Neil Young played at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia on October 8 and 9, 2014. I’ve got a bunch of videos from those shows, plus a new song from an earlier show in Boston.
There are two new songs here: “Plastic Flowers” and “When I Watch You Sleeping.”
“Thrasher,” Oct. 8, 2014:
“Thrasher,” Oct. 9, 2014:
“Plastic Flowers,” Oct. 9:
“Ohio,” Oct. 8:
“Heart of Gold,” Oct. 8:
“Old Man,” Oct. 8:
Plus another new song from Boston’s Wang Theater, October 6, 2014:
“When I Watch You Sleeping”:
“Southern Man”:
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in the new issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
Here’s a 1991 performance by Neil Young and Nicolette Larson at the 1991 Bridge School benefit concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA.
They duet on Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young.”
Young plays his old pump organ.
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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
Neil Young was on the Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM this morning talking for over an hour.
Rolling Stone picked out 12 highlights and you can read about them here.
Two highlights have to do with David Crosby.
“Playing with Stills and Nash in that band was really great,” Young said, purposefully not saying Crosby’s name. “I wish [Crosby] the best with his life. There’s love there. There’s just nothing else there. [A reunion] will never happen. Never happen, no, not in a million years….You have to think about things before you do them. If you make a mistake, you have to fix it right away. [A reunion] will never happen. You don’t have to worry about it. It’s easy to say ‘no.'”
At this point it appears that whatever relationship he had with Crosby is dead. What happened between them? “There’s nothing to apologize for,” Young said. “It was fixable, but it didn’t get fixed.” When Stern asked if it was Young’s fault it didn’t get fixed. “Absolutely not,” said Young. “I did everything I could to make sure it got fixed…We were together for a long time. We did some good work. Why should we get together and celebrate how great we were? What difference does it make? It’s not for the audience. It’s not for money, either. When you play music, you have to come from a certain place to do it and everything has to be clear and you don’t want to disturb that. I like to keep the love there, and if the love isn’t there, you don’t want to do it.”
Listen to the interview right now:
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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
Check out Neil Young singing ‘Who’s Gonna Stand Up?’ with full orchestra.
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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in the new issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
For Neil Young’s upcoming album, Storytone, there will be two versions of the ten-song set: the two album deluxe package will include one album in which Young performs the songs himself, and another in which he is accompanied by an orchestra.
The orchestral version was cut live with no overdubs. Young sang in the same room as the musicians. The album will be released on November 4, 2014.
“It’s the most different thing that I’ve ever attempted,” Young told Rolling Stone.
Back in early September I reported that the album would be called Storytone.
According to a Warner Bros. press release: Standout tracks from the album include the bittersweet album opener “Plastic Flowers,” the bluesy swing of “I Want To Drive My Car,” the aching “Tumbleweed,” or the heartfelt “When I Watch You Sleeping.” Each song evokes an entirely different feel within the context of its presentation.
More from the Rolling Stone story:
The orchestral Storytone is the first Young album where he plays no guitar or piano – he let other musicians take on instrumental duties so he could focus on his vocals. Two music-industry vets, Michael Bearden and Chris Walden, conducted, arranged and co-produced the album. He took himself out of his comfort zone,” says Bearden, who worked with Michael Jackson and is currently Lady Gaga’s musical director. Young gave the arrangers considerable freedom: “He basically told us to do what we felt,” says Bearden. Young had originally planned to take the concept even further, recording the orchestral versions with a single microphone, but he relented on that point.
More from the press release: All of the Storytone music was produced by The Volume Dealers (Neil Young and Niko Bolas), recorded and mixed by Al Schmitt with additional co-production, arrangements, orchestration, and conducted by Michael Bearden and Chris Walden.
The songs:
1. Plastic Flowers
2. Who’s Gonna Stand Up?
3. I Want To Drive My Car
4. Glimmer
5. Say Hello To Chicago
6. Tumbleweed
7. Like You Used To Do
8. I’m Glad I Found You
9. When I Watch You Sleeping
10. All Those Dreams
Three versions of “Who’s Gonna Stand UP?”
Orchestral:
Acoustic:
Live with Crazy Horse:
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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
Neil Young, backed by Booker T and the MGs, does “All Along the Watchtower” at Finsbury Park, London, July 11, 1993.
Young is in great form on this one. Terrific soloing.
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in the new issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
Today, a day when over 300,000 people reportedly assembled in New York for the People’s Climate Day March to voice their concerns that serious work needs to be done to stop climate change, Neil Young released an orchestral, studio recording of his protest song, “Who’s Gonna Stand Up?”
The musically stunning anthem attacks big oil and the “big machine.”
But what Neil Young doesn’t address in his song is that animal agriculture — factory farms and the whole system of meat production — is the biggest contributor to climate change. This is the elephant in the room.
As the new documentary “Cowspiracy” shows, environmental groups, for the most part, ignore this ‘inconvenient truth.’ If you haven’t seen the film, google it and find a showing near you. Or wait until early November and you can get the DVD. It’s a must-see film.
Today I spent three hours at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater with the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition at the huge Bay Area People’s Climate Day event and we passed out 100s of brochures detailing the impact of Factory Farms (and eating meat, or products made form animal secretions such as milk) to mostly unaware environmentalists.
Two activists at the Oakland People’s Climate Day event.
I would love for Neil Young to see “Cowspiracy,” or for someone, anyone, to get some information to him. It’s great what he’s doing but there’s this big hole, it would seem, in his knowledge of what is contributing to climate change.
Good performance of one of my favorite Neil Young songs, “Don’t Cry No Tears.”
This took place at the Fuji Rock Festival, Naeba Ski Resort, Niigata, Japan, July 28, 2001.
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in the new issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
Yesterday Neil Young played a new version of an old song, “Standing In The Light Of Love,” at Farm Aid 2014.
According to Thrasher’s Wheat, a version of the song was first played in 2001, and Young began playing it earlier this year in Europe.
The lyrics to the 2014 version of the song have been overhauled somewhat to reflect Young’s anger at big oil and corporate America for destroying the earth.
This is very powerful.
The fan who shot the video was using a cell phone so the image is sideways, but the sound is awesome and the video is great too.
Just turn your head, or turn your computer.
“Standing In The Light Of Love”:
“Heart Of Gold”:
“Stand In The Light Of Love”:
Lyrics to “Stand In The Light Of Love”:
In a world with so much anger
In a world with so much hate
Stand in the light of love
In a world with so much sadness
How will you feel at Heaven’s Gate
Stand in the light of love
Rising from the deep blue sea
Drowning in the long parade
Still you will find the answer
Standing in the light of love
Stand in the light of love
By the wealth of corporations
Must the earth bow down to greed?
Stand in the light of love
In a world controlled by oil
How much power do they need?
stand in the light of love
Drowning in the deep blue sea
Still you need not be afraid
For you will find the answer
Standing in the light of love
Standing in the light of love
[instrumental]
Stand in the light of love
Stand in the light of love
Every day the earth is damaged
In the endless search for oil
Stand in the light of love
Ancient ways of life are broken
As we suck it from the soil
Stand in the light of love
Swimming in the deep blue sea
Drowning in the long parade
Still you need not be afraid
Standing in the light of love
Stand in the light of love
Stand in the light of love
I don’t want to get personal
And have you put me on the spot
I don’t know how you feel
But for me it’s getting hot
I got to get somewhere
I got to [unclear word] against the grain
Fighting for tomorrows children
Against the power and the pain
Standing in the light of love
Stand in the light of love
Stand in the light of love
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in the new issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
