Time Capsule: Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Rust Never Sleeps | Paste

Rust Never Sleep! (sic)Unreleased Rust-oleum Commercial w/ Neil Young(Click photo to enlarge)

 

By now, we all know that one of the most fundamental universal laws of physics -- in the immortal lyrics of Neil Young -- is that Rust Never Sleeps. 

With that, we bring you Time Capsule: Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Rust Never Sleeps  | Paste by Matt Mitchell.  Every Saturday, Paste  revisits albums that came out before the magazine was founded in July 2002 and assessing its current cultural relevance. This week, they’re zeroing in on Neil Young’s theatrical, enigmatic career resurrection that became an epitaph for a decade of grief.

While the immediate cornerstones of Rust Never Sleeps are obvious anti-pastorals of the dense nuances of America’s widened and, sometimes, consequential utopia— “Powderfinger,” “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue),” “Ride My Llama”—it is on “Thrasher” where Young uses the frontier to make the most sense of his own morality with allusions to farmland, passerine birds, full moons and hightailing across the country before dawn. 

“Thrasher” is, in no short terms, a song about Danny Whitten. 

And it’s a particularly damning and heartbreaking one at that—a text that conjures allusions to heroin use and the $50 plane ticket Young gave to Whitten when he kicked him out of the Stray Gators ahead of the Harvest tour. The entire second verse, in particular, remains a crucial tableaux of Young’s grief: “I searched out my companions, who were lost in crystal canyons when the aimless blade of science slashed the pearly gates,” he sings; “Headed out to where the pavement turns to sand with a one-way ticket to the land of truth and my suitcase in my hand. How I lost my friends, I still don’t understand,” he continues. 

Full article @ Time Capsule: Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Rust Never Sleeps  | Paste by Matt Mitchell.

DOUBLE FEATURE REVIEW: 

Neil Young's (Bernard Shakey’s) ‘Rust Never Sleeps’ (1979) Vs. ‘Human Highway’ (1983) | Split Picks

 

Also, answers to the quintessential question: "Why does Rust Never Sleep?" ... or "Out of the BLUE and into the BLACK" .

 

Rust Never Sleeps - Rust Repair Shop Sign
Photo by Mimi R.

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REVIEW: Neil Young's (Bernard Shakey’s) ‘Rust Never Sleeps’ (1979) Vs. ‘Human Highway’ (1983) | Split Picks

Neil Young's (Bernard Shakey’s) ‘Rust Never Sleeps’ (1979) Vs. ‘Human Highway’ (1983) | Split Picks

 

From Neil Young's (Bernard Shakey’s) ‘Rust Never Sleeps’ (1979) Vs. ‘Human Highway’ (1983) | Split Picks:

Split Picks wrestles with an all-time great concert film from Neil Young and a comedy with a complicated history

When he’s not behind the camera, director Bernard Shakey spends his time as a Canadian-born rock ‘n’ roll star who goes by the name Neil Young. Split Picks returns to look at two films directed by Shakey, with Breanna McCann joining for the first time, and Bennett Glace returning for yet another episode. They discuss all things Neil Young, Crazy Horse, and the passion projects Young directed as his alter-ego.

Rust Never Sleeps (1979) stands tall among the finest concert films ever made. With a stage full of comically oversized props set by Roadeyes, Young begins solo and runs through the highs of his career before Crazy Horse joins him to debut some now classic songs. Each shot of the film is near-iconic and its setlist will fulfill any Young fan’s requests.

Taking cues from Japanese horror films, The Wizard of Oz, and Jerry Lewis, Human Highway (1983) follows a small group of workers at an auto shop and diner who all have dreams of getting out, or at least winning the local talent show at the nuclear power plant. It just so happens to be the last day on Earth. Human Highway flopped when it came out, but a vastly improved director’s cut has given it new life.

Listen to the episode to see which film reigns supreme, and why, after all this, Bennett’s biggest question is why didn’t Neil Young star in more comedies?

Split Tooth · Split Picks: Bernard Shakey's 'Rust Never Sleeps' Vs. 'Human Highway'

 

More on The Ultimate Cult Classic Double Feature: Neil Young's Human Highway & Rust Never Sleeps.

The Ultimate Cult Classic Double Feature: Neil Young's Human Highway & Rust Never Sleeps

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The Story of The Audio Restoration Of Neil Young's Human Highway To The Original Director's Cut | The Pro Tools Community

Reelin' in the Years ...

Neil Young's Vaults of Human Highway 

 

Back in 2016,  Neil Young's cult classic film Human Highway was re-released as "Director's Cut" with a new updated soundtrack.

It turns out that the restoration of  film Human Highway was much more complicated than anticipated due to the passage of time and technologies.

From an in-depth article on  The Story of The Audio Restoration Of Neil Young's Human Highway To The Original Director's Cut - Pro Tools Expert - The Pro Tools Community:

They found some 2” 16 track analog masters which were transferred to 24 bit at high resolution but it become clear that music and dialog were not on separate tracks and despite extensive searching they were unable to track down the master dialogue tapes.

So as a final step, the search was on to find the original reels to get clean dialogue. The dialogue reels were located, and incredibly - the original Nagra IV-S machine was found as well – the exact same machine that had actually been used on set. Now the team had to identify the exact takes that were used in the film, transferred at high resolution and pain staking rebuilt the dialog tracks. Will Mitchell from Shakey Pictures described the process…

As I listened through boxes of Nagra reels, I really felt like a fly on the wall of the set” said Will Mitchell of Shakey Pictures “Often tape was rolling wild both before and after takes, so I got to experience the process and understand just where the crew was in capturing the master performances. As with many films, the improvised lines on alternate takes were incredibly creative and fun. It was clear that this was a fun shoot.

Full  article on  The Story of The Audio Restoration Of Neil Young's Human Highway To The Original Director's Cut - Pro Tools Expert - The Pro Tools Community.

More on  Neil Young's cult classic film Human Highway re-released as "Director's Cut"in 2016.

 

Neil Young's Human Highway

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Neil Young's Influence on DEVO & DEVO's Influence on Neil Young

DEVO and Neil Young - Frame via Human Highway Film
Directors Bernard Shakey & Dean Stockwell (1982)
Ever wondered about Neil Young's influence on DEVO? Or DEVO's influence on Neil Young?

If so, check this interview with DEVO's Gerald Casale from Gerald Casale Takes Devo Very Seriously – And So Should You | Real Clear Life by Tim Sommer:

You worked with Neil Young before you were actually even signed, is that correct?

Gerald Casale: You’re right. It was our summer of independent, do-it-yourself gigging out here in Los Angeles that exposed us to a whole new stratum of people, in the music business and art and dance. I met Toni Basil and we immediately bonded, and Toni and her boyfriend – the actor Dean Stockwell – gave Neil Young a cassette of Devo, and a single, and a VHS video copy of our first film. We met him in the fall of 1977. That’s when he decided we had to be in his movie that he was just starting to hatch the plan for, Human Highway, which morphed many, many times over, so we didn’t actually shoot any scenes for that movie until early 1978. Neil Young, who would have guessed? My idea of Neil Young was some granola hippie guy. Meeting him was an eye-opener. He’s punk, by the way.

Would it be fair to say that you influenced him?

Gerald Casale: At some point we did, and he would say so. For five minutes we did. We gave him a ‘Rust Never Sleeps’ t-shirt. Mark and I had our little stand, back in Akron, a little shop in the Quaker Square Shopping Mall – a shopping Mall and a hotel created out of old grain elevators – and we had a shop there where we did silk screening and rubber stamps and decals, and we did an image based on Rust-Oleum! So we gave it to him and he used it as a title. Rust Never Sleeps. And Trans – he said we made him want to do that album.

We highly recommend full interview on Gerald Casale Takes Devo Very Seriously – And So Should You | Real Clear Life by Tim Sommer.

Also, see:

• DEVO and Neil Young
• How Neil Young* Got DEVO on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 1978
"An Evening With Neil Young": The Ultimate Cult Classic Double Feature: Human Highway & Rust Never Sleeps Films

"An Evening With Neil Young"
Cameron Crowe, Neil Young, Russ Tamblyn, Charlotte Stewart, Devo's Gerald Casale
(Click photo to enlarge)

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CONTEST: "An Evening With Neil Young" Free Passes

"An Evening With Neil Young"
The Ultimate Cult Classic Double Feature:
Human Highway & Rust Never Sleeps

In the spirit of love and all that is good and real about Neil Young and his rustie fans, we're pleased to be able to offer free passes to "An Evening With Neil Young" to a few lucky Thrasher's Wheat readers thanks to our friends at Fathom Events. Details follow below.

Neil Young's cult classic film Human Highway will be a double feature with the film Rust Never Sleeps and a live Q&A with Neil Young and Human Highway cast members Charlotte Stewart, Russ Tamblyn and Devo's Gerald Casale conducted by Cameron Crowe. The live Q&A will separate the showings of Human Highway and Rust Never Sleeps.

"An Evening With Neil Young" will be on Monday, February 29 at select theatres. See full listing of theatres and details on FathomEvents.com .

With multiple GRAMMYs®, Juno Awards and many other notable accolades earned during his illustrious career, Neil Young is one of the most influential musicians of the generation. The New York Times described "Rust Never Sleeps" as offering "some of [Young's] strongest songs, both new and old, in performances as fine or finer than those on his recent, partly live record album of the same title," and said "the intensity of the singing and playing of Crazy Horse, Mr. Young's longtime partners for electric-rock projects, is as moving as rock can offer."

More details on the films Human Highway, Rust Never Sleeps and "An Evening With Neil Young" .

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HOW TO WIN PASSES FOR "An Evening With Neil Young"

5 lucky Thrasher's Wheat supporters will be eligible to win a pair of tickets to "An Evening With Neil Young". We truly appreciate being able to do what we do here at TW, and we love being able to give something back in return.

To enter the contest, follow these steps:

#1) Subscribe (or be already subscribed) to one of our blogfeed channels either via Facebook Page (LIKE us), Twitter (FOLLOW us), YouTube Channel (SUBSCRIBE), Google + (PLUS us) and/or subscribe to our email list.

2) Then just email us (thrasher@thrasherswheat.org) with your full name (First and Last). Include your theatre location preference (1st and 2nd choice. Theatres listing on FathomEvents.com ). Also, include which blogfeed channel you signed up for (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or email list options noted above in Step #1). *Be sure to include your complete Facebook ID or Twitter handle or YouTube ID or email address.*

Entries must be emailed to thrasher@thrasherswheat.org with SUBJECT line: "An Evening With Neil Young" Free Passes

Deadline: Wednesday, February 24, 5PM EST

We'll then randomly select Thrasher's Wheat readers as winners.

Don't Be Denied!

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Neil Young at SXSW for Human Highway Director's Cut Screening

Human Highway - Director Neil Young

Tomorrow, Neil Young will be at SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas to attend a screening of his 1982 movie ‘Human Highway’ at the Paramount on Congress. Young will hold a Q&A after the screening.

Neil Young's 1982 post-apocalyptic musical comedy, has long been out of circulation and is regarded as a cult classic with its mythical history of production mayhem, post-production chaos and forgotten legacy.

Earlier this year - just prior to the World Premiere of Human Highway (Director's Cut) at the Toronto International Film Festival -- Thrasher's Wheat had an exclusive Q&A session with a member of Neil Young's Shakey Pictures crew who worked on the research, editing and meticulous restoration under the supervision of Director Bernard Shakey.




Human Highway (Director's Cut) Trailer from Shakey Pictures on Vimeo.


Human Highway (Director's Cut) Clip 1 from Shakey Pictures on Vimeo.

Human Highway (Director's Cut) Clip 2 from Shakey Pictures on Vimeo.

More at Shakey Pictures - Human Highway.

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5 Things We Learned from Neil Young's Forgotten Film, Human Highway at TIFF 2014

 Neil Young as Lionel in Human Highway

Last week, the World Premiere of Human Highway (Director's Cut) was held at the Toronto International Film Festival and TW featured EXCLUSIVE: Q&A on Human Highway Director's Cut.

Now, we have an on-scene report of 5 things we learned from Neil Young's forgotten film, Human Highway by Colton Eddy.

#5. Young as Bernard Shakey

We know him best for his incomparable musical creations, but Young has occasionally taken on the role of filmmaker — and when he does, he uses the pseudonym Bernard Shakey. Young took this rare opportunity to offer a glimpse into that headspace:

“I wanted it to look like a storybook, so that people could realize that there was nothing real about it and the only time it got real was when Lionel was dreaming and the rest of it was just a set and that was something I wanted to do and the cinematography, I liked directing the shots and coming up with real long tracking shots and have a lot of things going on because I used to really enjoy some of the home movies that did that and still do. Then we worked on the script, we'd know what we were going to do, we knew what the scene was about and we knew what was going to happen in the scene but we didn't have any dialogue until the morning of the scene when we would write the dialogue.”

Here are the other 4 items on 5 things we learned from Neil Young's forgotten film, Human Highway. Also, the page includes a link to the full audio of Neil Young's Q&A session at TIFF 2014.

Thanks Colton!

Actress Charlotte Stewart, Director/musician Neil Young and DEVO's Gerald Casale

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EXCLUSIVE: Q&A on Human Highway Director's Cut

This week, the World Premiere of Human Highway (Director's Cut) will be held at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Thrasher's Wheat is pleased to bring our readers an exclusive Q&A session with a member of Neil Young's Shakey Pictures crew who worked on the research, editing and meticulous restoration under the supervision of Director Bernard Shakey.

Neil Young's 1982 post-apocalyptic musical comedy, has long been out of circulation and is regarded as a cult classic with its mythical history of production mayhem, post-production chaos and forgotten legacy.

Now, 32 years after Human Highways' first screening, Bernard Shakey's crew is ready to answer a few questions.



Thrasher's Wheat - The film Human Highway is considered to be a cult classic somewhat similar to the legendary Journey Through the Past and has been described as "if David Lynch directed "The Wizard of Oz on acid." What surprised you going back to the footage shot back in late 70's?

Shakey Pictures - Maybe not so much surprising, but very noticeable was how well shot the film was under the direction of David Myers.

[ed - David Myers (1914–2004) was the cinematographer for the film Woodstock and Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz among many other concert documentaries.]

TW - So what prompted the desire to produce a director's cut version of Human Highway?

SP - The version that was first screened at the Mill Valley Film Festival in 1982 really could be considered the Director’s Cut. Time went on and various edits of the film had their moment in the sun, but Mr Shakey still held onto his original vision. Along with Producer L.A Johnson, he dispatched the Shakey Pictures crew to locate, catalog and collect for assembly all the original footage that had been cut out of Human Highway post- Mill Valley. It was a lengthy undertaking.



TW - The original release of Human Highway was 88 minutes. The director's cut version is 80 minutes. Usually these director's cut versions go to longer side not shorter. Is this tweaking/ shortening up longer scenes or scenes removed?

SP - That is correct. Once the 1982 Director’s Cut was reassembled, Bernard oversaw further refinements to the story. An astute viewer will note that while the running time of the movie is shorter than that on VHS, there are actually some new elements in the final presentation that will be screened at TIFF.

TW - Was this filmed in 35mm?

SP - Human Highway was shot in both 35mm and in 16mm film.

TW - What are we looking at now? Film edited on high resolution digital video?

SP - The Shakey Pictures team found and transferred the original negatives of the film footage, which then underwent extensive restoration and cleaning, frame by frame. Editing was in high resolution digital.



TW - What is the sound format resolution compared to original?

SP - The sound quality is much improved over the original. The same attention to detail that was given to picture was also given to audio on this project.

The film’s original master 16 track analog tapes were transferred at 24 bit/ 192kHz, as well as the original dialog and music reels.

The new mix of Human Highway is now presented in 5.1 surround as well as in stereo.

TW - What are the release format plans? Blu-ray?

SP - After Human Highway’s theatrical run, it would be fair to say that you can expect to to see Blu-ray and DVD releases.



TW - We know folks would love to hear the story of Woody, the wooden Indian and his mates. Were they really burned in the desert? Is Woody, the wooden Indian, we've seen recently onstage with Neil the same? A survivor?

SP - Yes, that is indeed Woody in the film. He has some scenes in the garage at Otto’s Corner. I don’t know his back story or what stock he came from, but do know that Woody embodies the strong silent type. That is well depicted in Human Highway.



TW - Will there be a director's cut video release with "special features"? Like a vinyl album soundtrack, a booklet, deleted scenes, 'making of' documentaries, etc?

SP - It’s a bit too early to reveal what comes next out of the Shakey Pictures archives in relation to Human Highway, but there is definitely some stuff in the vaults.



Thanks Shakey Pictures!

Human Highway (Director's Cut) Trailer from Shakey Pictures on Vimeo.

Human Highway (Director's Cut) Clip 1 from Shakey Pictures on Vimeo.

Human Highway (Director's Cut) Clip 2 from Shakey Pictures on Vimeo.

More at Shakey Pictures - Human Highway.

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In Memory of The Red Baron: Human Highway Founder Completes Final Upload To Cloud

Dr. Rainer B., AKA “The Baron,” “Baron Rouge” and “Dr. Nusskopf”
Co-Founder of Neil Young Fan Community Human-Highway.org
It is with great sadness that we report on the passing of a dear friend and Neil Young Fan Rainer B., AKA “The Baron,” “Baron Rouge” and “Dr. Nusskopf”, the co-Founder of Neil Young Fan Community Human-Highway.org.

The passing of our long time friend Rainer is quite sad for us. Having known him online virtually for 20 years, we finally met last summer in Berlin when Neil Young & Crazy Horse toured Europe.

To finally meet in person at the Berlin Human Highway/Rust/ Tribute was tremendous — yet all too brief, regrettably. Thrasher’s Wheat website owes a great deal to Rainer for thoughts and technical guidance over the years. Rainer was both an ordinary and not so ordinary person. Too late, too soon, he sleeps with angels.

Dr. Rainer B. & Thrasher's Wheat Radio Crew
June 1, 2013 - Berlin, Germany

Dearest Zumans,

It is with deep, deep grief and profound sorrow beyond measure that I tell you this.
Our beloved list administrator and friend, Rainer, passed away last night after a short but courageous battle .

He did not want to go and he fought his illness with all the strength he had. He said to me: "I have to go
on and it will be a long and hard road. I've always been more like a long-distant walker."

He chose to keep what he was going through private - it was his German way.

He was fine during his trip to America last August but he started to feel unwell at the end of October last year. It was a shock as he had never been sick a day in his life, he said.

He loved his lists and his websites and all of you and believed strongly in his advertisement-free social media platforms he created to discuss all things Neil and whatever else turned up along the Human Highway.

"This is brilliant and beautiful" he always said and he paid for all this himself - including his beloved server "Cortez" that operates from Munich. All so we could continue to have a free, private exchange.

He cherished his once-in-a-lifetime trip to America and meeting some of his Zumans after 17 years.

He supported everything creative and urged people to "Just do it, just do something!" especially young musicians.

He was a brilliant, real Doctor of Physics and was highly respected at his employer the European Patent Office.

He had a zany sense of humor - Dr,Nusskopf - and a sense of wonder about all things in the universe.

I have so much to say and write but I am such a mess right now.

I loved him so much.

In the days to come we can share memories of him and we will put together a page on his websites. I do not know what will happen in the future, but somehow we will stay together.

Sharon

Cortez Server
Neil Young Fan Community Human-Highway.org
Our dearest Red Baron, this code's for you - just another line in the field of time. See you next time up in the Big Cloud.

More tributes and comments on Neil Young Fan Community Human-Highway.org.

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Fukushima Blues: Still Totally Lost on the Human Highway

"When Love and Fate Collide"
Human Highway - Directors Bernard Shakey & Dean Stockwell (1982)
Back in Spring 2011, we posted on the unfolding nuclear calamity in Japan and the ensuing meltdown.

Since then, the Fukushima nuclear crisis has only gotten worse, and "powerful technologies are out of control and are threatening the future of all life."


On a more mundane note, we've learned that a "director's cut" of Neil Young's film Human Highway has been under consideration for a possible future release.

But here's why we're posting this now -- there has to be a better way to produce energy. And we need to get on with it.

The 1982 film Human Highway by Neil Young portrays the Earth's last day following a nuclear holocaust. Original movie posters referred to it as a "nuclear comedy" and filming began soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and continued over four years with Young spending $3,000,000 of his own money on production (source).

The film is considered a cult classic somewhat similar to the legendary Journey Through the Past and has been described as "if David Lynch directed "The Wizard of Oz on acid." (If you're lucky, you might find a used copy of Human Highway on Amazon.)

"It's so bad, it's going to be huge" proudly declared the poster .


Human Highway Trailer

From Amazon review by Tom Keogh:

Neil Young's 1982 comic mess of a feature left many faithful fans baffled and was otherwise unappreciated at the time of its release. But with the benefit of hindsight and shifts in pop culture in the last couple of decades, much of Human Highway now feels warm and funny where it once looked disastrously undisciplined.

DEVO Gets Nuked
The plot revolves around a small gas station-diner in a fictional town next to a nuclear power plant. A choreographed musical dream sequence takes place as the nuclear blast occurs. At the destroyed gas station-diner post nuclear holocaust Booji Boy (DEVO's Mark Mothersbaugh) is a lone survivor.

At the nuclear power plant, trash collectors (members of DEVO) reveal that radioactive waste is routinely mishandled and dumped at the nearby town of Linear Valley. They sing a remake of "Worried Man Blues" while loading waste barrels on an old truck. There's a leak at the power plant and "Barrel go boom," as the power plant worker so succinctly puts it. A character's (Otto) recent death is by radiation poisoning.


DEVO and Neil Young
A noted sequence in the film features the band DEVO (named after "de-evolution") and a bizarre rendition of "Hey, Hey, My, My". In a particularly ironic manner, DEVO covers Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In the Wind" just before Booji Boy says:

I don't know what's going on in the world these days.

It seems that everybody's just got everything turned around.

People don't seem to care about their fellow man. They're all going for that big ice-cream cone in the sky! They haven't figured out what happens when your eyes get bigger then your belly. Like an ostrich who eats his pizza with his head stuck in the sand. If they can't see it, it isn't there.

And you know, it really *does* take a worried man!

Neil Young and Dennis Hopper
On the set of Human Highway, 1st July 1978 (c) Caterine MILLENNIUM
More on Neil Young Films.

Also, see Human Highway on Amazon.


Neil Young as "Lionel"I come down from the misty mountain
I got lost on the human highway
Take my head refreshing fountain
Take my eyes from what they've seen.
Take my head and change my mind
How could people get so unkind?
~~Neil Young

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