.jpg)
NEIL YOUNG
WAGING HEAVY PEACE
A Life In Review
It seems that the ever aging-out baby boomers have risen up
from their affair with modern country
schlock to find some kind of meaning to their lost promise and dreary lives. We
were confident that we would top our parents in some way. After all we were children
in the Age of Aquarius…but somehow we lost our way. It happened incrementally without us even
noticing. We have class reunions that few bother to attend - so & so’s
mother passed away and our entire class mourns but doesn’t even remember the
classmate let alone the parent. We have 401 K’s instead of pensions. We worker
longer and earn less than our parents. Our music will never die but it doesn’t
chart. It’s this dark cloud on the horizon signaling the end of our youth and
our shrinking relevancy to the stage of public opinion. Lately it has been
decreed (by no one in particular) that 2012/2013 is now The Golden Age of Rock
& Roll Biographies - seems like our old heroes have something to say even
if they can’t secure financing for their next big project. This is how you do
it; imagine a three-pronged media blitz consisting of a book signing @ Barnes
& Noble, a record release and a massive coast-to-coast tour with 12 dates
scheduled in Europe. Only nobody comes to the book stores because they don’t carry
books, only NOOKs; the tour is expensive and folds after a few dates in the
artist’s home state and there isn’t enough cash to pay for studio time – even
if it’s free. Sound familiar?
Well, that isn’t what Neil Young’s book is about. It is a
thoughtful stream of consciousness tome poem about friends, lovers and
compatriots who have touched the life spirit of Mr. Neil Young. There are 68 chapters though several run only
a few pages. Young is an uninhibited writer who effortlessly mixes fantasy or
dreamlike passages when writing about his father or dear friends who have
passed on with nuts and bolts details of his Lincvolt electric car or his
fascination with Lionel Trains (which he purchased). His style and approach to writing a book
appears to be similar to his approach to making music – following his muse and
trusting his impulse to free associate. He is one of the original free spirits
– a hippie who altered his consciousness through dope, booze, love, sobriety
and self-reflection. He is a musical genius and a renaissance man who can shape
a cracked broken down rock with hammer and anvil to create the perfect alchemy,
turning lead into gold.
The initial chapters rest comfortably amongst the memories
and other artifacts of Young’s keen mind. Each story links to emotional
connections with people with whom he collaborated or loved. Lionel Trains was a
lifelong pursuit and it was more than just a hobby. The time and creativity
that Young devoted to his trains was inextricably linked to his mostly successful
attempts to find ways of communicating with his son Ben Young, who was born
quadriplegic. Ben’s birth was a sentinel event for the family and Neil made
every effort to help his son communicate and enjoy his life despite the
physical obstacles. Though Ben was non-verbal, Neil made every effort to
communicate with his son meaningfully. He even recorded an album entitled TRANS
in which he sang through a machine. Most people couldn’t understand what he was
saying – that was the point! Young was trying to communicate across barriers from
one world (verbal) to another world (non-verbal)–TRANS was the bridge
Young praised Buffalo Springfield especially the singing of
Steven Stills and Ritchie Furay. He maintains that if drummer extraordinaire Bruce
Palmer would have not been deported the Springfield would not have imploded so
early in their career. He recalled opening for the Byrds (one of his favorite
bands) and blowing them off the stage. Buffalo Springfield were that good and
yes, the Byrds were that bad! An early influence was Randy Bachman, the founder
and leader of the Guess Who. Bachman was the premier guitarist in Canada at the
time was nice enough to give Young some tips about fingering positions on his
guitar and equal levels of encouragement.
Despite all the high-profile acrimony between CSN&Y Young
only praises his former partners – especially Steven Stills. Young refers to
him as a genius with one of the most naturally soulful voices he’s ever heard.
Young writes about how incensed he was with then Kent State massacres and his
immediate visceral response of “disbelief and sadness” that led him to compose
Ohio. He recorded it the next day in an LA studio. It was on the radio within a
week (this was before the Internet and You Tube). Young felt that CSN& Y
were speaking for a generation (they were – their influence cannot be
overestimated). Young writes that the U.S. government has still not apologized
to the families of the four fallen students. Shame.
Crazy Horse has always been Young’s favorite band and he’s
done some of his best work with them including Cinnamon Girl (their first
song), Down By the River, Cowgirl in the Sand, Keep on Rockin’( in the Free
World), My My, Hey Hey. Young says it’s simple down-to earth rock & roll.
In introducing Cinnamon Girl to the band, he described the modal instrumental
theme as “Egyptians rolling giant stones up to a pyramid on logs. It’s huge and
it’s moving. Unstoppable” YES! He describes his deep long term mourning for the
loss of the Danny Whitten, a great spirit in the sky who sang and played great
rock & roll.
One of the most poignant moments in the book was Young’s
collaboration with filmmaker Jonathon Demme. The film Neil Young: Heart of Gold
was a sensitive yet powerful performance that captured Young in a triumphant
performance of his critically acclaimed album Prairie Wind and classic hits
like Heart of Gold, Harvest Moon and the Pianter. He had a great group of
players and singers including his wife Pegi Young, Emmylou Harris, Ben Keith,
Spooner Oldham and Rick Rosa. Buy this DVD it is the musical companion of
Waging Heavy Peace. Read and listen!
Loss is a pervasive theme in Young’s book. At this stage in
his life he’s lost his parents, family members and many friends. He mourns the
loss of Kurt Cobain as he felt they shared a special connection. Cobain left a
suicide note quoting one of his songs, “It’s better to burn out than to fade
away.” Before Cobain’s death, Young attempted to reach him and take him under
his wing – it struck a deep chord in Young that resonates to this day. Young also talks about the death of his
longtime collaborator Ben “long Grain” Keith. Ben Keith played pedal steel and
can be heard on countless Neil Young sessions including the entire Harvest LP.
Old Man and Heart of Gold are just two examples of Ben Keith’s signature sound.
When Young first heard of Keith’s death he let out a primal screen thinking it
was his son. Then someone told him it was Ben Keith and a different sadness
took over and settled in.
The last few pages of Young’s autobiography are a fantasy piece in which Young is riding
in his Continental his mind wanders and he thinks of all the women he has met
and loved and he comes up to Pegi, his wife and he feels really good. Family
business is on the agenda. It is a time of reckoning – all the houses and
properties, maybe too much to handle. Suddenly the traffic slows to a crawl.
The radio plays Da Doo Ron Ron. Somehow he’s connected to a vintage radio show,
He decides to get off the Interstate and take a two-lane road. It’s very quiet
and Neil pulls over near a creek. He enjoys the taste of the fresh clear water.
He gets back on the two lane and continues down the road to an old café. Two of
his old friends David Briggs (Record producer; died in 1995) and Larry Johnson
(the filmmaker- Journey Through The Past; died 2010) are there drinking coffee.
Young walks over and sits down. They don’t talk much. David says something
about an old friend and Larry Gets up to make a call. He wants some more
coffee. Briggs looks at Young and asks, “What have you been doing?”
I Love this book and recommend it to anyone who is
interested in sixties Rock & Roll, Folk Music and The Summer of Love. You
can purchase Waging Heavy Peace @ Barnes & Noble
Peace
Bo White
No comments:
Post a Comment