Pegi Young: Charitable Work and Songwriting Help the Healing Process | Guitar Girl Magazine

Pegi Young & The Survivors w/ Special Guest
Farm Aid 2012 Concert - Hershey, PA
Photo by thrashette
(Click photo to enlarge)
An interview with Pegi Young on her new album "RAW" from Pegi Young: Charitable Work and Songwriting Help the Healing Process | Guitar Girl Magazine:

Ten years of solo recordings – how have you progressed as a singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and performer?

Pegi Young: I was surprised to reflect on that myself. I came into the game late in life, according to some rulebook. I’ve been able to continue recording, and I’m quite pleased that I’ve been able to carve out this time in my life to do this. When I went into the studio to make my first solo record [Pegi Young, 2007], I’d been doing backgrounds and some professional stuff with Neil. But I was very shy and not at all self-confident about my ability to carve out a career for myself. Even in the later years, when people asked why I didn’t do this earlier, I didn’t know how, first of all, but I did not have the confidence. I was terribly shy and I still am, but when I get onstage I let my other side come out.

I see all those things you mentioned as the sum total of the whole. When I listen back to my initial recordings, I hear a timid and shy singer/songwriter. I was breaking out stuff that I had written when I was 20 years old. I had been writing my whole life, and my songs reflect life experiences, so my progression in that realm is noticeable in my recordings and my live performances. You do it and do it and you get more confidence.

You recorded the album in your home studio [Redwood Digital]. Is it easier or more challenging to work from home?

I think it’s both, because for sure being this close to home is comforting. Especially as a single mom, being close to my son and making sure everything is cool with him is a comfort. At the same time, I can get pulled into other things that are distracting from the music. When I go away, it’s probably a little bit more free in my mind, and yet I think we did well here in the studio. My son’s health is good, things were going very well, so I didn’t have that distraction. It’s been over a year since we started making this record. So all in all, recording here at home has more plusses than minuses, but there are plusses to being away and being singularly focused on what you’re doing in terms of musicality.

We started here, went to Nashville for some overdubs, came here, went to L.A., and came back here, putting on different parts. The horns and background singers were done in L.A. I brought the band back in because I had written some more songs. There’s a lot of music we recorded that didn’t end up on this record, but it’s mixed, it’s mastered, and when the time is right, if ever, it will come out.

Do you always write with a theme in mind, or do you write and then create the chapters of the story from there?

In the case of this album, and I think probably my previous effort [Lonely in a Crowded Room, 2014], I write and write and try to narrow down the field. I’m very much into the old-fashioned school of thematic relevance, so I try to create a story that is told on a record. It’s a little bit like hearing an audio book. In this case, obviously, so much of this stuff came out of the past two and a half years of my life, what I’d gone through, and dramatic changes in it. A lot of it goes back to telling that story in my own way. When I think about how long it took to record this album, and the many times we went into the studio, I think you can see a progression in my emotional journey. Even though I look at this as clearly one of the most autobiographical records I’ve ever written in my modest catalog, I think there’s universality to it. I’m not the only person to go through a late in life divorce. I’m not the only person to have gone through heartbreak and grief. So I hope that others can hear this record and apply it to their own lives.

Do the songs sometimes change as they are being written?

That has happened so many times over the years. I think it happened to some extent on this record as well. The process for this record was, I brought in a stack of words, lyrics, and thoughts that I had written. After my band played the Stagecoach Festival, Spooner [Oldham – keyboardist] and I culled the herd. It was a collaborative process and it was super-cool. I had never done that before. I usually come in with at least a skeleton of a melody. I had nothing this time. I had nothing but words.

You have compared the album to the stages of grief, beginning with immediate loss and ending with closure. How did that influence how you sequenced the songs?

It was very interesting. The sequence you hear on the record is the very first sequence I came up with, just looking at all the songs we had. Usually you take a stab at it, you move a song, this and that. But it was perfect. It told the story, shows the progression of my emotional state of mind, and that’s what music’s all about. It’s about expressing your emotions and feelings about what’s going on in your life. Chad Hailey, my engineer, listened to the first sequence and said, “That’s it. You hit it.” I looked at the songs we left off, I couldn’t see anywhere that they would fit, so we went with my first sequence.

Did you play guitar on the album?

I do not play a single instrument on this record. I stopped playing for about two and a half years. I only started playing again recently. I was frozen for a while and couldn’t play guitar or piano, but I could write. What I discovered in the process is that it’s freeing to just sing. But there are songs where we need an acoustic guitar, so now that I’m much further along in the process, I’m practicing every day, and playing piano every day, and making sure I get my chops back up.

You have personnel changes in your band, as well as longtime working relationships. Tell us about this group of musicians.

I’ve got a stellar band. Spooner [Aretha Franklin, Bob Seger, Neil Young] is a founding member of The Survivors. After Ben [Keith – pedal steel] died, and Anthony Crawford, my lead guitar player, left the band, we brought in Kelvin Holly [guitarist; Little Richard]. Phil Jones [drums; Tom Petty, Joe Walsh] came in pretty early on. Then we lost Rick [Rosas – bass], who had recommended him. Spooner and Kelvin recommended Shonna Tucker [Drive-By Truckers] and she kicks ass. She’s great.

The constitution of my band changed after we lost Ben. Our first couple of records had gone into the country or Americana categories, and it has shifted from being less in the realm of country and more into R&B, which is also a place where I’m comfortable.

What do you look for in your musicians?

Collaboration. The notion that we’re all in this together. Support. That they’re going to have my back. That we all get along. I travel with my band on one bus, with my crew. You’ve got to get along. Obviously musicianship, that’s the starting point. But you can have a person with all the chops in the world, and they’re not someone you want to spend a lot of time with. In our close quarters we all get along well.

Full interview with Pegi Young on Pegi Young: Charitable Work and Songwriting Help the Healing Process | Guitar Girl Magazine.

Also, see more on Pegi Young and The Survivors new album "RAW".

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1989 Neil Young Interview: Village Voice by Jimmy McDonough

Neil Young & Poncho
Rusted Out Garage Tour - 1986
Photo by DAVID PLASTIK
(Click photo to enlarge)
Recently here on Thrasher's Wheat, we have been re-visiting and reassessing some of Neil Young's 1980's releases on Geffen Records, such as, TRANS: A Little Bit of Essential Neil Young, "Landing on Water" by Neil Young: Incredibly Underrated and Reassessing Neil Young's Life on Geffen Records. We also featured this rare 1990 Neil Young Interview by Nick Kent | VOX .

And lots of fascinating observations by our dear TW readers in post comments -- as always.

To complement these commentaries on Neil Young's 1980's releases on Geffen Records, here is a 1989 Neil Young Interview by Jimmy McDonough that appeared in the Village Voice Rock & Roll Quarterly, Winter 1989.

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Neil Young Interview
Fuckin' Up With Neil Young: Too Far Gone
by Jimmy McDonough
Village Voice Rock & Roll Quarterly, Winter 1989

So I'm sitting in a dark blue limo, surrounded by huge redwoods and thick fog, somewhere near Santa Cruz, California, waiting for Neil Young. The limo driver, a clean-cut kid, scurries across the empty two-lane highway, and he hops in the car, obviously relieved Young didn't drive up as he was taking a piss. It's four o'clock, already starting to get dark. Young is nowhere in sight.

By now I was used to waiting. At half past nine Warner Brothers had called my San Francisco hotel room, assuring me Young would be calling. Ten o'clock came. Then 11, 12, and one. At two his management called, saying a limo would take me to a rendezvous not far from Young's home in San Mateo County.

I had plenty to think about in the limo. To me, Neil Young is just Jerry Lee Lewis with longer hair. Fuck "Sugar Mountain" - Young's music is only good when he's crazy. His best records are his most obsessed - Tonight's The Night, Zuma, or On The Beach. While Young still seems crazy in the '80s, the records he made were straitjacketed by Young's insistence on playing characters: first he was a techno-rocker, then a rockabilly hipster, then a country conservative. He did everything but make music about Neil Young. And all the great material that he was playing live never made it to vinyl.

The past year found Young performing intense live shows packed with new songs and set to release a searing rock record, Times Square. But at the last minute, Young opted for Freedom, an album calculated to make everyone rave "come-back." The Times Square sessions - his best work in a decade - got dumped on an import EP that's already out of print. What the fuck has been going on with this guy for the past decade?

We arrived at the restaurant, a dark country inn where Young was supposed to meet us. Except for our limo, the gravel parking lot was vacant. The restaurant was closed. There we sat, in the middle of nowhere, the redwoods silent except for the barking of a distant dog.

Suddenly a white '57 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, polished and gleaming, emerged from the fog, pulling up next to the limo. Out popped Neil Young. Dressed in a leather touring jacket, baggy pants and sandals with socks, Young looked more wrecked than usual. His hair was an uncombed tangle, his eyes bulging and bloodshot. The night before Young had celebrated his 44th birthday by whooping it up at a Sinatra concert. "I'm so fucked up from dancing." he says with a grin. "My legs are killing me."

Full 1989 Neil Young Interview by Jimmy McDonough that appeared in the Village Voice Rock & Roll Quarterly, Winter 1989

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New Official Video: "Peace Trail" by Neil Young

Last year, Neil Young released Peace Trail -- his second album of 2016. (EARTH was released in June, 2016.)

The first video of the title track consisted of images from the Dakota Access Pipeline protest at Standing Rock. The latest video version consists of animated images of various landscapes and was directed by Darcy Prendergast and Mike Greaney.

The directors wrote to NPR's First Watch: "[We] felt the paint-on-glass technique was the most symbiotic. This approach, combined with the painterly compositions of sweeping American landscapes, is narratively served up as a love letter to the older generation."

For more on "Peace Trail" by Neil Young, see:

• Meta Reviews: Neil Young's "Peace Trail"
• REVIEW: Neil Young’s "Compelling" Peace Trail
• Take The Fork in the Road and Get on That "Peace Trail"
• LISTEN: Neil Young's "Peace Trail"
• INTERVIEW: Neil Young on "Peace Trail" | L.A. Times
• Comment of the Moment: Thoughts on "Peace Trail", Neil Young's Latest Album
• Comment of the Moment: Yet More Thoughts on "Peace Trail", Neil Young's Latest Album
• We Have A Dream: "All We Are Saying Is Give Peace *Trail* A Chance"
• NEW VIDEO: "My Pledge" by Neil Young
• Neil Young's Statement on Standing Rock and Dakota Access Pipeline
• NEW ALBUM: "Peace Trail" by Neil Young due December 2 + 2017 Tour News

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Promise of the Real Adds 2 New Band Members

Promise of the Real

As we noted recently, in an interview with Lukas Nelson, he revealed that Promise of the Real has added two new members to the band -- a keyboard player and a lap steel player.

The two newest band mates are Alberto Bof (lap steel) and Jesse Grey Siebenberg (keyboards) and they bring added depth and a new sound to the mix.

Alberto Bof on lap steel can be heard in this recent concert video, below.


Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real... Running Shine...Santa Barbara, CA...3-4-17

(Thanks Hounds that Howl for the fresh wheat! When will people just STFU and listen to the music?)

Neil Young + Promise of the Real
Europe 2016 Tour Concert Reviews, Photos, Videos & More

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"Old man look at my life..." - Photos of Neil Young and His Inspiration by Henry Diltz

Neil Young at Broken Arrow Ranch - 1971
Photo by Henry Diltz

As we noted earlier this year, photographer Henry Diltz has taken many iconic photos of Neil Young, as well as, many other legendary musicians over the decades.

From Henry Diltz' blog on Morrison Hotel Gallery, here is the story about spending a day at Broken Arrow Ranch with Neil Young and the "Old Man".

"Old man look at my life..."

"Neil Young bought a ranch in Northern California which he named "Broken Arrow Ranch". I went up there a few times with Gary Burden in 1971 and stayed a couple days taking pictures. Gary was my art director/ partner and still works with Neil. We used to walk around the ranch in the morning, smoking a fatty and checking things out around the property.

The Ranch came with a foreman named Louis Avila who had been there for years. This particular morning we stopped by the foreman's bungalow and he and Neil had a talk on the porch. This was in 1971, a year before his album Harvest came out and as the story goes, this is the "Old Man" that Neil sings about.

We later went on to look in a barn where Neil had some guitars. He pulled out a little old Martin guitar, sat on a hay bale, and played a tune. How great it was to be a fly on the wall and document everything that happened. Lots of those pictures got used in Neil Young Songbooks in the 70's."

--Henry Diltz

See the photos Henry took the day of this story at Morrison Hotel Gallery.

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Neil Young: "What I've Learned" | Esquire 2006

Neil Young
Photo by Danny Clinch

Here's an interview with Neil Young from the TW Archives (via Esquire circa 2006) on "What I've Learned" by Cal Fussman:

A best moment in music?

Neil Young: Sometimes when I'm playing my guitar, I get to a point where it gets very cold and icy inside me. It's very refreshing. Every breath is like you're at the North Pole. Your head starts to freeze. Your inhalations are big -- more air than you ever thought there is starts pouring in. There's something magical about it. Sometimes when it happens, you wonder if you're gonna be okay. Can you handle it?

Was there something good that came out of having polio as a kid?

Walking.

The wisest person you ever met?

The wisest person I ever met had to be my companion in the hospital a few months ago. I was recovering from complications after an operation to remove an aneurism in my brain. She was about eighty-five years old and maybe five feet tall. An old black lady from South Carolina. This young nurse wasn't really in touch with what she was doing, and the old lady would tell her how to do what she needed to do without telling her. She never talked down to her, just gave examples. I felt that this old woman must be deeply religious, but there was nothing forceful about her. I woke up one morning at a quarter to six and looked out the window. Fog was on the bridge outside the room, and I said, "Well, that's just beautiful." And she said: "Yes, it is." She turned toward me with this eighty-five-year-old face that didn't have a line on it, no strain, nothing, and she said: "So the master's not taking you. It's not your turn."

What about courage have you learned?

Courage is a mindless thing. People say, "Wow! How could you do that?" And you say, "How could I not do that?"

What about vision have you learned?

It's like having two eyes. You either look through one eye or you look through the other. Or you look through both of them. Sex is sex. Love is love. Love and sex is clear vision.

What about boxing have you learned?

There's something peaceful about boxing. If you beat the hell out of a bag or go against a competitor, you and your reflexes will be so at one that you won't have time to think about anything else. You have to be totally yourself to box.

What about God have you learned?

When I was six, I really didn't know what God was. But I did know about Sunday school. I was reading a lot about God, but I was bored. I couldn't wait to get out of Sunday school. God was secondary to the whole thing. But as time went by, I got more and more angry, to the point where I didn't like religion. Hate is a strong word. But I just kept getting angrier and angrier...until finally I wasn't angry anymore. I was just peaceful, because I thought: This is not fruitful for me. I rejected the whole thing and found peace in paganism. Jesus didn't go to church. I went way back before Jesus. Back to the forest, to the wheat fields, to the river, to the ocean. I go where the wind is. That's my church.

What about courage have you learned?

Epilepsy taught me that we're not in control of ourselves.

What about time have you learned?

Most people think it's the other way around: that time is going faster and we're doing less. But really time seems to be going faster because we're cramming so much into it.

What about education have you learned?

Our education system basically strives for normal -- which is too bad. Sometimes the exceptional is classified as abnormal and pushed aside.

What about children have you learned?

One thing that has come out of having children with cerebral palsy is strength. At first it made me very angry. I was almost looking for a fight. I was always looking for someone to criticize my son in my presence. I would envision different scenarios in which I would become violent reacting to people's reactions to my children -- especially to my severely handicapped child. Eventually, he taught me that was not necessary. Just by being himself. By being a gift to us. He showed us how to have faith and belief and inner strength and to never give up. I look around and see people hurting themselves for no reason. Drinking too much. Taking drugs. Beating themselves up in some psychological way. That really bothers me, knowing that these people got everything they needed to succeed. All they have to do is believe in themselves and in the gifts they're wasting. And yet there are all these other people on the planet who have none of the gifts that are apparent. The gifts are all locked up inside, yet their spirits are so strong that they just keep on going. And I think: This person who has this spirit, why can't he have some of the outward gifts?

What about life have you learned?

Maybe this is a little too thoughtful, but we're all just passengers in a way.

What about experience have you learned?

The best is approaching. I have everything -- well, not everything, but a lot of things that I've accumulated through my life experiences. It's easier to communicate through music than it ever has been before. It's easier to play. It's easier to sing. It's easier to write. Nothing is forced.

What about medicine have you learned?

When my doctor discovered the aneurysm in my brain, he said I'd had it for about a hundred years. He told me I'd had it for such a long time that I shouldn't worry about it...but that we'd have to get rid of it immediately. Yeah, that's Zen medicine. He's very wise. I trusted him completely. All the people who took care of me were absolutely the best at what they do -- even though there was a complication, a complication that has a one-in-twenty-seven-hundred chance of happening in my type of operation. They go into your brain through an artery in your thigh. Later, when I was out of the hospital, my leg exploded. I was out on the street and it just popped. My shoe was full of blood. I was in some serious trouble. I was about fifty yards from the hotel and I just made it. The ambulance came about ten minutes later. I don't know if I need to go into this. I don't know if the event is important. But the result was. That's what led me to that lady. The wisest person I've ever met.

From Esquire's interview with the Neil Young — animated for the first time.

Interviewed by Cal Fussman. Illustrated by Joe McKendry. Produced by Quoted Studios.

Profound, indeed.

More on Neil Young's "Companion": "The wisest person I've ever met".

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Lukas Nelson on Neil Young: "His inspiration has just exploded the lurking genius in all of the musicians of this band"

Promise of the Real

From Interview with Lukas Nelson: Promise of the Real Frontman Talks ‘Masterpiece’ New Album, S.B. Jazz Fest | Santa Barbara (CA) Independent (Thursday, March 2, 2017) by Richie DeMaria:

Are you guys working on new material?

Lukas Nelson: We’ve got 35 recorded, we’re almost completed with a new album. We’ve got basically the next three records recorded already and have narrowed it down to about 13-14 songs. I’m telling you, this is the masterpiece. This is truly the best songwriting I’ve ever been able to put out and the best sounds we’ve put out. We’ve been working with a guy named John Alagía, who worked with John Mayer, and a bunch of folks at the Village Studios in West L.A. Beautiful sound, the way they’ve got the vocals out front. I’ve matured as a singer, too. The music keeps getting better. These songs are really going to make an impact.

How has your songwriting grown lyrically and thematically?

Well, I’m just introducing broader themes, even more personal themes. I think there’s that, but also there’s also the ability to say so much with a simple turn of phrase. That’s really important, and all of these songs sort of have that quality. It’s sort of like, I mean I’m really proud of the way these songs turned out. I almost can’t explain it; you just have to hear them. I just love them, and I’m really excited. We’re also reintroducing recordings of a couple older songs that spoke to people, like “Set Me Down on a Cloud.” This recording is just a mind-blowingly involved version of it. We’ve got the band Lucius: They’re two incredible singers and songwriters, and right now they’re on tour with Roger Waters. We met them when we did Desert Trip with Neil. They sound just angelic; they sound like angels. The production is just — it’s the best production I’ve ever been a part of. John Alagía and Jeff Greenberg at the Village are to be credited for that. It’s an amazing place they’ve got there, some really great music there. We’re also officially releasing a song called “Find Yourself,” which people have really loved. There’s a recording of it on YouTube that we did with Jam in the Van. There’s some really special guests on the record who are mega talented. I am really looking forward to showing people.

That must feel great, to feel like you are just now hitting your full powers as a band …

Oh yeah, oh hell, I feel like we’re aging like wine. It’s just getting better, you know? We’ve been together as Promise of the Real now for about 10 years. We’re still recording with Neil, and we’ve learned so much from Neil about each other, about our musicianship, and we’ve grown so much playing those shows with him. Hopefully we’ll be able to continue that forever. His inspiration has just exploded the lurking genius in all of the musicians of this band. I kind of liken it in a way to — our career has followed a similar path to the Band, which is a huge influence. The Band were a great band already. Then when they went and joined Bob Dylan, he just kind of lifted them up. That’s what Neil’s done for us. He’s given the public a chance to hear what we’re doing and a chance to see how our songs also relate to the world. I can’t say enough how excited I am honestly; it’s great.

Since touring with Neil, does it feel like the band has changed?

Yes, I feel like, we kind of all got little musical downloads, so to speak. It just feels like we really have grown, and Neil brought us closer together as a band. We were — I wouldn’t say we were floundering, but we — a lot of us — were wondering how long it was going to last. We weren’t making hardly any money, and I mean, I would have kept going always, you know? But it’s just the way we are. I think that Neil saw how good we were as a group — he could have asked for just me or Micah to come and record with him and come out on road with him. He saw how good the band was, and he lifted them up, too. I really feel grateful for him for. This band is something special. I got really lucky when I met this band, so I’m really excited. I feel like all of their talents are really showcased in this record even as opposed to Something Real. I loved it, but it was a little bit removed. It was kind of this rock ‘n’ roll thing, whereas this record is more intimate. There’s a lot more acoustic, a lot more just melodic lifts and lyrical melodies; even with the percussion and the drums and the bass, the way it all fits together is a lot more lyrical. I think it’s accessible to a larger audience, as well. The record speaks to my roots, where I came from, the Southern side you know? It’s more a country soul record. With this record, we’ve moved away from the “cowboy hippie surf rock,” so to speak; we’ve gone into, like, a country soul vibe. I feel like I’m going into where I really came from and bringing what I love about Southern culture into my music. There’s a lot of that happening, a lot of my Southern pride.

Any crazy tour stories from last year?

Oh, you know, one of my favorite parts of being on the road out there was going to this old meteor crater way up in Sweden that they turned into a limestone quarry and then a music venue. It’s called Dalhalla, and it’s the most incredible venue I’ve ever played. It’s so beautiful. It’s like Red Rocks times 1,000.

Mind-blowing. [See reviews of Neil Young + Promise of the Real on July 5 - Sweden, Rattvik, Dalhalla].

Full article at Interview with Lukas Nelson: Promise of the Real Frontman Talks ‘Masterpiece’ New Album, S.B. Jazz Fest | Santa Barbara (CA) Independent (Thursday, March 2, 2017) by Richie DeMaria.

Neil Young + Promise of the Real

Europe 2016 Tour Concert Reviews, Photos, Videos & More

2015 Rebel Content Tour Concert Reviews, Photos, Videos & More

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Photo of the Moment: Neil Young on Sabbatical

Neil Young's Auto Truck & Auto Repair
Somewhere Near Sebring, Florida
Photo by Paul
(Click photo to enlarge)

As we know, Neil Young has announced a sabbatical for 2017.

However, the TW Photo of the Moment reveals what Neil may be up to these days.

Let us know any other sightings in 2017!

Thanks Paul & Renee!

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1990 Neil Young Interview by Nick Kent | VOX

Neil Young & Crazy Horse
(L-R Billy Talbot, Frank "Poncho" Sampedro, Neil Young, and Ralph Molina w/ Elliot Roberts)
Spectrum in Philadelphia,PA on September 17,1986
©1986 Ebet Roberts
(Click photo to enlarge)
Recently here on Thrasher's Wheat, we have been re-visiting and reassessing some of Neil Young's 1980's releases on Geffen Records, such as, TRANS: A Little Bit of Essential Neil Young, "Landing on Water" by Neil Young: Incredibly Underrated and Reassessing Neil Young's Life on Geffen Records. And lots of fascinating observations by our dear TW readers in post comments.

To complement these commentaries on Neil Young's 1980's releases on Geffen Records, here is a 1990 Neil Young Interview by Nick Kent that appeared in VOX Magazine.

THIS YOUNG WILL RUN AND RUN

Interview with Nick Kent,
Vox November 1990

NEIL YOUNG'S manager Elliot Roberts told me: "He's doing interviews now because he's got things he wants to say.'There's a lot of things going on in the world right now he wants to talk about."

But Neil Young thankfully kept his new supposed "caring humanitarian global" opinions to himself for this interview ("I ain't nobody's ambassador of good will"). He looked awesomely tall, wearing an extraordinary long coat made from a multi-coloured horse blanket that looked like Young had won it from a Red Indian wineo in a card game. On anyone else, the effect would have looked disastrous, on Neil Young it looked . . . well exactly how you would expect Neil Young to look.ss

Overtly eccentric and very, very funny (when he talks his voice is exactly like the actor James Stewart's stoic US brogue) Young was in Paris during a trip that took him away from putting the final touches to a major Neil Young retrospective both musically and cinematically. Next year all Young's films including the one he directed with Dennis Hopper in 1978 entitled Human Highway and a Crazy Horse documentary a la Don't look Back·called Muddy Track are being made available on video ("My cinematic vision", he told me "is pretty much all taken from Godard. He's my main influence, him and certain other cineme verite guys") whilst Young is now readying a 180 track compilation of his three decade career for C.D - 'Decades I, II and III to be made available on Warner Bros late next year.

"There'll be 50 or 60 unreleased songs. There's three whole unreleased albums to go on too - 'Homegrown', 'Big Room' and 'Old Ways', the album Geffen sued me over. There's stuff from back in 1962 going on this collection, there's a bunch of stuff with CSNY - a whole aborted album called Human Highway, a-bunch of live Crazy Horse, some of my best stuff. Songs like 'Nothing Is Perfect', the 'hostages' song I did at Live Aid and 'Ordinary People' 'this 15 minute number I left off'Eldorado'. Both those songs dated too quickly. They were too topical. But they work in a retrospective like this.

There's also, of course, his new album with Crazy Horse, 'Ragged Glory', recorded at Young's ranch in just a few weeks and said to contain some of his best work since the first Crazy Horse album,'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'. He's even talking about writing a book and "maybe some painting too" this decade. Neil Young is clearly back and open for business. Just don't expect him to stay in the same place too long.

YOUNG is hunched in the semi-darkness of an 'intimately' lit Paris hotel bar as he informs me somewhat tetchily of his distaste for the subject of 'coming back'..."Listen", he states firmly, "I didn't go away! I just did other things. But I didn't go away, O.K! I'm not like some 6O's band coming back to take advantage of some wave of bullshit nostalgia. "My whole career is based on systematic destruction. See, that's what keeps me alive. You destroy what you did before and you're free to carry on "...He starts to laugh now, in that weird ironic croak of his. "And now . . . Now I'm just fine!" "All, I'm saying is ... All these reviewers writing stuff about my comeback . . . I don't have to come back 'cos I've never been gone! They write stuff like 'Oh, this year Neil Young's O.K. again'. I don't need them to tell me if I'm O.K. or not. As far as I'm concemed,I've always been O.K." "I just can't associate with anyone or anything involved in a comeback right now. Well, sure, I can associate with Bob Dylan and Lou Reed. Both their recent albums are great. But with us three, you've got to understand - it's a big time in our lives right now. We've come through, we've survived intact and we're still creatively focussed." "But I can't - and I won't - relate myself to the Who or the Stones or the Jefferson Airplane. Not in the 90's! No way. And I used to love all those bands, particularly the Stones. Only somewhere along the line they lost it for me. And then what happened in 1989 with those mega-tours - that is not what I love. That was nothing more than a remembrance, a swansong." "The music the Stones and Who play now has got nothing whatsoever to do with rock'n'roll. Spiritually it's all Perry Como".

TRY MAKING sense of Neil Young's career in the 80's - without aid of special knowledge regarding the man's personal circumstances - and you'll soon be throwing up your hands in despair. In the 70's too he'd been hard to pin down, jumping from country rock noodlings to acoustic angst to deranged electric guitar blow-outs often all within the space of the same record. Yet a peculiar dark, ironic vision connected the often disparate, musically primitive likes of the ultra-paranoid 'On The Beach' (74), the drunken wake of 'Tonight's The Night' (75), the ragged but radiant 'Zuma' (also 75) reaching through to the end of the decade with the incendiary 'Rust Never Sleeps' (79).

That's four great albums in one decade - three more than Dylan achieved during the same time frame, for example - and as a result Young got to be feted as "artist of the 70's" by credible publications like The Village Voice and Rolling Stone. The creative roll he'd been on however was brutally shattered when Young and his new wife Pegi gave birth in 1979 to a son, Ben, who turned on to be a spastic, quadraplegic, nonoral child. His other son by a different marriage, Zeke, also suffers from cerebral palsy.

"It was too big a picture", Young reminisced to a journalist from The Village Voice. "Too big. Pegi's heartbroken, we're both shocked. I couldn't believe it. There were two different mothers. It couldn't have happened twice.

"I remember looking at the sky, looking for a sign, wondering What the fuck is going on? Why are the kids in this situation? What the hell caused this? What did I do? There must be something wrong with me.

"So I made up my mind I was gonna take care of Pegi, take care of the kids. We were gonna go on, we weren't gonna be selfish and I wasn't going to hurt. I closed myself down so much that I was making it, doing great with surviving - but my soul was completely encased. I didn't even consider that I would need a soul to play my music, that when I shut the door on 'pain', I shut the door on my music. That's what I did. And that's how people get old."

YOUNG'S domestic upheavals in the 80's seeped into his music, throwing his music a curve it never got to bounce back from until the very end of the decade. Many of the songs on the unspectacular 'Hawks And Doves' are almost private assertions regarding enlarged family responsibility ( "Stayingpower through thick and thin" - Staying Power' - "We don't back: downfrom no trouble. We do get up in the morning "- Coastline' ). The dizzyingly brash and repetitive 'Reactor'was conceived to accompany a gruelling therapy program he commited his child to undertaking ("The program is driving, implacable, repetitive" he was quoted as saying at the time. "And so is Reactor.")

'Reactor"s failure in the marketplace compelled him to stomp off Reprise Records, where he'd been since his first LP in '69, and to sign instead with the Geffen label. This only precipitated further nightmares for Young. His first album for the label - 'Trans' - made no sense to anyone. Apart from Young that is, who'd fashioned an unintelligible sci-fi rock opera about computers, directly inspired by his own son's inability to communicate (" Trans is about communication, about not getting through. And that's what my son is. You gotta realise - you can't understand the words on 'Trans' and I can't understand my son's words. So feel that! "). After that Young just seemed to get weirder and weirder for a time. A subsequent foray in country music was shunned by Geffen who wanted more rock'n'roll. So Young quite vindictively gave the label 'Everybody's Rockin': a make-weight and generally pointless 50's rockabilly pastiche session, before returning to the country field and inhabiting a Reagan supporting 'good ole boy' cartoon of a persona that would finally cause Geffen to slap him with a three million dollar lawsuit for continuing to make "unrepresentative" music.

An album of crusty mainstream Nashville country, 'Old Ways', duly appeared however and this coincided with Young - now in his 40's - doing a number of interviews in which, betwixt voicing a disturbingly pro-Reagan bias, he stated that playing full-tilt rock'n'roll was pretty much all a thing of the past for him now ("Rock'n'roll is like a drug . . . I don't want to do it all the time 'cos it'll kill me.")

However these sentiments didn't hinder him from next recording a loud electric rock album 'Landing On Water '- which featured several 'promising' songs left still-born by ill-concieved arrangements and production. Sensing this, Young reunited with good old Crazy Horse and a passable album in his 70's vein, "Life', resulted from the collaboration.

Young celebrated the end of his fractitous Geffen tenure by touring extensively with Crazy Horse whilst at the same time filming a documentary of the event. The tour was frustrating for Young however - Crazy Horse bass-player Billy Talbot was suffering from a drinking problem and as Young would later claim, "I would do the song, lay it out and they wouldn't be able to remember the arrangement . . . There's gotta be a memory retention problem. "

Consequently there was considerable ugly friction spilling over into the documentary footage which Young edited together, entitling the results 'Muddy Track'. Three years after it's completion it has yet to be shown.

Uglier still was the friction Young next has to face after committing himself to a second album as Crosby Stills Nash And Young. It had started with a promise he'd made during a 1984 radio interview, where he'd vowed to record again with Crosby, Stills and Nash if David Crosby succeeded in conquering his now fabled addiction to free-base cocaine. Three years later Crosby had achieved just that and Young was left with no alternative but to deliver on his word. Only the addiction that almost destroyed Crosby had now turned its grip on Stephen Stills.

By the end of the sessions - which took place in Young's own ranch house studio - Stills was unnerving everybody with his deranged mush-mouthed behaviour. Guns and free-base equipment were often visible around him but what was even more disturbing was his deluded insistence about having served in Vietnam when everybody around him had to gently keep reminding him that he'd in fact playing in the Buffalo Springfield at the time he was claiming to have been on special manoeuvres, killing 'gooks'.

It says a lot for Young that he refuses to get drawn into putting down or talking out of school on his former colleagues. "It only lasted a while", Young told a French TV interviewer. "Then it was over. We made a record. . . but I've gone so far, I've gone all over the place and they're still doing what they've always done. Coming back together wasn't as easy as I thought it might be." The question of a Buffalo Springfield reunion was then broached (Young admitted two years ago that the five original members would sometimes get together for informed playing sessions at each other's houses.) "I just can't see it", he replied. "I mean, what would be the point? Buffalo Springfield are all part of the past now. If we reformed we'd be like a statue or something. A monument with pigeons shitting on our heads (laughs to himself). And that just wouldn't be right."

Wasn't this all because of Stephen Stills being a shadow of his former self, a persistent questioner finally managed to get out. Young looked at him evenly. He still wasn't going to be drawn into anything, you could tell."Well, I'm a shadow of my former self'', he replied smoothly. "I know it. But there's nothing I can do about it. And anyway", he added, "i kind of like it that way.

THE FACT of the matter is, of course, that for the last year and a half Young has been anything but a shadow of his former self.

A return to Reprise in 1988 sired another of Young's genre excursions, this time as a stetson-hatted Jimmy Reed styled blues wailer and guitarist fronting the Bluenotes, a tough R'n'B collective. The album's title track ' This Note's For You' accompanied by a Julian Temple video clip, voiced disgust at musicians selling out to advertising corporations and the ensuing controversy served to make Young seem oddly contemporary and meaningful again to the MTV generation (Young now shakes his head in disbelief that "such a dumb little song" should have sparked off such heated debate).

But it was 'Eldorado', a 5 track CD released only in Japan, Australia and New Zealand with a 5,000 limit to the pressing, that marked Young's true return from the wild blue yonder of self-defeating genre workouts and numbed emotions."Oh, you're one of my 'abrasive music' fans", Neil Young remarks when I query him about the record. "Well I got no problem with that. I made 'Eldorado' just for people like you. But see, 'abrasiveness' wasn't totally where I was at in 1989. I wanted 'Freedom' ton be a 'wider and deeper' . . . uh. . . 'kinder and gentler' kind of album" (starts laughing)

Don't you think though that you've always done your greatest work with Crazy Horse?

"Right now, here, this minute I'd probably agree with you, yeah! I love to do that kind of music. That's the most natural thing for me, playing with Crazy Horse. But it's not everything and right now it's not enough. Plus I can only play the way I play with Crazy Horse occasionally these days. You'll like this film I made that's called Muddy Tracks That one's a documentary of me and Crazy Horse on the road two or three years ago. There's a sequence where I filmed all the interviewers who came to interview me. Then I picked the most ridiculous questions. And didn't answer them."

You've always entertained a special antipathy for journalists and their work·. Hasn 't this got a lot to do with your father being a journalist?

"Maybe. I saw the 'inside' of the hard journalism business when he'd take me to the office when I was just a kid. I saw how a story could be 'manipulated'. I never trusted it then and I don't trust it now.I never believed 'em when they said I'd made a bad album. Why should I believe 'em when they say I've made a good one?"

You've been been quoted as saying you found 'The Bridge: the recent tribute album "threatening". Why?

"Well I made that statement before I'd actually heard the record. I love that record now. Before, I saw it as all these groups saying 'O.K. Uncle Neil, time for that rocking chair'. I love all those guys on the record - The Pixies, Sonic Youth and that Nick Cave guy in particular. When I heard it, it really touched me."

I interviewed Roy Orbison just before his death and he told me you'd approached him once and told him that after seeing a gig in Winnipeg when you were a teenager you'd decided to become a Professional musician. Is that true?

"Oh absolutely yeah! This was years ago - '62 maybe. I saw him in Winnipeg, saw him all over the place that year. Got to talk to him once outside a gig. He was coming out of his motor-home with his backing band the Candymen. That had a profound effect on my life. I always loved Roy. I looked up to the way he was, admired the way he handled himself. That aloofness he had influenced me profoundly. It was the way he carried himself, y'know, with this benign dignity ... His music was always more important than the media. It wasn't a fashion statement. It wasn't about being in the right place at the right time making the right moves. That didn't matter to Roy. Just like it doesn't matter to me. "Anyway I've always put a piece of Roy Orbison on every album I've made. His influence is on so many of my songs . . . I even had his photograph on the sleeve of 'Tonight's The Night' for no reason, really. Just recognizing his presence. There's a big Orbison tribute song on 'Eldorado' called Don't Cry. That's totally me under the Roy Orbison . .. spell. When I wrote it and recorded it I was thinking 'Roy Orbison meets trash metal' ( laughs). Seriously."

There's one passage in the book Neil And Me - that your father Scott Young wrote about you that I found highly revealing of the way you work. Apparently Cortez The Killer which is probably . . .

"Some of my best guitar playing ever, yeah!" he interrupts ...

Was being recorded and you had several other verses written and you were playing this one perfect take when . . . . .

When there was a power-cut in the recording studio, yeah. They missed a whole verse, a whole section! You can hear the splice on the recording where we stop and start again. It's a messy edit. But yeah that's true . . . incredible!"

What I'm asking is was the whole effect of that song its pacing, the lyric flow, everything -just an accident based around that power failure?

"Yeah it was a total accident. But that's how I see my best art, as one magical accident after another. That's what is so incredible. You see, with lyrics I try not to edit anything. I just let it all come through. I actually believe that if it was meant to be written down in the first place, it has a place there. I only ever edit at all after I've actually performed a song live. And I like to record 'em fast. Record 'em quickly and move on to the next batch."

There's a famous Miles Davis quote 'I've got to change, it's like a curse. Like Davis you've changed groups, styles, idioms relentlessly often without any apparent regard for commercial potential. Isn't this thirst for change, as you grow older, starting to become a curse for you too?

"I don't see it as a curse . . . It's just part of my make-up. It's the structure. Without change, the whole thing will just fall apart. I'm not just talking about rock'n'roll here, I'm talking about my life. I have to keep moving somewhere."

It's a cliche now 'In the 80's the whole context of rock! changed and lessened dramatically.' But that doesn 't mean it's not true . . .

"Well the context changed because of MTV and the rock video. That's really it. Because by MTV trying to visualise the music they automatically stripped it of most of its natural mystery and depth. Before rock video, when people where confronted with the music, they had to rely on their own natural ability to utilise their imagination . . . . If they weren't also opting for some kind of state of enhancement via some drug or other."

"Today in America for better or worse rock'n'roll is Guns'N'Roses. People call them evil but they're just kids. At least they were. You've got to remember it's the kids that made Guns'N'Roses what they are, not Guns'N'Roses making the kids what they are today."

I interviewed their guitarist Izzy Stradlin some months ago and he kept telling me America was poised on some kind of drug war. Many of the lyrics on Freedom 'portray the streets of your country as a drug war-zone . . .

"I think he's probably right, yeah. I think it's happening already. I mean, the lyrics to 'Rockin' In The Free World' are just a description of events going on everyday in America. Sure, I'm concerned for my children particularly my eldest son. And he's a Guns'N'Roses fan! He has to face 'drugs" everyday in the school yard, drugs that are way stronger than anything I got offered in most of my years as a professional musician . . . "But I've got to say right here, I think 'drugs" from my experience are beatable. Drugs are transitory. The environment's a whole different issue. We've simply got to come to terms with the fact that we've done damage to this world which we may not be able to undo. We've got to try and save this planet. That's it for me. I mean, the chances are anyway it's gonna blow up on us all soon enough. I mean, compared to that reality,'drugs" are really . . . just drugs.

Four years ago you gave a couple of interviews to Promote your country album Old Ways and stated then you were finished with playing rock'n'roll because you felt the music demanded too much of you that it was, by its very nature, a totally destructive drug-fuelled music . . .

"But I am a naturally very destructive person. As a guitar player . . . That's where you get to hear how destructive I really am in my life. Man, if you think of guitar playing in terms of 'boxing' O.K. . . well let's just say I'm not the kind of guitarist you'd want to play against" (laughs). "Rock'n'roll is a drug-fuelled music . . . maybe I said it but there's a lot of different drugs. And a drug doesn't have to necessarily be a chemical substance so much as a metaphor for something that stimulates you, that charges you up. For me now, physical training is like a drug. I do that now to get 'charged up'. It works too . . .mostly. "At the same time, drugs as chemical substances, I still find very threatening. I've had a thing for drugs but I don't think it's scarred me. I'm just scarred by life. Nothing in particular. No more scarred than anyone else. Only other people often don't let themselves know how damaged they are, like I do and deal with it."

Your ill-fated, often litigious 80's years with Geffen Records was it a personal thing, David Geffen being against you?

"I think it was, yeah. We went through a lot of changes when he managed Crosby Stills Nash and Young and when he signed me in the 80's he didn't seem to comprehend how . . . uh, diverse my musical career could become. So he took it personally when I handed him a straight country album or a rockabilly album. He thought I was making those albums to laugh at him, as a joke at his expense.

Many of your audience felt you were doing the same thing to them with at least a couple of those records. . .

"Yeah, I know. But it was no joke. None of those records was meant just as a joke. I was deadly serious about what I was doing 'cos I desperately needed to do something. But at the same time thru' most of the 80's I didn't want my most innermost feelings about life and everything to come out. Back then I had a lot of dark thoughts weighing on my mind tied in to experiences that happened in my immediate family". "Things happened to me over those years I had no possible reason or way to expect or capacity to explain. And it took me a long time to get over it and come to terms with my life to date. For better or worse,'Eldorado', 'Freedom' and 'Ragged Glory' are the result."

A constant theme in your songs is migration, People or things on the move . . .

"Yeah that's right. I even write 'em that way. I've written most of my best songs driving on a long journey scribbling lyrics on cigarette packets whilst steering."

Many of your characters are running away . .

"Well so am I. It's all running away. I've been running all my life. Where I'm going ... Who the fuck knows? But that's not the point."

The point is how long you can keep going.

"Absolutely. And right now there is no end. I mean, the only end is the big end .OK? I can keep going for a long time . . .

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For more on Neil Young's 1980's releases on Geffen Records, see:

• TRANS: A Little Bit of Essential Neil Young
• "Landing on Water" by Neil Young: Incredibly Underrated
• Reassessing Neil Young's Life on Geffen Records

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Reassessing Neil Young's Life on Geffen Records

Life
by Neil Young & Crazy Horse - 1987

Recently here on Thrasher's Wheat, we have been re-visiting and reassessing some of Neil Young's 1980's releases on Geffen Records, such as, TRANS: A Little Bit of Essential Neil Young and "Landing on Water" by Neil Young: Incredibly Underrated. And lots of fascinating observations by our dear TW readers in post comments.

Neil Young's Life (1987) is another overlooked album with many transcendent moments such as, "Long Walk Home" and "When Your Lonely Heart Breaks."

As you may recall, David Geffen in the 1980's filed a $3 million lawsuit against Neil Young for violating his contract by recording ‘unrepresentative’ albums. In other words, Neil Young wasn’t making Neil Young music."The truth is I fought with him because I wanted him to do better work,'' Mr. Geffen explained afterward. ''I was taking too much of a fatherly role in his life.'' Only David Geffen could describe a lawsuit against one of his trophy clients as an excess of paternalism. Described by friends, peers and adversaries as “passionate,” “neurotic” and “giftedly non-diplomatic", Geffen has been a highly polarizing figure in the Entertainment industry.

(For more on David Geffen and Neil Young, see FULL VIDEO: Inventing David Geffen | American Masters | PBS).

Well here's something that we had forgotten about that's fascinating regarding Neil Young's Life album cover. Released on Geffen Records in 1987, the relationship between Neil Young and David Geffen was very strained -- to be put it mildly -- while a multi-million dollar lawsuit ensued over a record contract.

Trying to escape the contract with Geffen, Neil must have felt imprisoned. Look closely at the closeup below, on the prison wall.

Number of Neil Young records on Geffen Label scratched out on prison wall
(Click photo to enlarge)

From book excerpt “Shakey” by Jimmy McDonough (Thanks Gary C.!):

“Young openly attacked the head of his label in the media. Geffen “missed his calling in life,” he told Much Music in 1986. “He should’ve been a dictator in an art colony.” The cover of the next album, Life, would show Young behind bars, the number of records he’d made for Geffen scratched out on the prison wall.

Briggs was brought in three weeks into the tour to pull an album out of the mess. “When they called me, they had already done fifteen shows and it was already in the shitter. Neil was an angry, angry guy—he was in a rage at everybody, and everybody hated him for it.”

So what other musician has so directly challenged his label and owner so openly with lyrics like: "We don't wanna be watered down, takin' orders from record company clowns." (Prisoners Of Rock And Roll)?

People tell us that we play too loud
But they don't know what our music's about
We never listen to the record company man
They try to change us and ruin our band.

That's why we don't wanna be good
That's why we don't wanna be good
(Ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh) Prisoners of rock and roll.

In 2004 Rustie, Mike "Expecting 2 Fly" Cordova posted a series of articles on his experience listening to all of Neil Young's albums in chronological order. Here is one in the series. For a complete listing, see Albums in Order reviews.

Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:51:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Mike Cordova
To: rust@rustlist.org
Subject: Albums in order: Life

In the fall of 1986, I had the opportunity to attend one of the shows in the Rusted Out Garage tour; in fact I saw the show that was broadcast live over pay-per-view television and on audio through participating radio stations. I had a heads-up about the audio broadcast and I was successfully able to set up my hi-fi vcr to record the audio portion of the concert while I attended the show. I had good copies of several new or unreleased songs several months before the album in which they appear would be released. I liked the new songs and anticipated the release of the next album; the first with Crazy Horse since re-ac-tor.

The basic tracks on several of the songs were recorded live in concert on the ROG tour, then various overdubs were added in the studio, a technique Neil had used for Rust Never Sleeps. I found that for the most part, I liked the raw live versions I had from my radio recording much better than the final album tracks. Take Around The World, for example: I thought it was a good rockin’ tune live. The added spoken parts found on the album (not in my concert recording), you know the part that goes “hey, what’s that you’ve got on…” was IMHO superfluous and actually detracted from the effectiveness of the song for me. I do like most of the album overall though. Mideast Vacation is somewhat disturbing; “I was Rambo in the disco, I was shootin’ to the beat” creates an image that really bothers my peace and love sensibilities. A throwaway tune on the album, Prisoners Of Rock And Roll, has for some reason become a Neil Young and Crazy Horse staple. I’d rather see them perform Inca Queen or Around The World myself, but no one ever asks my opinion about Neil setlists… I didn’t know it at the time of release, but a couple of the songs were from a while before Life was released. Cryin’ Eyes dates back to 1977 when it was performed with the Ducks. While visiting the Rock Hall Of Fame in 1997 with a bunch of fellow crazy Rusties, I saw a lyric sheet for Long Walk Home that was dated in the early 70’s. Filling out the album was We Never Danced, a song Neil wrote for the movie Made In Heaven; the track was a collaboration with Jack Nitszche. I believe it had been quite some time since Neil had worked with him. I always liked this track, especially since the one in the movie features a female singer instead of Neil.

Life was Neil’s fifth and last album of all-original music for Geffen records. The difficult relationship had come to an end. Check out the cover of the album and see Neil behind bars with the number 5 in hash marks visible. I think Neil was very glad to get back to Reprise and away from Geffen. I don’t know what Neil thinks of this album, but I very much enjoyed listening to Life today.

Mike - Expecting To Fly

(For more of Expecting To Fly's reviews, see the Albums in Order series.)

Here's another review from TW Archives, via the FUNHouse! Reviews:

LIFE
1987 - Geffen GHS 24154

Mideast Vacation / Long Walk Home / Around the World / Inca Queen / Too Lonely / Prisoners of Rock'n'Roll / Cryin' Eyes / When Your Lonely Heart Breaks / We Never Danced

by Gary A. Lucero
glucero@wordperfect.com

Life is Neil's last official recording with Geffen. It was released in 1987, with much of it recorded live during the Landing on Water tour. Although not as reliant on keyboards for its sound as Landing on Water, Life shares a certain feeling with its predecessor. Many of the songs, like "Mideast Vacation," "Around the World," "Too Lonely," "Prisoners of Rock'n'Roll," and "Cryin' Eyes," are rockers. They're fairly hard, and have some great guitar work.

The remaining songs, "Long Walk Home," "Inca Queen," "When Your Lonely Heart Breaks," and "We Never Danced," are slow, melodic numbers. Most of the songs are about war, the Incas, rock, or love. One interesting thing is that the song "We Never Danced" was used as the basis for the movie "Made in Heaven," which stars Timothy Hutton and Kelli McGillis. Neil Young has a cameo role in the film as a truck driver. "We Never Danced" was unfortunately not sung by Neil in "Made in Heaven," but was used to good effect none the less.

As with Landing on Water, Life was not appreciated very much by Neil Young fans at the time of its release. Rolling Stone magazine said that Freedom, which came out two years later, was more a "life" album than Life
was. I disagree; real life is love, war, hate, rock-and-roll, etc., and that's what the album Life is about. Long may you run.

For more, see Neil Young Discography.

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VIDEO: "Too Little Too Late" by Pegi Young & The Survivors

Here is a new video by Pegi Young & The Survivors titled "Too Little Too Late" from her new album RAW (See more on Pegi's album RAW and here).

From interview with Pegi Young in Pegi Young Premieres 'Too Little Too Late' Video, Talks Learning 'To Live In New World Order' After Divorce | BILLBOARD by Gary Graff:

"I think people can read into this record and think one side should get all the blame, and that's not my intention at all," Young -- whose video for her original song "Too Little Too Late" premieres exclusively below -- tells Billboard. "I'm not blameless, and there were some issues that were going through the marriage. There's always two sides. What I really don't want is for people to read into this record as some sort of indictment of the woman been done wrong. It's not that clear-cut. It never is."
...

[On "Why'd You Have To Ruin My Life", Pegi says] "That was written pretty early on, when I was [in] my anger phase…but also really hurt, and that song takes you on that journey," Young recalls. "It's pretty pointed, but it was representative of where I was at at that time. There was a lot of emotion swirling around inside this little heart of mine. But there's a lot of other songs on the record, like 'Too Little Too Late,' and there's songs that didn't go on the record where I think it's clear there's blame to go around."
...

"I would say ('Tryin' To Live My Life Without You') came around midway in the overall recovery process," Young recalls. "I had to get out of bed, first, to start this record; I did suffer some pretty significant depression initially. We'd been doing some of the songs, and my keyboard player Spooner (Oldham), after a while he says, 'Y'know, Pegi, you're doin' a lot of po' po' pitiful me songs...' I just love him. I said, 'Y'know what? You're so right. I've got to get off my pity pot here and turn a corner' and adjust to learn to live in this new world order, in my early 60s.

"There's that process of discovery of, 'Well, who am I now that I'm not doing what I did for so many years?' That's been my process, but it's also a universal experience, whether it's a late in life divorce or a divorce at any stage of the game or a death or any significant loss. You've got to learn how to function in the new world order -- and that's what I'm doing."

Young says she and her ex-husband "don't communicate very often," though they both remain committed to the Bridge School that Pegi Young started in 1986 for children with severe special needs, and to the annual concerts that provide most of the operation's funding. "I think we got joint custody of Bridge School," she says. "Bridge School's bigger than the both of us." And she was gratified by the outspoken support from David Crosby, though his criticisms of Neil Young seemed to be part of the reason Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are in dry dock at the moment.

"My dear friend David -- Y'know, he said what he said when he said it. I don't know that he expected what came in the aftermath and... things have been spinning out of control a little bit," she says. "But, y'know, music transcends. Like Neil and Stephen (Stills); They've had all kinds of spats and this and that over the years 'cause they've known each other since they were kids, but the music takes you above and beyond those issues. So I hope that's what happens in this case 'cause those guys made some great music, and I'd hate to see the whole thing implode."
...

"I came into my own, you might say, in terms of putting out my first record quite late in life," Young says. "And yet there's some authors and photographers and even probably recording artists that didn't really hit their stride until their mid-50s. Some people write a lot more and put out a lot more product than I do, but I'm pleased with what I've been able to do in the last decade, and I don't see this as my last record by any stretch.

In some ways it's like a new beginning, even."

Full interview @ Pegi Young Premieres 'Too Little Too Late' Video, Talks Learning 'To Live In New World Order' After Divorce | BILLBOARD by Gary Graff.

Pegi Young & The Survivors will be touring Raw this spring at SXSW.

Also, see more on Pegi's new album RAW here and here.

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Comment of the Moment: TRANS: A Little Bit of Essential Neil Young

"Transformer Man"
Neil Young w/ TRANS Band - In Berlin, 1982

Recently here on Thrasher's Wheat, we have been re-visiting and reassessing some of Neil Young's 1980's releases on Geffen Records, such as, TRANS: A Little Bit of Essential Neil Young.

The Comment of the Moment is from TRANS: A Little Bit of Essential Neil Young | Rocket 88 by Scotsman:

Neil on Trans: [via Shakey book]

"I thought it was really good shit. The only thing wrong with it is that I tried to hide it a bit by putting the things from Hawaii in there...I coulda put out the Trans EP with only the vocoder shit, and that would have been a cooler thing. But I wasn't really thinking clearly. Geffen wouldn't give the money to put out a video for Trans because videos were just starting....Would (that) have made a difference? Oh, yeah, definitely. I wanted to do a video album to go with Trans".

And:

"To me, Trans is one of my highest moments. Forget the acoustic things on it, get rid of those, get those OUT. Disregard EVERYTHING except that computer thing".

I generally agree with Neil's comments on this record. It's obviously something he has put a lot of consideration into, what "might have been". At the time, no one knew about his young son Ben's disability, or the challenges this presented in communication. And so the audience really had nothing to relate to, nothing to connect with. With some complex albums like this one, some context is necessary.

And I too think it would have worked better as an edgier EP. The end result is something that is trying to go in too many directions and not really getting anywhere. Jack of all trades, master of none. An EP would have made more of a statement and got noticed more.

I think some of you need to remind yourselves what a GREAT Neil Young record actually is. To be clear, a great IDEA that ends up getting scrambled by inconsistent songwriting, flat production, unremarkable performances, and record company interference is NOT a great album (though of course it may still be something worthy of admiration). That's an insult to an artist who created something like On The Beach, for instance, which did not allow itself to submerged by any of these problems and achieves greatness on pretty much every level (even down to the cover artwork).

There's a lot to admire on Trans, but I think the finished product (as a complete album) is very flawed. Perhaps with the changes Neil proposed it would have been a piece with a lot more impact.

Producer David Briggs on the Transband:

"It was a loadful working with those guys. They had to be so f**king drunk and stoned just to walk out onstage....I thought their performances sucked. It was always awful. Only Nils played great every night".

And:

"Can you imagine: Ralph and a bongo player? How would you like to play with a f**king bongo player? Neil knows nothing about chemistry or producing - he knows how to play and sing and write. Anytime he tries to do anything else, that band is how it turns out".

Jimmy McDonough adds an anecdote to this: in the nineties, Joel Bernstein listened to the soundboard tapes of the tour and didn't find a single performance fit for inclusion on the Archives.

I think in some ways the disaster of the tour rubbed off onto associated memories of the studio album, which despite it's defiencies, was more successful. The McDonough book is a good read on the Trans period (in the studio). He presents quite a sympathetic and balanced view of what could have easily been quickly and unfairly written off. Rogan's book is also good.

Scotsman.

Thanks Scotsman for all of the research as always. You are a true Neil scholar!

More on TRANS: A Little Bit of Essential Neil Young | Rocket 88 .

Year 1982 - Neil Young Pulled from the Future into the Past
(Out of the Blue, Into the Black)

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TRANS: A Little Bit of Essential Neil Young | Rocket 88

Neil Young - TRANS (1982)
Cropped Album Cover

Well, we had such a splendid reaction to running a review of a Neil Young album that came out 30 years ago, that we decided to dredge another review from the TW archives.

There was much, much discussion recently by those who think that Neil Young's 1986 album Landing on Water is incredibly underrated.

So what about Neil Young's TRANS album from 1982? Could there still be love for TRANS? Was there ever love?

From the TW WAYBACKMACHINE, here's A Little Bit of Essential Neil Young | Rocket 88:

Here is an extract on a track titled ‘Sample And Hold’, from the much derided Neil Young album, Trans, which was released almost exactly 30 years ago.

‘Dinosaurs in the computer age.’ Thus spake Neil Young for his Transband at the end of several concerts on the European tour of 1982, the first live concert journey that Young had undertaken since Rust Never Sleeps four years earlier. The decision to choose Europe could be explained thus: Young’s European fans had missed out then and Europe in general, and Germany in particular, where the tour climaxed, was the home of the computerized sound that was to dominate his creativity during this Trans-sitional time.

The musical influence of the visionary Dusseldorf outfit Kraftwerk cannot be underestimated here. The band formed by Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider and three cohorts in Dusseldorf in 1969 had dented the US album charts in May of 1981 with Computer World, a clear homage to which was to appear on Trans, Young’s first album for his new label Geffen, in his song Computer Age. Kraftwerk’s status in pop history is substantial: between Autobahn in 1974 and The Mix in 1991, Hutter and Schneider developed a method where music wasn’t so much created as constructed. By the late 1990s their influence on modern music encompassed everything from electro and techno to house and ambient, and the output of everyone from Portishead, Orbital, Inner City, Leftfield and Prodigy, to LFO and Underworld.

Kraftwerk’s influence is at the musical heart of Trans, which is dominated by five tracks all employing computerized effects and the vocal distortions of the vocoder, a small machine attached to a microphone wire which could feed the human voice into a computer and allow it both the freedom of a four-octave range and the perfection and elongation of machine-made sound. In August 1981, Young bought himself a vocoder and started to record a group of songs that were to eventually appear on Trans, initially in his own upgraded studio, improved to take into account the restrictions in his professional life imposed by his son Ben’s learning disabilities. Here, then, we have another and more poignant link to Young’s thinking at the time: unsatisfied with some of the tracks he was laying down for the eventually discarded Islands In The Sun album, clearly nervous about being left behind as a 1970s rock dinosaur, looking for a new musical direction, what was more natural than to follow one integral to his early attempts to communicate with his son?

Young has said that the vocoder, with its ethereal, inhuman distortions reminiscent of Sparky’s Magic Piano, had allowed him to communicate with Ben, hence the hidden meanings behind a track like Transformer Man, where the computer literally electrifies the listener. If you have any doubts, try playing Transformer Man to a group of small children and watch their faces light up. Amazingly, Like A Hurricane doesn’t have the same effect.

The 1980s did mark a massive advance in computer technology in all fields, from air travel and home entertainment (VCRs, video games) to movies and medicine; and Trans, with its own take on an alien yet familiar computer-robot world, is surely influenced by Young’s experiences in hospital where so many doctors and paramedics were walking around just so ‘this kid could push a button’. As well as the statement of intent that is Computer Age, and the distinctive and personal Transformer Man, Young recorded three other vocoderized tracks for Trans, plus a halfway house retake on Mr Soul in which he sings a synthesized duet with his own natural voice. We R In Control is very much a homage to his old pals from Akron, Ohio, Devo, with its repeated slogans and jerky, rather threatening tempo, by far the least benign take on the invasion of machines. Computer Cowboy (aka Skycrusher) is an oddball, amusing retread of Frankie Laine country and western terrain, reminiscent not only of Young’s efforts on the soundtrack of the moribund film, Where The Buffalo Roams (1980), but of the 1973 mega-hit flick, Westworld, with its powerful image of Yul Brynner’s animatronic gunslinger on his own route to murderous mayhem. It has one of the funniest moments in the Young canon in its eery, synthesized cowboy chant: ‘Come a ky ky yippee yi yippee yi ay’.

But the highlight of this album, which is fatally diluted by some of the remaining tracks, is Sample And Hold, a very fine pop song in its own right, released as a disco 12-inch single with Mr Soul on the reverse, the disco version much heavier on drum machine and bass but with a nice trickle of churning, gruff guitar midway through. Sample And Hold has a superb, instantly catchy riff, heralded by Young’s one-string guitar invocation and features some splendidly theatrical vocal interplay on vocoders between Young and Nils Lofgren. Most splendidly, Sample And Hold is a very funny song, dealing with computer dating, not the kind where humans feed names and details into a machine but where the machines are the obscure objects of desire themselves. ‘I need a unit to sample and hold,’ Young demands in a dramatically deepened voice, thus showing why the computer sound of Trans is as much about distortion as about clarity, about language as a barrier as much as an avenue of communication.

Young has admitted in interview that at this time he was as interested in hiding his true state of mind behind his music as in revealing it to his fans. In four different versions of this song that I’ve heard, two recorded, two live, the words change subtly: Young doesn’t want an ‘angry’, ‘lonely’, lovely’, or could it be ‘hungry’ model; in concert in West Berlin he added ‘jealous’ to the range of adjectives. And is it a model which ‘you desire’, ‘you designed’, or simply ‘a new design’? This is a deceptively clever song which reminds me both of Paul Verhoeven’s classic film Robocop (admittedly not to be released for another five years!) and Bryan Forbes’ 1974 The Stepford Wives. ‘Satisfaction guaranteed in every detail,’ promises Lofgren’s dehumanized, angelic voice. ‘We know you’ll be happy,’ the manufacturers promise, unconvincingly but sincerely.

There’s a paradox here: computerized sound as a perfect musical method, love as a perfect state, but despite the good intentions of all concerned, happiness is unattainable merely through the consumer’s specifications. In Robocop (1987), Peter Weller’s robot law enforcer breaks down when he realizes he has known love and happiness in an earlier human form, and Sample And Hold shows the unbreachable gap between the slick world of technological precision and the complex reality of human relations. That isn’t to again say its awesome, but it is still has a potent appeal as an easily addictive piece of early 1980s pop funk.

So. TRANS. "Easily addictive piece of early 1980s pop funk." Or not?


Neil Young w/ TRANS Band, "Sample And Hold" - In Berlin, 1982

If still undecided, try The Secret Behind Neil Young’s Out Of Print 1982 Album (TRANS) Will Melt Your Heart.

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Comment of the Moment: "Landing on Water" by Neil Young - "Incredibly Underrated"

Much discussion recently by those who think that Neil Young's 1986 album Landing on Water is incredibly underrated. And less so by those who don't agree.

The Comment of the Moment is by TopangaDaze:

"Take my advice
Don't listen to me"

But, believe me when I say that Landing on Water is a good to very good to great album. I loved it when it initially came out, and it has only grown on me over the years.

I've always considered it the key central album in Neil's 80s work. It delineated and defined a significant turning point in Neil's mindset and recorded output. With it, we find Neil writing and singing catchy hook based melodic tunes while seeking public acceptance. Following the albums that came immediately before it, LOW was a solid effort finding Neil getting his feet firmly beneath him again while his head was still spinning with doubts. He was slowly escaping from his personal and professional musical mind chamber with introspective thought provoking lyrics of the time, augmented and at times dominated by overtly commercial studio synth pop production.

To me, it's the one album in Neil's career where he was truly trying to be commercial (be it seriously or as a statement of sorts). Jordan and Kootch were at the top of the 80s commercial rock/pop spectrum in '86 and they offered up the "standard" pop sound of the time, backing up and at times dominating Neil's lead.

Every song on the album has redeeming value. There are melodies, lyrics, vocals, and effects throughout that are catchy, thought provoking and curiously and endlessly interesting.

I'll never understand why people think the album is bad. It's a diverse yet cohesive work. Yes, it has a definite "dated" 80s sound to it, but again, that was largely Neil trying to be commercial, relevant and provocative, not ornery or defiant. The accompanying videos find him to be in a more sarcastic character based tone, but the album in its entirety is remarkably consistent.

Hippie Dream is an absolutely terrific song lyrically, and musically it has a boiling punch to it. But "the wooden ships--were a hippie dream, capsized in excess, if you know what I mean"...

Touch the Night combines angry screeching guitars, with a nice accompanying innocent chorus with very good vocals and matching catchy lyrics.

People on the Street, Weight of the World, Violent Side, I Got a Problem, Pressure, etc...are all engaging, fun, pleasant, thought provoking songs touching on fear, anxiety, internal and external doubt competing with an overriding humanity through some despair. The synth pop keyboard drumming dominance of the 80s is in full force, and it has always drawn me in, not away from the music.

Overall, I understand that we as fans all have our version(s) of Neil and his music that we are most closely drawn to. Clearly his 70s output is the "traditional" sound that elevated him to fame and has for the most part kept him there. His 80s work has largely been criticized and ignored, but there's value throughout, and Landing on Water is central to his "lost" decade. Neil was reaching out and finding his way back towards the mainstream, and quite successfully in my opinion.

"Take my advice
Don't listen to me"

and always remember, it's

"a victory for the heart every time the music starts
so please don't kill the machine, don't kill the machine..."

Thanks for the thoughts TopangaDaze! As you say, LOW is: "engaging, fun, pleasant, thought provoking songs touching on fear, anxiety, internal and external doubt competing with an overriding humanity through some despair." What more could you ask for in a Neil Young album?

More on whether Neil Young's 1986 album Landing on Water is "incredibly underrated".

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The Last Stand at Standing Rock

VIDEO: LAST STAND AT STANDING ROCK AS POLICE PREPARE TO EVICT PIPELINE OPPONENTS | THE INTERCEPT

The situation at Standing Rock appears to be reaching yet another crescendo.

From Native News Online:

CANNON BALL, NORTH DAKOTA — With snow falling near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, estimates ranged from 75 to 150 water protectors who remained at the Oceti Sakowin encampment just prior to the 2:00 p.m.- Central Time evacuation deadline on Wednesday, February 22, 2017.

Some people are refusing to leave the encampment. Tipis, yurt and temporary wooden structures still remain. Law enforcement have stated that people who refuse to leave will be arrested and items left behind will be bulldozed.

As the deadline came and went, police huddled on Highway 1806 to discuss strategies how to evacuate the encampment.

“They chased me. I heard them say that only North Dakota journalists could be in the pool they chose,” said Jenni Monet (Laguna Pueblo), an independent journalists who has been embedded at Standing Rock for several months. “I told them there was a man from New York in their pool, and then one of the police starting chasing me down the road.”

Several Facebook livestreams, including one by Monet, have been on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon. As the afternoon progressed, police began to arrests some journalists. Monet was arrested on February 1, 2017 and said she doesn’t want to get arrested today. However, Monet simply wants to do her job as a journalist.

Prior to the evacuation 2pm deadline, some scattered controlled fires were set to burn down wooden structures that were erected to shield water protectors from the bitter cold North Dakota winds. The smoke from the fires rose to the cloud covered skies.

The site of the largest gathering on American Indians in recent history, the Oceti Sakowin swelled to over 10,000 people at some times during the past several months. American Indians from over 350 tribal nations and allies from several points of the globe came to Standing Rock to show solidarity in their opposition of the Dakota Access pipeline.

A strongly militarized police force is dressed in riot gear and touting weapons are standing outside the main entrance to Oceti Sakowin.

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