OT: neil young

[thwart]

Probably a few fans here (besides me). An interesting piece on this very unusual man.

From the article:

He’s a great artist, which means that he sees and hears more, which may make him a loon, but is also why he is still worth listening to.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/m...ing-music.html

[Tony T]

Thank for the link.

[Ozz]

luv neil.....saw back in the day (1991?)...Sonic Youth opened....cool combo.

[buddybikes]

True...but not like Neil Young ever sounded like God...

[Rpoole8537]

I saw Neil with Stills and then later with Crazy Horse in the early to mid 70's. Those were great shows. The one thing about Neil, he did things his way, always. Never manipulated by the record companies or trends. I read his first book. It was a very interesting read. Each chapter was whatever Neil wanted to write on that particular day. He is his own man.

[Tony T]

Originally Posted by Rpoole8537

I saw Neil with Stills and then later with Crazy Horse in the early to mid 70's. Those were great shows. The one thing about Neil, he did things his way, always. Never manipulated by the record companies or trends. I read his first book. It was a very interesting read. Each chapter was whatever Neil wanted to write on that particular day. He is his own man.

A good biography is Shakey, by Jimmy McDonough.
...and Neil being Neil, after it was completed, tried to prevent it from being published.

[jtbadge]

Did anyone ever see one of his handheld audio players in the wild?

[Dino Suegiù]

That concert series he and his ex-wife started and funded (and which he also hosted for 30 years until it ended in 2017) for the children at The Bridge School near San Francisco was amazing. He (and her) deserve much credit just for that.

Plus, he's great: incredibly talented, intelligent, direct, open-minded, inventive. He may be quirky, he may be ill, he may be upset, he may be pissed off, but he's certainly not a loon.

He was CSNY's Lennon and they were far better for it, imo.

[benb]

He's great... he's a little weird about this particular thing but he's not totally wrong about it. I love that streaming makes it super easy to check out new music without spending a zillion dollars but it's overall impact is probably negative.

I think the mainstream might not get how influential Neil Young is. I think if you were to ask non-musicians to rank important rock musicians and then ask musicians to do the same Neil Young is one of the people who would be way higher up the list compiled by the musicians than the non-musicians.

[parris]

The first live show I ever saw was Neil Young solo in 81 or 82. It was a very long drive to and from Buffalo from Utica for a kid that was supposed to be in school at 730 the next morning...

[cash05458]

Some friends of mine in Sonic Y. opened for him at a festival in Belgium years ago...in the backstage area he was walking around and then he went into this little trailer to warm up for the show...just him and his acoustic in there with door open...so I pulled up a chair and sat outside, listening to him sing alone for 3 or 4 numbers...later, onstage I got to stand behind his amp...the crowd was pretty young and fairly lame...he kept turning around and asking "what's wrong with these ****ing kids?"

[Spoker]

I sometimes wonder which music will survive 100 years of time.
I doubt several Young pieces will not be there.
(unless the world will turn away).

[Mr. Pink]

I like Neil. He's pretty awesome, still bringing it. That said, I think he's way wrong here. I consider my modern portable Spotify player(s) the most amazing technological advancement in audio playback.....yet. And, I'm almost 67, started playing 45s in the 60s, worked my way to 33rpm "record changers" in my dorm room, and graduated to quite the audio geek system of tube amps and Quad electrostatic speakers. But the Walkman was a revelation, because you could finally walk around with a lot of music that sounded pretty good, and play it anywhere. Now, with a phone and portable speakers, I have a massive record store in the sky called Spotify, that I can access anywhere, including the car (the second player I alluded to). Pretty much anything. I think that's awesome. Even in the gym now, I listen to anything on totally wireless headphones. Sure, on a certain scale, it sounds like s**t, but, hey, I first heard Hard Days Night and Satisfaction through a five inch speaker on a dash in my parent's car, and that didn't spoil the fun and thrills at all. It's, as always, only rock and roll. Don't get so picky. You'll miss a lot. Neil can afford the price and time, most can't.

[thwart]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pink

... but, hey, I first heard Hard Days Night and Satisfaction through a five inch speaker on a dash in my parent's car, and that didn't spoil the fun and thrills at all. It's, as always, only rock and roll.

I think a lot of us can identify with the experience of really enjoying music while moving along in a car, even if it wasn't exactly 'high fidelity' sound. From the article:

Young’s favorite place to listen to his own songs isn’t the studio, Hanlon says. It’s behind the wheel of his car. Consciously, you’re driving the car, which leaves your mind more open, which is a trick that Briggs taught Young. “We get on the two-lane blacktop,” Hanlon explains. “There’s something that happens when you drive, without trucks. You hear what comes to the top without focusing too hard.”

[cash05458]

Just my opinion...but as an old musician who spent a good bit of time making records and in the studio ...the stuff about sound quality is pretty over done...I mean, if you want to spend 35 bucks on a new reissue of V. Underground vinyl, go right ahead...but to me, it's just new forms of marketing to get folks to buy stuff again and again in different formats...they never tell you that vinyl wears out each time it is played anyhow and loses quality...I can't hear any big differences via compressed files...besides, anyone who has played live music, or rock music anyhow for long enough live has their ears pretty much blown out anyhow and I am sure that is prolly true most of all for Neil...a good song will pop out of any speaker and sound great...and short of owning the original master tapes and hearing them thru a pristine system from a reel to reel machine you won't hear much real difference...