Why Neil Young is still going strong
To express weariness with the world, a special kind of singing voice is required. A falsetto is ideal. A lower, powerful voice would not do. And if the voice is distinctive with a quavering, lonesome tenor; if it summons up something that is ethereal, spooky, soulful; if it conveys emotional truths with a feeling of longing and tenderness; if it is filled with character and originality; if it can bring tears to the eye, then the voice can only belong to one singer. And that would be Neil Young – singer, songwriter, musician, producer, director and screenwriter.
It's easy to parody Neil Young's singing voice. Coldplay's “Yellow" was created when Chris Martin was doing a Neil Young impression. But only Neil Young himself can sing Neil Young songs. "It's very difficult for anyone else to sing his stuff," says David Crosby, Neil Young’s bandmate in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSN&Y). "You go somewhere when Neil sings — you definitely don't just stay in your seat."
Back in the sixties, Neil Young's high voice limited his career. He wrote many of Buffalo Springfield's best songs, but bandmate Richie Furay, who had a more conventional voice, was asked to sing most of them. But Neil Young's early solo hits, like “Cinnamon Girl”, proved beyond any doubt that the man couldn’t be held back. And his voice has held up remarkably well all these decades later after a steady stream of studio and live albums.
Neil Young is still going strong. He’s still got his foot on the pedal and his supply is unceasing. His next album The Visitor is set to be released on December 1 this year. No doubt, Neil Young is an acquired taste but, as is the characteristic of such taste, it digs its claws deep and strong into one’s heart and mind. The legion of his fanatic followers will attest to that.
Born and brought up in Canada, Neil Young dropped out of high school to begin his musical career. After playing with bands and doing solo acts in Canada, Neil Young eventually found himself in Los Angeles in the mid-60s where he, along with Stephen Stills and others, formed Buffalo Springfield. The band released three albums from 1966 to 1968 and helped create the genres of folk rock and country rock.
He then went solo and released two albums during 1968 and 1969 – Neil Young and Everybody Know This Is Nowhere (backed by Crazy Horse). Neil Young reunited with Stephen Stills by joining CSN&Y. Their debut album Déjà Vu was released in 1970. Neil Young's tenure with CSN&Y coincided with the band's most creative and successful period, and greatly contributed to his subsequent success as a solo artist. Young would reunite with the band for the 1988 studio album American Dream and for the 1999 studio album Looking Forward. He also did some live albums with them. Neil Young’s third solo album After the Gold Rush (1970) was a commercial breakthrough. I find this album to be marvellous.
I was introduced to Neil Young with this album in college and what a mind-blowing baptism it was! Consider the title track. It’s replete with imagery invoking dream visions of mother nature on the run in the 1970s. The verses move from the past (There was a fanfare blowing to the sun, that was floating on the breeze), to the present (I was lying in a burned-out basement, with the full moon in my eyes. I was hoping for replacement, when the sun burst thru the sky), to the future (They were flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun).
Neil Young’s environmental concerns would manifest themselves in songs throughout his career. In 2008, Neil Young revealed a project, the production of a hybrid-engine 1959 Lincoln called LincVolt. A new album loosely based on the LincVolt project, Fork in the Road, was released in 2009. He has opposed the construction of oil pipelines and tar sands oil extraction. His song, Who’s Going to Stand Up? from the album Storytone (2014) features the lyrics “Ban fossil fuel and draw the line / Before we build one more pipeline”. He began using biodiesel on the 2004 "Greendale" tour, powering his trucks and tour buses with the environmentally responsible fuel. He has criticised Starbucks and their possible involvement with Monsanto and use of GM food. He recorded the song "A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop" in protest in the album The Monsanto Years (2015). After the Gold Rush had another iconic song “Southern Man”. The song was bitter condemnation of racism - controversial with Southerners - prompting Lynyrd Skynyrd to decry Neil Young by name in their Sweet Home Alabama.
Neil Young would continue to decry racism in other songs such as “Alabama” (from Harvest, another outstanding album). Another cause that Neil Young took up was drugs. The Needle and the Damage Done (Harvest, 1972) was a somber lament on the effects of heroin addiction. He also wrote anti-war songs. The 2006 album Living with War rebuked the Bush administration's policy of war by examining its human costs to soldiers, their loved ones, and civilians.
In the song “Let's Impeach the President” he sang that Bush had lied to lead the country into war. In 1975, Neil Young released Tonight’s the Night – an album that I find as close to art as is possible. It’s a record I can never tire of. It’s over-riding dark tone and rawness (it was recorded in one day) hold you by the throat from the first note, all the way to the end. It is unrelenting, there is no relief in it at all, it does not release you for one second. Its first-take crudity emphasises its ragged edge of desolation. The sloppy, unarranged (but decidedly structured) feeling is clearly calculated. And it works wonders. It’s a masterpiece!
Neil Young has had many run-ins with his record companies. Such was the shock value of this album that the recording company delayed its launch and Neil Young had to pressure them for two years before they would release it. After Young released the rockabilly 1983 album Everybody's Rockin, he was sued by the record label for making an unexpected and uncharacteristic album. In his albums, Neil Young, the eternal activist, has also covered a large swathe of issues like the post-hippie, post-Vietnam demise of counter-culture idealism, the downside of success, the underbelly of the Californian lifestyle, homelessness, terrorism, failed relationships, economic crisis, technology.
Neil Young's brush with death influenced Prairie Wind’s themes of retrospection and mortality. His lyrics are deeply personal. Neil Young, besides the guitar, also plays piano and harmonica on many albums. He often plays acoustic versions of songs in one show and electric versions in others. Though his older fan following is devoted to his folk, rock and country oeuvre , he has also delved in electric and psychedelia . His gritty guitar work, especially with Crazy Horse, earned him the nickname Godfather of Grunge and led to his 1995 album Mirror Ball with Pearl Jam.
His album Rust Never Sleeps (1979) had foreshadowed the imminent rise of grunge. This has earned him the following of the younger generation. He has avoided sticking to one style for very long. He experiments with genres and tries new musical approaches. "Time Fades Away", for instance, was recorded live, although it was an album of new material, an approach Young would repeat later.
Even at his most frustrating and bewildering experimentations, Neil Young remains one of rock’s all-time greats. Musicians like him thrive off these side- projects and diversions. They always come back home. When that happens, all the other stuff only adds to the charm.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted him twice: as a solo artist in 1995 and as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997.
Neil Young’s popularity cuts across every nationality, every language. This became evident to my wife and I when we heard him live at Palais des Congrès, Paris in May 2003. A packed hall of a hugely appreciative French audience heard him with fervour. This was part of Neil Young’s European Solo & Acoustic Tour to promote his soon-to-be-released Greendale album.
In his song "My My, Hey Hey (Out of The Blue) from Rust Never Sleeps, Neil Young sings “My My, Hey Hey, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay, It’s Better to Burn Out Than to Fade Away”. Though he was referring to Elvis Presley and Johnny Rotten, the sentiment applies squarely to Neil Young himself. His longevity, his relevance even now after 50 years of a prolific career, his fanatic fans will ensure that he never fades away. He turns 72 on November 12, and there is still a lot of music to come from him.