Jam Central Station 09.05.09: Neil Young

Posted by Jeff Modzelewski on 09.05.2009

With well over 30 albums over the past 40 years, Neil Young has amassed a career that few can match. How did Young go from a contemporary of Joni Mitchell in Canada to the Godfather of Grunge? Come find out?



I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend. For my non-American readers, have fun at work on Monday. For everyone else, thank you for taking a few moments from the last weekend of summer to explore some music.

This week's column was probably the most difficult one that I've written so far, partially do to the volume of work that Neil Young has produced throughout the years. He's always been one of my favorite artists, and "Rockin' in the Free World" was one of the first songs I ever learned on guitar. So I hope you enjoy this look at the career of Neil Young.



Neil Young has had a career that few artists could ever hope to match. Over the past four decades, he has managed to stay relevant and in the public eye, despite having to deal with the ever-changing popular music culture. He is both a folk rock legend and the "godfather of grunge." His recording career has explored numerous styles and genres while still maintaining a dedicated fanbase. His influence as a singer-songwriter is comparable to that of Bob Dylan or Paul Simon, while his heavily-distorted signature guitar sound was an enormous influence to bands such as Pearl Jam and Nirvana. In the more than 40 years since he came onto the music scene as part of Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young has been a musical force to be reckoned with.

Neil Young began playing music as a teenager in Winnipeg. He played in a number of bands in Manitoba, and began to develop a name for himself in the local music scene. It was while playing in Winnipeg that Young first met Stephen Stills, who was playing with a band called The Company at the time. While it would be a few years before they would work together, Young and Stills became fast friends. Young also had the opportunity to work with a young Rick James at this time, and he was active in the same local circuit as fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell.

Unhappy with his musical opportunities in Canada, Young moved to Los Angeles with his friend, bassist Bruce Palmer. Young's plan was to meet up with Stephen Stills, whom he had lost contact with. After a week of frustration, Young and Palmer were considering leaving L.A. for San Francisco when, by chance, the musicians found each other while stuck in traffic on Sunset Boulevard. They immediately decided to form a band, and Buffalo Springfield was born. The band would be a clash of egos from the start, but it would also be Young's first real taste of success. They released three albums between 1966 and 1968, and "For What It's Worth" is remembered as one of the most poignant songs of the 60's.

After the breakup of Buffalo Springfield, Young embarked on his solo career with the release of Neil Young in 1968. The album was less than successful, and Young was unhappy with the production. Young hit his stride with 1969's Everybody Knows this is Nowhere which he recorded with Crazy Horse, a band that he put together for the record. Everybody Knows this is Nowhere included some of Young's most well-known songs, such as "Cinnamon Girl" and "Down By The River." It was soon after the release of this album that Young was invited to join the recently formed trio Crosby, Stills, and Nash. CS&N had already recorded their debut album, which was a hit record, and they felt that they needed additional musicians in order to tour behind the album. Despite some reservations, they brought in Young as a full partner in the band, but also allowed him the freedom to continue his solo work and to basically come and go as he pleased.

CSN&Y was in immediate force in music, and their initial 1970 release Déjà Vu was a tremendous success. The album was immediately jumped to #1, and the single "Ohio," which was recorded and released after the album, was another hit single for the group. Young also released another solo album in 1970, After the Gold Rush. This album helped solidify Young as a star in his own right, with more hit singles. As CSN&Y continued to experience internal tension due to the egos of the members, Neil Young continued to focus on his solo career.

1972 saw the release of Young's most famous album to date, Harvest. The album was more of a country/folk album than Young's previous works, and it provided Young with another round of hit singles. "Old Man" and "Heart of Gold" were two of the biggest hits of Young's career, and "The Needle and the Damage Done" is a song that strikes a powerful course about drug use among musicians, and remains relevant today.

Young was not prepared to deal with his success, however. He later wrote about the single "Heart of Gold that "This song put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there." He toured in support of Harvest, but the shows were not focused on material from the album. Instead, much of the tour included unreleased songs, and the tour brought forth the release of the live album Time Fades Away. On the Beach was released in 1974, and also did not live up to what fans and critics expected from the studio follow-up to Harvest. The death of friend and band member Danny Whitten from a heroin overdose continued to depress Young, who held himself responsible for Witten's death after firing him from the band.

Young would reunite with Crosby, Stills, and Nash in the summer of '74, but the group was unable to put together another album. Instead, Young continued working on his solo material, recording enough material that he could have potentially released three albums in 1975. Homegrown was scrapped after completion, however, as Young found it to be too dark and too personal. Instead, Young released Tonight's the Night, which, while not an uplifting album, dealt more with grief and pain around the death of two of Young's close friends in the music business instead of the end of his relationship with Carrie Snodgress, the mother of Young's first child.

Zuma, also released in 1975, reunited Young with Crazy Horse for a more hard-rock effort, and the album allowed Young to return to the spotlight that he had shunned after Harvest. Never one to stay on any path for long, Young then reunited with Stephen Stills for a collaborative album. Young abruptly left the project midway through the ensuing tour, breaking the news to Stills via telegram. He joined The Band, along with many other stars of the day, for The Last Waltz, then released American Stars 'N Bars in 1977.

Young released a pair of albums in 1979. Rust Never Sleeps was released partly as a response to the direction that rock was going, and included something of a tribute to Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten. They followed up with Live Rust, a collection of live tracks from throughout Young's career.

The 80's brought forth a change in Young's recordings. He released an album each year, with each album exploring a different genre and heading in a different direction. This led to a sharp decrease in Young's popularity along with tension with his record label. Geffen even went so far as to sue Young for making "uncharacteristic, uncommercial records" when Young presented them with 1983's Everybody's Rockin', a collection of rockabilly songs. Young also released a "New Wave" album, an electronic rock album, and country album. Whether or not Young was specifically trying to release albums that wouldn't be overly successful as a way to spite Geffen is still up for debate, although the 80's may just be an extreme example of Young's noted style of changing genres on a regular basis.

While the 80's wasn't the most successful decade for Young musically, he began two projects that continue to help define his career. Young founded Farm Aid in 1985, along with John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson. The annual concerts raise money for family farmers in America, and Young typically gives a speech at the shows around environmental issues, along with performing nearly every year. In 1986, Young and his wife began organizing the annual Bridge School Benefit concert, an acoustic show that raises money for the Bridge School, a school focused on children with severe disabilities.

Young ended the 80's on a high note, with the album Freedom. The album included the hit song "Rockin' in the Free World," a song that would go on to help define the grunge music of the 90's. 1990's Ragged Glory was another heavy album, and Young supported the album by touring with up and coming bands Sonic Youth and Social Distortion. Young's support for this new wave of rock helped give these bands recognition and legitimacy in the eyes of the public. Harvest Moon was a return to Young's country sound, and Sleeps with Angels was a throwback to Tonight's the Night.

In 1995, Young decided to entered the studio with already-famous grunge band Pearl Jam to record Mirror Ball. The album, recorded in just a few days, was written by Young, but heavily influenced by having Pearl Jam as his backing band. The album cemented Young's place as an influence of the grunge movement. The album received mixed reviews critically, but it did garner a number of Grammy nominations. The darker side of Young's connection to the grunge scene was apparent when Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain quoted Young's "Hey Hey My My" in his suicide note. Young had tried unsuccessfully to reach out to Cobain, as he knew that Cobain was influenced by Young's music.

Young closed out the 90's with another slew of albums, none garnering major success. However, he continued to maintain relationships with grunge bands such as Pearl Jam while building new ones with the jam-band scene when he joined the H.O.R.D.E. Tour in 1996. He also worked collaborated again as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on 1999's Looking Forward.

Young has continued to write, record, and tour over the past decade. He continues to mix rock, folk, and country in a way few artists can match. 2002 saw the release of Are You Passionate? an album that was recorded in part with Booker T and the MGs. He made an overt political statement with the 2006 album Living With War. He released Fork In The Road earlier this year, and he has shown no signs of slowing down his recording pace.

Neil Young has provided inspiration for generations of musicians. From his early days as part of Buffalo Springfield through his unmatched solo career, for over 40 years Young has continued to be an important face in music. With over 30 studio albums to his credit, along with numerous live albums, side projects, and collaborations, Young is one of the most prolific musicians in history. While he isn't releasing an album a year, which he did for a number of years, he's still recording at a pace that puts many other artists to shame. Hopefully he will continue performing for a long time to come.



We'll start off with a 1974 video of CSN&Y doing "Ohio."



I was frustrated that I couldn't find "Needle and the Damage Done" from the 1996 VMA's (one of my favorite performances ever), so here's the song from the Johnny Cash show.



One of the more well-known Neil Young collaborations, here's Young with Pearl Jam doing "Rockin' In The Free World."



Here's something I didn't expect to find. Neil Young and Paul McCartney on "A Day In The Life."



And Neil Young and Phish get together at Farm Aid for "Down By The River."



For everyone who was at Summerdance at Nelsons Ledges here in Ohio, we've got a clip of Lotus from the show.



Finally a couple performances from Outside Lands last weekend. Here's Theivery Corp.



And, finally, Jason Mraz.





LeRoi Moore Foundation Announces Scholarships

The LeRoi Moore Foundation, founded in honor of LeRoi Moore of the Dave Matthews Band, announced that they will be offering a number of scholorships in honor of the late musician. A scholarship will be offered at Moore's alma mater of Albemarle High Shool as well scholarships for North Carolina Central University (where Moore's parents attended) and University of Virginia School of Nursing (Moore was treated at the University of Virginia Medical Center). Scholarships will begin with the 2010-2011 school year.

Headcount.org Offering Free Music

Headcount.org is offering a bunch of free download simply for heading to their site and "Choosing an Issue." Downloads include full shows from The Disco Biscuits, Leftover Salmon, Radiohead, Phish, Nine Inch Nails, The Dave Matthews Band, STS9, and The Dead along with additional tracks from Michael Franti and Spearhead, String Cheese Incident, Ani Difranco, Cake, and many others. This is a great deal, and these tracks will be a fun addition to my Ipod.

Yonder Mountain String Band Announces NYE Shows

Yonder Mountain String Band will do a trio of shows in Colorado over New Years. They're playing the Boulder Theatre on Dec. 29th before moving to Denver Fillmore for shows on December 30th and 31st. Their new album, The Show is available now, so go check that out.

Leftover Salmon Set New Years Shows

YMSB won't be the only band in Boulder around New Years. Leftover Salmon will be celebrating their 20th anniversary this year with a pair of shows in their hometown. They're planning a big celebration, and will be including videos and memorabilia from the past 20 years in their set. You can sign up at their website to get a password to allow you to purchase tickets prior to the public on-sale date.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals added to Gov't Mule's Island Exodus

If you're still looking for a warm place to visit this winter, Gov't Mule's Island Exodus in Negril, Jamaica provides a fun option. The event will be held from January 15-18, and will include three Mule shows, a solo Warren Haynes show, a Grace Potter and the Nocturnals show, and Potter will be opening for two of Gov't Mule's shows. If you're a Mule fan, this is a good choice for a winter getaway.

Terrapin Hill Harvest Festival Announces Acts

The Terrapin Hill Harvest Festival will be held on September 24-27 in Harrodsburg, KY. The festival is primarily a bluegrass festival, and artists this year include Greensky Bluegrass, Cornmeal, The Del McCoury Band, Sexual Disaster Quartet, Bluegrass Collective, and the Super Heroes, which is a collaboration of such artists as George Porter Jr., Bernie Worrell of the Talking Heads, Adam Deitch and John Scofield. Advance tickets are available for $70.



Thanks again for checking stopping by on a holiday weekend. Come back next week, where (if all goes well) I'll be starting what I'm planning on a 6 part series. What band will the focus be? Well, you'll just have to come back and find out! Until then, Jam On!