All War All The Time

LIVING WITH WAR TODAY is a new feature on Neil's official site.

Includes a Time Line Analyzer, which allows website visitors the ability to track events before, during and after the Living With War album throughout the media.

Contest Winner - Memories from 1999 Solo

Earlier this month we announced that Thrasher's Wheat would be giving away a copy of the DVD film "Heart of Gold". Thrasher received a bunch of entries and it was a tough call. But here's our winner from Suz M. in Michigan and her Neil tale. Thanks to all the entrants. A few other entries are posted in the comments below.

Well here is a story of one of my most memorable days of my life! It was back on a beautiful day in May of 99' and I was heading with my dad, brother and friend down to Detroit to The Fox Theatre to see Neil solo acoustic and I had no idea how great of a show and night I was in for.

I had been raised on Neil and it was always "dads music" until I was 13 and my favorite band Pearl Jam was opening for Neil. I went in Pearl Jam crazy and came out with a new perspective and love for Neil that I never knew I had. From the second I heard Neil live opening with "The Loner" for the first time I was taken in by him in a way that I had never been thru live music before.

So back to that sunny day in May 99....entering The Fox Theater was an incredible sight, such a beautiful theatre a perfect setting for Neil solo, no one else but Neil for the night and I wasn't even dreaming. Entering the gates we were upgraded to better seats and that alone was enough to make my day, but I had no idea what was ahead for me that night. The show was amazing the crowd was so respectful to Neil and remained quiet for most of the show and Pegi was just to the left of us which was fun to see.

At the end of the show I go up to my dad and brother only to hear the news that the first 5 rows were part of the "Golden Circle" and were staying to head backstage to meet Neil!!! I was shocked and there was no way I was going to wait in the truck for them to get out so I took my chance and waited around to see what was going on. As we headed up the back stairs I was certain that I wasn't making it past the security, I had no wrist band or "Golden Circle" ticket in hand but as fate would have it they didn't check me and I was in.

It was a surreal moment Neil just walks out and the room remains quiet. Pegi talks to several fans but come on Neil is here I knew this was my only chance so I crossed the room and approached Uncle Neil. I had no idea what to say and looking back on that day, there are a thousand other questions that I would of liked to ask but I just said what came to mind, which was "So Neil are you a Leafs fan?" Neil chuckled and said "not anymore....I take my boy down to the San Jose games, they are great to us there". He jokes across the room to Pegi about how they lost money on The Red Wings (who lost out of the playoffs that week) as I continued to talk and follow Neil thru the crowd. He was soft spoken and kept the conversation going, he listened to me talk about girls hockey and I talked about the first time seeing him play at the Ex in Toronto back in 93' and how I just stood with my mouth dropped for most of that show. I found myself intrigued by the chunks of hair hanging out from underneath his hat, how perfectly unkept he was and his soft voice. I followed him and talked with him until he had made it thru the crowd and finished signing autographs...gave him a pat on the back and said what a great show it was tonight and thanks.

So my tale isn't anything too exciting or crazy but it was for me a day that I'll remember and treasure forever.

"So Neil are you a Leafs fan?" .....priceless.

Suz M.

Also, some more contest entries below in comments. Thanks again to all who entered!

Neil Young, from Nixon to Bush

From The Observer's interview by Sean O'Hagan titled "Neil Young, from Nixon to Bush" on "Living With War":

"Well I just went with my instincts as always. I was trying for a sound that really resonates so that's why the choir's on there. I wanted something so utterly simple and unarranged that people could sing along with it and play along with it, just like those old stirring folk songs. So when we play them live, anyone can get on board. There's no arrangements to learn, no fancy harmonies. It's stripped-down folk really, but I wanted it to sound angry and agitated and raw, too. My voice, and what I think as an individual, is much less important on this project. It's the project itself that's the important thing. It's about making yourself heard.'

Living With War is indeed an angry record but one that manages to sound somehow patriotic, too. Young says he waited a long time to make it because he was hoping that 'maybe a younger artist would stand up and write these kinds of songs'. That never happened, or at least not in the high-profile way he thought it would. 'For a while, you know, I didn't feel it was my place. Being 60 years old, and being who I am, it just didn't feel appropriate,' he continues, getting into his stride. 'Plus, after 9/11, we were told by the government that expressing dissent was not patriotic. I mean, I trusted the government back then. I was one of those guys who thought the Patriot Act was an OK idea when it first came out. I got behind it.' He shakes his head at his own folly. What, I ask, changed his mind? 'Bush did. The government did. We need a leader who's more cautious, not so reckless with things they don't understand. Other cultures need to be respected. Culture itself needs to be respected. I mean, I feel Saddam was bad and had to be overthrown, but are we smart or are we stupid? At this point in our evolution, with all the technology that we have, there has to be a better way of doing this than bombing a country into oblivion."

New Deutsche Neil Young Fanseite

For our German friends, a Deutsche Neil Young Fanseite.

Broken Arrow Magazine - Issue #102

Neil Young at SXSW - photo by Peter Eley

Every quarter, just like clockwork, Broken Arrow Magazine, published by the Neil Young Appreciation Society, just arrived.

Issue #102 (May) of Broken Arrow Magazine with some innarestin' articles, commentary and some nice photos.

Also in Issue #102:

- Living With War reviews
- "Clancy Can't Even Sing" Lyrics manuscript
- "Ohio" song commentary
- Nashville's Ryman

Check out the Neil Young Appreciation Society page for more info on how to join.

Don't be denied!

Thanks Scott and everyone who is supporting the NYAS & BA!

Thrasher - NYAS#2476


More on back issues of Broken Arrow magazine.

Contest: Win "Heart of Gold" DVD

Here's a chance to win a DVD copy of the film "Heart of Gold". The good folks over at Paramount Entertainment have made a copy of the special collectors edition available to Thrasher's Wheat to give away in a contest.

The 2 disc DVD contains 2 bonus tracks -- "He Was the King" which was cut from the original film and "The Needle and The Damage Done" from The Johnny Cash show in 1971. Also, numerous other DVD extras including "Rehearsal Diaries" narrated by Director Jonthan Demme and 6 other "Making Of" featurettes.

The rules for the contest are simple. Send in a Neil story for posting on Thrasher's Wheat. We'll see what comes in and pick a winner of "Heart of Gold"

Maybe a Neil Young concert memory? Or a favorite Neil song story? A Neil photo story?

E-mail your Neil Young posting to thrasher ATSIGN thrasherswheat DOT orgLast time, there were lots of really excellent entries that we weren't able to recognize. So if you submitted something last time, please re-submit your entry again!

Here are posts on previous winners of contests of Greendale Songbook and Made in Manitoba book.

Contest submissions due by June 18.

And here are two reasons why "Heart of Gold" is one of the greatest concert films -- ever -- here and here.

The DVD goes on sale on June 13 and you can pre-order a copy now on Amazon.com

Video: Neil Busking on Street Corner

Simply one of the most remarkable videos to surface recently over on YouTube.

Neil Young in the street of Glasgow back in 1976 singing the "Old Laughing Lady" on his banjo. The impromtu session took place just prior to Neil's appearance at the the Apollo Theater.

Enjoy!

Album Review of "Living with War"

From Music Box's Living with War album review:

"Where T Bone Burnett, on his recently issued set The True False Identity, took a more cerebral approach to socio-political commentary by burying his poetic ruminations within a series of arty textures, Young delivers his thoughts on Living with War in a decidedly more straightforward fashion. Significantly upping the ante, he ditched the lyrical complexities of his theater piece Greendale and replaced them with a ferociously direct indictment of the Republican leadership’s failed policies. "Won’t need no shadow man/Runnin’ the government/Won’t need no stinkin’ war," he sings with contempt on the opening track After the Garden. Later, on the aptly titled Let’s Impeach the President, he lambastes George W. Bush and then intersperses soundbites from America’s Commander-in-Chief with the chanted words "flip" and "flop" in a manner that would make Daily Show host Jon Stewart proud. In fact, by the time that the album has concluded, Young angrily has taken Bush to task not just over the war in Iraq, but also for his fiscal irresponsibility, his post-9/11 blundering, his scandalous handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, his various infringements upon civil liberties, and the environmental devastation that he has wrought to the benefit of massive, global corporations."

More of Music Box's Living with War album review. Also, see more reviews of "Living with War".

Neil and Pegi Young Honored at San Francisco State College

Pegi and Neil Young
48th Annual Grammy Awards - 8 Feb 2006
Getty Images Entertainment photo by Stephen Shugerman

From Harp Magazine news that Neil and Pegi Young were given honorary degrees at San Francisco State College on June 1. The couple were cited for their work at The Bridge School.

"Musician Young choked back tears as he spoke out against war in Iraq: "Every time you see something that reminds you of war and hurts you, that you're involved in it, that you're responsible for a country that's killing a lot of people, just try to remember peace."

Pegi, Ben & Neil on The Ranch
photo by Annie Leibovitz (Vanity Fair, Nov. 2003)
(note Ben wearing John Lennon "New York City" t-shirt)

Radiohead's Thom Yorke on Neil Young

Radiohead's Thom Yorke on Neil Young (via the torture garden):

"I saw Neil Young live a few years ago (for €105) playing a solo acoustic gig and it was amazing, he justed rolled along swallowing up drunk clapping hecklers and ignoring Bono who sat over there and tapping his feet and bobbing his neck and explaining the songs and Greendale and Grandpa and then he played this song [After The Goldrush] but he changed the lyrics to 'Look at Mother Nature on the run/ in the twenty-first century' and still wow."

Other artists' thoughts and opinion's on Neil Young's music.