Fifty years to the day after Neil Young and the Santa Monica Flyers performed at the opening of the Roxy in Los Angeles — a night that looms large in rock & roll lore thanks to decades of bootlegs — the curtain rose at the L.A. club to reveal Young and his bandmates back on the same stage. He was perched behind the piano on the far right side, tickling out the opening notes of “Tonight’s the Night” to a packed audience of VIPs and fans who’d paid $1,000 a ticket, with...
- 9/21/2023
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Neil Young has always had some complicated feelings about his 1973 live album Time Fades Away, but it appears he’s become fonder of it in recent years. He’s celebrating its 50th anniversary with a special reissue dubbed Time Fades Away 50, to be released on November 3rd via Reprise Records exclusively in a limited edition clear vinyl. Check out the album art and tracklist below.
In addition to the eight original songs from the album, the new Time Fades Away 50 will also include the bonus track “The Last Trip to Tulsa,” which was originally released in November 1973 as the B-side to the album’s only single, its title track. Since then, “The Last Trip to Tulsa” also appeared on 2020’s Neil Young Archives Vol. 2: 1972–1976.
Time Fades Away was recorded on Young’s massive tour in support of his hit album, Harvest, which dropped in February 1972. Joined by the same...
In addition to the eight original songs from the album, the new Time Fades Away 50 will also include the bonus track “The Last Trip to Tulsa,” which was originally released in November 1973 as the B-side to the album’s only single, its title track. Since then, “The Last Trip to Tulsa” also appeared on 2020’s Neil Young Archives Vol. 2: 1972–1976.
Time Fades Away was recorded on Young’s massive tour in support of his hit album, Harvest, which dropped in February 1972. Joined by the same...
- 9/15/2023
- by Jo Vito
- Consequence - Music
Neil Young is returning to the road at the end of this month following a four-year hiatus from touring. But he’s not bringing along Crazy Horse, Promise of the Real, or most of his famous songs. He’s instead plotting out a solo acoustic show built around rarely played songs from the depths of his vast catalog.
“I don’t want to come back and do the same songs again,” he said in a live Zoom event to patron members of the Neil Young Archives. “I’d feel like...
“I don’t want to come back and do the same songs again,” he said in a live Zoom event to patron members of the Neil Young Archives. “I’d feel like...
- 6/20/2023
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Neil Young always knew Tonight’s the Night was intense. “If you’re gonna put a record on at 11:00 in the morning, don’t put on Tonight’s the Night,” he warned Cameron Crowe in 1975. “Put on the Doobie Brothers.”
Young’s point was evident without even hearing the music. Just look at the stark, spooky cover, which features him standing onstage in complete darkness, wearing a pinstripe jacket and raising his finger to the microphone, his mouth forming a ghoulish smile. His shoulder-length hair looks like it’s gone many days without a wash,...
Young’s point was evident without even hearing the music. Just look at the stark, spooky cover, which features him standing onstage in complete darkness, wearing a pinstripe jacket and raising his finger to the microphone, his mouth forming a ghoulish smile. His shoulder-length hair looks like it’s gone many days without a wash,...
- 4/14/2023
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Neil Young has spent much of the pandemic focusing on an ambitious slate of archival releases, but he’s recently started work on a follow-up to his 2019 LP Colorado. “I have five songs ready for the next album,” he recently wrote to fans on the Neil Young Archives, “so I think over time the rest will come and we may start recording again soon.”
Not much is known about the songs, but he did write in response to a fan letter that “recording with [Crazy] Horse will begin soon.” They backed Young on Colorado,...
Not much is known about the songs, but he did write in response to a fan letter that “recording with [Crazy] Horse will begin soon.” They backed Young on Colorado,...
- 6/4/2021
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
When guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro hit the road for the first time as a member of Neil Young and Crazy Horse in November 1975, one of his first gigs took place at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, California. The nightclub is a short drive from Young’s Broken Arrow ranch and it holds just about 800 people, making it a perfect spot for the group to try out new material in front of a friendly, hometown crowd, and they returned again in 1976, 1984, 1990, 1996, and 1997.
Details of the Seventies Catalyst gigs have been largely lost to time,...
Details of the Seventies Catalyst gigs have been largely lost to time,...
- 3/2/2021
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Following the death of Elliot Mazer on Sunday, Neil Young took to his website to honor the engineer-producer behind multiple Young albums.
Young wrote that he first met Mazer in Nashville in January 1971, when he was appearing on The Johnny Cash Show and working on his upcoming album, Harvest. “At that time, seeing how many new unrecorded songs I had, Elliot immediately got a studio and a group of musicians together so that I could record,” he recalled. “James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt were in town doing the Johnny Cash...
Young wrote that he first met Mazer in Nashville in January 1971, when he was appearing on The Johnny Cash Show and working on his upcoming album, Harvest. “At that time, seeing how many new unrecorded songs I had, Elliot immediately got a studio and a group of musicians together so that I could record,” he recalled. “James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt were in town doing the Johnny Cash...
- 2/10/2021
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Elliot Mazer, the longtime producer and engineer who helped craft albums for Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, and the Band, among others, died at his San Francisco home on Sunday. He was 79. Mazer’s daughter Alison confirmed the producer’s death, adding that the cause was a heart attack after years of battling with dementia.
“Elliot loved music,” his sister, Bonnie Murray, tells Rolling Stone. “He loved what he did; he was a perfectionist. Everybody has so much respect for him, and he’s been suffering for a couple years.”
Mazer...
“Elliot loved music,” his sister, Bonnie Murray, tells Rolling Stone. “He loved what he did; he was a perfectionist. Everybody has so much respect for him, and he’s been suffering for a couple years.”
Mazer...
- 2/9/2021
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Neil Young has announced plans to resurrect his lost 1982 LP Island in the Sun and finally share it with fans, although he has renamed it Johnny’s Island. “[It] includes a majority of unrelated tracks including ‘Big Pearl,’ ‘Island in the Sun,’ and ‘Love Hotel,’ plus others you may have heard before,” Young wrote on his official website. “It’s a beautiful record coming to you soon.”
Young recorded the album in May 1982 at Commercial Recorders in Honolulu, Hawaii, with a cross-selection of musicians from all eras of his career, including Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina,...
Young recorded the album in May 1982 at Commercial Recorders in Honolulu, Hawaii, with a cross-selection of musicians from all eras of his career, including Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina,...
- 2/1/2021
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
There are 12 songs on Neil Young’s new box set Archives Volume II: 1972–1976 that have never been released before in any form. One of the most beautiful is “Goodbye Christians on the Shore,” which even die-hard Young fans didn’t know existed until very recently. It’s on disc one (Everybody’s Alone 1972-1973) and Young also just posted it on YouTube along with a video.
He recorded the song on December 15th, 1972 with the Stray Gators (drummer Kenny Buttery, bassist Tim Drummond, pianist Jack Nitzsche, guitarist Ben Keith) just...
He recorded the song on December 15th, 1972 with the Stray Gators (drummer Kenny Buttery, bassist Tim Drummond, pianist Jack Nitzsche, guitarist Ben Keith) just...
- 12/18/2020
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
On August 26th, 1973, Joni Mitchell arrived at Studio Instrument Rentals in Los Angeles, where Neil Young and his band the Santa Monica Flyers were recording the boozy Tonight’s the Night. Joined by guitarists Ben Keith and Nils Lofgren, drummer Ralph Molina, and bassist Billy Talbot, Mitchell and Young tore through “Raised on Robbery,” soon to be released on her album Court and Spark.
If the Tonight’s the Night sessions were indeed a “drunken Irish wake,” as Talbot later recalled, this take on “Raised on Robbery” was the eulogy.
If the Tonight’s the Night sessions were indeed a “drunken Irish wake,” as Talbot later recalled, this take on “Raised on Robbery” was the eulogy.
- 11/18/2020
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Jewel has revealed “Race Car Driver,” an outtake off the 25th-anniversary edition of Pieces of You, out November 20th.
Backed by Neil Young’s band the Stray Gators — drummer Kenny Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond, keyboardist Spooner Oldham, and producer Ben Keith — Jewel tears through the track. “Come on baby, let’s get in the car/I’m gonna take you real, real far,” she sings. “I’m gonna paint your mamma’s face on the door/You ain’t gonna see her anymore.”
“I knew it was going to be a slow process,...
Backed by Neil Young’s band the Stray Gators — drummer Kenny Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond, keyboardist Spooner Oldham, and producer Ben Keith — Jewel tears through the track. “Come on baby, let’s get in the car/I’m gonna take you real, real far,” she sings. “I’m gonna paint your mamma’s face on the door/You ain’t gonna see her anymore.”
“I knew it was going to be a slow process,...
- 10/30/2020
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Neil Young isn’t releasing his 10-disc collection Archives Volume 2: 1972-1976 until November 22nd, but paid subscribers of The Neil Young Archives website now have access to the previously unreleased song “Come Along and Say You Will.”
The tune was recorded at Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch on December 15th, 1972 with drummer Kenny Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond, and pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith. They were weeks away from launching an extensive North American tour where Young would debut several new songs that ultimately wound up on the 1973 live album Time Fades Away.
The tune was recorded at Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch on December 15th, 1972 with drummer Kenny Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond, and pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith. They were weeks away from launching an extensive North American tour where Young would debut several new songs that ultimately wound up on the 1973 live album Time Fades Away.
- 10/14/2020
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Neil Young has many complete albums tucked away in his vault, but none have captivated his hardcore fans through the years quite like Homegrown. The album was cut in late 1974 and early 1975 just as his relationship with girlfriend Carrie Snodgress was coming to a painful end. He poured all of his agony into the music, but ultimately didn’t feel comfortable sharing it with the world.
“It was a little too personal,” Young told Rolling Stone‘s Cameron Crowe in 1975. “It scared me. … I’ve never released any of those.
“It was a little too personal,” Young told Rolling Stone‘s Cameron Crowe in 1975. “It scared me. … I’ve never released any of those.
- 6/17/2020
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
One Los Angeles evening in 1975, Neil Young gathered a few friends together at the Chateau Marmont to play them some music. He had two new albums in the can, and wasn’t sure which one to release. Sitting inside the same bungalow that John Belushi would die in just seven years later, Young’s friends — which included some of his Crazy Horse bandmates and Rick Danko and Richard Manuel of the Band — listened to two wildly different records.
First up was Tonight’s the Night, a grueling, Tequila-engorged meditation on fallen...
First up was Tonight’s the Night, a grueling, Tequila-engorged meditation on fallen...
- 6/15/2020
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Neil Young has released “Vacancy,” the latest offering from Homegrown, the previously shelved 1975 album he’s finally releasing on June 19th.
One of the seven unreleased tracks on the album, “Vacancy” opens with a churning guitar riff, as Young sings “Who are you?/Where are you going to?” He then addresses an old lover: “I look in your eyes and I don’t know what’s there/You poison me with that long, vacant stare.”
Recorded at Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch Studio in January 1975, the track features Stan Szelest on Wurlitzer organ,...
One of the seven unreleased tracks on the album, “Vacancy” opens with a churning guitar riff, as Young sings “Who are you?/Where are you going to?” He then addresses an old lover: “I look in your eyes and I don’t know what’s there/You poison me with that long, vacant stare.”
Recorded at Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch Studio in January 1975, the track features Stan Szelest on Wurlitzer organ,...
- 6/12/2020
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Neil Young has released the charming “Try” from Homegrown, the long-lost 1975 album that he’s finally decided to release next month. The Covid-19 pandemic delayed the record’s arrival, but we’ve already waited nearly 50 years for it to come out. What’s another few months?
The soothing barroom ditty opens with Levon Helm’s subtle drumming, as Young beckons, “Darlin’, the door is open/To my heart, and I’ve been hopin’/That you would be the one to struggle with the key.” He blankets his request with a...
The soothing barroom ditty opens with Levon Helm’s subtle drumming, as Young beckons, “Darlin’, the door is open/To my heart, and I’ve been hopin’/That you would be the one to struggle with the key.” He blankets his request with a...
- 5/13/2020
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Neil Young’s legendary unreleased album Homegrown will finally come out in 2020. He recorded it in 1975 and was on the verge of releasing it, going as far as commissioning cover art, when he decided at the last minute to shelf it in favor of Tonight’s The Night.
“A record full of love lost and explorations,” Young wrote on the Neil Young Archives. “A record that has been hidden for decades. Too personal and revealing to expose in the freshness of those times…The unheard bridge between Harvest and Comes a Time,...
“A record full of love lost and explorations,” Young wrote on the Neil Young Archives. “A record that has been hidden for decades. Too personal and revealing to expose in the freshness of those times…The unheard bridge between Harvest and Comes a Time,...
- 11/22/2019
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Every era has its Norman Fucking Rockwell, and in the middle of the Seventies, that record was Gene Clark’s No Other. With its country-rockified version of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, the lush, self-consciously poetic album from the former singer and songwriter in the Byrds occupied its own patch of land in 1974. It was a cohesive body of work with a sustained, melancholic mood. Like Del Rey’s equally L.A.-centric record of four-plus decades later, No Other was an LP you could put on and lose...
- 11/8/2019
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
Neil Young has long shied away from performing Harvest in concert, and, in a new interview with the Aarp, he says that is unlikely to change any time soon.
“I was just offered millions of dollars for a tour to do Harvest,” he told writer Edna Gundersen. “Everyone who played on Harvest is dead. I don’t want to do that. How about planting instead of harvesting?”
Sadly, Neil Young isn’t exaggerating when he says that everyone from his Harvest-era band the Stray Gators is dead. Pianist Jack Nitzsche...
“I was just offered millions of dollars for a tour to do Harvest,” he told writer Edna Gundersen. “Everyone who played on Harvest is dead. I don’t want to do that. How about planting instead of harvesting?”
Sadly, Neil Young isn’t exaggerating when he says that everyone from his Harvest-era band the Stray Gators is dead. Pianist Jack Nitzsche...
- 11/4/2019
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
On May 16th, 1974, Ry Cooder and Leon Redbone wrapped up a gig at New York City’s Bottom Line, but the crowd was told to stick around for a surprise. It was 2:15 a.m., and a man with a guitar appeared onstage. “This one is called, um … this one’s called, um … ‘Citizen Kane Junior Blues!'” said Neil Young, strumming the intro to “Pushed It Over the End.”
It was the public’s first glimpse of his deeply new personal album On the Beach, released 45 years ago, on July 19th,...
It was the public’s first glimpse of his deeply new personal album On the Beach, released 45 years ago, on July 19th,...
- 7/19/2019
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Neil Young had already decided to release Tuscaloosa — a primo live set documenting a hot February, 1973 gig with his then-current band the Stray Gators — when Alabama’s current governor signed a new anti-abortion law on May 15, and when Gop sleazebag Roy Moore threatened to re-up his Senate bid soon thereafter. The LP’s timing, it turns out, was serendipitous.
Unlike the boozy, unhinged performance on last year’s vault release Roxy: Tonight’s The Night Live, recorded seven months later with a different group, this is laser-focused Young, roughing up songs from his 1972 set Harvest,...
Unlike the boozy, unhinged performance on last year’s vault release Roxy: Tonight’s The Night Live, recorded seven months later with a different group, this is laser-focused Young, roughing up songs from his 1972 set Harvest,...
- 6/10/2019
- by Will Hermes
- Rollingstone.com
Nils Lofgren was lounging by the pool of his Phoenix, Arizona, home with his wife Amy in April 2018 when the phone rang. “It was a Saturday,” recalls the guitarist. “I got a pad and paper out as I thought to myself, ‘Who is calling on a weekend? What will I need to take care of now? What business do I need to address?’ That was the cynic in me.”
It turned out to be Neil Young. “He said, ‘Look, we have these five Crazy Horse theaters shows booked in California...
It turned out to be Neil Young. “He said, ‘Look, we have these five Crazy Horse theaters shows booked in California...
- 3/27/2019
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Pegi Young, the singer-songwriter who was married to Neil Young for 36 years, died Tuesday after a yearlong battle with cancer. She was 66. “[She] passed away surrounded by her friends and family in her native California,” reads a short statement on her official Instagram account. “We request that the families’ privacy be respected at this time.”
Young was working as a waitress at a diner near Neil Young’s ranch when they met in the mid-Seventies. “Never saw a woman look finer,” Neil Young wrote in his 1992 classic song “Unknown Legend,” one...
Young was working as a waitress at a diner near Neil Young’s ranch when they met in the mid-Seventies. “Never saw a woman look finer,” Neil Young wrote in his 1992 classic song “Unknown Legend,” one...
- 1/3/2019
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Bob Dylan and Neil Young just announced that they’re going to headline an enormous concert in London’s Hyde Park on July 12th of next year. They haven’t appeared on the same bill since Desert Trip in 2016, though they played on different days of that festival. They haven’t actually performed a song together since October 20th, 1994, when Dylan played the Roseland Ballroom and Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen came out at the end for “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” and “Highway 61 Revisited.”
Bob Dylan was one of Neil Young...
Bob Dylan was one of Neil Young...
- 11/27/2018
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
By the fall of 1970, after the enormous success of After the Gold Rush and Csny’s Déjà Vu, Neil Young finally had enough money to buy his dream home: a 140-acre ranch in La Honda, California that he paid for with $340,000 cash. “I just poured all my money into it so that I knew it could never be taken away from me,” he later told his father.
He spent the next year making his fourth solo album, Harvest. While most of the album was recorded in Nashville and London, he...
He spent the next year making his fourth solo album, Harvest. While most of the album was recorded in Nashville and London, he...
- 10/3/2018
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Although details are still under wraps, singer/songwriter Neil Young will be the subject of a concert film to be taped in August at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, Billboard.com has learned. The as-yet-untitled project will be directed by Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia). As previously reported, Young has been recording a new album in Nashville with such collaborators as keyboardist Spooner Oldham, pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith and drummer Carl Himmel. A release date for the set is unconfirmed. The album is the follow-up to Young's 2003 effort Greendale, which was augmented by a feature-length film bringing to life the characters in the songs. As for Demme, he previously dabbled in the concert movie medium with the 1984 Talking Heads project Stop Making Sense, which spawned a hit accompanying album.
Screened
Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto -- Lars von Trier isn't the only one evoking Thornton Wilder at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Like "Dogville", Neil Young's "Greendale" uses the deceptively simple "Our Town" foundation on which to build a platform for some highly personal sociopolitical criticisms, but unlike the contentious von Trier picture, the Young variation gets the job done in roughly half the time with a notable absence of histrionics, plus you can tap your toes to it.
Shot over a period of three weeks in Northern California, "Greendale" serves as the visual companion to Young's new 10-song album of the same name telling of a small-town family's saga -- with the assembled actors lip-synching to the singer-songwriter's vocals.
Count on the ever-innovative Young, who handles directing chores under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey (an allusion, perhaps, to his noticeably hand-held camerawork), to avoid repeating himself.
Although this made-for-DVD concept piece at times buckles under its feature-length demands, it's nevertheless rewarding to find its creator with still plenty to say and with fresh ways to say it.
Meet the Green family, including young Sun Green (Sarah White), her mom Edith (Young's wife, Pegi) and struggling artist dad Earl James Mazzeo), her cousin Jed (Eric Johnson) and her grandpa (Ben Keith) and grandma (Elizabeth Keith).
They all live in the mellow town of Greendale, population 22,000-odd, where not much usually happens. That is, until one unfortunate night when cousin Jed ends up shooting Officer Carmichael (Paul Supplee), who has pulled him over for speeding.
Jed's thrown in jail for his murder, Greendale becomes the object of a media feeding frenzy, Grandpa drops dead while yelling at an invasive TV reporter, and Sun finds meaning in her life as a political activist.
While some of those wall-to-wall tunes, with lyrics like "Save the planet for another day" and "A little love and affection in everything you do will make the world a better place" might on the surface seem like Young's Birkenstocks are planted firmly in the '60s, there's a fire burning just beneath.
Among the many issues addressed, either lyrically or through satirical CNN-style tickertapes, are various abuses of political and corporate power, the out-of-control news media, the environment and the erosion of civil liberties, just to name a few.
But thanks to the packaging, in such accomplished new Young tunes as the aching, acoustic "Bandit" and the anthemic "Be the Rain", with some muscular instrumental assist from Young's old band, Crazy Horse, it's medicine that goes down quite easily.
In his fifth decade working in an ever-shifting industry, Neil Young continues to strike fresh, artistically invigorating chords.
Greendale
Shakey Pictures
Credits:
Director: Bernard Shakey
Producers: Neil Young, L.A. Johnson
Executive producer: Elliot Rabinowitz
Screenwriter/director of photography/music: Neil Young
Editor: Toshi Onuki
Cast:
Sun Green: Sarah White
Jed Green/Devil: Eric Johnson
Grandpa Green: Ben Keith
Earth Brown: Erik Markegard
Grandma Green: Elizabeth Keith
Edith Green: Pegi Young
Earl Green: James Mazzeo
Officer Carmichael: Paul Supplee
Widow: Sydney Stephan
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto -- Lars von Trier isn't the only one evoking Thornton Wilder at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Like "Dogville", Neil Young's "Greendale" uses the deceptively simple "Our Town" foundation on which to build a platform for some highly personal sociopolitical criticisms, but unlike the contentious von Trier picture, the Young variation gets the job done in roughly half the time with a notable absence of histrionics, plus you can tap your toes to it.
Shot over a period of three weeks in Northern California, "Greendale" serves as the visual companion to Young's new 10-song album of the same name telling of a small-town family's saga -- with the assembled actors lip-synching to the singer-songwriter's vocals.
Count on the ever-innovative Young, who handles directing chores under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey (an allusion, perhaps, to his noticeably hand-held camerawork), to avoid repeating himself.
Although this made-for-DVD concept piece at times buckles under its feature-length demands, it's nevertheless rewarding to find its creator with still plenty to say and with fresh ways to say it.
Meet the Green family, including young Sun Green (Sarah White), her mom Edith (Young's wife, Pegi) and struggling artist dad Earl James Mazzeo), her cousin Jed (Eric Johnson) and her grandpa (Ben Keith) and grandma (Elizabeth Keith).
They all live in the mellow town of Greendale, population 22,000-odd, where not much usually happens. That is, until one unfortunate night when cousin Jed ends up shooting Officer Carmichael (Paul Supplee), who has pulled him over for speeding.
Jed's thrown in jail for his murder, Greendale becomes the object of a media feeding frenzy, Grandpa drops dead while yelling at an invasive TV reporter, and Sun finds meaning in her life as a political activist.
While some of those wall-to-wall tunes, with lyrics like "Save the planet for another day" and "A little love and affection in everything you do will make the world a better place" might on the surface seem like Young's Birkenstocks are planted firmly in the '60s, there's a fire burning just beneath.
Among the many issues addressed, either lyrically or through satirical CNN-style tickertapes, are various abuses of political and corporate power, the out-of-control news media, the environment and the erosion of civil liberties, just to name a few.
But thanks to the packaging, in such accomplished new Young tunes as the aching, acoustic "Bandit" and the anthemic "Be the Rain", with some muscular instrumental assist from Young's old band, Crazy Horse, it's medicine that goes down quite easily.
In his fifth decade working in an ever-shifting industry, Neil Young continues to strike fresh, artistically invigorating chords.
Greendale
Shakey Pictures
Credits:
Director: Bernard Shakey
Producers: Neil Young, L.A. Johnson
Executive producer: Elliot Rabinowitz
Screenwriter/director of photography/music: Neil Young
Editor: Toshi Onuki
Cast:
Sun Green: Sarah White
Jed Green/Devil: Eric Johnson
Grandpa Green: Ben Keith
Earth Brown: Erik Markegard
Grandma Green: Elizabeth Keith
Edith Green: Pegi Young
Earl Green: James Mazzeo
Officer Carmichael: Paul Supplee
Widow: Sydney Stephan
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Screened
Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto -- Lars von Trier isn't the only one evoking Thornton Wilder at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Like "Dogville", Neil Young's "Greendale" uses the deceptively simple "Our Town" foundation on which to build a platform for some highly personal sociopolitical criticisms, but unlike the contentious von Trier picture, the Young variation gets the job done in roughly half the time with a notable absence of histrionics, plus you can tap your toes to it.
Shot over a period of three weeks in Northern California, "Greendale" serves as the visual companion to Young's new 10-song album of the same name telling of a small-town family's saga -- with the assembled actors lip-synching to the singer-songwriter's vocals.
Count on the ever-innovative Young, who handles directing chores under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey (an allusion, perhaps, to his noticeably hand-held camerawork), to avoid repeating himself.
Although this made-for-DVD concept piece at times buckles under its feature-length demands, it's nevertheless rewarding to find its creator with still plenty to say and with fresh ways to say it.
Meet the Green family, including young Sun Green (Sarah White), her mom Edith (Young's wife, Pegi) and struggling artist dad Earl James Mazzeo), her cousin Jed (Eric Johnson) and her grandpa (Ben Keith) and grandma (Elizabeth Keith).
They all live in the mellow town of Greendale, population 22,000-odd, where not much usually happens. That is, until one unfortunate night when cousin Jed ends up shooting Officer Carmichael (Paul Supplee), who has pulled him over for speeding.
Jed's thrown in jail for his murder, Greendale becomes the object of a media feeding frenzy, Grandpa drops dead while yelling at an invasive TV reporter, and Sun finds meaning in her life as a political activist.
While some of those wall-to-wall tunes, with lyrics like "Save the planet for another day" and "A little love and affection in everything you do will make the world a better place" might on the surface seem like Young's Birkenstocks are planted firmly in the '60s, there's a fire burning just beneath.
Among the many issues addressed, either lyrically or through satirical CNN-style tickertapes, are various abuses of political and corporate power, the out-of-control news media, the environment and the erosion of civil liberties, just to name a few.
But thanks to the packaging, in such accomplished new Young tunes as the aching, acoustic "Bandit" and the anthemic "Be the Rain", with some muscular instrumental assist from Young's old band, Crazy Horse, it's medicine that goes down quite easily.
In his fifth decade working in an ever-shifting industry, Neil Young continues to strike fresh, artistically invigorating chords.
Greendale
Shakey Pictures
Credits:
Director: Bernard Shakey
Producers: Neil Young, L.A. Johnson
Executive producer: Elliot Rabinowitz
Screenwriter/director of photography/music: Neil Young
Editor: Toshi Onuki
Cast:
Sun Green: Sarah White
Jed Green/Devil: Eric Johnson
Grandpa Green: Ben Keith
Earth Brown: Erik Markegard
Grandma Green: Elizabeth Keith
Edith Green: Pegi Young
Earl Green: James Mazzeo
Officer Carmichael: Paul Supplee
Widow: Sydney Stephan
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto -- Lars von Trier isn't the only one evoking Thornton Wilder at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Like "Dogville", Neil Young's "Greendale" uses the deceptively simple "Our Town" foundation on which to build a platform for some highly personal sociopolitical criticisms, but unlike the contentious von Trier picture, the Young variation gets the job done in roughly half the time with a notable absence of histrionics, plus you can tap your toes to it.
Shot over a period of three weeks in Northern California, "Greendale" serves as the visual companion to Young's new 10-song album of the same name telling of a small-town family's saga -- with the assembled actors lip-synching to the singer-songwriter's vocals.
Count on the ever-innovative Young, who handles directing chores under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey (an allusion, perhaps, to his noticeably hand-held camerawork), to avoid repeating himself.
Although this made-for-DVD concept piece at times buckles under its feature-length demands, it's nevertheless rewarding to find its creator with still plenty to say and with fresh ways to say it.
Meet the Green family, including young Sun Green (Sarah White), her mom Edith (Young's wife, Pegi) and struggling artist dad Earl James Mazzeo), her cousin Jed (Eric Johnson) and her grandpa (Ben Keith) and grandma (Elizabeth Keith).
They all live in the mellow town of Greendale, population 22,000-odd, where not much usually happens. That is, until one unfortunate night when cousin Jed ends up shooting Officer Carmichael (Paul Supplee), who has pulled him over for speeding.
Jed's thrown in jail for his murder, Greendale becomes the object of a media feeding frenzy, Grandpa drops dead while yelling at an invasive TV reporter, and Sun finds meaning in her life as a political activist.
While some of those wall-to-wall tunes, with lyrics like "Save the planet for another day" and "A little love and affection in everything you do will make the world a better place" might on the surface seem like Young's Birkenstocks are planted firmly in the '60s, there's a fire burning just beneath.
Among the many issues addressed, either lyrically or through satirical CNN-style tickertapes, are various abuses of political and corporate power, the out-of-control news media, the environment and the erosion of civil liberties, just to name a few.
But thanks to the packaging, in such accomplished new Young tunes as the aching, acoustic "Bandit" and the anthemic "Be the Rain", with some muscular instrumental assist from Young's old band, Crazy Horse, it's medicine that goes down quite easily.
In his fifth decade working in an ever-shifting industry, Neil Young continues to strike fresh, artistically invigorating chords.
Greendale
Shakey Pictures
Credits:
Director: Bernard Shakey
Producers: Neil Young, L.A. Johnson
Executive producer: Elliot Rabinowitz
Screenwriter/director of photography/music: Neil Young
Editor: Toshi Onuki
Cast:
Sun Green: Sarah White
Jed Green/Devil: Eric Johnson
Grandpa Green: Ben Keith
Earth Brown: Erik Markegard
Grandma Green: Elizabeth Keith
Edith Green: Pegi Young
Earl Green: James Mazzeo
Officer Carmichael: Paul Supplee
Widow: Sydney Stephan
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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