Saturday, August 01, 2009

50 Reasons Why Neil Young Matters

neil_bob_eric
Bob Dylan, Neil Young & Eric Clapton,
Madison Square Garden, New York City - 1992


Not that we really needed any proof, but here are 50 reasons why Neil Young is the second most influential singer-songwriter of the 20th century still performing today.

Hopefully, you'll find it interesting. It's been a lot fun. Enjoy!

  • Bob Dylan and Neil Young
  • John Lennon and Neil Young
  • Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young
  • Pearl Jam and Neil Young
  • Joni Mitchell and Neil Young
  • Paul McCartney and Neil Young
  • Keith Richards and Neil Young
  • Jimmy Page and Neil Young
  • Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young
  • Buddy Miles (Jimi Hendrix drummer) and Neil Young
  • Pete Townshend and Neil Young
  • Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young
  • Elvis Presley and Neil Young
  • Booker T. and the MG's and Neil Young
  • Kurt Cobain and Neil Young
  • Emmylou Harris and Neil Young
  • Johnny Cash and Neil Young
  • Patti Smith and Neil Young
  • Sonic Youth and Neil Young
  • Jackson Browne and Neil Young
  • Jerry Garcia and Neil Young (Search)
  • Grateful Dead and Neil Young
  • Bonnie Raitt and Neil Young
  • Elton John and Neil Young
  • Jerry Lee Lewis and Neil Young
  • Warren Zevon and Neil Young
  • David Bowie and Neil Young
  • Lucinda Williams and Neil Young
  • Johnny Rotten and Neil Young
  • Sid Vicious and Neil Young
  • Nils Lofgren and Neil Young
  • Chrissie Hynde of Pretenders and Neil Young
  • David Byrne (of Talking Heads) and Neil Young
  • Lou Reed and Neil Young
  • Randy Newman and Neil Young
  • Roger Waters and Neil Young
  • Sheryl Crow and Neil Young
  • Uncle Tupelo and Neil Young
  • Wilco and Neil Young
  • Nels Cline (of Wilco) and Neil Young
  • Jay Bennett of Wilco and Neil Young
  • Jay Farrar and Neil Young
  • Les Paul and Neil Young
  • Richard Thompson and Neil Young
  • Bert Jansch and Neil Young
  • Beck and Neil Young
  • Rick James and Neil Young
  • The Black Crowes' Chris Robinson and Neil Young
  • Ron Sexsmith and Neil Young
  • Devo and Neil Young
  • Flea and Neil Young
  • Paul Simon and Neil Young
  • Randy Bachman and Neil Young
  • Matthew Sweet and Neil Young
  • Jonathan Richman and Neil Young
  • The Cowboy Junkies and Neil Young
  • David Grohl and Neil Young
  • Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood and Neil Young
  • Dave Matthews and Neil Young
  • Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Neil Young
  • Phish and Neil Young
  • My Morning Jacket and Neil Young
  • Ryan Adams and Neil Young
  • Nicolette Larson and Neil Young
  • Elvis Costello and Neil Young
  • Jimmy Buffett and Neil Young
  • Bettye LaVette and Neil Young
  • Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon and Neil Young
  • White Stripes and Neil Young
  • Drive-By Truckers and Neil Young
  • John Mayer and Neil Young
  • Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla and Neil Young
  • Ben Folds and Neil Young
  • Grace Potter and Neil Young
  • Joe Satriani and Neil Young
  • Lady GaGa and Neil Young
  • Everest's Russell Pollard and Neil Young
  • Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters & Sun Kil Moon) and Neil Young
  • Fleet Foxes Robin Pecknold and Neil Young
  • Bobby Darin and Neil Young
  • Lee Harvey Osmond and Neil Young
  • The Psychic Ills and Neil Young
  • Adam Sandler and Neil Young
  • Jimmy Fallon and Neil Young
  • Dana Carvey and Neil Young
  • Justin Sullivan (New Model Army) and Neil Young
  • Courtney Love and Neil Young


  • Six degrees of separation from Neil Young.

    And Neil has some pretty cool friends, too.

    Sunday, July 19, 2009

    Wilco's Nels Cline and Neil Young

    An interview with Wilco's Nels Cline where he discusses the influence of Neil Young's music from Detroit Free Press:
    Q: The last time Wilco was in town you were opening up for Neil Young at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Did you get to spend much time with Neil on the road?

    Nels Cline: Not really. But I've been a huge fan of Neil's since his days in the Buffalo Springfield. His early solo work was the soundtrack to my teenage depression. His guitar style was crucial to me growing up.

    On tour he was focused working on new material for his latest album, the one nobody likes ("Fork in the Road"). ... I sat and listened to every sound check and he seemed to be in a constant state of concentration on his new music. He seems like a total workaholic, with a super-powerful fierceness.

    The last night of the tour for us with him was at Madison Square Garden, and he invited everybody onstage, including us and the band Everest. So we were all on stage with Neil doing "Rockin' In the Free World." I was so exhilarated watching Neil goin' at it I started crying.

    More on Wilco and Neil Young and other musicians inspired by Neil Young.

    Wednesday, May 27, 2009

    Jay Bennett and Neil Young

    jay-bennett.jpg
    Jay Bennett: 1963-2009


    From Jay Bennett 1963-2009 - A Final Interview - Glide Magazine by Brian Robbins where Jay Bennett discusses Neil Young's musical influence.

    Jay Bennett, the former Wilco multi-instrumentalist, passed away in his sleep on early Sunday morning (May 24, 2009) due to unknown causes. He was 45. Bennett was best known for his work with Wilco, the group for which he wrote and recorded on 1996's Being There, 1999's Summerteeth and 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, as well as the band's Woody Guthrie themed albums with Billy Bragg, Mermaid Avenue and Mermaid Avenue, Volume 2.

    Bennett was recently in the news for as he sued Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy for breach of contract stemming from his work for Wilco. The suit came less than two weeks after Bennett publicly revealed that he needed hip replacement surgery which he could not afford due to lack of health insurance.

    Brian Robbins spoke with Bennett in late 2008 for a revealing and uniquely written Glide feature that explored Bennett's creative ramblings. Robbins last heard from Bennett around May 6th, just after news of the lawsuit broke. He had been corresponding to Robbins about the hip procedure and appeared as Robbins states - "in good spirits and sweet as ever."

    Read on for one of Jay Bennett's last interviews, published in Glide last September 25, 2008.
    Suddenly I hear a voice over the wires – is that Jay? No, I don’t think so … kind of a mumbling sing-song … but as it gets louder, I realize it is Jay, walking back to the phone. I begin to make out some words:

    "What do you mean

    He had bullet holes in his mirrors

    He tried to do his best

    But he could not

    Please take my advice

    Please take my advice

    Please take my advice

    Open up the tired eyes"


    Wow.

    “Tired Eyes” from Tonight’s The Night, Neil Young’s fractured 1975 tribute to recently dead friends. If the original wasn’t weird enough for you, you ought to hear Jay Bennett at the tail end of a long awake spell doing a weary Neil Young impression over a speakerphone.

    Wow.

    Jay Bennett: Okay, I’m back.

    BR: Uhhh … Neil Young?

    JB: Oh, (laughs) yeah. I kinda OD’d on Tonight’s The Night while we were working last night. My studio manager was playing it over and over and over. I finally said, ‘Look, I’m going to start weeping or fall asleep or pass out … you’ve got to play something up-tempo here – I’m trying to stay awake and stay focused and that ain’t gonna do it.’ But, hey: Neil Young – beautiful slop, you know? Can’t beat it.

    BR: Oh, man – “Heart Of Gold” was the inspiration for my taking up the harmonica when I was a teenager. First time I heard “Heart Of Gold,” I said, ‘I want to do that; I can do that. It can’t be that hard - but it’s perfect.’

    JB: Well, that’s the beauty of a harmonica – no wrong notes.
    ***
    JB: When I sequence, I still sequence in terms of two sides. I still conceptualize it as a record with a side A and a side B.

    BR: Really?

    JB: Oh, man, I’ve been listening to so much vinyl at the studio lately … we must’ve listened to Nebraska and Tonight’s The Night about a hundred times apiece. It’s great: you’ve got, like, 15 minutes of music to a side – Neil’s records were always short – with an opener and a closer on each side. It really makes the process of sequencing a lot easier if you can define your opener and your closer on side A and side B … then you just have to fill in the gaps. It’s really an easier approach for me.

    Full final interview with Jay Bennett on Glide Magazine. Thanks Brian.

    In a review of Wilco's A Ghost Is Born it was noted that:
    Bennett was a significant creative factor in Wilco, and Tweedy may have needed Bennett to stay focused creatively just as McCartney needed Lennon.
    Rest in Peace Jay.
    Jay Bennett: 1963-2009

    Yes, you're trying to break my heart.

    More on other musicians inspired by Neil Young. Also, Tonight's The Night: The deepest and darkest of "Ditch Trilogy" albums.

    Friday, May 01, 2009

    Meat Puppets and Neil Young

    From American Songwriter, The Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood discusses musical infleunces on the band:
    Q: When you guys first started, how did you arrive at your sort of country/psychedelic/cow punk sound, when you began playing songs that would have been labeled ‘hard core’?

    Curt Kirkwood: Well we always just did that country thing. We were into Neil Young… a lot of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. Of course, we tried to satisfy the kinda crowd that we had gotten in with. We liked the punk rock, we always thought it was more psychedelic, just a different style that had never been sung like that. Over the years, we had seen enough trippy jam shows and having played with enough of those bands to find out how much the hippies really don’t like punk rock, which was always a lot by my reckoning. We were never really a huge crowd pleaser at those things. And yet the Grateful Dead asked us to come out on tour with them one time in ‘89 to do some shows. Some people get it. But we always did it that way, recorded it and had a gas with it. But even the first two albums had country stuff on it, just louder.

    More on other musicians inspired by Neil Young.

    Tuesday, December 30, 2008

    David Grohl of Foo Fighters and Neil Young

    From The Associated Press By SOLVEJ SCHOU, on David Grohl and Neil Young:
    Grohl, married with a cemented home life, said he most looks up to Neil Young, a relentless musician with “a beautiful family, who makes albums when he feels like it and is just as bad-ass as he was 30 years ago.”

    From RollingStone.com: Foo Fighters : Foos Reclaim Their Honor : News by AUSTIN SCAGGS(Posted Apr 29, 2005):
    The album's title, In Your Honor, came after Grohl spent time on the campaign trail with John Kerry. "We'd pull in to small towns, and thousand of people would come to be rescued by this man," says Grohl. "It's not a political record, but what I saw inspired me." The title track kicks off the electric disc (which features making-of footage on the flip side). "I wanted to have songs that make people beat the shit out of each other the first time they hear them," Grohl says.

    The Foos plan to tour the U.S. later this year, playing two gigs in each town: an arena-rock extravaganza and an acoustic set at a more intimate venue. "We're so fucking lucky," says Grohl. "When we play the Bridge School Benefit, we don't have to wonder who's on Neil Young's crew -- it's the dudes in the overalls with gray ponytails down to their asses. That's what I want: to make a life out of this band."

    More on Neil Young influences.