Judy Greenberg: 1953 - 2025 - Gone, but not forgotten

Judy Greenberg: 1953 - 2025 
Gone, but definitely not forgotten, a tribute for Judy Greenberg, a Neil Young fan to the utmost core of her being.

From a tribute by Robert Broadfoot via Neil Young Archives.

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RIP Judy Greenberg

“When the light of time is on us

We will see our moment come,

And the living soul will carry on.

Light a candle in the darkness

So others might see the way,

Light a candle in the darkness, when you go."

Judy passed from us on 15th December. 

Only a few short weeks ago, she received the totally unexpected news that she had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and that there was no hope she would survive. She told only a few of her closest friends and family while she decided what plans to make - especially in view of the large Neil fan community she belonged to and which had become one of the main focuses of her life.

No one, not even Judy, expected that her passing would come so soon, and she was still making plans almost to the last. Apart from the love for her own family, Judy lived for Neil, for his music, for her work for the Neil Young Archives and of course for her Facebook groups and all the wonderful people she got to know through them. Each and every one filled her with immense joy and a sense of purpose and fulfilment. When Neil heard of her serious illness, he wrote to her and Judy glowed with love and pride as she read out his words to a small circle of friends.

I think we all know that Judy would want her work and legacy to continue at all costs so we are now looking at the best ways to make that possible. Her work for her Facebook group needs no introduction or explanation. Everyone sensed her total commitment to it and she carried out her ‘guardian’ duties with respect and understanding and above all with love for the thousands of Neil fans with whom she came into contact. Love and only love.

With many of us, she also maintained direct, personal contact behind the scenes. She and I, like many others no doubt, had many lengthy exchanges over the last few years. We didn’t always agree on everything but there was always one absolute constant, her undying love and respect for Neil. I shall certainly miss our talks greatly as I am sure everyone will. It is simple testimony to her abilities as a leader and ambassador that her Facebook group, which had slumbered for a long time until she became Administrator at the end of 2017, grew from some 20,000 members to well over 40,000 in only five years under her careful leadership.

So let us continue Judy’s work and legacy out of respect and love for who she was and what she has achieved. May her memory be a blessing and may peace and love be upon her.

Tribute by Robert Broadfoot

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Thank you for the heartfelt words Robert.  Judy will be dearly missed.  We briefly crossed paths with Judy at the Neil solo shows in Chicago back in 2018. We were both eagerly awaiting the concert to begin and trying to get to our seats. While brief, we're glad we at least had an exchange before we put the keys in our ignition and hit the road.

More on Judy and Neil memories @  Neil Young Archives | T-C.

Also, more on gone, but not forgotten, Neil Young fans:

•  A Tribute to Pete Long: The Definitive Neil Young Fan
• Rustie Lauri "Over & Over" Lieber: 1964 - 2019
• Rustie Carol "Roadeyeluv" Snyder Slips Away
• Remembering Rusties 2019: "One of These Days" by HarryO

too late, too soon. they sleep with angels...

So many fond memories and dear rustie friends. Someday, we're gonna sit down and write a long letter...

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The Essentials: "Sleeps With Angels" by Neil Young & Crazy Horse | Old Grey Cat

 Sleeps With AngelsNeil Young & Crazy Horse

Here's a look back at a very essential album by Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Sleeps With Angels (1994).

In particular, this review looks at the album as recorded chronologically -- as opposed to the actual album sequencing -- and makes some very interesting observations.

Over on Old Grey Cat, a re-review from  "The Essentials":

An album’s sequencing is an important factor – it’s somewhat akin to putting together a puzzle without a picture to work from. 

If the songs had been laid out in the order they were recorded, well, it would have been a great album. But by sequencing it the way that they did, Neil and Briggs upped it to a greater realm. I should add, I suppose, that Neil did little to promote the album after its release – no interviews or tours. Instead, he let the music speak for itself. One result, I think, is that it’s become somewhat overlooked in the pantheon that is his oeuvre. To those who’ve never heard it, I say play it today; and for the initiated, give it another listen. It’s a powerful piece. 

As I said way back when, it ranks with his best ever.

Full review of "The Essentials: Sleeps With Angels by Neil Young & Crazy Horse" | Old Grey Cat.  

Here is the 14+ minute track "Change Your Mind" (see Lyric Analysis).

 

'Sleeps With Angels" Film - Directed by LA Johnson| Neil Young Archives

 (see details @ NEW SCREEN ADDED: 'Sleeps With Angels" Film Now Playing on #3 | Neil Young Archives)

 

Also, see Sleeps With Angels: Neil Young, Crazy Horse -  Neil Young Album Reviews: Sleeps With Angels + Preview Tracks)

all of which is "too late, too soon" ...

He Sleeps With Angels

Kurt Cobain and Neil Young

 

Neil Young and Producer David Briggs, 1995
Photo by Pegi Young

(See David Briggs and Neil Young: "How Survivals, Grief and Legacies Unfold in American Music")

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Comment of the Moment: 'Sleeps With Angels" Film Now Playing on #3 | Neil Young Archives

"Sleeps With Angels" Documentary Film by Larry "L.A." Johnson
via Subscriber News | NYA

Much, much excitement in the Rust community over the latest NYA Subscriber News and the premiere of a work in progress documentary of the making of the album Sleeps With Angels by Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

Primarily, the enthusiasm centers around watching the late David Briggs -- Neil Young's long time associate and Producer -- collaborate in the studio. Our Comment of the Moment in on the post 'Sleeps With Angels" Film Now Playing on #3 | Neil Young Archives by David R.:

Nice to see.

Pity all the music seems to be the same as the final studio versions. Great to see Neil with short hair and at one point even no sideburns. Cool to see him on the flute and playing distorted harmonica. Made me wonder if the characters in Trans Am are the start of the sort of thinking that led to Greendale.

I loved this record at the time and listening back I am still astonished by how good it is. Personally I think it might be Neil's best. I never thought about how different the sound is to Ragged Glory though it is true it is on a different planet. There is something of David Lynch to it, it would work as a soundtrack to one of his films, and I recall alongside grunge that was a major cinematic line art followed in the early 90s. Listening again I can feel Neil really tapping into that here and it is notable and logical that he then followed it with Dead Man.

I know a lot has been said about how Neil might have lost part of his muse when he lost Briggs, though sadly that is also clear listening again. Ever since Neil I feel has relied too much and too often on the just plug in and play approach that was first tested ironically here with Piece of Crap. Sleeps with Angels is very much so a studio record and feels and sounds like the product of one of those long experimental spells in the studio that started with The Beatles in the 60s and maybe ended with Radiohead at the millennium. The timing for Neil was perfect too, it was late enough after the 80s to not go over the top with studio sounds, drum machines, synths etc, and still early enough to have the enormous music industry support that allowed bands to really indulge themselves making a record.

I guess that is it, Neil has always blown with the wind of his own muse, though back then there was also an entire industry and experienced team that in this prime of his life blew behind him too.

Much thanks for sharing your thoughts here David!

The late David Briggs was Neil Young's producer on several key albums including Tonight's The Night, Zuma and Ragged Glory. Briggs' influence on the recording process has been lauded as a major contributing factor to Neil Young's recording success bringing a unique "discipline" to the process.

Neil Young and Producer David Briggs, 1995
Photo by Pegi Young

"How Survivals, Grief and Legacies Unfold in American Music"
by Caryn Rose @ 2019 Pop Conference at MoPop - Seattle

See David Briggs and Neil Young: "How Survivals, Grief and Legacies Unfold in American Music".

Also, see:

• Friends of Neil: David Briggs
• Comment of the Moment: Producer David Briggs and Neil Young
• David Briggs in Memorium
• David Briggs Obituary - NY Times, 12/3/95
• Interview with Elliot Roberts on working with David Briggs

"Sleeps With Angels" Film Now Playing on #3 | Neil Young Archives
See https://t.co/YQSQlIC61M
☮️♥️@NeilYoungNYA @CrazyHorse4HOF @Nirvana pic.twitter.com/TtHLaVmQz3

— ThrashersWheat (@ThrashersWheat) July 11, 2020

not!

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NEW SCREEN ADDED: 'Sleeps With Angels" Film Now Playing on #3 | Neil Young Archives

Sleeps With Angels - Directed by LA Johnson
via Subscriber News | NYA

That Neil. He just keeps giving and giving.

Yet another theater has been added to Neil Young Archives -- bringing the total to 3 screens -- a virtual multi-plex, if you will. The latest development on Subscriber News | NYA is the film Sleeps With Angels, directed by LA Johnson and running about 31 minutes.

Neil writes:

This is a document of that album I want to share with NYA Subscribers to show my thanks for all your support. More Subscriber Features will be coming soon.

Enjoy!

The documentary film is a work progress left uncompleted by the sudden death of LA Johnson in 2010.

Sleeps With Angels

Directed by LA Johnson

On The New Subscriber Features Screen in the Hearse Theater

This is a document of that album I want to share with NYA Subscribers to show my thanks for all your support. More Subscriber Features will be coming soon.

Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/O0uNWZcvUY

— Neil Young Archives (@NeilYoungNYA) July 10, 2020

Larry "L.A." Johnson: 1947 - 2010

Neil Young and Producer David Briggs, 1995
Photo by Pegi Young
(Click photo to enlarge)(See David Briggs and Neil Young: "How Survivals, Grief and Legacies Unfold in American Music")

Sleeps With Angels: Neil Young, Crazy Horse
(See Neil Young Album Reviews:
Sleeps With Angels + Preview Tracks)
all of which is "too late, too soon" ...

He Sleeps With Angels

Kurt Cobain and Neil Young

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Comment of the Moment: Jonathan Demme Double Feature Weekend: Neil Young's Complex Sessions + Trunk Show

Neil Young and His Band
via Jonathan Demme's Concert Film Trunk Show

This past weekend on Screen #2 in Hearse Theater of Neil Young Archives, a Jonathan Demme Double Feature was streamed of the films Complex Sessions (1994) and Trunk Show (2009).

Jonathan Demme's concert film Trunk Show from the 2007 tour has been long sought for years for a proper re-release and folks were not disappointed judging by some of the rapturous comments. But before getting to the Comment of the Moment, a couple of runnerup CotMs to mention.


Photo by Larry Cragg
First, a comment by Scotsman who compares Tim Pope's London Hammersmith concert film with Demme's Trunk Show.

No Hidden Path (with extended fizzling guitar solos that sound like fissures erupting in the Earth) is a highlight of both shows, but whatever it sacrifices in pure unbridled energy at the penultimate London show is made up for in musical sharpness and focused intensity - the sense that the guitar solos have their own story to tell and journey to take us on. Thankfully we now have had the chance to enjoy both films, on their own merits. But for me, Tim Pope's London is the most captivating of the two films.

Definitely an interesting an analysis of the two filmmakers and their approach to capturing Neil Young in concert, so be sure to check out Scotsman's full comment.


Second, a response to Scotsman's analysis by Dan S.:

I agree with Scotsman that London creates a more compelling concert experience. Yet Trunk Show manages to create a slightly more intimate experience, although in a truncated fashion. I actually loved both films equally but for different reasons, and extremely happy that Neil plans to release both films commercially.

Trunk Show's Mission: "To blow your eardrums out"
Now the Comment of the Moment on Jonathan Demme Double Feature Weekend: Neil Young's Complex Sessions + Trunk Show by Mister Henry:

Who Is Watching

"We are not souls dwelling in a body. We are bodies dwelling in the soul."
--Tiokasin Ghosthorse

When my grandsons are older, I can watch Trunk Show with them.

I can tell them how we saw the show in Boston just a few days before this was filmed, when Pegi opened for Neil and then sang with the band. When Ben and Rick rocked like kids in the garage and No Hidden Path was even longer and more glorious than this one, or maybe it was just me and their uncle being there to see it and hear it and be there.

I can tell them how the man who directed this film was a charming and creative person, how he came to Boston to show the film he made and talk to everyone there about it, tell them about being there when he talked about his decision to put more cameras there and that he was one of the people filming the show. About how he illustrated his method by having his friend Robyn Hitchcock perform a song and asking anyone with a camera--back then it was not that common and often forbidden to have one at a concert--to film Robyn's performance and send the video to him, he'd try to include it with his own film of the performance using lots of his own cameras to get a feeling of how people experience live music.

I can tell them this was a different way to film music, before live streams and DIY shows and whatever else has happened since then. That they were doing something a little bit different that maybe caught on and gave us a chance to see how it was. That every film is really a bit of time travel but mostly it's what you're seeing right now and how that can be a part of the present and the past. That I sat one morning thinking of them and our family while trying to find words to describe how it felt to be there.

I can tell them how wonderful and also sad the songs about Carrie seemed then and even more so now. How watching Neil with Pegi and Ben and Rick can make you happy even when you're thinking that they're gone. How knowing that Jonathan and Elliot were such a big part of this and they're gone was part of my reason for appreciating this now while I'm thinking of them and what we might do later. How Neil had this film that lots of people wanted to see because the music is great and the performers were amazing and he decided to show it at just the right time.

Sometime later I can tell them how it was dedicated to a friend who was part of so many wonderful films, how he was a great buddy to Ben and his family. I can tell them about the people who are gone and are still here when we watch and think and talk about them. How music is like love and life is our song. Then we'll watch and listen and be there again.

Thanks Mr Henry, Scotsman, Dan and all for sharing your thoughts and comments!

And what did we think?! Well, we were there for the filming of Trunk Show both nights for Neil Young @ Tower Theater, Philadelphia, PA Concert Reviews on Dec. 9 & 10, 2007 and here's our concert review.


Neil Young @ Tower Theater, Philadelphia, PA Concert Reviews on Dec. 9 & 10, 2007
Concert Review by thrasher

photo by thrasher

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Jonathan Demme Double Feature Weekend: Neil Young's Complex Sessions + Trunk Show

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

A Jonathan Demme Double Feature Weekend with Neil Young's Complex Sessions (1994) + Trunk Show (2009) on Screen #2 | Hearse Theater | NYA.

Film Director Jonathan Demme (22/2/47 - 26/4/2017) is credited with THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991), PHILADELPHIA (1993), SOMETHING WILD (1986), HEART OF GOLD (2006) and RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (2008).

Jonathan Demme and Neil Young have had a long and highly productive relationship over the years.


Both Bruce Springsteen and Young were nominated for Academy Award nomination in 1994 for Best Song in a film for Jonathan Demme's "Philadelphia". Bruce's nominated song was the film opening "Streets of Philadelphia" and Neil's was the closing title track "Philadelphia".

The Complex Sessions
A Neil Young & Crazy Horse Film
Directed by Jonathan Demme

Neil Young and Crazy Horse's "Change Your Mind" from the Complex Sessions masterfully captures the group in all their power and beauty.

Recorded at the Complex Studios in Los Angeles, where Neil Young and Crazy Horse had recorded Sleeps With Angels, director Jonathan Demme filmed them performing four songs from the album. Shot over two nights on Oct. 3-4, 1994, the 30-minute video contains "My Heart," "Prime Of Life," "Change Your Mind," and "Piece Of Crap."

In the 15-minute "Change Your Mind," with its lengthy instrumental passages, Demme varies the lighting from near darkness to excessive brightness. (See "Change Your Mind" lyrics analysis.)

"Change Your Mind"
Neil Young and Crazy Horse

From NEIL YOUNG'S - and Rock n' Roll's - Finest Moment (Fi - The Magazine of Music & Sound, June, 1996) by Paul Williams:

At my local record store, I recently came across a videocassette which apparently had been available for a year, but which I'd never heard about, called Neil Young and Crazy Horse: The Complex Sessions. Bought it, brought it home, watched and listened and was absolutely astonished.

Don't fall into the trap of believing that the great moments in rock and roll history are all in the past. This twenty-seven minute performance by one of rock's greatest and most enduring artists and bands is headline news. What rock and roll has always tried to achieve has never come any closer than this, or Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," or Janis and Big Brother live in 1967, or Springsteen and E Street in 1975.

You shoulda been there.

And in this case, thanks to the miracle of recording technology, you can be. This videotape will wear out no faster than your all-time favorite 45, it is just as deserving of repeated plays, just as possibly able to continue to deepen its resonance through the rest of your lifetime. The best argument I've ever heard for owning a "home theater" setup with superior audio capabilities.

The mix on this tape is so brilliant it even sounds good on a damn TV set, but I keep wanting to turn it up louder than the TV will go.

The Complex Sessions seems to me to represent a pivotal moment in rock history (as, say, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" did), not only because it's so good but also because it is a breakthrough in the creative use of a medium (the long-form rock video as a work of art) that has defeated most supplicants, including Neil as often as not. On the other hand, it isn't selling many copies, and in our increasingly corrupt pop culture, that and inches of press coverage are the only measurements of "significance." Oh well. Great music is still great music.

If a tree falls in the forest but nobody writes a review, did it make a sound?

Complete article on Complex Sessions NEIL YOUNG'S - and Rock n' Roll's - Finest Moment (Fi - The Magazine of Music & Sound, June, 1996) by Paul Williams.

More Jonathan Demme and Neil Young, Sleeps With Angels reviews, and "Change Your Mind" lyrics analysis.


Neil Young Trunk Show was filmed over two nights at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia, PA in December 2007 which we had the privilege of attending.

Photo by thrasher
More on the Trunk Show concerts in Philadelphia.


Neil Young
Tower Theater, Philadelphia, PA - December 2007
Photo by thrasher
Below, a Jonathan Demme interview on Neil Young Trunk Show film at Toronto Film Festival in September, 2009.



From Variety - Demme digs Neil Young concert pics :

"We don’t have an illusion that this is something that can move into a movie theater and play for weeks," Demme says, acknowledging the tough times facing docus. "I’m hoping we’ll have some great moment in theaters, but I know full well this is a cable and DVD play." Demme is already prepping the DVD, which will include eight songs not seen in the 82-minute theatrical version.

Additionally, Demme is thinking about another film with Young to complete the trilogy: "I just feel that the physics lead to a third movie." he says.

Trunk Show's Mission: "To blow your eardrums out"After Greg Kot's rave review of 'Neil Young Trunk Show: Scenes from a Concert', we thought we'd be hard pressed to find a critic who could top describing the indescribable.

From Reverse Shot by Andrew Chan:

Trunk Show allows us an intense focus on an aging man throwing his entire body into the music, at times seemingly surprised by the passion and sheer sadness of the sound he’s making.

There are, indeed, few sounds in popular music more heartbreaking than a Neil Young vocal.

Sometimes a sharp and atonal bleat, sometimes hanging nervously in the back of his mouth, Young’s voice is so instantly memorable it needs no words and no narrative to flesh it out. Demme trusts in this and is clearly, appropriately, in awe of it, but he also isn’t interested in presenting us the same permanently plaintive Young. In an interview, he has even advised: “If you’re not a Neil Young fan, don’t waste your time . . . if you don’t love electric guitar, don’t go.”

Accentuating the murkiness and loudness of the rocker’s new material is a stage lit by dim, sickly yellow and purple spotlights, substituting for the comfort of Heart of Gold’s ochre and umber. Gone are the backdrops depicting hearth and home; here, a few grotesque props remind us of the set design for the grungy Young-directed concert film Rust Never Sleeps. As if standing in defiance of those who accused Heart of Gold of pimping Young as some Starbucks-friendly folkster (or those who remain suspicious of an artist who briefly cultivated a soft-rock following in the Seventies), Trunk Show eventually announces its mission to blow your eardrums out.

The meat of the film is not the bravely shy singer but the merciless guitarist, and “No Hidden Path,” a monstrous 20-minute jam that brings the first half to its climax, serves as a kind of litmus test. Taken from his latest studio album, Chrome Dreams II, the song starts out with images of moon and mist that would have fit in the lyrics of “Harvest Moon,” before launching into the type of vague spiritual pronouncements that have recently muddied Young’s once-vivid songwriting.

Once the guitar takes over, though, there’s no turning back. A cacophony of escalating moans, yelps, and screeches, the performance is likely to try the patience of all but the truest devotees. But by the end, the uninitiated may feel they’ve undergone something like a religious conversion—especially when Young lets our bleeding ears rest once again on some of those impossibly delicate ballads. Even the most brutal of art-house provocateurs would have a hard time cinematically sustaining such an outburst of anguish and foreboding, while steering us so swiftly back to safety and solace.

What emerges is the most coherent and generous portrait of this artist yet captured on film, and probably the most remarkable melding of his soft and hard sides since the 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps. When he’s stalking across the stage in a rocked-out stupor, wisps of hair dangling in his face, it’s the force of his commitment that moves you. Where Heart of Gold showed us a man ready to make peace with the dying of the light, Trunk Show gives us all the rage Young has left in him.

Awesome Andrew. Thanks!

More reviews of 'Neil Young Trunk Show: Scenes from a Concert'.

From an interview with Director Jonathan Demme on Spinner by Liisa Ladouceur:

"The film was shot over two nights in 2007 at the Tower Theater in Pennsylvania during Young's 'Chrome Dreams II' tour. It eschews the chronology of the concerts' set lists, instead jumping around between electric and acoustic numbers both familiar ('Cowgirl in the Sand,' 'Cinnamon Girl') and rare ('Ambulance Blues, 'Mexico') and what passes for costume changes at a Young show (jacket goes on, jacket comes off). The focus is on the interactions between Young and his band, and Demme admits there was 'minimal' pre-planning before the shoot. 'I just tried to respond spontaneously to the music,' he says.

One impromptu moment captured in the film is when Young appears to forget the words to his hit 'Like a Hurricane.' Demme responded by putting the lyrics up onscreen, karaoke style. 'The whole point of that song is that the person telling the story gets lost in a hurricane,' Demme explains, laughing. 'So when Neil is wandering around the stage, forgetting to sing into the microphone, it was like he got lost, too. I thought it was perfect. And Neil liked it; he asked me to keep it in.'

Demme admits he's a 'Neil Young groupie' and says he's already planning a third film with the singer, although no details are forthcoming. And while he says 'nothing can ever compete with live music,' he still finds concert filmmaking exciting.

'We can present a more intimate view of what's going on on the stage.' he says. 'We can pull the audience out of their seat and put them inside the music. Because it's the music that's the message. It's what takes us on the journey.'"

A terrific interview with Demme on MSN by Seán Francis Condon:

"Seán Francis Condon: Is 'Trunk Show' the most elaborate sound mix you've done?

Demme: No. In fact, when we did 'Heart of Gold' - when I've done any of these performance films, whoever's doing them - you cut to the board mix. But then you go on to a movie mixing stage, and you break all the tracks down and you make a brand new mix that in theory is going to be the best sound tapestry and make sure you get everything right. We did 'Heart of Gold' that way, and Neil was at the controls. But here, the more we cut to the board mix, the more I thought it would be insane and kind of against the whole vibe of this show and the film to break that up. This sounds live to me! So, we really stuck with the board mix. Ninety-five percent of what we hear now is what the people in the room heard those nights. There are a couple of places where just one of the levers wasn't up enough and we couldn't hear something. Here and there. This is essentially like a bootleg soundtrack."

From Guardian.co.uk:

DEMME: "When I see him galumphing across the stage in the middle of No Hidden Path, so deep in a trance-state, making sounds that I've never heard and I find so thrilling … it's like if Tchaikovsky had been a guitar player. I just think in terms of the word master coming into my head. Look at this grizzled master just burning this stuff down."

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Also, see Trailer for Neil Young Trunk Show Movie.

More on the Trunk Show concerts in Philadelphia.


Jonathan Demme and Neil Young
More on Jonathan Demme and Neil Young:

- Young and Demme Discuss Trunk Show Movie

- Trunk Show's Mission: "To blow your eardrums out"

- Unscripted Interview: Demme & Young

- Director Jonathan Demme on "Prairie Wind"/Heart of Gold film

- "Heart of Gold" Premieres at Sundance Film Festival

- The Complex Sessions: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Directed by Jonathan Demme


Photo by Larry Cragg
Also, In Memory of Jonathan Demme: 1944 - 2017 .

Film Director Jonathan Demme has passed away at age 73
Musician Neil Young and Director Jonathan Demme - 2012
Photo by Victoria Will/AP
(Click photo to enlarge)

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"Piece Of Crap" - Neil Young & Crazy Horse (Official Video)

In honor of all that is totally dysfunctional in our modern, civilized little world, here's the official video for "Piece Of Crap" by Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

This goes out to all those Restless Consumers everywhere.

More on the album Sleeps With Angels and our review from Broken Arrow magazine #57, November 1994.

On a slightly related subject, from a financial research paper From ABBA to Zeppelin, Led: Using Music to Teach Introductory Microeconomics with "Piece of Crap" lyrics analysis:

"As consumers realize that certain goods are crap, the demand for the goods will drop, resulting in lower prices. At these low prices, it will be more indicative of the crappiness of the good, and consumers will tend to steer clear, unless it is their only option. Also, firms have return policies, so that consumers can exchange crap products."

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"Sleeps With Angels" - Neil Young & Crazy Horse @ Complex Studios - Promo

"Sleeps With Angels" by Neil Young & Crazy Horse from The Complex Sessions on YouTube.

Although this performance was recorded in the Complex studios, it isn't part of the Complex Sessions (filmed by Jonathan Demme). While The Complex Sessions was a live performance, this footage comes from the promo-only VHS 'Sleeps With Angels Continued ...' which documents the recording of the SWA album. (Thanks vaga2012 for update/correction!)

Also, see Comment of the Moment: Sleeps with Angels - "It's like a room full of mirrors".

More on The Complex Sessions directed by Jonathan Demme.

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Comment of the Moment: Sleeps with Angels - "It's like a room full of mirrors"

Sleeps With Angels: Neil Young, Crazy Horse
Preview Tracks

The Comment of the Moment is from the Complex Sessions videos regarding Neil Young & Crazy Horse's album Sleeps with Angels by Unknown:

Sleeps with Angels was the first Neil Young album that I bought myself as a teenager, and I still consider it as one of the best (if not *the* best) that Neil has ever created. I always thought it was quite undervalued in Neil's catalogue. Everything on this album seems to be in its place, nothing seems to be random. It's like a room full of mirrors, with references to so many things.

Of course, there's the obvious reference to Kurt Cobain's death and suicide note, that appears to have been a trigger for Neil to fall into Tonight's The Night - like dark mood. To which you find a reference in the black CD/LP label.

Musically it's some of the finest tracks that Crazy Horse has ever recorded. Not the easy forward-rocking Ragged Glory and also not the pot-induced one-song Broken Arrow, and not the convincing minimalism of Greendale, but a very versatile collection of songs where each song transports a different mood, but which at the same time does not fall apart, they still manage to come across as one album.

The album is also very interesting structurally. Blue Eden seems to be the dark center of the album. It picks up the theme from Change Your Mind ('embracing, distorting, supporting, ...') and musically leads to Safeway Cart. And references Driveby ('you feel invincible, it's just a part of life'). From there one (going backwards and forwards) songs somewhat mirror each other. Western Hero and Train of Love are the same song with different lyrics. Trans Am and Driveby have a very similar 'feel' to me. My Heart and A Dream That Can Last are the beginning and ending of the album that feel a little bit like child's songs/lullabies that wrap the enclosed darkness in peaceful tunes.

In all this well-produced darkness, Piece of Crap stands out as a .. well, piece of crap. But what a great rocker that is... and it nicely captures the feeling of that mystical generation X. Probably the best punk rock song ever done by Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

Only years after I bought it, I figured out that the picture on the inside of the CD which on first sight did not really reveal much except pixel mess (maybe a building and a road?) was a picture of Neil in sunglasses.

One oddity that I remember was that the CD came with an additional sheet of paper with all the lyrics translated into german (at least here in Germany.. would be interesting to find out if there have been translations to other languages as well?). Certainly useless (lyrics like this can hardly be translated), but at the same time supports the general theme of a 'concept album'. Obviously somebody found the lyrics so important that they needed to be translated for the audience. I have never ever bought an album with translated lyrics.

I am very much looking forward to the new Neil Young and Crazy Horse material. Sleeps with angels gets me in the right mood.

Thanks Unknown!

More on The Complex Sessions directed by Jonathan Demme.

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Complex Sessions: Neil Young & Crazy Horse "Change Your Mind", Director Jonathan Demme

Neil Young and Crazy Horse's "Change Your Mind" from the Complex Sessions masterfully captures the group in all their power and beauty.

Recorded at the Complex Studios in Los Angeles, where Neil Young and Crazy Horse had recorded Sleeps With Angels, director Jonathan Demme filmed them performing four songs from the album. Shot over two nights on Oct. 3-4, 1994, the 30-minute video contains "My Heart," "Prime Of Life," "Change Your Mind," and "Piece Of Crap."

In this 15-minute "Change Your Mind," with its lengthy instrumental passages, Demme varies the lighting from near darkness to excessive brightness.

(Thanks Keith W!)

From NEIL YOUNG'S - and Rock n' Roll's - Finest Moment (Fi - The Magazine of Music & Sound, June, 1996) by Paul Williams:

At my local record store, I recently came across a videocassette which apparently had been available for a year, but which I'd never heard about, called Neil Young and Crazy Horse: The Complex Sessions. Bought it, brought it home, watched and listened and was absolutely astonished.

Don't fall into the trap of believing that the great moments in rock and roll history are all in the past. This twenty-seven minute performance by one of rock's greatest and most enduring artists and bands is headline news. What rock and roll has always tried to achieve has never come any closer than this, or Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," or Janis and Big Brother live in 1967, or Springsteen and E Street in 1975.

You shoulda been there.

And in this case, thanks to the miracle of recording technology, you can be. This videotape will wear out no faster than your all-time favorite 45, it is just as deserving of repeated plays, just as possibly able to continue to deepen its resonance through the rest of your lifetime. The best argument I've ever heard for owning a "home theater" setup with superior audio capabilities.

The mix on this tape is so brilliant it even sounds good on a damn TV set, but I keep wanting to turn it up louder than the TV will go.

The Complex Sessions seems to me to represent a pivotal moment in rock history (as, say, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" did), not only because it's so good but also because it is a breakthrough in the creative use of a medium (the long-form rock video as a work of art) that has defeated most supplicants, including Neil as often as not. On the other hand, it isn't selling many copies, and in our increasingly corrupt pop culture, that and inches of press coverage are the only measurements of "significance." Oh well. Great music is still great music.

If a tree falls in the forest but nobody writes a review, did it make a sound?

Complete article on Complex Sessions NEIL YOUNG'S - and Rock n' Roll's - Finest Moment (Fi - The Magazine of Music & Sound, June, 1996) by Paul Williams.

More Jonathan Demme and Neil Young, Sleeps With Angels reviews, and "Change Your Mind" lyrics analysis.

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Kurt Cobain Sleeps With Angels

Pearl Jam's recent film PJ20 featured Neil Young discussing Kurt Cobain and his final days.

In Kurt Cobain's suicide note he quoted Neil Young's song "My My, Hey Hey" lyrics "It's Better to burn out, than to fade away."

From Kurt Cobain and Neil Young:

Cobain's use of the lyrics had a profound impact on Young, who recorded portions of the 1994 'Sleeps With Angels' album in Cobain's memory.

Apparently, Neil Young had been trying to reach Cobain by telephone in the days before his suicide to no avail.

From New Musical Express article "Reflective Glory" (07/15/95) by Steve Sutherland & Kevin Cummins on recording "Mirror Ball" (Neil Young and Pearl Jam collaboration) in the aftermath of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain's suicide and the contradictory forces of life and death:

On "Mirror Ball", though, the natural incompatibility of these forces has been raised into shocking relief by one disciple choosing an unfeasibly extreme interpretation of Young's message when Kurt Cobain quoted, "It's Better to burn out, than to fade away." In his suicide note, citing Young's lyric as artistic justification for ending his inconsolable anguish, Young was shaken to the bone. Always an advocate of allowing the listener his or her own individual path through a record, he was so devastated by Cobain's personal reaction to a song that was basically written as a celebration of Punk that he was impelled to record the 'Sleeps With Angels' album in lament."

The NME article continues and observes:

"Perversely, it is testament to Young's emotive power that Cobain should choose his words as an epitaph, but it is something Young still visibly shudders from. Once a song is out there on the radio, he reasons, it's not anyone's responsibility anymore.



'It's the machine and the fuel. It's over now. I'm not behind the wheel at all. It's gone. It's over.'



As for Cobain, he mutters: 'I don't wanna talk about that. I just don't know what to say. Obviously his interpretation should not be taken to mean there's only two ways to go and one of them is death.'



He laughs a cold, dry laugh.



It's rumoured that Young was trying to contact Cobain at the time of his suicide, that he somehow foresaw the tragedy coming.



'I don't wanna talk about it," says Young. 'I really don't because I respect the fact that he's a guy who did what he did and, y'know, he did what he had to do and I don't wanna get any ...' He falters and recomposes himself behind alarming blue shades.



'I prefer to not be involved at all. I certainly don't wanna take advantage of talking about something like that for the interest of somebody else I've never met and selling myself in paper in the process. I'd rather you just left it out. It's just distasteful to me.' "

During Neil Young's induction speech into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on January 13, 1995, Young choked up and concluded by thanking Cobain for "all of the inspiration".

It has been debated as to whether Kurt Cobain or Neil Young is the Godfather of Grunge? Cobain's demise has only added to Nirvana's musical legacy and influence. Yet Young has strenuously avoided any such labeling, preferring to be called "Don Grungio" instead.

From a Neil Young interview in MOJO Magazine with Nick Kent:

Q. Sleeps With Angels seems deeply haunted by the spectre of Kurt Cobain and his sad end...



A. Sleeps With Angels has a lot of overtones to it, from different situations
that were described in it. A lot of sad scenes (pause), I've never really spoken about why I made that album. I don't want to start now.



Q. Has it anything to do with the similarity of Kurt Cobain's death to Crazy Horse Danny Whitten's death in 1972? They both looked so much alike...



A. I just don't want to talk about that. That's my decision. I've made
a choice not to talk about it and I'm sticking to it. [Also see, Danny Whitten and Kurt Cobain: Tragic Similarities]



Q. Let's not discuss Cobain's death then. But what about his life? Did his music inspire you?



A. He really, really inspired me. He was so great. Wonderful. One of the best, but more than that. Kurt was one of the absolute best of all time for me.



Q. "Scenery" on Mirror Ball (recorded with Pearl Jam) seems equally haunted by Cobain's doomed image.
It's like there's OJ Simpson on one side and Kurt Cobain on the other: two very different victims of celebrity madness?



A. Well, the problems with celebrity and rock'n'roll start with the
fact that nowadays it gets way too big too fast. Back in the '50s and '60s, rock'n'roll was 'big' but it was only 'big' to people who cared about it.

Now it's big to people who don't care about it. So they can't begin to understand it. They just make ill-informed judgements on performers without first comprehending why or what it was that made the person famous in the first place. In the '60s there was a bond between the artists and the audience.

It's harder to see now because so much these days is simply down to image projection. But today's pessimistic bands have a vision and an attitude that's unified their generation just like the 'peace and love' groups helped unify the '60s generation.

More on Kurt Cobain and Neil Young.

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