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An unofficial news blog for Neil Young fans from Thrasher's Wheat with concert and album updates, reviews, analysis, and other Rock & Roll ramblings. Separating the wheat from the chaff since 1996.
Hitchhiker includes solo, acoustic songs recorded in 1976 at the Indigo Ranch Studios in Malibu, California. Indigo Ranch Studios resident Producer at the time was Richard Kaplan. The above YouTube video ("Neil Young Revealed. Behind the scenes. A Studio Rat HQ podcast #11 part 1") is part one of a two part podcast about Neil Young and his recordings. Here Richard explains how Neil recorded many of his best known recordings at Indigo Ranch.
There is an interesting youtube interview with Richard Kaplan, who owned Indigo Ranch Studios and engineered the sessions in question in 1975/76. Not sure if this has been posted before, but he goes into some detail on gear, setup, etc. as well as info on songs/albums recorded. Also a humorous story of Neil Young/Diamond mix-up…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPcsx7G_Bws
Kaplan is fairly insistent that Powderfinger, Captain Kennedy, and 1 other he can’t recall (presumably Pocahontas) were put to tape on the 1st night Neil was there. He seems to suggest that only those 3 songs were done on that night. And, that during most sessions up to 5 songs were recorded. He details Campaigner also, but that seems to suggest that is a different session.
I was fairly sure the takes of Powderfinger, Captain Kennedy and Pocahontas for Hitchhiker would be those on Chrome Dreams boot; indeed the tracklist sheet (even as this has been debunked as fake) suggests Sept. ’75 dates for all. But it does leave open the question of whether Hitchhiker is a one session deal, or is a compilation of Indigo sessions. Probably the memory of all involved is hazy…
Another separate small detail: the type font on Hitchhiker is very similar to last PS release Bluenote café. Not sure what this says, but at least it looks official.
Dom
Thanks Dom! Very cool interview and quite insightful into Neil Young's approach to studio recording. Wow?!
So for the one thousandth time ...how in the world do people confuse Neil Young and Neil Diamond??? How is such a thing possible? It's like confusing Ryan Adams and Bryan Adams -- completely inexplicable.
See more details on Neil Young's upcoming album "Hitchhiker", cover art, and tracklist).
Last month, Neil Young was supposed to induct Pearl Jam into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, however he fell ill (fortunately, "nothing major"), so David Letterman performed the induction honors instead.
Later in April, Neil Young emerged in public at a Willie Nelson concert at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio on Saturday, April 29. It was Willie Nelson's 84th birthday and he led the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” during which Neil Young joined in on the harmonica.
Or, as summarized elsewhere, Neil Young is releasing "10 single albums, 1 double album, and a supposed multiple album set (archives, unreleased material is unknown) in the next few months.....and only 3 new songs".
Neil Young accomplishes more while on sabbatical than most do while fully engaged. So -- just to clarify -- while we call 2017 a "sabbatical year", so far it only applies to touring. Clearly, Neil is still young and restless at heart.
At the time of our original posting, a track listing was unavailable which of course led to rampant speculation of the songs included with various arguments for against the selections. Now comes word of the track list via Lone Red Rider who shared a listing posted to Diverse Vinyl:
SIDE 1
1. Pocahontas
2. PowderFinger
3. Captain Kennedy
4. Hawaii
5. Give Me Strength
SIDE 2
1. Ride My Llama
2. Hitchhiker / Like An Inca V1
3. Campaigner
4. Human Highway
5. The Old Country Waltz
As Lone Red Rider notes, assuming this is track list is correct, blogger Kahunasunset is closest to the pin, from his speculation on the original topic.
Last month, we posted an intriguing image by Gary Burden | rTwerk.com of what appeared to be a cover for the unreleased album Neil Young | Hitchhiker. Gary Burden is Neil Young's long time art director and cover graphic artist. Also, credited is Jenice Heo, who is responsible for Art Direction, Design.
Hitchhiker includes solo, acoustic songs recorded in 1976 at the Indigo Ranch Studios in Malibu, California.
Neil Young's newest album "Hitchhiker" is due for release on 14 July 2017 according to a listing on Diverse Vinyl. (Thanks spook_the_horse!)
Last month, we posted an intriguing image by Gary Burden | rTwerk.com of what appeared to be a cover for the unreleased album Neil Young | Hitchhiker.
Gary Burden is Neil Young's long time art director and cover graphic artist. Also, credited is Jenice Heo, who is responsible for Art Direction, Design.
Hitchhiker includes solo, acoustic songs recorded in 1976 at the Indigo Ranch Studios in Malibu, California. Writing in "Special Deluxe", Neil Young's -- second memoir -- he comments on Hitchhiker:
"I spent the night there with David and recorded nine solo acoustic songs, completing a tape I called Hitchhiker.
It was a complete piece, although I was pretty stony on it, and you can hear it in my performances. Dean Stockwell, my friend and a great actor who I later worked on Human Highway as a co-director, was with us that night, sitting in the room with me as I laid down all the songs in a row, pausing only for weed, beer, or coke. Briggs was in the control room, mixing live on his favorite console.
I was mainly leaning on Shakey and The Visual Documentary as my sources for what was recorded at Indigo or recorded in that rough timeframe. If there is anything I question in the "LRR tracklist", it is Stringman and Will To Love. Both of those basic tracks (at least the versions in circulation) were NOT recorded at Indigo. The overdubs from Will To Love were recorded at Indigo. The Stringman we have heard was recorded live and then overdubbed with guitar and BG vocals. So those may not be a part of Hitchhiker. It would be very cool if there were a song on those tapes which we have never heard before!
The version of Stringman in circulation (with overdubs) seems like the basic track was from the last night at ODEON. I'm guessing that we would get this one on Odeon-Budokan or/and as a standalone track with the overdubs.
Here's a live acoustic version of Hitchhiker from 1992 that perhaps hints at what the mid-seventies version will sound like:
https://youtu.be/cbyTTPUvMrQ [above]
Notice how naked Neil is here; no sound-effects or bombastic performance to hide the essence of the song behind, to make it safer and slicker and more palatable. Just sparse acoustic guitar and vocals, occasional chilling bursts of harmonica. And the spirit of Neil Young; alone and vulnerable. Building in intensity to a thrilling and open-ended climax. The essence of the song is captured perfectly. It's haunting, isn't it?
That's what he is capable of. That's why we are all here.
Listening to this song, this 1992 performance, you can fully relate to why he has held this song back (in it's non-watered-down form) for so long. It must be like seeing your own ghost. At the same time, of course, we are all willing him on. Because that is what great art is about, and it doesn't come easy.
This should be a very exciting record. It's also a record where we don't really know what to expect, beyond a broad synopsis. So it is intriguing; one to eagerly anticipate.
Neil recorded acoustic songs extensively with David Briggs during the mid-seventies (with several songs being rationed out onto the next few studio albums) and it will be very interesting to see and hear which songs (and how many) are included on this compilation. It's likely there will be some surprises. Little of this material has found it's way onto bootlegs.
Neil commented in recent years that the reason Hitchhiker went unreleased for so long is that it was not "finished". Unfortunately, he decided it was necessary to "finish it" (off) in 2010 by tacking on two bland new verses and burying the song on an album that constituted the most mediocre of his career.
So this Archives release should offer a better alternative. At the opposite end of the scale.
Instead of artless songwriting dressed up in gimmicky sound effects, this record will showcase the finest of Neil's songwriting captured in a more sparse and natural production. And until then, the live 1992 versions of Hitchhiker are fine, not "unfinished" at all, capturing much of the spook and mystery that was drained off of the overblown Le Noise version.
This mid-seventies period sees Neil as a man who had worked his way into a songwriting peak, fully in the zone, magical songs coming to him as naturally as tying your shoelaces. You have to work hard to achieve that level of mastery, and you need the right people around you, too. That's not to put other periods down at all, but this record should amply showcase the heights of Neil's seventies songwriting, where he could barely put a foot wrong, artistically.
I suspect too that Neil has very fond memories of this period, and will enjoy sharing them with us.
1971 Film of Neil Young Recording "A Man Needs A Maid" with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Here is some rare film footage of Neil Young in 1971 recording the album Harvest with the London Symphony Orchestra.
In this clip, Neil Young rehearses "A Man Needs A Maid" on piano while Producer Jack Nitzche records the session. An edited version of this clip appears in the Archives Volume #1 is our best recollection.
Or maybe this is a transfer from The Archives? This clip is 11:26 and we need to go check our Blu-Ray to compare lengths.
Here's what Neil Young wrote in the Decade liner notes about "A Man Needs A Maid":
"I recorded this with the London Symphony Orchestra. Some people thought this arrangement was overdone but Bob Dylan told me it was one of his favorites. I listened closer to Bob. Robin Hood loved a maid long before women's liberation."
Over the years, we here at Thrasher's Wheat have been involved in more than a few little miracles (see here, here, here, here, here, here and here for actual TW miracles randomly selected).
And it is these serendipitous synchroncities with our dearly loved blog readers which powers us ahead, day after day, week after week, year after year, and decade after decade.
I appreciate it's a bit of a struggle during the sabbatical so maybe some of us out here need to help.
I've visited this site pretty regular for many years and contribute very occasionally but I appreciate the work you do and the information and dialogue on here.
So to the point. A friend suggested I could re-engage with music if I tried listening to new acts and then I might find I could feed in some of my favourites. He was correct. So I've been listening to lots of work in the last few months - you name them - all the greats - I've re-visited them.
A week ago I got to On the Beach and I realised it's the greatest album I've ever heard.
I was raving about it to my wife and she threw it out there. If you have to delete all Neil Young albums and keep only one then which one? Well for me it's On the Beach. Then she asked about individual songs. We broke that down into acoustic/piano/electric and I chose Tell me Why, Love in Mind and Hurricane (early versions).
So throw it out there. Ask the same questions of the TW community - let's get a dialogue going.
Hope this is helpful. Keep up the good work.
NOTE: This comment was removed by original poster and has been re-edited for sensitivity. Please excuse this as a jumping point for discussion.
The Strombo Show presents Charles Bradley in an exclusive home session from the home of George Stroumboulopoulos to celebrate his album, Changes.
SETLIST: 00:46 You Think I Don’t Know (But I Know) 06:24 Changes (Black Sabbath Cover) 12:28 Ain't It A Sin 16:41 Nobody But You 23:27 Heart of Gold (Neil Young Cover)
Ran across a recording of my friend Grace Askew doing "Harvest Moon" I thought you might enjoy. She is a local singer/songwriter whom I've followed for years. Some might know her from The Voice, but she transcends all that...lol....
Hope you and yours are doin' well...
Much love from AR!
Thanks so much for sharing this Tami and so nice to hear from you! And, yes, all's well with us and ours and hopefully as well with you and yours.
peace & love,
thrashers
ps - say hi to our other AR gal, Sandy!
So here's a take on "Ohio" by the ever irascible Bob Lefsetz:
There was a common enemy.
And Neil Young was Canadian. Talk to today's Canadians, the electors of a snowboarding instructor, they're completely flummoxed with what's going on south of the border. And in the seventies they sewed Canadian flags to their backpacks before they ventured overseas, so they wouldn't be confused with their American brethren, responsible for Vietnam.
Yes, Vietnam united us. Our hatred for our country's policies. Our fear that we'd die there. Truly palpable. A lot different from being executed in a video game. Rich men could get their kids in the Coast Guard, the Reserves, but there were not that many rich people and not that many who were connected so you turned eighteen, registered for the draft, and started to worry.
But the bifurcation of society began before. One can try to pinpoint the separation of the youth from their parents but let's settle on 1964, when the Beatles appeared on "Ed Sullivan." Overnight kids had new heroes. And this mass was just that, a huge segment of the population, known as the baby boomers. And at first the Beatles were singing about love, but it wasn't long before they weighed in on deeper topics and we listened.
To "Surrealistic Pillow" too. Then Cream and Jimi Hendrix. We were implored to "feed our head," on national radio, in an era when most people had never even heard of marijuana and most considered drugs to be heroin. And then, suddenly, you knew someone with reefer, and people switched from alcohol to herb, it was a badge of honor, to reject your parents' lifestyle, beliefs and mores. You took your instructions from countercultural heroes, mostly musicians.
Now it's not like "Ohio" was created in a vacuum. Stills had written and Young had been in the group when Buffalo Springfield had a monster hit with "For What It's Worth." Even though most listeners were unaware of the Sunset Strip riots, had no idea what Pandora's Box was. Still...
"There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware'
There's the dividing line right there. Awareness as opposed to conformity. In an era where guns were anathema amongst the youth, long before the NRA permeated their consciousness, demonstrating that music and love are more powerful than firearms.
And the Byrds made their bones on a cornucopia of protest music, providing insight into the happenings of the day.
And then, on the second side of Crosby, Stills & Nash's debut, David Crosby penned and sang "Long Time Gone."
"Hear, you must hear what the people say"
Powerless? The younger generation believed it could move mountains.
"Speak out
You got to speak out against the madness
You've got to speak your mind
If you dare"
If you dare... You're home in your bedroom with the album you bought that everybody owns and your hero, your teacher, was not only telling you what was going on, but he dared you to take action, to do something about it.
And you were not the only one. There were protests in the street. There was a path to follow. And then there was a trigger moment.
Kent State. Proof of all our paranoia. Not radically different from last week's FBI shenanigans, only in this case four of our brethren died, how many of our brethren will die if Obamacare is overturned?
And action begets inspiration. The famous photos in "LIfe" magazine had Neil Young putting pen to paper, pick to strings.
"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own"
We. The youth. There was no division. This was a wakeup call.
Most people had little idea who Neil Young was. He was just the fourth guy added to Crosby, Stills & Nash, but his songs, his playing, had been included on "Deja Vu," that spring's monster hit, with Graham Nash's composition "Teach Your Children" high on the chart.
And Young's scorching guitar was a sound unknown to most. But when it emerged upon the airwaves in May of 1970 the audience clamored, became aware, ultimately made his fall album "After The Gold Rush" a monster.
"Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago"
What should have been long ago? Upgrading your mobile phone? Posting to Instagram?
A hit is not what it used to be, the "Billboard" chart is irrelevant, most of America does not know the hits, ubiquity is history. However there are stars. But as close as most get to saying what's going on, standing up to the insanity permeating our nation, is Kenny Chesney singing about "noise." No one wants to take a side, for fear of alienating a potential customer. So leadership goes elsewhere, listeners are on their own, even though they're hungry for direction, but musicians have abdicated their power.
But the songs are written by committee, oftentimes by Europeans, who see it as commerce rather than art, who seem not to know the power of a song, how it can impact people, change their thinking. Hell, most baby boomers were for the war before the musicians convinced them otherwise. It's always the artists who think for themselves, at least true artists.
"How can you run when you know"
That's one thing for sure, today everybody knows. It was easier to tune out the news back then, just turn off the TV, stop reading the newspaper. But today we're bombarded with messages. Yet there's no unification, there's you and me and we just disagree. Because we no longer have similar values. Because life is so much harder in the twenty first century than it was in the twentieth, when you could survive on a minimum wage job and upward mobility was rampant.
So you've got a vocal crew telling musicians to shut up. But they're not the only ones being told to keep quiet.
And since there was an election we are supposed to shut up, which is like asking Neil Young not to sing about Kent State because Nixon was President, he just called him out.
You cannot predict history. But you can see for all the similarities to what was, today is completely different.
Musicians were rich. They followed their own muse. They were brought up in an era of possibilities and felt it their duty, were thrilled to push the envelope.
Today the best and the brightest put their head down and rape and pillage in the name of the almighty dollar. Working for Goldman Sachs, the tech company, they're afraid of being left behind so they screw you, they don't care about you.
And you wonder why we have no protest music.
Oh, we've got a lot of niche acts, veritable unknowns, protesting loudly. But what we need is those with power, those with influence, to take a stand, like the Republicans in Congress.
Super Jam Full Performance: 2017 Hall of Fame "Rockin' In The Free World" by Pearl Jam, Yes, Journey, Rush + More
Here is the full performance Neil Young's "Rockin' the Free World" with Pearl Jam, Yes, Journey, Rush and special guest Dhani Harrison to conclude the 2017 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.
As noted, Neal Schon plays on the first solo, Alex Lifeson on the second one and Rabin on the grand finale.
Last month, Neil Young was supposed to induct Pearl Jam into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, however he fell ill (fortunately, "nothing major"), so David Letterman performed the induction honors instead.
From Rockline Interview by Bob Cockburn (Feb 8, 1993 - Transcript: http://www.rogerwaters.org/rocklineint.html)
BC: As we roll "It's A Miracle" underneath us (It's a Miracle played in the background) by Roger Waters from Amused To Death I'll pose this question. When you write songs and create an album, are responses like Dan's that you justgot, what you hoped for? That you can take a microcosm of a situation, and someone like Dan can hear it and expand on it, expound upon it and take it to another interpretation? Is that what you hope people will do with your music?
RW: I just a... you know, if I move people and they listen to something and they get a shiver down their spines then I've fulfilled my function. If I make them think about something, above their own lives, and about the way they relate to other human beings, than that's an added bonus. I've been listening to Neil Young's new album recently. When we cook dinner in the evenings we put it on and listen to it, you know? "I'm a Dreaming Man" (sings the title verse) maybe that's my problem. I can relate to that.
From Q special edition October 2004 on Pink Floyd:
Q) Did you feel any sense of of common cause with the Punks, or understand why they were doing what they did?
RW) Do you know, I`ve never been very interested in modern music.
I might find some of it enjoyable, but it`s never really been interesting.
I never really heard the Clash, and certainly not the Sex Pistols, so I can`t really answer that question.
As I still am now, I was listening to Neil Young when all that happened. It passed me by.
I`ll always listen to a new Dylan album.
But it takes an awful lot of something for anyone else to break in to what I listen to.
From October 2005 interview on http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/
Q: Is there any artist that you would love to perform with? Or one artist in particular that you really love to jam it out with?
Roger Waters: I always enjoy working with Eric [Clapton] who was in my band in 1985. I also worked with Don Henley, but these are friends of mine, and I'm trying to think of somebody. I'm a big fan of singer-songwriters like Neil Young who are loners and sometimes hard to imagine working with. I find it hard to answer that question, I don't really jam with people so it doesn't enter my mind when it comes to
fun. Fishing, sex, but jamming, no.
"What modern-day music do you think might last the test of time?
Roger Waters: Do you know to be perfectly honest with you I don't really listen to very much music and certainly not much contemporary pop music anyway. It's not to say that I don't think it's any good. It's just my interest lies in other areas. I still listen to music and I listen to a lot of classical music and I have my few favourite sort of song writers who, when they produce new work, I'll sort of listen to it. So I always buy the new Dylan album and the new Neil Young album and the new John Prine album and I'll sniff around one or two other things if I catch something on the radio. But by in large I'm not really interested in it."
As one of TW's more fearless commenters TopangaDaze says regarding the above video: "I'm sure many of you have seen it, but I just stumbled across it".
Here's a great live compilation from 1976 showing vintage solo Neil and some great Crazy Horse work including the new guy Poncho.
Tracks include:
Budokan--Tokyo
0:00 Mellow My Mind
3:25 Too Far Gone
6:38 Once I Was In Love ("No One Seems To Know")
9:14 Country Home
15:47 Don't Cry No Tears
18:35 Drive Back
24:06 Cowgirl In The Sand
30:00 Lotta Love
33:00 The Losing End (When You're On)
Hammersmith Odeon--London
37:25 Tell Me Why
40:02 Stringman
43:43 Human Highway
46:52 Down By The River
59:00 Cortez The Killer
Glascow, Scotland--Busking (familiar to many here)
1:07:16 The Old Laughing Lady
(Thanks TopangaDaze! The time machine rolls on ... and no one seems to know...)
After posting, we received a number of informative comments on the compilation video sources.
From "Shakey": The show at the Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo on March 11 (1976) was being filmed for a documentary and recorded for a live album, and - without telling their bandmates - Billy and Poncho dropped acid before going on. "We did Cowgirl in the Sand and Billy and Ralph went up to sing the backgrounds," Poncho says. "I opened my eyes and saw big mandalas comin' out of the back of both their heads, all these colors and shit. I couldn't even look up, I was so high. I'd hit the strings of my guitar - they were like 80 different colors - and they bounced off the floors and hit the ceiling. At the end of the second song Neil came runnin' over, stuck his head between me and Billy and goes, 'Man, we're psychedelic tonight!' ... The whole rest of the night I don't even think we made a mistake. It was unbelievable."
Kent State, Ohio 47 Years Later: The Tin Soldiers March On & On...
James Allen Rhodes - Governor of Ohio (1963 – 1971) &
Richard Milhous Nixon - 37th President of the United States (1969 - 1974)
Remember those days when students were brave enough to march in the streets and end a war?
Now that today's college students have been safely muzzled by crippling loan debt, there is little need for authority to teach students a lesson similar to that educational day of May 4, 1970. It's been 47 years since shots rang out across a college campus, leaving four dead in Ohio and the lives of so many of that generation changed forever by the day's events.
And so, the tin soldiers march on and on... in Baton Rouge. Baltimore. Ferguson. Our hometowns.
"13 seconds in Kent Ohio" - A tribute to those hurt or injured at Kent State Ohio on May 4th 1970. Song By Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and performed by Dala.
Kent State Massacre Evidence
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 11/15/73 document
via Kent State Truth Tribunal
(Click photo to enlarge)
On April 3, 2013,Kent State Truth Tribunal’s submission to the United Nations was posted ONLINE at the UN Human Rights Committee website.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 11/15/73 document (above) shows the shipment of 12,000 weapons within possession of the Ohio National Guard (ONG) including weapons used to kill and wound student protesters at Kent State University on May 4, 1970 with commentary on the destruction of 12,000 weapons.
Kent State Massacre Evidence
US Dept of Justice letter 11/19/73
via Kent State Truth Tribunal
(Click photo to enlarge)
So what really happened at Kent State, Ohio 43 years ago tomorrow?
Based on last week's U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation report, we still might never know. Or will we someday learn the awful truth of that tragic day that left 4 dead in Ohio?
It seems that the key to the truth lies with Terry Norman.
In recently discovered film of the Kent State Shooting in 1970 (1:07.40 thru 1:08), FBI informant provocateur Terry Norman (photo at top) is the young man in the light colored sports jacket. Earlier that day Norman's mentor, Detective Tom Kelly from the Kent Police had attempted to have Norman's gun approved for carrying on campus during the demonstrations, but that approval never came so it's KEY that the video clearly shows Norman handing over his gun to Detective Kelly.
From forensic evidence expert Stuart Allen's analyses of the Kent State Tape in 2010, we learned that Norman shot that weapon at the May 4th demonstration as he was attacked & beat-up by students who saw his gun. (More on Terry Norman ~ Does Terry Norman Hold the Key to Kent State?.)
Watching these Kent State videos without sound, Norman's gun hand-off coupled with the post-Kent State Tape analysis, we now understand the importance of this interaction caught on video & at many other sources.
Norman's pistol 'created the sound of sniper fire.'
In response to the DOJ whitewash report Congressman Dennis Kucinich issued a statement:
“The letter also failed to indicate any efforts to reconcile the evidence in the recording with any prior statements about the incident made by FBI paid informant, Terry Norman, who was on campus that day and was known to have brandished a gun that might have created the sounds caught in the recording.
“While I appreciate the response from the Justice Department, ultimately, they fail to examine key questions and discrepancies. It is well known that an FBI informant, Terry Norman, was on the campus. That FBI informant was carrying a gun. Eye witnesses testified that they saw Mr. Norman brandish that weapon. Two experts in forensic audio, who have previously testified in court regarding audio forensics, found gunshots in their analysis of the audio recording.
Did an FBI informant discharge a firearm at Kent State?
Did an FBI informant precipitate the shootings?"
Why is understanding the Kent State Ohio Massacre critical?
To understand the events of May 4, 1970 at Kent State and the four dead in Ohio, is to understand much of what has happened in our history before, during and after.
In the intervening 41 years, there have been a wide range of commissions, studies, research and theories of what actually led to twenty-eight Ohio National Guardsmen shooting into a crowd of anti-war protesters at Kent State University which left four college students dead on the ground.
Photo by Kent State photojournalism studentJohn Filo
"History never exactly repeats itself.
But its currents are never far from the present. As today’s protesters and police employ bolder tactics, the Kent State and Jackson State anniversaries should remind us that deadly mistakes can and do happen. It is the government’s responsibility to wield proportionate force, not to over-arm police and place them in a position where they could panic with deadly results."
~~ Steven Rosenfeld, Will a Militarized Police Force Facing Occupy Wall Street Lead to Another Kent State Massacre? | Civil Liberties | AlterNet
Despite many official denials, there have always been persistent theories that the National Guard was actually provoked into the shootings by a belief that they were being fired upon themselves and therefore were acting in self defense.
What follows is a brief recap for those less familiar with the The Kent State Massacre, followed by the latest developments.
The spring of 1970 was a time of significant unrest on college campuses protesting the Vietnam war and President Richard Nixon's announcement of a new American invasion of Cambodia, provoking an escalation in anti-war protests. The anti-war protest movement culminated with the Kent State Massacre which resulted in hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closing throughout the United States due to a student strike of four million students. The official President's Commission on Campus Unrest concluded that"the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable."
Twenty-eight Ohio National Guardsmen fired sixty-seven rounds in thirteen seconds, leaving four students dead
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Minneapolis, MN 1970
"They were about to walk out on stage and were spending a moment warming up."
Photo by Henry Diltz
Immediately after the Kent State shooting on May 4, 1970, Neil Young composed the song "Ohio" after looking at photos appearing in Life magazine and then taking a walk in the woods. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young went to the studio and recorded the song which was released to radio stations shortly after the killings.
A rather significant article in today's The Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer "Neil Young's 'Ohio' evokes strong images of May 4, 1970 shootings at Kent State" by Mark Dawidziak:
It was more than just another protest song.
Ohio was a cry of anguish, penned by Neil Young after seeing pictures taken at Kent State University on May 4, 1970.
But 40 years after members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on college students, Young's "Ohio" remains the most evocative pop-culture response to a defining moment in American history.
"This is an event that now is in every history book," said Carole A. Barbato, a Kent State University professor of communication studies who team-teaches a course on May 4. "Wherever you live, even though your environment obviously shapes how you perceive things, you're probably as aware of the shootings at Kent State as those of us in Northeast Ohio. And even though this still would be in the history books, the pop culture certainly does perpetuate that. "Ohio" was entering the pop-culture consciousness within three weeks of the shootings.
"It was the quickest and best reaction to Kent State, with Neil Young acting as 50 percent songwriter and 50 percent journalist," said David Bianculli, a pop-culture historian who teaches at Rowan University and regularly contributes to NPR's "Fresh Air."
"I'll tell you what that song meant," said Bianculli, author of the recently published "Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour." "After the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, you felt kind of helpless as a young person. It seemed that when someone had your voice, that voice was silenced, usually by violence.
"Then you have Kent State, and college kids are actually fired upon. And when you just might start to be thinking, you don't dare have a voice or there is no voice, from the radio comes this voice of solidarity and outrage. It wasn't just a pop song."
...
"After 1970, that doesn't happen again. It didn't need to happen again, mostly because it didn't need to happen there. And that's what Neil Young's song spoke to."
Also, see "My 285th post on Kent State." Why the 1960s still matter by Will Bunch. Let a million flowers bloom. Crosby, Stills & Nash reflect on 'Ohio' 44 years after Kent State 'CNN Special Report Witnessed: The Killings at Kent State’ airs this Sunday, May 4 at 7p E.T. on CNN. Singer David Crosby says his first reaction to reading Neil Young's lyrics for the song 'Ohio' was "this is gonna cause some trouble." Then he said "get us a studio and get it now." 'Ohio' was written as a response to National Guard forces opening fire on anti-Vietnam protesters on the campus of Kent State. Four protesters were killed, nine others were wounded. Sunday May 4th marks 44 years since the tragedy.
Laurel Krause -- is the sister of Allison Krause, one of the four students who died on the Kent State College campus in Ohio. From Kent State Truth Tribunal
On May 4, 1970 my sister Allison was shot to death around noon as she protested against the expanding Vietnam War and the US military occupation of her college campus, Kent State University. Ever since May 1970, American leadership, Kent State University and US government agencies involved in the Kent State Massacre planning, the execution and the aftermath have never claimed that the murders at #KentState were at the hands of the US government … or that it was even murder at all. To restate this conundrum, US military bullets killed and injured American students at a peace rally. The US troops shot armor-piercing bullets from American war weapons, killing four students, critically wounding nine yet ever since that day, American leadership has never referred to or reflected on the fact that young people and protesters were shot dead by US military personnel with US military weapons. A drastically different view (fostered mostly by #truth) will forever be held by most of the Baby Boomers, the real target on this great US government onslaught. Just after Kent State, EVERYBODY KNEW they meant to #kill at Kent State … and 10 days later in a related show of force, two additional American students were shot dead at Jackson State University, with the tally at six students in May 1970. This long-gone American history show us how the US government has gotten away with murder against American young adults and protestors … now going on 44 years. ~~Laurel Krause
Last month, Neil Young was supposed to induct Pearl Jam into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, however he fell ill (fortunately, "nothing major"), so David Letterman performed the induction honors instead.
So at long last, Neil Young has emerged in public at a Willie Nelson concert at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio on Saturday, April 29. It was Willie Nelson's 84th birthday and he led the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” during which Neil Young joined in on the harmonica.
In other Neil Young sabbatical news, we've also learned that he is co-starring with Daryl Hannah in a film described as a “post-apocalyptic western fantasy musical.” This report comes from cinematographer Adam Vollick who is working on the film.
So -- just to clarify -- while we call 2017 a "sabbatical year", so far it only applies to touring. Clearly, Neil is still young and restless at heart.
On March 4, 2010, a special screening of Trunk Show was held in Boston with Director Jonathan Demme and included a live musical performance Robyn Hitchcock. From The Boston Globe: Hitchcock is Demme’s leading man By Mark Shanahan & Meredith Goldstein:
"Why did Robyn Hitchcock perform at this week’s screening at the Coolidge of Jonathan Demme’s documentary about Neil Young? It’s not clear, even to Hitchcock (above right, with Demme), but what difference does it make? “To a halibut in the late 20th century, there’s no difference between me and Neil Young - or Jim Morrison, for that matter,’’ said Hitchcock. (In fact, the British singer is a buddy of Demme’s, and has been in three of his movies, including the documentary “Storefront Hitchcock.’’) The screening was part of a two-day celebration of Demme, who’s the recipient of this year’s Coolidge Award. The audience was enthusiastic about the film, but some people griped that lights inside the cinema were not turned off, which spoiled the experience."
Last night I saw Jonathan Demme's new movie on Neil -- Neil Young Trunk Show. I went from Hartford to Boston to see it. I cannot wait for everyone to see it. It will knock your socks off. Absolutely amazing. A bookend to Prairie Wind, but an opposite, not a matching one. It is raw and visceral and full of the power (I don't know what other word to use) of N.Y.'s music.
Power and soulfulness.
His voice is in great shape. His "reading," his inflections and changes in phrasing are masterful. His guitar playing is unworldly. He's totally at home and in the groove and at the peak of his powers. And the concert shows the range of his emotion and vision. There is so much there that most people just grab bits of it. I'm a huge fan and I came away thinking, "Is it possible I have underestimated this man?"
The genius of Demme is that he puts you right in Young's world. If someone says, "why do you love Neil Young?" you can just hand them this DVD. They will either watch with mouth agape and join us or be totally befuddled.
Last but not least: The SOUND quality is 4 stars. You hear the best versions of those songs you will ever hear, unless you were at the concert. I heard substantially the same concert in Boston a few days later in 2007 and I felt I was taken back to that place .
Magic, magic music making. This film is a gift from above.
PK: What's the deal with Neil Young now? You are making a trilogy?
JD: I would obviously love to do a third film with him and Neil likes the idea. We just need to figure out what that would be. I just found out that 'Neil Young: Heart of Gold' has done very well, at the box office. It has done very well, financially, around the world since it was released. It has made me kind of hopeful that our new film, 'Neil Young: Trunk Show,' may attract a similar audience.
PK: That's coming out here on March 1. They are going to show it during your gala.
JD: Yes, and this will be the first showing ever of the final color corrected, tweaked sound track version so it ought to be quite a show.
PK: Can you sum up in a couple of sentences what it is about Neil Young that makes you want to make 3 movies about him?
JD: Neil Young's music became a big part of my soul when I first started hearing it as an extremely young man back in the 60's. I think he is a great artist, a great great great great great artist. I just adore his music and it's been so exciting to work with him these times, to get to know him and see how he conducts himself and listen to the way he thinks. Neil is of course, musically, a giant, and Neil is also an exceptionally cinematic guy. I like the films he has made very much. I particularly love 'Greendale.' He is an exciting person to collaborate with."
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.
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