Neil Young
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| Neil Young & Crazy Horse |
Neil Young "Powderfinger" Solo |
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| Neil Young Plays "Like A Hurricane" |
Neil Young Interview |
| Guitarist Quick-Facts |
| Name: Neil Young |
| Born: November 12, 1945 |
| Guitar Gear |
| Guitars: Gibson, Martin |
| Amplifiers: Fender |
| Bands: Past & Present |
| Crosby Stills Nash and Young, The Jades, The Mynah Birds, The Squires, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Solo Artist |
Neil Young was born on November 12, 1945, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His father was a sports writer and novelist who had moved to Toronto from Manitoba to advance his career. When his parents divorced when he was 12, Young moved with his mother back to her home town of Winnipeg, Manitoba and began his music career. After enrolling in Earl Grey Junior High School at the age of 14, Young formed his first band, The Jades. The band lasted only one gig, but introduced him to Ken Koblun, who would later join him in a later band.
During his time at Kelvin High School, Neil played in a number of rock bands. His first stable band, along with former Jades bandmate Ken Koblun was The Squires. With The Squires, Young had a local hit with a song titled 'The Sultan.' Young dropped out of high school to pursue his musical career and recorded a few demos with The Squires, enlisting the help of a local producer name Ray Dee. It was during this early phase in his career that Neil met future collaborator Stephen Stills.
After The Squires disbanded, Neil performed as a solo artist at local folk clubs in Winnipeg. After gaining a little bit of popularity, Young toured Canada as a solo artist until 1966, when he joined the Mynah Birds fronted by Rick James. The Mynah Birds were signed by Motown, but their career was cut short when Rick James was arrested during recording of their first album for being AWOL from the army. Young moved to Los Angeles with fellow bandmate Bruce Palmer. Years later he would reveal to Rolling Stone magazine that he was in the country illegally until obtaining his green card in 1970.
Neil Young got his first hit song and commercially successful band when he and Bruce Palmer met up with Stephen Stills in Los Angeles to form Buffalo Springfield. The bands self-titled debut album was a critical success fueled by the popularity of the Stills penned single 'For What It's Worth'. This band, too, would be short lived. Among other problems, Bruce Palmer was arrested and deported. Young only played on three songs of the bands second album. The bands third, and final, album was recorded after the band broke up, merely to fulfill a contractual requirement with the record company.
In 1968, Neil launched a solo career and released his self-titled album to mixed reviews. His second album, 'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere', recruited some players from a band called The Rockets. The new lineup was billed as 'Neil Young with Crazy Horse'. The album opens with 'Cinnamon Girl', which is one of Young's most famous tracks. The album was recorded in a mere two weeks, and Young is said to have written it's three most popular tracks in the same day, while sick in bed with a 103 degree fever.
Neil's next musical venture would come when he reunited with Stephen Still, who was performing with Crosby, Stills and Nash. Neil joined the band and it became Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. His stay in the band didn't last long, shortened by his frequent clashes with Stephen Stills for control. Despite his short tenure with the band, his significant contribution to the band's work helped Young find even greater success in his next try as a solo artist. One of Neil's greatest contributions to the band would come with the written of 'Ohio' following the Kent State massacre on May 4, 1970.
Young took another shot at solo work after leaving Crosby, Stills, and Nash. He found much greater success this time around. The first album of this phase of his career included the hit 'Southern Man' and the next one was a huge success, driven by the mega-hit 'Heart of Gold'. Throughout the 70s, Young continued to write and record, often collaborating with other stars, such as Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and even a short lived reunion with Stephen Stills.
The 80s saw Neil begin to experiment with electronic sounds that were popularized during that time, such as vocoders and synthesizers. 1984, owing to a legal battle with Geffen Records, was the first year since his CSNY days that Young did not release an album. In the next three years, he would record three more albums for Geffen before returning to his previous label, Reprise.
In 1989, the release of the album 'Freedom', and it's hard rocking single 'Rockin' in the Free World', returned Young to prominence. The album's heavy use of feedback and distortion was even cited by several key players in the grunge movement that would spring up around that time as a major influence of their style. The association led many to refer to Young as “The Godfather of Grunge.” In fact, the connection was so strong, that the somber tone of Neil's 1994 album, 'Sleeps with Angels', was influenced by Kurt Cobain's suicide.
2003 saw Neil Young branch out in another artist direction. He recorded the concept album 'Greendale' with Crazy Horse. Under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, Young directed a film of the same name, which followed the plot of the album. Neil had a brush with death in 2005 after being diagnosed with an aneurysm, but it was successfully treated and Neil continued to write and record.
