ESSAY: Young Shakespeare by Neil Young | Bob Lefsetz

_#7    #6- "Young Shakespeare" - Neil Young

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As Neil Young's astonishing surge in productivity continues to amaze folks half his age -- or even a third or quarter his age, for that matter -- rusties continue to revel in the fact that "The focus was the gift".

As an "avalanche of an embarrassment of riches" cascades down the mountains -- or as we characterized previously -- Expecting to Calculate Neil Young 2021: Numbers Add Up To Nothin' ... or "A Rusties Holy Grail" -- we bring you a rather personal essay by the inimitably irreverent music industry analyst Bob Lefsetz and his thoughts on Neil Young's newest archival release "Young Shakespeare", recorded in 1971. 

Young Shakespeare by Neil Young 

 

From Bob Lefsetz's newsletter on Young Shakespeare Neil Young: 

So “Young Shakespeare” starts off with…

Applause.

And then picking, it’s “Tell Me Why,” but it’s solo acoustic, the notes are still there, but Neil’s vocal dominates, and the sound is pure, assuming you’re listening on a good system you’re jetted right back to the era, when a good system was everything, when we needed to get closer to the music. It’s fifty years later, but Neil is right there in the speakers, as if not a day has gone by.

But it’s the second song, a left turn, a new one, that makes you realize this project is different, memorable. Neil gives an intro, an explanation, in an era before you could excavate the meaning of all these songs, but if you were in the hall… “Old Man” is intimate, in all iterations, but especially here, sans the penumbra, stripped down to just the core elements, A YEAR BEFORE IT WAS COMMERCIALLY RELEASED! You’re listening, wondering what it was like being in the venue. Sure, most people see new music as anathema, but there’s a thin layer of artists, a very thin layer, who can pull it off, draw your attention and keep it. And one of those is Neil Young. Here “Old Man” is a song, not a statement. Long before it emanated from everybody’s speakers throughout campus.

But the real surprise is “Ohio,” which we always saw as a record, not a song, something that was of a time and place, the spring of 1970, not 1971, when this version was performed. And I’m listening and I’m thinking how much worse things are today, how we never could have predicted this, how back then if you were a music fan, if you listened to Neil Young, if you were a boomer, you shared a mind-set. The thought of rednecks, conservatives loving this music? IMPOSSIBLE! We had an army, and we all belonged. And it wasn’t so much Woodstock itself, but the movie and the triple album set nearly a year later, in April 1970, that made us realize we were more than a tribe, that we were the dominant force.

And if you bought “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” you knew the concomitant track to “Down by the River” on the second side, “Cowgirl in the Sand,” with a memorable melody and lyrics, but it was the instrumental interludes that made it stick out, don’t forget, this was when the Allman Brothers were starting to stretch out.

Even more interesting than “Old Man” is the medley of “A Man Needs a Maid and “Heart of Gold,” once again a year before they were released commercially. I’m sitting here thinking how you can’t say that anymore, that a man needs a maid, whatever your intention might be, it just sounds bad. And “A Man Needs a Maid” is the opposite of today’s music, it’s heavy and meaningful, that’s one of the main reasons you listened to “Harvest,” to marinate in not only the sound, but the words, this was a personal statement and it was clear that not only did we need to listen to it, we had to embrace it. AM music was disposable, FM music was not. And the funny thing is sans the strings, all that production, “A Man Needs a Maid” is just as heavy, just as meaningful, but more direct, there’s no scrim between the performer and the listener, it’s all up front and personal.

...

Hard to think that music was once scarce, where if you didn’t own it you couldn’t hear it. They sold live albums back then, usually as doubles, a career retrospective, a cheap dash for cash. But unreleased live recordings? Those were gold! Maybe you snuck your cassette deck into the gig, but there was no trading online, to have a recording of what once was…was nearly unfathomable. And “Young Shakespeare” is like the Dead Sea Scrolls, the past come to life. Not only was this show recorded, unlike with the scrolls, the sound is pristine, better than most records today! It’s not squashed, the bandwidth is not filled up with detritus to the point it’s impenetrable, “Young Shakespeare” is naked! Despite all the social media platforms, that’s what we’re looking for today, the stripped-down version, the raw truth, not for cash, but because it must be told. We don’t want endless memoirs in search of notoriety, we don’t want people online testifying to how bad they have it, what we’re looking for is someone not so dissimilar to ourselves laying out their truth, and we can listen or not, it’s our choice. That’s how music was back then, you were either in the know or you weren’t. Then again, albums like “Harvest” changed that paradigm.

But “Young Shakespeare” was recorded before “Harvest.”

How can something so old be so new? I guess that’s what happens when you lose your way, see the goal as being a brand as opposed to an artist.

But if you were around back then…

Pull up “Young Shakespeare.” Even cherry-pick the tracks. You’ll be stunned they’re all there, in faithful renditions.

And we listened to these songs so much back then we knew them by heart, not only the hits, but the album tracks, listen for the applause of recognition on these cuts. There are few things better than when you’re at the show and the act plays your favorite, you think they’re doing it just for you, you beam, you glow, you want the experience to last, but it does not.

But this show we were unaware occurred has been unearthed and it’s just like being there way back when.

And this album ain’t going to the top of the chart, nothing is gonna happen with it, it’s just for you, you either care or you don’t.

And if you do…

You yearn for the experience of yore, when it was just you and the music, that was all you needed, and when you push play, that’s where you’ll go, back to that seventies cocoon, when music drove the culture, when it was everything. Don’t let it bring you down, as long as these recordings are hiding in plain sight there’s a chance young people will be inspired and go down the road less taken, deliver ubiquity through the personal, satiate us, make life worth living.

 

Full review and analysis on Bob Lefsetz's newsletter on Young Shakespeare Neil Young:.

Also, see Notes on Neil Young Album "Young Shakespeare" - A Telegram from the Scotsman.

Young Shakespeare Deluxe (CD, LP & DVD) 

Neil Young's new release  "Young Shakespeare" is now available.

Order here

(Please shop locally & independently. But if you can't, we appreciate your supporting Thrasher's Wheat by clicking this link . Thank you!!!)

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Notes on Neil Young Album "Young Shakespeare" - A Telegram from the Scotsman

Young Shakespeare by Neil Young   

FROM: The "Inextinguishable Scotsman"

TO: Thrasher — my notes on "Young Shakespeare" are below. Thanks, and see you at TW!

Scotsman

__________

NEWSFLASH!

Neil was right.

Young Shakespeare *is* markedly different to the more famous Massey Hall album from the same tour in 1971.

At least part of this is down to production differences. Massey Hall is a more punchy and polished-sounding recording. It's very upfront...a classic David Briggs mix. Whereas Young Shakespeare sounds more like a well-worn bootleg — soft and hazy and dream-like.

Massey Hall has a cutting edge where Young Shakespeare floats on the breeze. And where Massey Hall is intense, Young Shakespeare is often more relaxed; aloof and distant, at times.

Now, I've been listening to Young Shakespeare via streaming on NYA. But I think this is the sort of album that should really be played on a proper record player on a snowy winter's evening.

There's a warmth to the inviting, crackly analog sound (and the performance) that really feels like a "journey through the past". This music isn't coming to you, in 2021: you're going back to it.

As for me, I wasn't even around in 1971. But I feel like I was, listening to this record.

We're travelling back before social media, back before the internet. Before mobile phones and blogs and instant messaging. Back when Neil hadn't written Like A Hurricane, and the World Trade Center's twin towers were still being built.

It's overwhelming, thinking of all the things still to come. Some good, some horrific.

Here's a question for you, out of curiosity:

Does 1971 feel like it was a very long time ago? Or the opposite: does it feel like it was yesterday?

For me, it feels like a different world entirely.

Is it possible to have nostalgia for a time you never knew? This record proves the answer is "yes".

Young Shakespeare isn't all warmth and cosiness. Certainly, Neil's spoken song-intro about heroin addicts (before The Needle And The Damage Done) should send a shiver down your spine:

"The ones I know, aren't dead yet."

Of course, at the same time this music was innocently dancing between the walls of the Shakespeare Theatre (a venue that, in my imagination, has velvet seats and friendly, uniformed staff), Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten was still living his life.

Tuscaloosa, meanwhile (a half-dead and borderline-depressing concert album from 1973), was recorded only about 10 weeks or so after Danny died from an overdose. And you don't have to listen to more than 30 seconds of the first track of Tuscaloosa to hear the difference in Neil's mental health.

The highlights of Young Shakespeare? For me, two tracks stand out.

A Man Needs A Maid is the first. It feels like the hard-hitting centerpiece, and the multi-layered piano arrangement shifts the record into a 3D experience. I love Neil's spoken song intro, too, where he sounds totally relaxed whilst enthusing to the audience.

The other stand-out track is Down By The River.

In its greatest electric performances (e.g. Bronco Bowl 1989), this song often attacks the listener like a cleaver-wielding maniac. Here, it seduces you down to the river before hiding your body inside a hollowed-out tree stump.

You'll listen to this version and find yourself haunted by it, days later.

Yes, it's true: there is a lot of violence in the world. There's horrific violence even in that non-vegan hamburger you just ate — for God's sake.

And there's even violence in the innocent world of 1971. Even within the safe space of the Shakespeare Theatre that we've temporarily found ourselves huddled together in.

We can't stay here forever. Sooner or later, we need to get back to 2021. I feel a bit sad as I write these words. And I sense you are feeling it, too.

I think Down By The River is a fitting end to this record. A powerful place to stop — on a (chilling) high.

But there's one more song, Sugar Mountain, which attempts to restore some cheer via a crowd sing-along. Neil is both relaxed and funny, here. But he's also just too "inward" to make this sort of thing work.

Of course, that's unfair: it probably *did* work well, live in the venue.

But I'm not in the venue! I'm here in 2021.

Or am I?

Listening to this record, it's hard to be sure. That's what I keep coming back to as I write this column. Time doesn't seem to matter too much. I've been writing now for a half-hour. Or is it an hour? Am I in 1971 or 2021? I've lost track.

Young Shakespeare has that sort of hypnotic effect. Hypnotic and magical.

Can a record be melancholy, cheerful, nostalgic, intense, tragic and relaxed — all at the same time? Give Young Shakespeare a few listens before sharing with me your answer.

Scotsman.

__________

FROM: Thrasher

TO: The "Inextinguishable Scotsman" 

Most excellent, sir.  Thanks for sharing your "notes"! 

We have given YS a spin or 2 and have watched the video films.  It still really stuns us all these years later how one man w/ an acoustic guitar could quell a large rowdy audience back in those turbulent times with new, unheard songs.  

It always struck as sheer bravery.  No band. No props. No effects.

So melancholy, cheerful, nostalgic, intense, tragic and relaxed?  All of the above, like water-washed diamonds on that rusted beach.

What is that they say about critics and sitting alone? Well, you're definitely much better than us for what you've shown.

Glad you're here Scotsman. As Meta Rocker would say:  om shanti

More on "Young Shakespeare" Album by Neil Young - Preview Track + Video: "Tell Me Why".

Young Shakespeare Deluxe (CD, LP & DVD) 

Neil Young's new release  "Young Shakespeare" is now available.

Order here

(Please shop locally & independently. But if you can't, we appreciate your supporting Thrasher's Wheat by clicking this link . Thank you!!!)

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ESSAY/REVIEW: "YOUNG SHAKESPEARE" by Neil Young | Bentley's Bandstand | NYA

REVIEW: YOUNG SHAKESPEARE | Bentley's Bandstand | NYA

In classic fashion, writer Bill Bentley "reviews" YOUNG SHAKESPEARE, Neil Young's latest album on Bentley's Bandstand | NYA.

 

We say "reviews" because if you have followed Bill Bentley's work over the years, you know he's a die hard Neil fan.  That said, when Bill writes, we read.

I listened once.

Then I listened again. I felt like you were sitting in a chair across the room from me, playing these twelve songs like you'd just written them. They were so alive and so personal and so strong, and your voice sounded a bit in awe of them yourself. Like maybe you were a bit surprised these were all your creations. Each time another song would start I would get the chills, like I was walking through a new door into a room I'd never been in.

Many of the songs had been on earlier albums and those original versions had always sounded cast in stone--"Ohio," "Cowgirl in the Sand' and others. But now, just you, your guitar and piano, and played them all like they were flowing from your heart for the very first time. You were twenty-five years old that night in Stratford, but the sound of your voice carried an eternal resonance that felt like you had landed on planet Earth carrying a timeless message from another land. It's hard to describe, but you didn't sound like someone on a theatre stage with an instrument or two. This was way beyond that. This music had a cosmic reverberation going on that really did bring in a new different reality. Something was happening.

As I played YOUNG SHAKESPEARE for the third time, I suddenly realized that if I would only be allowed to own one Neil Young album, this would be it.

 

Full review on on Bentley's Bandstand | NYA.

 

 

"Young Shakespeare" Album by Neil Young

 

A preview track and video for "Tell Me Why" from the upcoming "Young Shakespeare" album by Neil Young  is now available on NYA.

As noted here in 2020, Neil Young discussed the unreleased album and film titled "Young Shakespeare" from January 1971 at the Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Connecticut as "the earliest known film of any of my performances."

 

Young Shakespeare Deluxe (CD, LP & DVD)

(Please shop locally & independently. But if you can't, we appreciate your supporting Thrasher's Wheat by clicking this link . Thank you!!!)

 

RELEASE DATE: March 26th with pre-order now for the album and film on LP, CD, DVD, and Deluxe Box Set.

Neil Young Concert Ticket Stub
1971-01-22, Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, Connecticut, USA
via Sugar Mountain

"Young Shakespeare" tracklist:

Tell me why
Old man
The Needle And The Damage Done
Ohio
Cowgirl in the sand
A Man Needs A Maid
Heart of gold
Dance Dance Dance
Helpless
Don't Let It Bring You Down
Down By The River
Sugar Mountain

Neil Young - Tell Me Why (live) - Young Shakespeare (Official Music Video)

More on "Young Shakespeare" album by Neil Young.

Young Shakespeare
Times Contrarian | NYA

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VIDEO: "From Hank To Hendrix" - Solo Neil Young, 1992 | NYA

"From Hank To Hendrix" Neil Young - 1992-09-12Deer Creek Music Center, Noblesville, Indiana

A newly discovered concert of Neil Young solo at the Deer Creek Music Center in Noblesville, IN on 1992-09-12 has been located and video of the song "From Hank To Hendrix" is now playing in Hearse Theater | Screen #2 | NYA.

Neil Young posts on NYA:

Deer Creek!

My son Zeke showed me this one. I had never seen it before. We did a whole show and this is the first song I have heard or seen from it. We will be looking at ‘Deer Creek’ with fresh eyes and ears. Maybe it’s a whole concert movie for us!
ny

More on setlist, reviews, etc on Neil Young solo at the Deer Creek Music Center in Noblesville, IN on 1992-09-12 | Sugar Mountain.

Judging from review below, Neil seems to have been in vey good spirtits and cracking jokes. (Click to enlarge)

 

REVIEW: Neil Young solo at the Deer Creek Music Center in Noblesville, IN on 1992-09-12 | Sugar Mountain

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"Young Shakespeare" Album by Neil Young - Preview Track + Video: "Tell Me Why"

"Young Shakespeare" Album by Neil Young

 

A preview track and video for "Tell Me Why" from the upcoming "Young Shakespeare" album by Neil Young  is now available on NYA.

As noted here in 2020, Neil Young discussed the unreleased album and film titled "Young Shakespeare" from January 1971 at the Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Connecticut as "the earliest known film of any of my performances."

 

Via press release:

Just two months after the release of his seminal After the Gold Rush, Neil Young sat down for a performance at The Shakespeare Theater on January 22, 1971. The Stratford, CT show captures the artist stripped down to the bare essentials—acoustic guitar, piano, and harmonica.

The concert was recorded for presentation on German TV later that year but was not publicly available until now. The original 50 year-old analog tapes have been lovingly restored, making available early acoustic recordings of two After the Gold Rush songs, early Harvest tunes, and beloved favorites such as “Ohio,” “Cowgirl in the Sand,” “Helpless,” “Down by the River,” and “Sugar Mountain.”

Young wrote on NYA that Young Shakespeare is, “a more calm performance, without the celebratory atmosphere of Massey Hall, captured live on 16mm. Young Shakespeare is a very special event. To my fans, I say this is the best ever…one of the most pure-sounding acoustic performances we have in the Archive.”

Young Shakespeare Deluxe (CD, LP & DVD) 

 

Previously Neil tantalizingly teased that maybe he would pair "Young Shakespeare" with the 50th Anniversary release of "After The Goldrush" in 2020 as a double record.

That window has come and gone and it now appears that both albums are on the NYA Timeline as separate albums for 2021.  

RELEASE DATE: March 26th with pre-orders for the album and film on LP, CD, DVD, and Deluxe Box Set beginning on Friday, 2/12.

Neil Young Concert Ticket Stub
1971-01-22, Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, Connecticut, USA
via Sugar Mountain

"Young Shakespeare" tracklist:

Tell me why
Old man
The Needle And The Damage Done
Ohio
Cowgirl in the sand
A Man Needs A Maid
Heart of gold
Dance Dance Dance
Helpless
Don't Let It Bring You Down
Down By The River
Sugar Mountain

Neil Young - Tell Me Why (live) - Young Shakespeare (Official Music Video)

More on "Young Shakespeare" album by Neil Young.

Young Shakespeare
Times Contrarian | NYA

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Neil Young Tweets: "It’s ON THE STREET" - The Saga of "The Southern Man Story" Rages On

"It’s ON THE STREET"
via NeilYoungNYA | Twitter

Neil Young has tweeted out the message "It’s ON THE STREET".

It’s ON THE STREET pic.twitter.com/TXc2qwWK78

— Neil Young Archives (@NeilYoungNYA) June 5, 2020

The tweet by Neil Young is in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the global movement against the brutality of the police state.

16th St., NW - Washington, D.C.

Last week, Neil Young streamed a 2019 solo acoustic version of ‘SOUTHERN MAN’ on Neil Young Archives as a timely reminder of a long running observation back from 1970. "It’s not just ‘Southern Man’ now. It’s everywhere across the USA. It’s time for real change, new laws, new rules for policing," Neil writes on the NYA post.

‘SOUTHERN MAN’ by Neil Young
State Theatre, Minneapolis, MN - January 29, 2019 (3M/POLAR VORTEX TOUR)
via Neil Young Archives

Also, Neil Young has written a Viewpoint: Hope on Neil Young Archives saying that: "My black brothers and sisters have suffered long enough."

Viewpoint: Hope by Neil Young
via Neil Young Archives

Over the weekend, we posted on The Story of Neil Young's "Southern Man". The post covers the song's background and context along with a transcript of the "Southern Man Rap" from bootlegs of a Neil Young concert on May 16, 1974 at The Bottom Line, New York City.

For us here at TW, the whole entire issue of "Civil War 2.0" has been a continuous and lifelong issue and the core of our blogging for 25 years now as long time readers can attest.

"Ronnie and Neil"
We do hope that you will remember that a Southern Man needs Neil Young around anyhow. Now, more than ever. OK?!

We've often been asked why exactly do we devote so much attention to this whole "Ronnie and Neil" business?

On the one hand, it seems blatantly obvious when you look at the musical arc and the huge cultural impact of songs like "Alabama", "Southern Man", Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama", and Drive-By Truckers' "Ronnie and Neil" and their interconnectedness.


Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama"
MCA Records 45RPM Single
We have written at length about the interconnectedness "Four Dead in Alabama" and the "Four Dead in Ohio".


The Four Dead in Alabama + The Four Dead in Ohio
The "feud myth" between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young was brilliantly captured by the Drive-By Truckers 2002 album "Southern Rock Opera" song "Ronnie and Neil", as we've again discussed at length over the years.


Southern Rock Opera
Drive-by Truckers
Also, see Northern Man, Southern Man and The Un-Civil Wars of Donald Trump & Neil Young and Southern Man and Northern Man: Ronnie and Neil, The Un-Civil Wars & Rebels with Causes.


Street Survivors (original album cover)
Ronnie Van Zant wearing a Neil Young "Tonight's the Night" album cover t-shirt
So for us, as The #BigShift rolls along, our life's work is coming into crystal clear focus front and center. (Not withstanding the punches that came fast and hard lying on our back in the schoolyard") While gratifying that folks may just pay attention this time and learn something, our hopes have been raised before only to be dashed by the "ignorance is bliss" crowd.

Filming "Journey Through The Past"
Columbus, GA - October 1972
photo by Joel Bernstein
via Neil Young Archives

Hey, Hey, My, My, this is the story of Donnie, Ronnie and Neil.

"Don't forget what your good book said "
U.S. President Donald Trump @ St Johns Church
Washington, DC - June 2, 2020

Northern Man and Southern Man?
Donald Trump & Neil Young - 2014

Donnie, Ronnie & Neil + Merry: Southern Man and The Un-Civil Wars of Donald Trump & Neil Young or Rebels with Causes w/ Northern Man
See https://t.co/kWVSBe9ZK9
☮️♥️@NeilYoungNYA @dhlovelife @drivebytruckers pic.twitter.com/WsoYYWPTVX

— ThrashersWheat (@ThrashersWheat) June 4, 2020

And, so why exactly might a southern black woman cover a white Canadian man's ode to racism in the Confederate south again, now anyhow?

"Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth."
Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ronnie Van Zant

Daughters of the Confederacy Statue Removed
Old Town, Alexandria, VA - June 2, 2020
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes."
~~ George Santayana
or...
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
~~ George Orwell, 1984
or...
"Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future."
~~ George Orwell, 1984

Keep Calm, No Fear, Shut It Down, and Keep on Rockin'!

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The Story of Neil Young's "Southern Man"

‘SOUTHERN MAN’ by Neil Young
State Theatre, Minneapolis, MN - January 29, 2019 (3M/POLAR VORTEX TOUR)
via Neil Young Archives

Earlier this week, Neil Young streamed a 2019 solo acoustic version of ‘SOUTHERN MAN’ on Neil Young Archives.

On the album Decade, Neil Young's writes in the liner notes about the song "Southern Man":

This song could have been written on a civil rights march after stopping off to watch "Gone With The Wind" at a local theatre.

But I wasn't there so I don't know for sure. Actually I think I wrote it in the Fillmore East dressing room in 1970.

In light of current global events, Neil Young's song "Southern Man" has taken on new relevance about an old story. There were likely many drivers for featuring the song "Southern Man", but probably a key lyric is the line: "Don't forget what your good book said", given U.S. President Donald Trump's walk from The White to St Johns Church in Washington, DC on June 2, 2020.

"Southern man better keep your head
Don't forget what your good book said
Southern change gonna come at last
Now your crosses are burning fast Southern man"
U.S. President Donald Trump @ St Johns Church
Washington, DC - June 2, 2020

Here is some additional background and context on The Story of Neil Young's "Southern Man", courtesy of the essential Sugar Mountain.

From Neil Young concert on May 16, 1974 at The Bottom Line, New York City:

I have to tell you a story about Southern Man.

I was at the Oakland Coliseum. I was playing away. I was having a pretty mediocre time actually. It wasn't that hot you know. Show number fifty-eight. We were all tired. The band wasn't right in the first place. It was one of those things you know. By the time we got there - Southern Man - everybody, every night would yell "Southern Man, Southern Man". I could dig it you know. It was nice. But I went to sing it. And I was singing away and I started off...and by then you know I sang it with Crosby, Stills & Nash and I sang it by myself and I was singing it with these guys. By then I was starting to sort of feel like a Wurlitzer. Even though I really believed the song, where I was at, where I wrote it and everything. But anyway, I was singing away, "Southern Man better keep your head, don't forget what the good book...". This guy in the front row as far away as me and you. He jumped up, "right on, right on, I love it". He felt really good I could tell. All of a sudden this, this black cop just walked up to him - it just was the scene, the way it looked to me - and he just crunched him. And I just took my guitar off and put it on the ground and got in the car and went home.

A lot of those people couldn't understand it because they couldn't see from the other end. They thought I had just freaked out or something. But something about it - and ever since then I've never sung the song. I don't know why. I don't know. I sang it a lot. I sang it every night for a long time and I really - that's the story anyways. I couldn't do it. I don't feel it right now.

Filming "Journey Through The Past"
Columbus, GA - October 1972
photo by Joel Bernstein
via Neil Young Archives

From "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough:

JM: Are you preaching in “Southern Man”?

Neil Young: No. I’m warning. Warning. “Southern Man” was an angry song. I wrote “Southern Man” in my studio in Topanga. Susan was angry at me for some reason, throwing things. They were crashing against the door ’cause I was down there doin’ I don’t know what the fuck. We fought a lot. There’s some reason for it, I’m sure. It was probably my fault … everybody can relate to that.

“Southern Man” was more than the South—I think the civil rights movement was sorta what that was about. The far North and the deep South are not very different. They’re extremes. Look at Robbie Robertson—an Indian from Canada who wrote a lot about the deep South. I’m sure it’s the same kinda thing.

Southerners, northerners, they’re extremists. I mean, look at the people who live up in Canada. And look at the people who live in the deep South. They’re out there. I love Canada, with the hockey games and the fuckin’ spirit—everybody gets so fuckin’ into it. It’s so real. And there’s that real family thing about the South—everybody gets together and has barbecues, ya know what I mean?

“Southern Man” is a strange song. I don’t sing it anymore. I don’t feel like it’s particularly relevant. It’s not “Southern Man”—it’s “White Man.” Heh heh. It’s much bigger than “Southern Man.”

We hope you remember that a Southern Man needs Neil Young around anyhow. Now, more than ever.

Also, see Northern Man, Southern Man and The Un-Civil Wars of Donald Trump & Neil Young and Southern Man and Northern Man: Ronnie and Neil, The Un-Civil Wars & Rebels with Causes.

‘SOUTHERN MAN’ by Neil Young
State Theatre, Minneapolis, MN - January 29, 2019 (3M/POLAR VORTEX TOUR)
via Neil Young Archives

And then there is the story of Merry Clayton's Southern Soul Cover of Neil Young's "Southern Man". Southern soul for a southern man from a southern woman.

Merry Clayton

Hey, Hey, My, My, this is the story of Donnie, Ronnie and Neil.

Donnie, Ronnie & Neil + Merry: Southern Man and The Un-Civil Wars of Donald Trump & Neil Young or Rebels with Causes w/ Northern Man
See https://t.co/kWVSBe9ZK9
☮️♥️@NeilYoungNYA @dhlovelife @drivebytruckers pic.twitter.com/WsoYYWPTVX

— ThrashersWheat (@ThrashersWheat) June 4, 2020

And, so why exactly might a southern black woman cover a white Canadian man's ode to racism in the Confederate south again, now anyhow?

Keep Calm, No Fear, Shut It Down, and Keep on Rockin'!

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‘SOUTHERN MAN’ by Neil Young: POLAR VORTEX Tour | NYA

‘SOUTHERN MAN’
Neil Young from POLAR VORTEX
via Neil Young Archives

Currently streaming on Neil Young Archives is Neil Young performing a solo acoustic version of ‘SOUTHERN MAN’ from the POLAR VORTEX tour.

Directed by Bernard Shakey and Camera by CK Vollick, Neil writes on NYA:

Here’s me as an old guy singin’ his 50 year old song that was written after countless years of racism in the USA. . . . and look at us today! This has been going on for way too long. It’s not just Southern Man now. . . . .It’s everywhere across the USA. It’s time for real change . . . . new laws . . . . new rules for policing . . . . “Change gonna come at last . .. .”

‘Southern Man’ is from the forthcoming ‘POLAR VORTEX’ live performance longform here at NYA.

ny

(More on Neil Young's 2019 Solo "Big 3M Theater Tour"/"POLAR VORTEX" below.)

"Southern man better keep your head
Don't forget what your good book said
Southern change gonna come at last
Now your crosses are burning fast Southern man"
U.S. President Donald Trump @ St Johns Church
Washington, DC - June 2, 2020

Also, see Northern Man, Southern Man and The Un-Civil Wars of Donald Trump & Neil Young and Southern Man and Northern Man: Ronnie and Neil, The Un-Civil Wars & Rebels with Causes.

We hope you remember that a Southern Man needs Neil Young around anyhow. Now, more than ever.

Hey, Hey, My, My, this is the story of Donnie, Ronnie and Neil.

Neil Young Features ‘SOUTHERN MAN’ Stream on NYA
Donnie, Ronnie and Neil, The Un-Civil Wars & Rebels with Causes + Northern Man, Southern Man and The Un-Civil Wars of Donald Trump & Neil Young
See https://t.co/kWVSBe9ZK9
☮️♥️@NeilYoungNYA @dhlovelife @drivebytruckers pic.twitter.com/ZNzQMf7tzH

— ThrashersWheat (@ThrashersWheat) June 4, 2020

And then there is the story of Merry Clayton's Southern Soul Cover of Neil Young's "Southern Man". Southern soul for a southern man from a southern woman.

Merry Clayton

And, so why exactly might a southern black woman cover a white Canadian man's ode to racism in the Confederate south again, now anyhow?

Neil Young's Solo "Big 3M Theater Tour" - January 2019
Photo via NYA

• Neil Young's Solo "Big 3M Theater Tour"/"POLAR VORTEX" Begins Tonight: Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 23
• Neil Young Solo: Madison, Wisconsin, January 24
• Neil Young Solo Minneapolis Residency: #1 - Pantages Theatre, January 26
• LIVE STREAM: Neil Young Solo Minneapolis Residency: Night #2 - Orpheum Theatre, January 28, 2019
• LIVE STREAM "TEST" TONIGHT: Neil Young Solo Minneapolis Residency: Night #3 - State Theatre, January 29, 2019
• Neil Young Solo Minneapolis Residency: Night #4 - Northrop Auditorium, January 31, 2019

Neil Young
Polar Vortex Tour January 2019
photo by dh

Keep Calm, No Fear, Shut It Down, and Keep on Rockin'!

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