| February 9th, 2006 01:24 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Forever Neil Young
Fred Shuster / Los Angeles Daily News
Feb 8 2006
Just when you want to take the Grammy Awards seriously, you stumble across a little nugget like the fact that the Recording Academy has never deemed Neil Young worthy of a single trophy.
Not for his work with Buffalo Springfield, his time with Crosby, Stills, Nash&Young, or, incredibly, any of the more than three-dozen solo albums he's made in the past 40 years, some of which are among the rock era's most enduring, brilliantly constructed works.
Young just chuckles when reminded of the music industry's dereliction, saying that since he's now up for two awards, both due to last year's "Prairie Wind" album, he'll make a rare visit to the ceremonial red carpet at Staples Center tonight . Don't expect any lingering camera shots.
"It's a chance to run into friends and see my wife dressed up beautifully," Young said. "I don't often go to these things, but it seems like a lot of stuff has converged, and I wanted to go this time. I've never really been that interested in chasing awards."
Young's 12-month not-quite-harmonic convergence included a potentially fatal brain aneurysm from which he's fully recovered, the death of his father, appearances for Hurricane Katrina relief, the making of the acclaimed "Prairie Wind" disc and the shooting of the Sundance Film Festival entry "Neil Young: Heart of Gold," directed by Jonathan Demme.
The nearly two-hour documentary, opening Friday at the ArcLight in Hollywood, was shot over two nights last August at Nashville's hallowed Ryman Auditorium, original home of the Grand Ole Opry.
During those nights, Young, accompanied by top-flight rock and r&b musicians, plus strings, horns, backup singers including Emmylou Harris and Neil's wife Pegi, and a gospel choir, performed the then-unreleased "Prairie Wind" disc in its entirety, along with a selection of equally reflective songs, largely from the "Harvest" and "Harvest Moon" albums.
"It was a very personal performance, like my club performances before I became well-known, before people developed preconceptions of who I am," Young, 60, said from his home near San Francisco. "The idea was based on the old folk tradition where you'd talk a little about a new song before you'd play it. Very much in the Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan tradition - although Bob never talked that much - in the fact we were doing all new songs for an audience that had never heard them before. This was a crowd who knew what to expect - it wasn't a crowd yelling for 'Heart of Gold.' "
Young, who is up for Grammys for solo rock vocal (for "The Painter") and best rock album, worked with the Oscar-winning Demme ("The Silence of the Lambs") before. In 1993, Young provided the Oscar-nominated song "Philadelphia" for Demme's film of the same title. Demme, of course, is also well-known for making one of the greatest music documentaries of all - "Stop Making Sense," the 1984 award-winning Talking Heads concert film.
"I learned a big lesson shooting 'Stop Making Sense' - we wasted a lot of film on the audience because, historically, concert films have lots of audience shots," Demme said. "But we found afterward that we couldn't find a place for the footage because there was always something more interesting happening on stage.
"We found that the less the moviegoer is aware of the concertgoer, the more personal the experience for the viewer. You want the audience to get sucked right up inside the screen, able to glance over at the other musicians and come back to Neil."
Awareness of the medical problems Young faced just months before the concert adds an extra layer of pathos to on-screen performances of songs dealing with mortality and loss. Young was recording "Prairie Wind" right up to the day before he underwent brain surgery in New York last spring.
"A particularly high degree of emotion goes through the film," Demme said. "Neil is an artist who responds creatively to what's happening around him. The music deals with emotional, personal life issues that are deeply meaningful to people."
In "Heart of Gold," Young returns to the heartfelt, country-inspired acoustic sound that marked his '70s gems. It's a welcome respite from the ear-splitting 1990s "godfather of grunge" era when, sporting flannel shirts and sideburns the size of pork chops, he stomped on stadium stages with Crazy Horse and Pearl Jam, delivering long, loud two-note guitar solos.
On film, Young introduces pretty, mournful ballads dealing with the death of a parent, the empty-nest syndrome and the passing of time.
"I look around at my friends, and this is a time in our lives when we have to confront a lot of very difficult things," the easygoing Young said. "When I was writing the song 'Prairie Wind,' like I said in the movie, my dad suffered from dementia, which was hard, and then he passed away."
Lyrics to the Grammy-nominated track "The Painter" explain further: "I have my friends eternally/We leave our tracks in the sound/Some of them are with me now/Some of them can't be found."
Raised in Canada, Young first came to notice as a guitarist and sometime singer in Los Angeles' quintessential country-rock group Buffalo Springfield. After the band split, Young went solo, and has spent more than 30 years in sporadic partnership with David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, as well as with his longtime band Crazy Horse. He's also been active in film, producing and/or performing in such concert films as "Rust Never Sleeps" and "Year of the Horse." In 2003, he wrote and directed "Greendale," a film based on his album of the same name that explored lives in a small California town.
Yet even with a storied history, an almost unparalleled work ethic and superb albums, including his self-titled debut, "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere," "After the Gold Rush," "Harvest," "On the Beach," "Tonight's the Night" and "Zuma" (not to mention his contributions to CSN&Y's "Deja Vu") - plus Grammy nominations over the past 15 years for "Harvest Moon," "Mirror Ball," "Sleeps With Angels" and "Broken Arrow" - there are no guarantees Young will score a golden gramophone tonight . In his two categories, Young competes with such revered industry favorites as Bruce Springsteen, U2, Coldplay and Eric Clapton.
Asked if he is at all pumped up for a chance to bask in Grammy's golden glow, Young shrugs in a way that's almost audible over the phone.
"I gave up on all that a long time ago," he says. "I'm just looking forward to seeing some old friends."
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| February 9th, 2006 01:26 AM |
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| pdog |
Mr. Young should put them down. |
| February 9th, 2006 03:32 AM |
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| Child of the Moon |
Mr. Young is my fucking hero. |
| February 9th, 2006 04:09 AM |
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| Prodigal Son |
quote:
Child of the Moon wrote:
Mr. Young is my fucking hero.
Agreed. His new album ain't one of my faves (heck, it's almost as lame as Landing on Water-one of his few bad albums IMO) but he deserved grammy nominations long ago. Honestly, guys who go against the grain are always likely to be overlooked in their lifetime by the mainstream public. Take Dylan for example or even more extreme, Van Morrison. Even some of these supposed "greats" that the Grammys love to adorn (see U2) would kill for a catalogue of consistently great albums where the crap is few and far between. Come on, like October, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and Pop were any good? Who's gonna remember "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own" in 10 years, let alone 5? Only big U2 fans, that's who.
Remember, when the Stones were tearing it up in the 60s and 70s, these guys were giving awards to crap like "Annie's Song," "Up, Up and Away," "Close to You," "Boogie Oogie Oogie," "Tie a Ribbin Round the Old Oak Tree," and so on. Gosh, tonight's show was so bad I couldn't watch. Only the tribute to New Orleans featuring Irma Thomas, Elvis Costello, Bruce, Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave) and Dr. John was interesting. That "Yesterday" was dreadful. That was the Macca/Beatlefan equivalent, if not worse, to the Stones having Timberlake up there to duet on "Miss You." And even Neil knows the awards are crap. Like the Simpsons line goes "Wow! An award statuette I... ooh, it's a Grammy (tosses off building) "Hey don't throw your trash down here!" (tossed back up) |
| February 9th, 2006 06:18 AM |
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| corgi37 |
Tsk tsk tsk, typical Yanks!
Look, the fact old shakey aint won a Grammy should be a badge of honour! It really should. McCartney has been nominated 64 (yeah, i know) times! Pedo Jacko - whats his score? Who cares?
Hey, how many of these prestigious (vomit) awards have the Stones won?
Dont worry about it. Homer snears at the Grammys, so thats good enough for me.
Lionel Ritchie has won more than the Stones, for fucks sake! |
| February 9th, 2006 09:19 AM |
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| Break The Spell |
Just the fact that the Stones never got a grammy for "Sticky Fingers" or "Exile On Main Street" is criminal. I wonder what won in 1971 and 1972?? Were the Stones even nominated at all in the 60's or 70's?? |
| February 9th, 2006 09:21 AM |
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| MrPleasant |
I wish I could be drunk. Only then I could be like my hero:
[Edited by the Sheraton Co.] |
| February 9th, 2006 09:36 AM |
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| Lazy Bones |
Neil's "Heart Of Gold" debuted in Toronto last night - pushed back from the 10th.
Unfortunately, I couldn't go but missed a Rustfest of about 25 people. Damn! |
| February 9th, 2006 09:40 AM |
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| glencar |
quote:
Prodigal Son wrote:
Agreed. His new album ain't one of my faves (heck, it's almost as lame as Landing on Water-one of his few bad albums IMO) but he deserved grammy nominations long ago. Honestly, guys who go against the grain are always likely to be overlooked in their lifetime by the mainstream public. Take Dylan for example or even more extreme, Van Morrison. Even some of these supposed "greats" that the Grammys love to adorn (see U2) would kill for a catalogue of consistently great albums where the crap is few and far between. Come on, like October, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and Pop were any good? Who's gonna remember "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own" in 10 years, let alone 5? Only big U2 fans, that's who.
Remember, when the Stones were tearing it up in the 60s and 70s, these guys were giving awards to crap like "Annie's Song," "Up, Up and Away," "Close to You," "Boogie Oogie Oogie," "Tie a Ribbin Round the Old Oak Tree," and so on. Gosh, tonight's show was so bad I couldn't watch. Only the tribute to New Orleans featuring Irma Thomas, Elvis Costello, Bruce, Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave) and Dr. John was interesting. That "Yesterday" was dreadful. That was the Macca/Beatlefan equivalent, if not worse, to the Stones having Timberlake up there to duet on "Miss You." And even Neil knows the awards are crap. Like the Simpsons line goes "Wow! An award statuette I... ooh, it's a Grammy (tosses off building) "Hey don't throw your trash down here!" (tossed back up)
Exactamundo! None of this Grammy stuff means much when you consider that the Stones weren't even nominated for any of the Big 4 never mind GHS & SG. Grammy is an old lady who doesn't know it. Even this Neil Young nomination for Best Rock Album is misplaced. Isn't Prairie Wind mostly ballads?
[Edited by glencar] |
| February 9th, 2006 09:43 AM |
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| Break The Spell |
I think the first time the grammies even nomiante the Stones was for "Voodoo Lounge", it took ONLY 30 years for them to catch on!! What was going on in 1969 / 70 that kept them from winning one for "Let It Bleed"??
[Edited by Break The Spell] |
| February 9th, 2006 09:55 AM |
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| glencar |
Aquarius by 5th Dimension was a big winner then... |
| February 9th, 2006 04:48 PM |
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| Prodigal Son |
Don't forget the Carpenters' Ticket to Ride album! Or Joe South's "Games People Play." Who are you to doubt the greatness of "Sunshine on My Shoulders"? |
| February 9th, 2006 09:42 PM |
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| lotsajizz |
grammy's suck
always have
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| February 10th, 2006 01:23 AM |
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| stonedinaustralia |
quote:
Break The Spell wrote:
Just the fact that the Stones never got a grammy for "Sticky Fingers" or "Exile On Main Street" is criminal. I wonder what won in 1971 and 1972?? Were the Stones even nominated at all in the 60's or 70's??
not sure of the exact year but the powers that be who are in charge of the grammies only deigned to acknowledge that "rock and roll" existed about the mid to late '70's - god knows who one these "rock" category awards at that time but i'm thinking cutting edge stuff like Lionel Richie or the Eagles
tho "Rock" acts have been winning awards sinece at least '66 when the (dreaded) Beatles won one for Sgt.Peppers as best album
[Edited by stonedinaustralia] |
| February 10th, 2006 01:30 AM |
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| stonedinaustralia |
see here for a potted history
http://www.rockonthenet.com/grammy/
N.B. Jethro Tull (WTF??) won Best Heavy Rock Performance (more WTF??) in - get this - 1989!! (WTF to the power of a hundred)
- this clearly indicates these people have absolutely NO IDEA |
| February 10th, 2006 06:11 PM |
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| Soldatti |
Neil's last album is brilliant. |
| February 10th, 2006 07:55 PM |
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| mrhipfl |
The Grammy's are run by the man. Rock n' Roll sticks it to the man, therefore real Rock n' Roll artists rarely or never win a grammy. That's the way it is and that's the way it should be. Fuck the mainstream! |
| February 10th, 2006 08:13 PM |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
>Fuck the mainstream!<
Amen brother!
All hail the Fleshtones!
Go Reigning Sound Go!
Watchit now, it's the Chesterfield Kings!
Bow before Iggy, kneel down for the Dolls.
Mainstream music is for schmucks.
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| February 10th, 2006 11:04 PM |
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| mrhipfl |
quote:
Sir Stonesalot wrote:
>Fuck the mainstream!<
Amen brother!
All hail the Fleshtones!
Go Reigning Sound Go!
Watchit now, it's the Chesterfield Kings!
Bow before Iggy, kneel down for the Dolls.
Mainstream music is for schmucks.
Sarcasm I'm guessing? What I meant by that statement is that the Grammys don't care about good music, they just nominate and award artists that are "hot" and are selling the most albums, even if it is crap. Mainstream music is just a trend, like fashion. I remember Britney Spears being nominated a few years back, yet she has no talent. RnR artists do their own thing though, and don't worry about how many albums they're selling as long as they're being true to themselves. And that's waht matters the most. I guess the above post made me look like an ignorant prick, sorry.
[Edited by mrhipfl] |
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