neil is for real
speaking of canadians, on the way to/back from the place where i fukkked up my leg, we were listening to the bridge: a tribute to neil young from back in '89 or whenever and thinking about what a fine, fine, supafine canadian _he_ is. dig:
1) he's had a career spanning 40 yrs based on doing zackley whatever it is he wants to do at that particular moment (take _that_, mr. geffen).
2) he was once in a band (the mynah birds) with rick james (beeyotch), before rick, who was awol from the u.s. navy (it was 1965), got deported back to the states and thrown in the brig.
3) is there a better evocation of the '60s countakulcha's early-'70s drug-fueled entropy than his series of albs beginning with time fades away and ending with tonight's the night? i think not.
4) is there a more intense (in terms of _emotion_, not _velocity_) gtr-driven rawk song than "cortez the killer"? yes, there is: "maggot brain". but you know what i mean. (btw, the 21-minute version on built to spill's live trumps neil's, but i have a feeling he would dig that.)
5) is there a better career retrospective than decade? i think not. six sides o' vinyl i can (and often do) throw on and listen to, front to back, without cringing once.
6) alone among rawkers of his generation, he had the foresight to salute punk while it was happening in a genuine, authentic way, as opposed to a pete townshend "i'm desperately clutching at straws in an attempt to remain relevant by any means necessary" kinda way.
7) is rust never sleeps not the best rawk concert film of all time? i think so. (remember, baby snakes has all them claymation sequences.)
9) as "godfather of grunge" (hahahahaha), he had the decency to inflict sonic youth upon the reactionary aor-listening concertgoers of america (who really just wanted to hear "heart of gold" or something) around goo time, when their feedback assault sent many of said concertgoers fleeing the sheds, hands clamped firmly over their ears.
9) as if to prove a point (no shit), he had he perversity to release an entire album's worth of shrieking feedback (his own) called arc in the aftermath of the aforementioned tour.
10) he has two disabled sons. after rust, he spent 14 hrs a day for 18 months teaching one of 'em to crawl. he designed a special remote control to allow the other one to play w/his beloved model trains, and later bought the lionel train company when it looked like it was going under. when it comes to his family, he isn't kidding.
above all, he's proven that burn out, rust, whatevah, it's possible to get old without losing yr teeth. long may he run.
1) he's had a career spanning 40 yrs based on doing zackley whatever it is he wants to do at that particular moment (take _that_, mr. geffen).
2) he was once in a band (the mynah birds) with rick james (beeyotch), before rick, who was awol from the u.s. navy (it was 1965), got deported back to the states and thrown in the brig.
3) is there a better evocation of the '60s countakulcha's early-'70s drug-fueled entropy than his series of albs beginning with time fades away and ending with tonight's the night? i think not.
4) is there a more intense (in terms of _emotion_, not _velocity_) gtr-driven rawk song than "cortez the killer"? yes, there is: "maggot brain". but you know what i mean. (btw, the 21-minute version on built to spill's live trumps neil's, but i have a feeling he would dig that.)
5) is there a better career retrospective than decade? i think not. six sides o' vinyl i can (and often do) throw on and listen to, front to back, without cringing once.
6) alone among rawkers of his generation, he had the foresight to salute punk while it was happening in a genuine, authentic way, as opposed to a pete townshend "i'm desperately clutching at straws in an attempt to remain relevant by any means necessary" kinda way.
7) is rust never sleeps not the best rawk concert film of all time? i think so. (remember, baby snakes has all them claymation sequences.)
9) as "godfather of grunge" (hahahahaha), he had the decency to inflict sonic youth upon the reactionary aor-listening concertgoers of america (who really just wanted to hear "heart of gold" or something) around goo time, when their feedback assault sent many of said concertgoers fleeing the sheds, hands clamped firmly over their ears.
9) as if to prove a point (no shit), he had he perversity to release an entire album's worth of shrieking feedback (his own) called arc in the aftermath of the aforementioned tour.
10) he has two disabled sons. after rust, he spent 14 hrs a day for 18 months teaching one of 'em to crawl. he designed a special remote control to allow the other one to play w/his beloved model trains, and later bought the lionel train company when it looked like it was going under. when it comes to his family, he isn't kidding.
above all, he's proven that burn out, rust, whatevah, it's possible to get old without losing yr teeth. long may he run.
posted by stashdauber at 3:38 AM
1 Comments:
got one of my own for that list:
'bout a month ago 'round the release of the new "prairie wind" record (which is quite good IMO,) good mr. young did 5 straight nights of spiels and songs on the conan o'brien show. playing everything from classics to new material, he was also quite candid about his career, health, and his views on the state of the world at present. it was a great week of tv (damn, it feels weird writing a sentiment like that...) and i did my best to catch every night in reruns. a truly righteous cat if there ever was one...
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