm also wondering if all of the 37 new songs he had at that point have now been made available to us either on subsequent albums or on NYA? All the ones that are named have I think, but 37 is a big number.
ReplyDeleteSome great insights in there on the origins of, influences on, and inspirations of the likes of Vacancy, Love/Art Blues, Frozen Man and Only Love Can Break Your Heart too.
@ Ron - good question on the sax.
ReplyDeleteAs for the 37 songs, a possible exaggeration? Altho this timeframe has always been known as Neil's most highly prolific phase where is was writing far faster than he could record the songs.
we're pretty blessed that these obscurities like Vacancy, Love/Art Blues, Frozen Man finally saw official releases. The Old Homestead Vol#2 disc was a real watershed/motherlode of obscurities that we return to often.
as updated above, there has always been a question of who is looking on in the background of the top photo. Could this possibly be Mazzeo??
The top photo on this thread? Isn't that Danny Whitten? It's a picture from the Decade album, yes?
ReplyDeleteYes that's Danny Whitten. Same photo is in Waging Heavy Peace, before Chapter 49: "Formal portrait, sitting in the Big Chair at home in Topanga Canyon, with Danny Whitten behind me, while recording Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, 1969." Photo was taken by Tom Wilkes, a similar one, e.g. here: https://recordmecca.com/item-archives/neil-young-original-unpublished-tom-wilkes-photograph/
ReplyDelete@ Richie - right, from Decade. But we have an error here on our part.
ReplyDelete@ Gordon - thanks for correction. Updated. Posted wrong photo from Decade. Took a little while to track down. This image is inside the insert sleeve and we missed when looking earlier.
Probably worthy of an updated post on Tom Wilkes.
Of course, we have a special fondness for Wilkes, as he designed Harvest cover which we use as the font for TW.
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ReplyDeleteWhat a fascinating story, and it all happened the week of my eighteenth birthday. Neil’s affection for antique cars is remarkable. And him being so nonchalant about loosing $90,000.00 absolutely cracks me up. He clearly cares more about his music than money. Thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeletePeace 🙏