The Greatest Neil Young Song Neil Young Never Wrote

America - The Band  (Click photo to enlarge)
 

It's considered to be the greatest Neil Young song Neil Young never wrote.

The song "A Horse With No Name" by the band America ended up knocking Neil Young's "Heart Of Gold" out of the #1 spot on Billboard charts in 1972.

A rather fascinating article on the whole phenomenon surrounding Neil Young, the band America and the confusion which still continues to this day.

From "The story of America, the 70s soft rockers behind the greatest Neil Young song Neil Young never wrote" | Louder Sound by Rob Hughes:

The song in question was a winsome acoustic travelogue by band member Dewey Bunnell, now titled A Horse With No Name. 

By January 1972 it was at No.3 in the UK singles chart, while their self-titled debut album was on its way to the upper reaches of the LP listings. Within two months, both single and album were sitting atop the US charts. America were the newest sensations on the block.

The breezy melody and sun-caked harmonies of A Horse With No Name typified the group’s soft-rock sound. A nostalgic paean to a real or imagined past, it was infused with the same turn-of-the-70s ecological spirit as Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush. Bunnell’s voice was eerily similar to Young’s, while America’s dreamy otherness owed much to Young’s sometimes-compadres Crosby, Stills & Nash.

So how exactly did the band go about fielding accusations that A Horse With No Name was little more than a Neil Young/CS&N rip-off?

“I really felt like nothing was contrived,” answers Bunnell. “We weren’t trying to be imitators. We were truly inspired by that music, just as we had been before by The Beatles and The Beach Boys. We were reflections of our generation and the whole hippie thing. And Neil was really a big spokesperson for that.

“I didn’t expect some of the backlash after its success. Had the song just died on the vine people would have been more inclined to treat it differently. But then you get the Neil fans, who were rabidly protective. And, of course, there’s the whole thing about the timing, with us knocking Heart Of Gold off the top of the charts.

“It was ironic that, after all this, we moved back to the US and were managed by David Geffen and Elliot Roberts, whose crown jewels were Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Even to this day, there are people who think A Horse With No Name is a Neil Young song.”

It didn’t help that promoters used the association glibly too. An advertisement in Boston for America’s first US tour of 1972 stated, somewhat maddeningly: ‘America, Horse With No Name – They’ll make your little Heart Of Gold rush.’

The band became even keener to prove they were no one-trick pony.

Full article  @ "The story of America, the 70s soft rockers behind the greatest Neil Young song Neil Young never wrote" | Louder Sound by Rob Hughes.

More on Neil Young's timeless classic song "Heart of Gold".

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Canada's Arbutus Global Middle School Covers Neil Young's "Heart of Gold"

Canadian Music Class Challenge

 

OK, we admit it.  We're just a bunch of suckers for cute kids doing Neil Young cover songs. 

Here is Neil Young's song "Heart of Gold" covered by Canada's Arbutus Global Middle School as part of Canadian Music Class Challenge. enjoy

 

From video description:

These incredible Grade 6,7 and 8 music students from Arbutus Global Middle School in Victoria BC live, learn and make music on the beautiful lands of the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSANEC peoples. We are thrilled to be participating in the CBC Music Class Challenge and share our latest entry of Neil Young’s Heart of Gold. 

Putting this arrangement together has been a labour of love. We hope you enjoy our video! 

For more information about the Canadian Music Class Challenge please visit: http://cbcmusic.ca/musicclass

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Neil Young & Romanticism in His Music: A Happy Valentine's Day to All of Our Hearts of Gold

"Don't Forget Love" 

art by gary ward  

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Appropriately, Neil Young with Crazy Horse has released a 2nd version of a video with animation for the song "Don't Forget Love" from the album "Barn".

  

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Don't Forget Love, Animated Version (Official Music Video) 


It's been roughly 45+ years now since Neil Young's immortal song "Heart of Gold" entered our lives, and we'd like to wish that every day could be Valentine's Day.

It should be noted that the post on Neil Young’s Harvest at Age 50 kicked off a healthy discussion amongst our resident commenters (now known as ‘Thrashers Wheat Sanity Collective’) over "romanticism in Neil's music".  Check out those comments -- should you be a romantic.

 

Harvest by Neil Young - Released on February 1, 1972

(see comprehensive 50th anniversary of Harvest +

Romanticism & Neil Young’s Harvest album at 50 ) 

Regarding Neil Young and Romanticism -- and to a degree post-romanticism -- from a review of Neil Young's 1977 album American Stars 'N Bars by PAUL NELSON, originally published in Rolling Stone on Aug 11, 1977:

In the New York Times, John Rockwell, in a highly favorable review, characterized Young as "the quintessential hippie-cowboy loner, a hopeless romantic struggling to build bridges out from himself to women and through them to cosmic archetypes of the past and of myth." Well, no.

Unless one understands the "On the Beach"/"Motion Pictures"/"Ambulance Blues" trilogy from On the Beach (and "Don't Be Denied" from Time Fades Away), one simply cannot write intelligently about Neil Young. But when one understands these songs, one begins to perceive the exciting possibility that perhaps Young is rock & roll's first (and only?) postromantic. That he knows something that we don't, but should. Indeed, I suspect that Young took one of the longest journeys without maps on record, never even slowed up at the point of no return, but somehow got back anyway, a better man with all senses intact. When nearly overwhelmed by marital difficulties and the death of friends, he apparently looked into himself and managed an instinctive or willed act of Jungian purification that put him somewhat safely on the far side of paradise, if not paradox. I'm not saying he's happy, but who the hell is happy? For Young, being a postromantic probably means he still loves the war, but knows exactly how and where to invest his combat pay-he may lose it, but never hopelessly.

Romanticism is a foreign country; they do things differently there. It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Too homicidal. Having gotten through the more self-destructive aspects of romanticism, Neil Young certainly takes full advantage of his revisiting privileges, pointing out the highlights and contradictions of his itinerary to all who will listen.

Last week, we celebrated Neil Young's album Harvest with an epic 50th anniversary posting by Harvey Kubernik. The  comment thread on 50th anniversary of Harvest yielded a staggering barn full of thoughts and musings on the significance of love, romance and the impact of Neil Young's music, which is visualized in the painting below.
 

"Wanderer above a sea of fog"

by Caspar David Friedrich

(See Comment of the Moment: Romanticism & Neil Young’s Harvest album at 50

& thank you Dionys)

Also, check this week's episode of Thrasher's Wheat Radio 2.0 Vodcast/Podcast - Episode #13 where we honor Harvest album's 50th anniversary.

  

  Thrasher's Wheat Radio 2.0 Vodcast/Podcast - Episode #13

 | Hosted by WBKM.org  

 

So there comes a time for a delightfully heart-warming little love story or ...Understanding Neil Young's Music.

Love And Only Love
(Via Rusted Moon)

Often, we've found ourselves trying to explain Neil Young's music to others with varying degrees of success. In the end, we find that his music isn't really something that can be explained.

While we've expended quite a few words on this blog making an attempt, it really is the stories of others which transcend the gap much better.


Art by Susan Farrington
So Happy Valentine's Day to all of the hearts of gold out there.


"Dreamin Man" by Neil Young

FOUND: "Heart of Gold" ... Literally | The New England Journal of Medicine

Here's a very rare performance of Neil Young's "Love in Mind" at Carnegie Hall, NYC on 1/9/14.

 

 
And no Neil Young song seems to say Happy Valentine's Day more than "Harvest Moon" it would seem by gauging the song's popularity as a "First Dance" song.

The rEVOLolution is Love

Also, see JUNG NEIL: Love and Only Love from the Baghavad Gita (It’s All One Song)

"Battle of Kurukshetra of the Mahabharata Epic"
On the left the Pandava hero Arjuna sits behind Krishna, his charioteer. On the right is Karna, commander of the Kaurava army.
(More @ JUNG NEIL: Love and Only Love from the Baghavad Gita (It’s All One Song))

 

And Happy Valentine's Day to our Heart of Gold, Thrashette. I love you!

FOUND: A Heart of Gold
An Island in the Sun Under a Rainbow

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Also, see Top 10 Neil Young Love Songs.

"Heart Of Gold", NYA Song of the Day, 2/14/19.

LOVE IS SUCH A GIFT.
NYA Song of the Day

Love & Only LOVE
New York City, NY - January 2014

thrashers
☮️♥️
Farm Aid 2019

Neil Young - Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada 2019-02-04 | NYA

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Splendid Isolation: Neil Young's Vocals Isolated on 'Heart of Gold' | Far Out Magazine

 Neil Young: In the 1970's

A rather interesting experiment involving Neil Young's oh-so classic and beloved song 'Heart of Gold'.

From Hear Neil Young's remarkable isolated vocals for 'Heart of Gold' | Far Out Magazine by Jack Whatley:

If one song sealed Neil Young’s transformation from counter-culture stalwart to a new rock and roll poster boy, then it has to be ‘Heart of Gold’. 

Another brilliant song from the Harvest album, which could have easily dominated this list, sees Young transcend rock and roll and turn pop, if only for a short while.

Featuring backing vocals from none other than James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, the song shot Young into stardom and was later despised by the songwriter. It’s a song that, ironically, Bob Dylan saw as purposely copying him: “The only time it bothered me that someone sounded like me was when I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, in about ’72 and the big song at the time was ‘Heart of Gold’,” he once commented.

From performance in 1971 on the BBC, here is Neil Young's song  'Heart of Gold'  with his vocals isolated.  Listen.

 

Also, see more on Neil Young's song 'Heart of Gold', the lyrics and meaning.

And speaking of "Splendid Isolation",  see a special Bridge Concert Memory: "Splendid Isolation" by Warren Zevon w/ Neil Young in 1993. 

 

Warren Zevon and Neil Young - 1993

(Note: Neil's right hand)

Bridge Concert Memory: "Splendid Isolation" by Warren Zevon w/ Neil Young 

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"When God Made Me" w/ Comment by Zeke Young

 "When God Made Me" by Neil Young

 

Today, the song "When God Made Me" from the concert film "Neil Young: Heart of Gold", directed by Jonathan Demme, is streaming on Hearse Theater | NYA.

The song's posting comes with a special comment by Neil Young's son Zeke:

I love the performance of this song.

It has such feeling and soulfulness to it. It is one of my favorites from the film Heart Of Gold that my Dad made with all his great friends along with the great film maker and director Jonathan Demme.

This is one of my favorites from this time of my Dads life.

Love
Zeke

Back in 2006, movie reviews for the concert film "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" were virtually unanimous in singing the film's praises.

The film received a standing ovation when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and the consensus reaction was  "a lasting, sensational film that makes you feel like you’re sitting in a concert." Actor Robert Redford, the Sundance Festival director, attended the premiere along with many other celebrities.

"When God Made Me"
Neil Young and Fisk University Jubilee Choir
"Shelter From the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast"
The lyrics for "When God Made Me" are ripe for interpretation. Start with the gospel choir-like Fisk University Jubilee Singers. The student vocalists introduced "slave songs" to the world and, in many opinions, preserved this music from extinction. So Neil Young has not embarked on some light-hearted exercise here as many were lead to believe.

Neil and the Fisk University Jubilee Choir
Live 8 Benefit Concert - July 2005 How can a man asking 10 questions provoke so much discussion?

The debate and controversy over the "When God Made Me" lyrics continues to this day. After flaring up after the song's debut at the Live 8 concert in July 2005, things settled down. Then when the song reappeared for the Hurricane Katrina Benefit "Shelter From the Storm" in Septemeber 2005, the debate heated up once again.

 

INTERVIEW: Inside Neil Young's Faith | World Cafe

Also, see "Prairie Wind": A Gentle Breeze Deceptively Lulls The Howls Of Loss.

More on "Heart of Gold" premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and the Nashville Ryman Concerts, the album "Prairie Wind", and the song "Heart of Gold", which inspired the film's title.

More on friendship and films of Neil Young & Jonathan Demme.

Neil Young & Jonathan Demme
"Heart of Gold" Premieres at Sundance Film Festival - 2006

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A Very Happy Valentine's Day To Our Hearts of Gold: "We Miss & Love You All!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's been roughly 45+ years now since Neil Young's immortal song "Heart of Gold" entered our lives, and we'd like to wish that every day could be Valentine's Day.

And no Neil Young song seems to say Happy Valentine's Day more than "Harvest Moon" it would seem by gauging the song's popularity as a "First Dance" song.

So there comes a time for a delightfully heart-warming little love story or ...Understanding Neil Young's Music.

Love And Only Love
(Via Rusted Moon)

Often, we've found ourselves trying to explain Neil Young's music to others with varying degrees of success. In the end, we find that his music isn't really something that can be explained.

While we've expended quite a few words on this blog making an attempt, it really is the stories of others which transcend the gap much better.


Art by Susan Farrington
So Happy Valentine's Day to all of the hearts of gold out there.


"Dreamin Man" by Neil Young

FOUND: "Heart of Gold" ... Literally | The New England Journal of Medicine

Here's a very rare performance of Neil Young's "Love in Mind" at Carnegie Hall, NYC on 1/9/14.

Also, see JUNG NEIL: Love and Only Love from the Baghavad Gita (It’s All One Song)

"Battle of Kurukshetra of the Mahabharata Epic"
On the left the Pandava hero Arjuna sits behind Krishna, his charioteer. On the right is Karna, commander of the Kaurava army.
(More @ JUNG NEIL: Love and Only Love from the Baghavad Gita (It’s All One Song))

And Happy Valentine's Day to our Heart of Gold, Thrashette. I love you!

FOUND: A Heart of Gold
An Island in the Sun Under a Rainbow

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Also, see Top 10 Neil Young Love Songs.

"Heart Of Gold", NYA Song of the Day, 2/14/19.

LOVE IS SUCH A GIFT.
NYA Song of the Day

Love & only LOVE
New York City, NY - January 2014

thrashers
☮️♥️
Farm Aid 2019

Neil Young - Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada 2019-02-04 | NYA

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STREAMING THIS WEEKEND: "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" Film + Reviews

"Neil Young: Heart of Gold" Film

This weekend, the concert film "Neil Young: Heart of Gold", directed by Jonathan Demme, will be streaming on Hearse Theater | NYA.

Therefore, mining and metallurgy metaphors coming your way.

Movietone: Heart of Gold

Directed by Jonathan Demme

Honoring the great traditions of Nashville music at the Ryman Auditorium, home of The Grand Old Opry. Thanks to Jonathan Demme for making this picture.

Streaming at the Hearse Theater all Weekend pic.twitter.com/jE3XooOlX6

— Neil Young Archives (@NeilYoungNYA) March 14, 2020

Back in 2006, movie reviews for "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" were virtually unanimous in singing the film's praises -- and critics were nearly unanimous in using mining and metallurgy metaphor phrases like "glittering gold" and "strikes gold" in reviews.



Here's a sample of some of the reviews for the Jonathan Demme film of the 2005 Nashville Ryman concerts.

From New York Metro review "Young at Heart: Jonathan Demme syncs up perfectly with Neil Young" by David Edelstein:

"Among the achievements of Neil Young: Heart of Gold is that it triumphs over its exalted press notes, which describe it as "a groundbreaking union of film and music ministered by Jonathan Demme and Neil Young." Ministered, huh? I've always
preferred my country-rock with a grain of sulphur, but the Reverend Demme's track record with concert films (chiefly that celebration of transcendental alienation Stop Making Sense) is as good as anyone's, and the Reverend Young, bouncing back from a brain aneurysm, has certainly earned the right to take the long view. And by the time the director gets to Young and his musical family standing around tuning their instruments - it's right before an August 2005 Nashville performance of Young's latest album, Prairie Wind, at one of the former sites of the Grand Ole Opry - you get an inkling of the movie's fluid grace."

From MTV.com review "'Neil Young: Heart Of Gold': The Magic Of Music Made Visible" by Kurt Loder:

"'Heart of Gold' isn't quite like any other concert movie. There are no frantic edits, no showy montages, no swooping pans across a cheering audience. (In fact, the audience isn't even shown.) The picture was shot entirely with long-range lenses, which means there were no cameramen scurrying around the stage to distract the musicians. The performances move forward in long, serene takes, and the result is a film that focuses completely on the playing and singing. The musicians' empathic interaction is revelatory."

From The New Yorker review by DAVID DENBY:

"Demme keeps the cameras right in front of the performers, and he avoids the stale rock-concert ecstasy of swooping and swivelling and shooting into the lights. Nothing in this movie is aggressively sold; nothing in it is intended to change your life. The attitude is "Take it or leave it -- this is what Neil Young is."

Ignoring the audience in the hall, Demme concentrates on the music and the lyrics and the relations between Young and members of the band -- sometimes just a nod, a smile, a raised eyebrow. Since the sound is unusually clear as well as full, one can actually hear the lyrics in all their mournful near poetry. One might call "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" soothing, even becalmed, but mellowness and ripeness, when they exist at this high level of craft, should have their season, too."

Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN Concerts - Septemeber 2005
CBC.ca review "Forever Young - Jonathan Demme captures Neil Young at his best in Heart of Gold" by Stephen Cole:

"Elegantly lit and handsomely staged in the neo-classical country style Young intended — no haystacks or sequins! — this concert film has the burnished glow of a Vincente Minnelli MGM Technicolor musical from the 1950s. And no one seems happier to be transported back in time than Young, decked out in a pewter swallowtail coat and wide-brimmed gaucho hat, as he sidles up to prim and pretty cowgirl Emmylou Harris for an old-fashioned duet."

Neil Young and Emmylou Harris
Guess who has 11 Grammy Awards and which one has zero?From New York Times review "A Weathered Rocker but Still Unbowed" By MANOHLA DARGIS:

"In 'Neil Young: Heart of Gold,' the colors shift from ocher to shades of blue as the mood shifts from plaintive to rueful. Every so often a scrim slides awkwardly into place behind the musicians and a painted train cutting across a prairie is replaced with an interior scene of a skinny cat, a fat chair and a fireplace. The show's simplicity and homespun vibe serve Mr. Young's emotionally tremulous songs, both the new and the old, wonderfully well. At one point, during one of his occasional verbal rambles, he says half-jokingly, half-defensively that he's got some love songs left in him. This film, which is at once a valentine from one artist to another and a valentine from a musician to his audience, is surely proof that he does."

From The Washington Post "Neil Young film becomes American family affair" by Bob Tourtellotte:

"Neil Young, iconoclastic troubadour for decades of counter-culture in the United States, has made the ultimate American family film.

It seems ironic, but it is true, says Jonathan Demme, who directed "Neil Young: Heart of Gold," which is now playing in U.S. theaters.

The term "family film" is associated with Disney and Pixar and huggable stuffed toys. Young's song "Needle and the Damage Done" speaks to heroin addiction, and he will forever be linked to 1960s and 1970s anti-war protests with songs like "Ohio" from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. And since then, the 60-year-old has only grown in stature to become a standard bearer for angst-ridden teen rockers.

Yet, in "Heart of Gold," the Canadian-born Young and Demme have created what they term a "dream concert" of songs from his recent "Prairie Wind" album and older "Harvest" and "Harvest Moon" records that conjure spirits of country-and-western music's past and harken to a simple life in the North American heartland.

"It puts me in touch with some deeply felt, old-fashioned, powerful ideas about what America stands for, what the family stands for, what friends stand for," Demme told Reuters in a joint interview with Young. "There's a complete absence of cynicism. I think it makes you feel good to be human."

From Newsday.com review "Being Neil Young: A Survivor's Song" BY JAN STUART:

"You don't have to be a Neil Young fan or contemporary to be deeply moved by the prescience of these songs or the affirming presence of his back-up singer wife, Pegi, his friend Emmylou Harris (who provides memorable assist on "This Old Guitar") and a graying fraternity of studio-musician pals from the year one. To see and hear "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" is like soaking in a warm tub filled to the brim with luxuriant, life-restoring music."

From LA Daily News "Forever Neil Young" by Fred Shuster:

"It was a very personal performance, like my club performances before I became well-known, before people developed preconceptions of who I am," Young, 60, said from his home near San Francisco. "The idea was based on the old folk tradition where you'd talk a little about a new song before you'd play it. Very much in the Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan tradition - although Bob never talked that much - in the fact we were doing all new songs for an audience that had never heard them before. This was a crowd who knew what to expect - it wasn't a crowd yelling for 'Heart of Gold.' "

From Village Voice review "Long May He Run: At 60, a not-so-young Neil confronts death with elegiac hymns to family, friendship, and love" by Tom Charity:

"Plaintive and valedictory, Prairie Wind unfolds as a testament: Almost all the songs default to the first-person singular, and judging by Young's simple, straightforward intros, he means them to be understood as such. "Here for You" is dedicated to a daughter who has left home. "Far From Home" is about the right resting place, and "This Old Guitar" is a tribute to the instrument he "inherited" from Hank Williams and will pass on in turn one of these days. Mortality and remembrance are abiding themes; abiding is another."

"Thanks to Jonathan Demme for making this picture. Johnathan was so supportive of my music.
I will never forget what he did for me." - NY
Neil Young & Jonathan Demme
"Heart of Gold" Premieres at Sundance Film Festival - 2006

From Rolling Stone review by Peter Travers:

"The first half consists of songs from Prairie Wind, the album Young recorded last year after a brain aneurysm threatened to call him out before he hit sixty.

Screw that. With a voice that still stands up to the country-rock throb he coaxes out of his guitar, Young lets his new songs of hard and high living on the Canadian plains bleed into the classics he wrote for Harvest and Harvest Moon. Demme is there to catch every note of bruising beauty. You don't just hear it in the music, you see it etched in Young's face. This is more than a movie, it's a privilege."

On The Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum ChuckHD28 posts on a preview screening:

"The whole package draws you in and has you believing that you have the best seat in the house. The shots Demme captures are of intimate moments. Intimate moments between and among the musicians, their music and the audience. Knowing looks, smiles and nods among and between performers. That innate sign language between a leader and his band. Count it out Chad, enter now Keith, all finish. Almost indetectable inflections that the all together ensemble reads in near perfect harmony.

Oh, and since there might be a couple of people here who have some interest in Martin guitars, I suppose I should mention the Martins. Neil's 1941 'bone and his Longworth era D-45 are featured, as well as a new, (as it looked to me) D-28 (rosewood D with a black pickguard), that Pegi Young played for a couple of tunes. Of course, Neil mentioned that the 'bone once belonged to Hank Williams and that this was likely the first performance the Ryman had seen of this guitar since Hank Williams, Sr. last performed there. BTW, also on stage playing guitar was Grant Boatright, the gent responsible for introducing Neil to Tut Taylor and "Hank" back in the early 70's."

From Chromewaves "I've Been A Miner For A Heart Of Gold", Frank blogs:

"There's a real serenity and vulnerability about Neil in these performances, in both the songs and the somewhat surprising openness of the between-song dialogue - it's a real celebration of his life, his family and friends. The first half of the film is all new material, but later on he gets into some classic acoustic material which sounds so good, it might well bring a tear to your eye.

On the visual front, the film is appropriately understated, using slow cuts and tight close-ups on the performers in conjunction with simple but warm stage and costume design to create an intimate, elegiac and down-home atmosphere perfectly suited to the mood and setting of the Grand Ole Opry. Most past tour films featuring Neil have concentrated on trying to capture the chaos of his electrified Crazy Horse material, and justifiably so - the Horse in action is something to behold. But Demme shows that Neil Young the folksinger is just as electrifying on the screen as the ragged rocker, though in a completely different way. This is a very special film, not just for the quality of the music but for capturing a brilliant artist at a very key point in his life and his career. Definitely worth seeing for any Neil fan, and stay for the closing credits - they're mesmerizing."

From Chicago Tribune review "For Young and Demme, `Heart' a dream project" by Mark Caro:

"To make a "Prairie Wind" movie, Young said he and Demme batted around several ideas, including a plan to "film all kinds of things in Canada and find old stock footage and go back to the Indians." But, he added, "we elected to just let the music speak."

"There's so much dream imagery and dream themes throughout so many of the songs," Demme added. "At a certain point, I think we were joking, it was like, `Hey, let's make it a dream concert!' The great part is it's Neil Young's dream. Nothing will go wrong. It'll be the perfect musicians. It'll be the perfect venue.'"

Young said, "Let's make a movie that looks like a dream concert that is something that, if I closed my eyes and thought of the best way I could see to do a concert at that time, that would be it."

So Young lined up his band from "Prairie Wind" -- a collection of veteran rock, country and soul players who have backed him in the past, including keyboardist Spooner Oldham, steel guitarist Ben Keith and the Memphis Horns -- and booked the historic, acoustically pristine Ryman for two August performances. Meanwhile, Young and Demme conceived of the concert in cinematic terms.

Young's ambition to make unified albums meant to be heard (or seen) in their entirety can be interpreted as yet another against-the-grain move by this maverick musician. This is the iPod age, after all, when songs are sold individually and scrambled according to the listener's whims.

But when you watch "Heart of Gold," you have to go on Young's emotional journey as he designed it.

"It forces it to be an album," Young said. "You go to the film, you have no choice.

"You can't shuffle `Heart of Gold.' You can't shuffle that sucker. You can't take it with you -- at this point, anyway." "

From Philadelphia Inquirer review "Making a concert film come alive" by Dan DeLuca (via Largehearted Boy):

"Demme proclaims himself 'perfectly happy' with Heart of Gold.

'In fact, I think I'm more happy with it than anything I've ever done,' he says. 'My whole position was that if Neil Young is actually going to agree to let me film him performing, then I want him to love this movie, and reflect what he cares about... . I didn't want to impose my thing. I wanted to memorialize his thing.'"

Musician Neil Young and Director Jonathan Demme - 2012
(Film Director Jonathan Demme Passes At Age 73)
From Ain't it Cool News by MiraJeff:

Neil Young fans will be pleased.

I saw the film at the Paramount Screening Room and the sound was incredible. If this film sneaks into a multiplex in addition to the art-house theaters, see it at theater with better sound. The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville was the original home of the Grand Ole Opry, and the acoustics are incredible. The sound in this movie is like another Neil… a Diamond. It’s gorgeous. You can even hear maracas shaking, and honestly, who doesn’t like maracas? Granted at 103 minutes, I think the film runs a song or two too long. By the end of it, Neil Young has kind of worn out his welcome, but then again, I’d much rather pay for 10 bucks for 103 minutes of Neil Young than 50 bucks (probably) for a 75-minute Weezer concert, which trust me, is generous for them. The one big question about this film is, why do we need it? Why now? Why Prairie Wind? At a concert, you’re with your buddies, you’re under an influence or two (hopefully), and you can talk, which you can’t do at a movie. I admit to looking at my watch several times and I noticed a few other critics doing it too. As a theatrical experience, it drags a bit, especially if you don’t like one of his songs. However my roommate Anders Hester, lead singer of The Alright Ma’s, went to the screening with me and being a huge Neil Young fan and having gone to several shows, said it was the most vulnerable he’d ever seen Neil Young, who in his opinion, plays one of his best shows. Obviously, there will be differences of opinion depending on your allegiance to Neil Young.

If you’re still on the fence about seeing this movie and you’re a guy, I’ll recommend it because of one musician I haven’t mentioned yet. Emmylou Harris. This woman is stunning. Incredibly beautiful. I have no idea how old she is and out of respect, I won’t look it up on the Internet for this review. I have a newfound appreciation for this woman. I didn’t even realize she’s won 11 Grammys. A bunch of other cool guitar, harp, and broom (yes broom) players join her and Neil Young onstage. It all amounts to something special, but whether or not that magic translates to the screen well is up for debate. To each his own my mother would say, and after all, music is deeply personal. I’m not going to ruin the set list but it will please fans and semi-fans to know that he does play “Old Man,” saying that he wrote the song about a guy he bought a home from. But Heart of Gold is made up primarily of his latest album Prairie Wind (not the song, which is one of the least good in the film), the album that many consider one of the artist’s bests. To be honest the film did spike my interest and make me want to hear more, just like Walk the Line made me want to listen to Johnny Cash more. Speaking of, if someone ever has to play Neil Young in a film, I nominate Tom Wilkinson. The likeness is uncanny.

The bottom line is that to see an artist like Neil Young do what he does best, the movie is definitely worth 10 bucks. You’d pay that to hear a shitty cover band at a frat party. So ultimately, this film is critic proof, because who hates Neil Young? Who is going to pan a 2-night performance when Neil Young was scheduled to have brain surgery less than a week later? Think he had a lot on his mind? Music is the man’s sweet release, so show him a little respect and see Neil Young: Heart of Gold if you get a chance.

The Shadow of Rick "The Bass Player"

From by HERALD NEWS by Adam Zagoria:

New Jersey native Ellen Kuras, who said she listens to Young's music every day, filmed the concert portion of the movie in Super 16mm using nine cameras. The goal, according to Demme and Kuras, was to create the "dream state" evoked by many of Young's lyrics.

Before singing the title track to "Prairie Wind," Young tells the story of how his "daddy" suffered from dementia in the last part of his life.

"I know some of you know what that's like," he said. "It's something to see your loved ones living in the moment."Then he launches into the title track, singing, "Prairie wind blowing through my head/Trying to remember what my daddy said/Before too much time took away his head."

Later, Young explains how he wrote the song "Here for You" for his 21-year-old daughter, Amber, now out of the house and in her final year of college.

"There was a time I used to write songs like this for girls my own age," Young cracked, smiling toward Pegi. "It's a new genre, the 'Empty Nester,' and they might have their own radio station for 'em."

"When your summer days come tumbling down," the song goes, "and you find yourself alone/Then you can come back and be with me/Just close your eyes and I'll be there."

Prior to singing "This Old Guitar," Young explains how the guitar he is using for the concert used to belong to legendary country singer Hank Williams, who might have used it in his final appearance at the Ryman in 1951.

"The more I play it, the better it sounds," the song goes. "It cries when I leave it alone."

After completing the songs from "Prairie Wind," Young returns to his roots on "I Am A Child," "Harvest Moon" and "Heart of Gold," the first lines of which seem to have new meaning given what Young has recently gone through:

"I want to live, I want to give. I've been a miner for a heart of gold."

He wraps up the set with "Old Man," "The Needle and the Damage Done," "Old King," "Comes A Time," "Four Strong Winds" and "One of These Days."

Demme realized that another song would be needed when the film credits roll, and so he approached Young about that possibility. After saying he would think about it, Young agreed.

The result is a beautiful solo version of "The Old Laughing Lady" that Young plays on guitar while seated in a chair before an empty auditorium as the film ends. When he completes the song, the old singer puts on his hat, packs up his guitar in an old case and slowly walks off the stage.

Demme, who sat in the corner of the Ryman watching the performance, said the moment was appropriate because Young told him that after a concert, he likes to go out and look at the empty house.

"So he was essentially doing what he always does," Demme said. "And I had no idea he was going to do it."

br>More on "Heart of Gold" premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and the Nashville Ryman Concerts, the album "Prairie Wind", and the song "Heart of Gold", which inspired the film's title.

More on friendship and films of Neil Young & Jonathan Demme.

Neil Young & Jonathan Demme
"Heart of Gold" Premieres at Sundance Film Festival - 2006

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