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Neil Young: Difference between revisions
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[[File:neil_young.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|
''I'm a lot like you were."'' }}
{{quote|
''Rock and roll is here to stay''
''It's better to burn out than to fade away''
''My my, hey hey''
[[Neil Young]] (1945-) is one of the most influential singer-songwriters of the 20th century. He has written and performed numerous hits throughout [[The Sixties]] and [[The Seventies]] and had a major comeback during [[The Nineties]]. He's best known for his solo work, but was also a member of Buffalo Springfield. He's also performed with Crosby, Stills, and Nash, albeit on an irregular basis.
His style changes often, with his albums falling into blues, acoustic folk, rockabilly, jazz, and even electronic. He is sometimes called the Grandfather of [[Grunge]], as his music and harsh, noisy guitar playing had a strong influence on both the bands that would later popularize that genre ([[Nirvana]], [[Pearl Jam]]) as well as [[Alternative Rock]] in general ([[Sonic Youth]], [[Dinosaur Jr.]]). Young is also adept with many different instruments, though is best known for the piano, harmonica, and guitar.
Though well-known in America and currently living in California, Young is a Canadian citizen and wishes to remain so. Ironically, he has been very vocal about American policies and politics, and is a well-known liberal activist. He is also an active philanthropist, having founded The Bridge School and the benefit concert, Farm Aid. He is also a sometime engineer-inventor, whose most recent project is a prototype electric car.
[[Do Not Confuse With|Not to be confused with]] [[Scott Pilgrim/Characters|Young Neil]].
{{discography}}
* ''Neil Young'' (1969)
* ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'' (1969)
* ''After the Gold Rush'' (1970)
* ''Harvest'' (1972)
* ''Time Fades Away'' (1973)
* ''On the Beach'' (1974)
* ''Tonight's the Night'' (1975)
* ''Zuma'' (1975)
* ''Long May You Run'' (1976)
* ''American Stars 'n Bars'' (1977)
* ''Comes a Time'' (1978)
* ''Rust Never Sleeps'' (1979)
* ''Hawks & Doves'' (1980)
* ''Re·ac·tor'' (1981)
* ''Trans'' (1982)
* ''Everybody's Rockin''' (1983)
* ''Old Ways'' (1985)
* ''Landing on Water'' (1986)
* ''Life'' (1987)
* ''This Note's for You'' (1988)
* ''Eldorado'' (1989)
* ''Freedom'' (1989)
* ''Ragged Glory'' (1990)
* ''Harvest Moon'' (1992)
* ''Sleeps with Angels'' (1994)
* ''Mirror Ball'' (1995)
* ''Broken Arrow'' (1996)
* ''Silver & Gold'' (2000)
* ''Are You Passionate?'' (2002)
* ''Greendale'' (2003)
* ''Prairie Wind'' (2005)
* ''Living with War'' (2006)
* ''Living with War: "In the Beginning"'' (2006)
* ''Chrome Dreams II'' (2007) [The first ''Chrome Dreams'' was never released]
* ''Fork in the Road'' (2009)
* ''Le Noise'' (2010)
* ''Americana'' (2012)
* ''Psychedelic Pill'' (2012)
* ''A Letter Home'' (2014)
* ''Storytone'' (2014)
* ''The Monsanto Years'' (2015)
* ''Peace Trail'' (2016)
* ''Hitchhiker'' (2017; recorded 1976)
{{filmography}}
* ''CSNY/Déjà Vu'' (2008 Documentary, as Bernard Shakey, with Benjamin Johnson)
* ''Greendale'' (2003, as Bernard Shakey)
* ''Weld'' (1990, as Bernard Shakey)
* ''Human Highway'' (1982, as Bernard Shakey, with Dean Stockwell)
* ''Rust Never Sleeps'' (1979 documentary)
* ''Journey Through the Past'' (1974 documentary, as Bernard Shakey)
{{creatortropes}}
* [[After the End]] - After The Gold Rush paints a very striking and [[Tear Jerker|saddening]] image of this trope.
* [[Age Progression Song]] - "Sugar Mountain"
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* [[Deep South]] - "Southern Man" references many of the negative aspects of this area.
* [[Drugs Are Bad]] / [[Ode to Sobriety]] - "The Needle and the Damage Done", an anti-heroin [[Tear Jerker]].
* [[Epic Rocking]] - Half the reason he gives concerts at all. Pretty much any song can go beyond 10 minutes if he feels like it. Frequent offenders include "Cowgirl In The Sand", "Like A Hurricane", "Down By The River", "Spirit Road", "Cortez The Killer"...
** Special credit to [[The Movie]] ''Year Of The Horse'', where thanks to some [[Age Cut|creative editing]] by [[Jim Jarmusch]], "Like A Hurricane" stretches out over [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfqwIsfK24U 20 years].
** Also lampshaded on the [[Live Album]] ''Year Of The Horse'' (not [[Name's the Same|quite]] the same):
{{quote|
'''Neil:''' It's all one song! }}
** Several tracks on his studio albums invoke this trope as well. For example, the essentially live-in-the-studio album ''Ragged Glory'' has two tracks that exceed ten minutes ("Love to Burn" and "Love and Only Love"), ''Sleeps with Angels'' has the nearly-fifteen-minute "Change Your Mind", and ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'' has "Down by the River" (9:13) and "Cowgirl in the Sand" (10:06).
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* [[Not So Different]]: "Old Man."
* [[Pearl Jam]] - Young collaborated with them for 1995's ''Mirror Ball'' album.
* [[Perfume Commercial]] - spoofed in his video for "This Note's For You".
* [[Perishing Alt Rock Voice]] - Young's distinctive voice has been imitated by some [[Alternative Rock]] singers, like [[Flaming Lips|Wayne Coyne]] and [[Dinosaur Jr.|J Mascis]].
* [[Pop Star Composer]] - Young for the film ''[[
* [[Protest Song]] - So, so many.
** "Ohio" - written/performed during his time with CSNY, it was about the famous Kent State shootings in 1970.
*** Written, recorded and released within two weeks of the tragedy itself.
** "Southern Man" and "Alabama" were tied to the mistreatment of African-Americans.
** "Rockin' in the Free World" is a a general protest against the [[George
** ''Living With War'' is an entire ''album'' about Neil's thoughts on [[George W. Bush]]. Including one cheery sing-along called "Let's Impeach The President!"
* [[Rail Enthusiast]] - some people buy model trains. Young bought a ''model train manufacturer''.
** Actually, the reason why may be a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] -- both of Young's sons have cerebral palsy, and one of them, Ben, is also especially into model trains -- so he started getting into trains to have something he and Ben could enjoy together.
** Something of an engineer, Young invented a new kind of control for the train set allowing everything to be run from what he called "The Big Red Button", so that Ben, a nonspeaking paraplegic, could run the whole set himself.
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* [[Something Blues]] - "Revolution Blues," "Vampire Blues," and "Ambulance Blues," all from the 1974 album ''On the Beach''.
* [[Something Completely Different]] - Neil explained his [[Genre Roulette]] experiments post-''Harvest'' to a ''NME'' reporter by saying:
{{quote|
* [[Song of Song Titles]] - [[Lynyrd Skynyrd]]'s "Sweet Home Alabama" contains many references to Young's songs "Alabama" and "Southern Man," mostly in the form of a [[Take That]].
** Not as much as you might think. Lynyrd Skynyrd were fans of (and later friends with) Neil Young, and he even offered them a couple of his now classic songs ("Sail Away" and "Powderfinger") but the plane crash happened before they could take him up on the offer. Similarly squashed was a plan for Young to appear with the band during a show on the Street Survivors tour to play guitar on "Sweet Home Alabama" and sing the line "a southern man don't need me 'round anyhow".
** And to add to that, rumour has it that Skynyrd frontman Ronnie Van Zandt and Neil were planning to work on an album together as well. And that Ronnie is buried in a Neil Young t-shirt.
*** The Drive-By Truckers' song "Ronnie and Neil" illustrates their friendship.
* [[Three Chords and the Truth]] - in fact, his 2009 release "Fork in the Road" uses only ''one'' chord.
* [[Vaporware]] - ''Archives'' was first proposed in the late '80s, but didn't actually come out until 2009.
** Ironically (or maybe not), Young owns [https://web.archive.org/web/20090331195439/http://www.vaporrecords.com/ Vapor Records].
* [["The Villain Sucks" Song]] - One of Young's recent efforts was the 2006 release ''Living With War'', an experimental album detailing all the ways in which he disapproved of [[George W. Bush]].
{{reflist}}
{{Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists}}
[[Category:Geffen Records]]▼
{{Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee}}
[[Category:The Seventies]]▼
[[Category:
[[Category:Canadian
[[Category:Singer-songwriter]]
[[Category:The Sixties]]
▲[[Category:The Seventies]]
▲[[Category:Geffen Records]]
[[Category:Reprise Records]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:Businesspeople]]
[[Category:Canada's Walk of Fame inductee]]
[[Category:Names to Know in Music]]
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