The two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee presents the story of his career against a backdrop of 40 years of history, discussing such topics as his collaborations with famous fellow artists, his creative process and his activist work with Farm Aid and The Bridge School. (This book was previously listed in Forecast.) 750,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)The two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee presents the story of his career against a backdrop of forty years of history, discussing such topics as his collaborations with fellow artists, his creative process, and his activist work with Farm Aid and The Bridge School. - (Baker & Taylor)
An iconic figure in the history of rock and pop culture (inducted not once but twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), Neil Young has written his eagerly awaited memoir. - (Baker & Taylor)
Neil Young is not a writer. He is one of the few rock icons who has forged a long and varied musical career, and he sets out here to make his own memoir. To Young's credit, the book keeps things simple. This is hardly a tell-all celebrity product; no one makes a long career in the toxic fishbowl of rock-and-roll fame without learning how to be silent when necessary. The book's prose reflects Young's reputation as a blunt, principled man, and reveals a shy rural kid who survived a head-on collision with the 60s. The sentences are clipped down to subject, verb, object. Sometimes this choice seems clumsy or pretentious. But at its best, it allows Young to say complicated things very simply. [When Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young reunited during the Iraq War to tour 1960's anthems for audiences forty years later] "...we had a sense of the old purpose. But things had changed; we split our audience in half with that music instead of bringing it together." (In the same more-with-less vein, Altamont is notable for "only one murder".) What the book documents best is how difficult it must be to become a celebrity. As the author points out, "Give a hippie too much money and anything can happen." It is clear that between drugs, youth, terror, management, and naivety, while Young was making rock and roll history, he had no idea what was happening. Something about the music, and cars: custom cars made too big, small cars that went too fast. They crashed, they burned. He sits down with the reader to see if he can figure it out now. He likes restoring old cars, but he always has. Like Young's music, his fans will celebrate his book because, rough edges and all, he keeps searching for something more important than his own fame. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) - (Book News)
A New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today bestseller.
For the first time, legendary singer, songwriter, and guitarist Neil Young offers a kaleidoscopic view of his personal life and musical creativity. He tells of his childhood in Ontario, where his father instilled in him a love for the written word; his first brush with mortality when he contracted polio at the age of five; struggling to pay rent during his early days with the Squires; traveling the Canadian prairies in Mort, his 1948 Buick hearse; performing in a remote town as a polar bear prowled beneath the floorboards; leaving Canada on a whim in 1966 to pursue his musical dreams in the pot-filled boulevards and communal canyons of Los Angeles; the brief but influential life of Buffalo Springfield, which formed almost immediately after his arrival in California. He recounts their rapid rise to fame and ultimate break-up; going solo and overcoming his fear of singing alone; forming Crazy Horse and writing “Cinnamon Girl,” “Cowgirl in the Sand,” and “Down by the River” in one day while sick with the flu; joining Crosby, Stills & Nash, recording the landmark CSNY album, Déjà vu, and writing the song, “Ohio;” life at his secluded ranch in the redwoods of Northern California and the pot-filled jam sessions there; falling in love with his wife, Pegi, and the birth of his three children; and finally, finding the contemplative paradise of Hawaii. Astoundingly candid, witty, and as uncompromising and true as his music, Waging Heavy Peace is Neil Young’s journey as only he can tell it. - (Penguin Putnam)
Neil Young’s music and songwriting—which span forty years and thirty-four studio albums of rock and roll, folk, and country, with shadings of blues, techno, and other styles—are among the most enduring and popular in modern times. From his early days with Buffalo Springfield through his solo career and collaborations with Crosby, Stills & Nash, Crazy Horse, and dozens of other notable musicians and groups, Young is acclaimed for both his musical talents and his artistic integrity. With a major hit in every decade since the sixties, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice (as a solo artist in 1995 and as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997). A well-known political activist, environmentalist, and philanthropist, Young has been involved in several causes, notably cofounding Farm Aid and The Bridge School, which assists children with physical impairments and communication needs. - (Penguin Putnam)