On reading an interview with Neil Young
He looks decidedly old as he sits in his hotel armchair and says it is necessary to hang on in there, swim against the tide, and what tides he has known: a pernicious aneurysm and a dialogue with heroin addiction.
This is Neil Young, Canadian, of the same mettle as Joni Mitchell. He talks of his life work to a camera eye, says the past is a forgotten country to which he’ll not return. He points however to his initial play sets in folk clubs when he chose to write his own songs. Listening to Dylan, whom he thought could not sing- a voice like sandpaper and glue as Bowie describes it in one of his songs- Young rationalised intent. ‘If Dylan can do it, so can I’. It is not pretty voices that make a man…it is ambition, which he hoped would not topple for him.
It didn’t. He’s still around and moving into retrospective. His audiobiography- what a word!- is to be released soon, a DVD set charting his musical flow. Take a deep breath, he’s still here, but older. ‘Archives’ is the name of the retrospective.
Blessings pour out from memory.
After the Goldrush has a strange apocalyptic feel to it, something that my youth cherished, a slow fading of the early Seventies. Its imagery spoke to a schoolboy who also doubted if he had any talent. But ‘If Dylan can do it why not try? ’
I shall certainly view his retrospective. To be young was very heaven but we are older now. Neil Young sits in his hotel room , jowls, a jaw modified by age. ‘ Well I saw the knights in armour coming’. Well they did but it no longer a rush for the Gold but rather a relishing of it.
Thank you Neil. You made a school lad happy then! Keep singing, keep writing.
