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NNeeiill YYoouunngg
ong ay ou un
L M y R
The Illustrated History
Durchholz & Graff
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NNeeiill YYoouunngg
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Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1. Dream Comfort Memory, 1945–1966 . . . . . . . . . . 10
2. Expecting to Fly, 1966–1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3. The Gold Rush, 1968–1972 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4. Tired Eyes, 1972–1975 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5. Like a Hurricane, 1975–1979 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6. Transformer Man, 1980–1988 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
7. Freedom, 1988–1997 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
8. Let’s Roll, 1997–present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Discography
I. As Band Member or Solo Artist . . . . . . . . . 191
II. Singles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
III. As Guest Artist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
IV. Tribute Albums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Selected Filmography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Sidemen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
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Introduction
The crowd is restive and confused—and with David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash—
unhappy—at the Pine Knob Music Theatre north of Young has followed his muse without question or second-
Detroit on a warm September night in 1983. guessing. He’ll switch from roaring electric rock to gentle
The fans came expecting a two-part show from acoustic fare in less time than it takes to put a guitar strap
Neil Young. The first went off as planned, with warmly over his shoulder. Projects are launched and either seen
received solo acoustic renditions of favorites such as through or abandoned as he sees fit—occasionally, as was
“Comes a Time,” “Heart of Gold,” “The Needle and the the case with the short-lived Stills-Young Band, in the
Damage Done,” and “Ohio.” But when Young returns to midst of a tour.
the stage that night, it’s not with the Shocking Pinks, Collaborators are embraced and moved aside as
the rockabilly-styled group he put together for his latest needed: Crazy Horse, arguably the most popular of all
release, Everybody’s Rockin’, and with which he has Young’s own bands, has suffered through several long
closed shows throughout this tour. Instead he encores periods of inaction. “We’re always waiting,” guitarist
with a pair of gentle favorites, “Sugar Mountain” and “I Frank “Poncho” Sampedro says with a sigh to PBS’s
Am a Child.” American Masters. And CSNY was on ice for sixteen
Goodnight. years on record and twenty-six years as a live act.
House lights up. “He cycles through different entities, one after another,
Show over. to keep it fresh,” Crosby explains to PBS. “He doesn’t
There are surprised looks—what the hell?—and then leave it; he just puts it on hold.” Stills, meanwhile, calls his
some boos. Ushers look at each other uncertainly. A few longtime friend “willfully charming, willfully erratic—and
folks up front crane their necks toward the stage wings, willful.” And Nash confesses to PBS that “there’s a part
as if Young was just kidding and is doing a quick-change of me that doesn’t like that part of him because I know
into his Shocking Pinks suit. Nobody seems in a hurry to people get hurt. If you play only a certain amount a year
leave, fully knowing that there’s supposed to be more to and you’re going on a Neil Young tour and the day before
the show. it gets canceled, your life is changed desperately, and that
Backstage there’s similar confusion. Pink-suited makes me uncomfortable. But I have to admire Neil for
musicians mill around, shrugging at each other. Larry sticking so true to the muse.”
Byrom, the former Steppenwolf member who’s part of the “I’m still trying to do whatever it is that the music makes
Redwood Boys, the Pinks’ adjunct vocal troupe, walks by me do,” says Young, who’s even been sued for that pursuit,
and asks nobody in particular, “Are we going on?” One to American Masters. “People want to know, ‘Why don’t
reporter grabs Scott Young, Neil’s famous sportswriter you make your most famous record over and over again?’
father, to ask why the Pinks section isn’t happening. ’Cause it’s death, that’s why. The longer you can go on and
Another asks tour manager Glen Palmer if he can talk to do things that people don’t like and then occasionally give
Neil or if Young will issue some sort of explanation. them something they like just because that’s the way it
“It was the gentlest possible way of giving Neil a happened, the better off you are. It makes the ones that are
chance to explain his cancelation of the Pinks,” Scott more palatable to people more palatable ’cause they feel
Young relates in his book Neil and Me, “or to say anything like they’re special and,” he adds with a laugh, “because
else he wanted, even to give an excuse, if he wished, that they might have hated the last three or something.”
he wasn’t feeling well, or whatever. All of us waited for Young has certainly put out music people have liked
this answer. ‘No, there’s really nothing I want to say,’ he and hated, but seldom are they indifferent toward it. With
said. ‘Just tell him I hope he enjoyed the concert.’” a prolific drive and hardnosed work ethic, he’s amassed
On the tour bus, Young told his father and some a sweeping body of work that has inspired, confounded,
visitors, “That crowd just didn’t deserve the Shocking surprised, frustrated, tested, and even downright pissed
Pinks! … I guess I’ll get criticized, but I just have to follow off his fans and colleagues. For every mainstream hit such
my instincts.” as Harvest and Rust Never Sleeps or critical milepost
Neil Young does not explain. He simply does. Over the like Tonight’s the Night, there are curve balls that range
course of a more than forty-five-year recording career— from the impenetrable (Journey through the Past, Arc)
starting with the Squires and Buffalo Springfield and to the unexpected—and therefore initially unwelcome—
continuing both on his own and in irregular associations experiments such as the aforementioned Everybody’s
8 Soundcheck for Trans Tour, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, England, September 24, 1982. © Peter Doherty/Retna UK
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Rockin’, the electronic excursion Trans, the countrified attention. As Stills—who probably has more axes to grind
Old Ways, and the big band blues of This Note’s for You. than any of Young’s other musical associates—concedes
Young’s oeuvre is dotted with uninspiring efforts, too, and to American Masters, “Even though I know there’ll be
he’s also iced more potential, and promising, projects than disappointments, I still trust him more than anybody.”
some artists release in an entire career—and turned on a Neil Young: Long May You Run endeavors to
dime to rush something out when he wants to comment chronicle Young’s continually shifting life and career with
on the issues of the day. a critical and analytical eye toward his varying moods and
“My first job is to follow the musical course,” he moves. The truth is that no one can explain his intrepid
says to PBS. “It’s always to the detriment of everything. creativity better than Young himself, and he doesn’t do
Relationships, projects—they get derailed. There’s gonna that very often—perhaps because he doesn’t necessarily
be a lot of collateral damage. . . . I’m brutal. I only do it understand it much, either. Even a work as probing as
for the music. If the music is saying to do one thing, the Jimmy McDonough’s Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography, an
people are secondary. You have to do what you have to authorized work until its subject decided otherwise, raises
do. And if you’re always like that, people begin to trust as many questions as it answers and never pins down the
that. They realize it’s not a personal thing.” muse that steers Young hither and yon.
That, of course, is what brings those fans and But what’s certain is that almost no other popular
colleagues—and critics—back time and again. Young is musician—of Young’s vintage or before or since—is
nothing if not credible and, most importantly, honest. as fascinating and fun to track. He’s on a marathon of
Even his “failures” have a bravado that lends them unpredictable terrain that seems far from over as of this
potency. He’s not right all the time, but he’s wrong even writing. The story is ongoing, and it’s still a great one to
less, which keeps everyone on their toes and paying tell.
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