Strange Brew√ Fresh Insights on Rock Music | Edition 02 of September 28 2006
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M i c h a e l W a d d a c o r ‘ s πStrange Brew Fresh insights on rock music | Edition 02 of September 28 2006 L o n g m a y y o u r u n ! A tribute to Neil Young: still burnin‘ at 60 œ part one Forty years ago, in 1966, Neil Young made his At a time when so many of the inspired and recording debut as a 20-year-old member of the inspiring musicians of the 1960s and 1970s have seminal, West Coast folk-rock band, Buffalo become parodies of their former selves with little Springfield, with the release of this band’s or nothing of any artistic substance to contribute eponymous first album. After more than 35 solo to rock culture, Young’s heart continues to studio albums, The Godfather of Grunge is still pound with passion – and this is the dominant on fire, raging against the System, the neocons, spirit of his new album. This work is reviewed in war, corruption, propaganda, censorship and the the next edition of Strange Brew (edition three: demise of human decency. Michael Waddacor Neil Young, part two). Living with War is an pays tribute the Canadian-born songwriter and imploring, heart-felt cry for a return to human musician for his unrelenting courage and decency and freedom from the malaise of uncompromising individualism in a world gone modern living: Third World exploitation, debt crazy and short of adorable eccentrics in the and misery, idiotic political and business realms of rock music. leadership, hyper-consumerism and the lies of marketers, American imperialism and militarism, censorship and the invasion of privacy and personal rights. The latest Neil Young album, Living with War (Reprise Records, May 2006), may well Warmth of familiarity be his best since 1994’s haunting Sleeps with Angels. From the first listening, one has no His detractors will deride him, proclaiming that doubts that the folk-metal protestor is still Young is just another ageing hippie with predictable polemics, no new songs to sing and railing against the system, refusing to sell his nothing significant to add to modern thinking soul. He is disconsolate over the mockery of and culture. Well, his new album may not have American democracy, the neocon, militarist many groundbreaking sounds and novel ideas. Bush Administration and what appears to be Instead, however, the familiarity of the man and the dearth – if not, the decay – of good sense his music warm and reassure us in age of music- and human decency in the corridors of industry indifference and musical blandness and American political powerhouses. creative poverty as epitomised by the mindless Strange Brew 02 ° Neil Young celebration (part one) ° 2006-09-28 ° 1 MTV pop-and-rap-muzak machine. We are corporations about the sponsorship of rock given the opportunity to enjoy another hearty, music. foot-stomping album with lots of unbridled, sing-along melodies, simple, memorable lines Young has embraced several musical genres, and that inimitable shaky, nasal tenor voice from country and folk music to blues, rock, many of us have come to love over the last four rockabilly and rock ‘n roll. He has shifted from decades because it is so honest, frail and acoustic gentleness and introspection to blazing, unpretentious. hard-rock electric assaults and pointed diatribes about political, social and environmental issues. Neil Young belongs to a rare cluster of rock Young has experimented with synthesisers, artists that can still play honest, imploring and vocoders, orchestras, dobros, banjos, accordions, passionate music at the age of 60. Bob Dylan can tack pianos and choirs. His songs have still cut it on a good day, as does with his brand- celebrated and acknowledge Hank Williams, new studio album, Modern Times. Mick Jagger, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Keith Richards and The Stones fared reasonably Johnny Rotten. Young has sung out against well on last year’s A Bigger Bang. Largely, Richard Nixon and George W Bush. He has though, we have long since said “goodbye” to made several quirky, but forgettable movies, and many of his rock contemporaries who have he has co-organised and performed at scores of reached the age of 60. Crosby, Still and Nash, benefit concerts. Paul McCartney, Ray Davies, Rod Stewart and their ilk are largely poor shadows of their former Young has recorded with Crosby, Stills and glories as songwriters and genre leaders. Nash, The Stray Gators, Crazy Horse, Stephen Stills, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Nils Perhaps Young’s 1979 masterpiece, Rust Never Lofgren, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Sleeps, is much more than a paean about the Booker T and the MGs, and Pearl Jam. He has death of The Sex Pistols and punk. Young sang performed on stage with Joni Mitchell, Waylon with conviction more than 25 years ago that it is Jennings, James Taylor, The Band, Bob Dylan, “better to burn out than it is to rust” – and so his Emmylou Harris, Thom Yorke, Ryan Adams, truism endures. Paul McCartney, Randy Bachman and many others. Most important, he has created an Travelling far and wide impressive and enduring oeuvre – a songbook only few have beaten in folk, rock and allied Neil Young has traversed musical and topical musical genres over the last four or five decades. ground more interesting and daring than most For many followers of the folk-rock-based rock musicians have from an external singer-songwriter genre, Neil Young is probably perspective. From the adorable, smiling, mop- the most important member of this movement fringed pop star of the 1960s in high-fashion after Bob Dylan in terms of overall songwriting gear, he metamorphosised into the enigmatic, abilities, messages, collaborations, influences sombre, bare-souled counterculture troubadour and endurance. with scraggly, long hair and patched jeans in the 1970s. Then he (mostly) squandered (or so it seemed) his talents in most of the 1980s, Staying true producing works that were largely bland or bizarre and, in some respects, lacking creative In the Noughties, Neil Young is fusing the best direction or intrinsic meaning. Then he arose, of his more illustrious past – and still raging reborn and revitalised, in 1988, 1989 and most of against the machine with unflagging vehemence. the 1990s to make some of his best music and Best of all, he remains true to himself – and strongest anti-Establishment gestures, such as sounds as strong, witty and offbeat as ever with throwing musical zap signs to the big American no signs of taking the back seat. Strange Brew 02 ° Neil Young celebration (part one) ° 2006-09-28 ° 2 With the passing of time, old-fashioned At the age of six, Young was struck with polio, eccentricity, fierce individualism, erratic which weakened his left side and since has left creativity and an unpredictable defiance of him with a slight limp when we walks. He then trends and expectations have become the moved to Florida in the USA with his mother for hallmarks of Neil Young and his music – not to a year to recuperate before returning home to forget his adroitness at writing a simple, strong Ontario. melody and a mesmerisingly frazzled guitar riff – along with some thought-provoking lines At the age of 12 or 13 (circa 1958/1959), Young of street poetry. moved westwards to Winnipeg, Manitoba, with his mother after she divorced his father. Here, he When Buffalo Springfield had become one of attended Kelvin High School. This smaller the stellar American West Coast bands of the Canadian city would have a profound influence late 1960s, he quit to go solo. Then, when his on him and became the topic, or background, of early solo career aroused the interest of fans and many of his later nostalgic songs, despite critics, alike, he joined the early Crosby, Still becoming a permanent American resident after and Nash (CS&N) to create Crosby, Still, Nash 1966. He grew up in River Heights area of and Young (CSN&Y). After CSN&Y, he was Winnipeg, where we met Randy Bachman, a glorified as a hippie icon and a folky person who introduced him to American blues. counterculture poet and revolutionary. So, in Bachman would later become the guitarist and defiance, he amplified the volume and distorted one of the main songwriters of The Guess Who, his fuzz box more than ever – and played with Brave Belt and Bachman Turner Overdrive. increasing zest, abandon and distortion, drawing as much inspiration from the Beat Generation as Overcoming setbacks the Punk Generation. After a series of hard- rocking albums, he would delve back into his Young was fragile as a child, not only from American folk and country music roots and play contracting polio, but also because he had back his part in spawning both the alt country and problems that necessitated him wearing a back grunge movements of the 1990s. brace. Since his tenure with Buffalo Springfield, he also has been known to suffer from epilepsy ………………………………………………… (some say due to a harsh bash on his head by a police officer following his participation in a After a series of hard-rocking albums, 1967 Los Angeles riot that left him minus a he would delve back into his American tooth). Nevertheless, such physical and related folk and country music roots and play personal maladies would not deter his steely will his part in spawning both the alt to succeed in life and music, as he later proved country and grunge movements. when writing and recording the Harvest, Re-ac- tor and Prairie Wind albums, for example. ………………………………………………… Like many teenagers growing up in the late EARLY LIFE 1950s and early 1960s, Young was hooked on Rocking in Canada rock ‘n roll, rockabilly and some blues, and taught himself to play guitar at the age of 14.