Neil Young - Heart of Gold

In our minds we tend to remember a person the way they were the last time we saw them or the way the person looked the time when they played a big part of our life. Think about a high school friend who you have only seen once or twice since graduation. You will probably picture that person as the 17 or 18 year old friend you knew oh so many years ago. A snapshot frozen in time. The same holds true for our musical heroes. My mental image of Peter Frampton will always be the young, long haired rock god on the cover of Frampton Comes Alive, not the balding, older man recently featured on a Geico commercial. What about the artists that stay with you through your life time, that grow old before your eyes while continuing to put out great music? I would argue that for a rare few, we allow our mental images of those musicians to age as we ourselves add "experience" and milestone birthdays. These mental images and memories of those special few people evolve with us for the most part. I just finished watching the Johnathan Demme motion picture Neil Young Heart of Gold. I now have my lasting image of Neil, the way I will remember him from now until some sad day in the future when I hear the news of his passing. More on that to follow but first, back to the beginning of Neil for me...

Neil and I go way, way back. The first 8 track tape I ever bought was Live Rust and the first triple album I purchased was Decade. Certainly not popular picks for a 14 year old in the late 1970's but Neil's voice and variety of musical styles made me want to listen over and over. The liner notes inside Decade were hand scribbled by Neil and I read every word wondering what experiences had led him to write each song. "I wrote this song for my first car and my last girl" and it was obvious he cared deeply for both. Neil's music was a thread connecting me to acoustic rock, to folk, to blues, to garage band grunge, to country, to rockabilly, and to protest songs. From Neil I found CSN, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, The Grateful Dead, Linda Ronstadt, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, The Band and countless others. I have seen him in concert several times, a couple of shows with Crazy Horse; twice alone with just his piano, organ, guitars, and harmonicas; and once with the Shocking Pinks during his rockabilly tour. Every show different, every show very good. Any of those moments could easily qualify as the image of Neil that I store away in my memory bank. Then I watched Heart of Gold...

The film which was recorded at the Ryman Auditorium in 2005 and released in June of 2006 is much more than a "concert film." Jonathan Demme directed this film masterfully. It is a highly personal set of songs delivered by Neil and a fabulous list of musicians and back up singers including Emmylou Harris (who has never looked better and is simply stunning), Neil's wife Pegi, Rick Rosas, Karl Himmel, Ben Keith, Spooner Oldam, Chad Cromwell and many others. Leading up to this project Neil had recently recovered from a life threatening brain aneurysm, he lost his daddy only two months earlier, and had just released the stellar and critically acclaimed CD Prairie Wind. The result is a deeply personal, truly heartfelt, and amazingly calming collection of performances that would be therapeutic to anyone experiencing trauma or a recent loss in their life. This is the folk and country side of Neil. It is all acoustic as he performs the entire Prairie Wind CD plus a fantastic selection of his classics that still have heart, legs, and a timeless feel including I Am A Child, Old King, Comes A Time, Old Man, Needle & The Damage Done, Harvest Moon, 4 Strong Winds, and The Painter. For the final song nearly forty musicians and singers gather on stage for an outstanding rendition of One of These Days, only to be topped by Neil all alone on stage with his guitar singing the hauntingly great The Old Laughing Lady as the credits roll. When he finishes, he packs up his famous old guitar once owned by Hank Williams Sr. and walks off the Ryman Auditorium stage as if to say "If this is it I am at peace with myself and my music." This is how I will forever remember one of my musical heroes, the amazingly talented Neil Young. Thank you for the music and the memories Mr. Young. Long May You Run.

The Man In Black and The Men In Blue

Candyman recently mentioned “The Johnny Cash Show” in an e-mail and after about three minutes of research I ordered the two DVD collection of the weekly variety show that aired 58 times on ABC during 1969, 1970, and 1971 and gave it to my wife for valentines day. She loves the man in black and was raised on country music so the gift was a big hit. We just got around to watching disc one over the weekend and all I can say is go out and buy it! There will be no buyer’s remorse, I promise. This set is an amazing and historically important collection of country, rock & roll, pop, blues, jazz, gospel and vintage clothing. Kris Kristopherson narrates and gives the historical background of the show and the importance of each of the guest performers. There are also comments from Johnny’s son, his make-up person Penni Lane, and others. These are not the original shows uncut but instead just some of the best musical performances. This is really a remarkable collection and here are some of the highlights from disc one:

*The first performer on the first show in June of 1969 was Bob Dylan, just three years after his motorcycle accident and only his second appearance on any stage since he crashed his Triumph two wheeler in July of 1966. (The other was the Woody Guthrie Memorial Concert in early 1968.) His solo performance of I Threw It All Away is superb if not classic, only to be topped by he and JC singing Girl From The North Country just three months after the release of Nashville Skyline. The 28 year old Dylan looks far different from the “Don’t Look Back” Bob of only a few years earlier.
*Louis Armstrong at age 68, wearing a bright blue suit, performing Blue Yodel #9 with Johnny just eight months before Satchamo would pass away.
*Stevie Wonder in an even brighter blue suit, although you can’t blame him for picking out the color, performing Heaven Help Us All.
*A relatively unknown twenty-three year old Linda Ronstadt wearing one of the shortest dresses you will ever see and causing quite an uproar with June Carter Cash since she was going “commando” under the dress, claiming “I sing better bare butted.” She was a hot little number for sure.
*George Jones in yet another Carolina blue suit.

*A young, clean-shaven Waylon Jennings. I always thought he was born with a beard.
*Tammy Wynette singing Stand By Your Man at the absolute peak of her career. There is much more emotion in the song when you watch her sing it on camera versus hearing the audio only of the Bill and Hillary anthem.

*Marty Robbins in still another open collar blue leisure suit, this time with a sweet gold shirt. El Paso is still a catchy tune even though it seems dated.
*The first TV appearance ever of James "Sweet Baby James" Taylor, back when he had hair, a lot of hair, very long hair.
*Pete Seger, who looks exactly the same today at age 88 as he did then.
*Neil Young doing a very nice but short version of The Needle and the Damage Done on extreme close up. Dude had some seriously long hair too.
*A pretty Joni Mitchell and Johnny singing The Long Black Veil.

Highly recommended for your musical DVD archives.