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An unofficial news blog for Neil Young fans from Thrasher's Wheat with concert and album updates, reviews, analysis, and other Rock & Roll ramblings. Separating the wheat from the chaff since 1996.
"Philadelphia" and The Cities of Brotherly & Sisterly Love
"Sometimes I think that I know
What love's all about
And when I see the light
I know I'll be all right.
Philadelphia."
Neil Young Performing "Philadelphia"
1994 Academy Awards Ceremony
Neil Young's song "Philadelphia" -- from the 1993 Jonathan Demme film "Philadelphia" -- received an Academy Award nomination
and Young performed the song during the Oscar ceremony in 1994.
Neil Young Performing "Philadelphia" @ 1994 Academy Awards Ceremony
(Background vocals by Pegi Young and Astrid Young)
The 1993 Jonathan Demme film "Philadelphia" plot involves a gay lawyer with AIDS who files a lawsuit against his law firm for wrongful termination. The AIDS-stricken lawyer, played by actor Tom Hanks, is unable to find an attorney willing to
take his case, until a homophobic lawyer, played by Denzel Washington, takes his case.
The events in the film are similar to the events in the lives of attorneys Geoffrey Bowers and Clarence Cain. Bowers was an attorney who, in 1987, sued the law firm Baker McKenzie for wrongful dismissal in one of the first AIDS discrimination cases. Cain was an attorney for Hyatt Legal Services who was fired after his employer found out he had AIDS. He sued Hyatt in 1990, and won just before his death.[8]
During the 1980's AIDS crisis, there was widespread misinformation, stereotypes, hostility and discrimination.
Mary Steenburgen in "Philadelphia"
Mary Steenburgen, who plays the law firm’s defense lawyer, sat down
with director Demme at the end of the day of the first day of filming and said, ‘I’m a wreck, I don’t
know if I can play this part.’ And he said, ‘Mary, it’s not about AIDS.
It’s about everybody in this country is entitled to justice—they’re
entitled to their representation.’And from then on, I was fine.” [Smithsonian Magazine]
Neil Young & Jonathan Demme
Reflecting on the film in 2003, director Jonathan Demme said: "What I feel more than anything is I’m glad to see that AIDS doesn’t
bear really remotely the stigma which was quite overwhelming at the
time, that it did 20 years ago."
Andrew Beckett and Joe Miller
(Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington)
The impact of the film got people talking about HIV-AIDS and served to humanize the difficult subject. Marla Gold, a former assistant city health commissioner, HIV doctor, and public health dean at Drexel University, says Philadelphia managed to do what health leaders had tried and tried to do, yet often fell short: fostering an accurate public awareness about the AIDS epidemic. [WHYY.org]
Tom Hanks as Andrew Beckett
Today, we reflect back on the lessons learned during the 1980's AIDS crisis about the stigma and discrimination against marginalized
populations that must be
tackled in order to eliminate medical prejudice and apartheid. Thank goodness for those lessons we learned from the AIDS crisis which taught us not to fear the invisible unknown and to be kind and compassionate to those suffering.
Or did we?
Only then can we all live in "The Cities of Brotherly Love."
"City of brotherly love
Place I call home
Don't turn your back on me
I don't want to be alone
Love lasts forever."
"Here's the final heart breaking scene of "Philadelphia" as it plays over the "family
movies" of the characters as children. If anyone can watch that scene
with this song playing over it and not be moved...well, you just don't
have a heart."
On Night #2, after the 1st 2 songs -- "The Last Trip To Tulsa" (full 8 verses) and "Thrasher" (full 8 verses) , we turned to our seat neighbors and fully agreed that we had already gotten our $'s worth for the night. Yes, it was pretty surreal to have Neil start the 1st notes of "Thrasher" and have all of these Rusties in the first couple of rows turn to us with these looks of amazement. In our lifetime, we have had some pretty amazing Neil memories over the years, but priceless doesn't even begin to describe when Neil plays your favorite song just a few mere feet away. More on our "Thrasher" experience down below.
Ohio
Over the course of 2 nights in Upper Darby, we heard 34 different songs, 12 songs on the second night he didn’t perform on 1st.
For us, the Philly solo concerts hit all of the major themes, with all the right notes, at all the right moments. What more could one ask?
And Broken Arrow on grand piano?! Simply stunning. Breathless, on the edge of the seat. Not just expecting to fly, but actually flying. A true master class of an evening. We count our blessings and we are blessed, indeed. It's all about Love & War... and we're living the Dream and the Nightmare.
But we'll take a cruise down Peaceful Valley Boulevard any day...
And here's our dear, long time friend Karen's thoughts after seeing 102 Neil Young concerts on her blog streamland:
Now. The thing is this. There’s a big community of serious - and I mean serious - Neil Young fans out there. Me among them. We are a tight group. Friends. And everyone was oohing and aaahing about these setlists. Me too. Of course. But … that’s not what led me to go to 102 Neil Young shows in the first place, folks. That’s cool, and all, but it’s not that which keeps me mesmerized. It’s the sheer span of the catalogue and its creative brilliance, and it’s also and really the feeling. The feeling Neil Young can somehow call up while he’s playing, and that he somehow throws out to us. It’s his lonesome voice when he sings so plaintively “lonesome whistle on a railroad traaaaaack ain’t got nothing on those feelings that we had.” It’s his soft vulnerability in every syllable of Expecting to Fly, the world-weary sound of the early confusion of fame in his Broken Arrow, his mysterious story-telling in Last Trip to Tulsa. It’s the determination and earnest, even innocent, quality of his voice on Children of Destiny. It’s the distinctive, it-could-only-be-him thump thump of the low notes of the acoustic guitar, it’s his feet tapping to the music and his knees swaying back and forth to the rhythm. It’s the giant, supernatural force of his electric guitar that reaches out into the audience and grabs you by the throat from the first note. It’s the love you hear in the clickety clack of his new song. It’s the fact that there are almost always new songs. (Speaking of which, I loved his solo acoustic version of this new song, called presumably House of Love or Eternity …. His deep voice vocal on the click clack clickety clack in between reminded me of the Are You Passionate album, somehow, which I adore. That deep click clack vocal is so stirring, I could listen to it all day.). Which is all a long way of saying, Neil is present.
But it was oh-so worth the wait back in 2014 when we got to hear "Thrasher" perform live for the our 2nd and 3rd time. October 1, 2018 would mark our 4th occasion to hear "Thrasher" -- 3 which happened in Philadelphia.
It had been 36 years ago since we first heard Neil Young perform the song "Thrasher" on the 1978 Rust Never Sleeps tour on October 7 in William & Mary Hall at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. In retrospect, it was an unforgettable moment. A moment that we eventually came to believe that we would never, ever experience again in our lifetime.
And Neil performed the song "Thrasher" with all the intensity and passion that we could ever hope. And it was flawless. All the lyrics were nailed. The right harmonica was loaded. And the audience was rapturously hanging on every note, pondering those oh-so cryptically metaphorical verses.
Until this year, the song "Thrasher" had been played in concert only 32 times, the last time being Oct 24, 1978, which was captured in the “Rust Never Sleeps” concert film*. (*Cow Palace, San Francisco, 22 October 1978. Thanks So Tired & Sugar Mountain!)
So why now? Was there any particular motivation of Neil to perform this rarity in 2014 in Los Angeles?
"This song, uh, you know, I did it, I haven't done it that much in my life, because, at a very vulnerable moment I read something about it. Just like the worst fucking review I've ever read. So, for all you reviewers, if you feel like your words don't mean anything, you're probably right. In that case.. in that case, they were damaging. So, anyway, we uh .. I think I got this uh.. I think this is the one here, I hope so.."
As we rambled about the other night on Thrasher's Wheat Radio, there's a great deal of significance to the song's unexpected resurfacing after its 36 years absence as Neil's most requested obscurity track.
Obviously, the song “Thrasher” is quite special to us and we've long considered the song to be Neil Young’s lyrical magnum opus - rich with poetry, metaphors, themes, allusions, and symbols. In one of our very first posts to the Rust list back in 1993 we attempted An Analysis of the Meaning of the song Thrasher Lyrics.
Looking back today at the analysis, there were some things that we think we got right and a few things that were clearly wrong. Our central thesis at the time was that "Thrasher" was about the whole mega group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young trip in the mid-'70s. Neil seemed to be referring to his former bandmates as the "they" in “Thrasher”. The dinosaurs are CSNY - extinct, a fossil. "So I got bored and left them there, they were just dead weight to me" refers to Neil's departure from CSNY. "It's better on the road without that load" signifies Neil's successful solo path.
So that was then. This is now.
It's now been 40 years since the 1974 reunion tour and there's been much speculation about a multi-disc box set being released for the anniversary, as well as, a possible tour. While still no definite confirmation of CSNY plans here in 2014, the clock ticks on and the possibility remains.
But it would seem that the performance of “Thrasher” last week would be a good omen in terms of Neil reconciling differences with CS&N. Or not?
Could this be Neil's response to CS&N regarding the 1974 reunion tour box set, as in it's not going to happen? Well, based on Neil's response to a crowd shout out in Philadelphia to CSNY, Neil replied "Never again."
"But me I'm not stopping there,
Got my own row left to hoe
Just another line in the field of time
When the thrashers comes, I'll be stuck in the sun
Like the dinosaurs in shrines
But I'll know the time has come
To give what's mine. "
First-ever performance of “Thrasher” recorded on May 24, 1978 at the legendary Boarding House in San Francisco.
Or maybe the performance of “Thrasher” has nothing to do with CSNY? Maybe another 4 letter acronym... PONO? A comment below by The Flying Scotsman just might be on to something...
"The aimless blade of science" - surely a reference to the criticism of Pono, intended or not! :-)
Also, along the same lines was Neil's story about one of his guitars: he believed the story for years. Then someone introduced doubt into his mind - it turns out the story about it wasn't true. But he kept on believing the story anyway: "So to me, it's still true".
As blatant a metaphor for his belief in hi-res audio as there could possibly be, and quite apt for the rest of us, too.
It's all about what we believe.
The Flying Scotsman.
Well, we now know the time has come to give what's ours.
We still see the vista. We still hear the muse. We continue.
Godspeed. Thank you Neil. Mahalo.
The Essential “Thrasher” Request Fold Up Sign
(Thanks Howell, Karen, Lauri and all the rusties who make the magic happen!)
Both
Neil Young's "Philadelphia" received an Academy Award nomination in 1994 and he performed the song during the Oscar ceremony. Young's wife Pegi and sister Astrid sang on background vocals.
Bruce Springsteen won the Oscar award for his song "Streets of Philadelphia". In his acceptance speech, Springsteen acknowledged Young and said that the award really deserved to be shared by the other nominee's song.
Another sidenote. When Jonathan Demme first heard Neil Young's score for the movie "Philadelphia" while driving, he was so overcome with emotion that he had to pull over to the side of the road to recover.
"Here's the final heart breaking scene as it plays over the "family movies" of the characters as children. If anyone can watch that scene with this song playing over it and now be moved...well. you just don't have a heart." (Thanks for link El.)
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