By the fall of 1970, thanks to the success of After the gold rush solo album and Crosby Stills, Nash and Young's Deja Vu album, Neil Young was finally able to buy his dream home: a 140-acre California ranch. The singer then said in an interview: "I spent all my money on this, but now no one can take away my place of residence."
Fourth album
He spent the next year working on another record. The album is called Harvest.
Most of the songs on this disc were recorded in Nashville and London. To create a track called Words and several other compositions, the musician chose a more original place. Neil Young invited his bandmates to work on the above songs in an old barn that was on his ranch.
A song called "Alabama" is essentially a continuation of his composition Southern man from the album After the gold rush. It severely condemns racism in the American South.
This song received a wide response in the press. Many musicians also expressed their opinion about this work. The most original response to this song was from the Lynyrd Skynyrd band. One of the songs of this group contains the following lines: "I hope Neil Young understands that the southerners do not need him in any way."
Lynyrd Skynyrd band member Ronnie Van Zant commented on this answer: “We wrote the song Alabama as a joke and didn’t even think about the lyrics. The words came to our minds. We just laughed heartily and said:“ Well, isn't that funny We love Neil Young and we like his music. "Saying this, the artist meant that they did not want to offend anyone with their song.
The story of the musician
Photos from the recording of Harvest album have recently appeared on various Internet resources. And in August of this year, Neil Young himself posted several images on his website along with an author's essay in which he describes the creation of the record. The musician also regrets that all his colleagues on this record have already left this world. “I miss my friends, because they all died. But the music that they played while they were here is with us on Earth,” he writes, “I’m happy that I knew them and we worked together to create songs. "
In his youth, Neil Young was one of the most famous Canadian musicians, and he remains so today.
He is a vocalist and songwriter. For more than 50 years, an entire army of his fans in all countries of the world has been admiring his unique tenor, original manner of playing the guitar and soulful lyrics of songs.
Style
Neil Young (photo of the singer can be found in the article) often connected sound effects to the guitar, such as Distortion. Therefore, he received the nickname Father of Grunge.
By the way, he has a direct relationship with this genre, since in 1995 he recorded an album together with members of the legendary band Pearl Jam. This team, as you know, is one of the three most popular grunge groups.
Not only music
In addition to his main occupation, the artist also works in the film industry. Under the pseudonym Bernard Sheiki, he as a producer participated in the creation of 5 films. Young is the author of a soundtrack for tapes called "Philadelphia" in 1993 and "Dead Man", which was filmed a few years later.
Early life
The hero of this article was born on November 12, 1945 in Toronto. His father was a journalist and sports columnist. He also wrote fiction. The mother of the future musician, besides Canadian, also had French and American roots.
Music treatment
In his early childhood, Young became interested in music. Then his idol was Little Richard. He later became an equally dedicated fan of Elvis Presley. This hobby was reflected in his own work. In several songs, he mentions the king of rock and roll.
Playing instruments
The first instrument of Neil Young became ukulele. He himself later admitted: "I played the simple ukulele, as well as the bass ukulele and the ukulele banjo, in a word on everything except the guitar."
After his parents divorced, he moved to New York with his mother, where the family settled in the working area. There he went to school and began to play in several groups, which performed mainly instrumental compositions. He soon dropped out for a future music career.
During the concert of one of his groups, Neil Young met Stefan Silva, whose group also performed on this stage.
Roots of poetry
After leaving his first Squares band, Young began performing in nightclubs. There he met Johnny Mitchell. This singer says that at that time Neil Young was fond of Bob Dylan's work. Impressed by his works, he wrote one of his most famous early songs, The Manatee. The song Johnny Mitchell Circle game is the answer to it.
The Canadian group The Guess Who performed several songs of the young composer.
Different facets
Fans of Neil Young's songs say their depth can only be compared to Bob Dylan’s. The artist manages to maintain such a reputation for many decades. This is due, among other things, thanks to his ongoing creative activity.
From the late sixties to the present day, he regularly released new discs, not allowing himself long breaks. In total, more than 30 Neil Young solo albums were released. The official catalog of his discs is only a small part of all the musician’s works, because he has a lot of unpublished records.
In addition, the singer is constantly expanding the boundaries of his work. Neil Young writes compositions in various genres: from blues to modern electronic music. But his two main elements always remained: on the one hand, soft folk and country rock and loud, crushing guitar rock, which he sometimes recorded with Crazy Horse, on the other. The singer all his life combines these opposites in his work.