Neil Young is 70 today

adorshki said:

Is that you in Riot on Sunset Strip? :friendly_wink:

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No, but by the time I could drive two years later in '67, we'd be headed down there every once in a while to just gawk. Loved to go into Wallach's Music City 'cause they had these private listening rooms where you could spin a 45. Good stuff!

"Cinnamon Girl" - the ultimate one note guitar solo:

http://www.motherjones.com/riff/2008/05/music-great-one-note-guitar-solos

walrus

merlin6666 said:

Nice, and that looks like a Guild too ... wonder what he sounded like in those days before he used the Martin D28 and D45.

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Neil played a Guild from time to time again. See post #11 here. No sound available from that gig in the Riverboat Coffee House, Yorkville, Toronto.
Ralf

Cinnamon Girl is a great tune. He had many I couldn't stand. Like a hurricane to name one. My fave is Campaigner. Just a great tune, cool lyrics.

Westerly Wood said:

Cinnamon Girl is a great tune.

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It's in double-drop D (as is "When You Dance I Can Really Love"), and is fun to play. On a 12-string it sounds majestic.

Ol' Neil should be granted immortality !!

Westerly Wood said:

Cinnamon Girl is a great tune. He had many I couldn't stand. Like a hurricane to name one. My fave is Campaigner. Just a great tune, cool lyrics.

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It's actually the first one of his I really loved too.
I didn't discover Mr. Soul until a little later when I finally caught up with Buffalo Springfield.
A couple of years later Atlantic released the "long version" of Bluebird too, which I think is right up there with it for his playing, even though it's Stills' tune:

To me that version of that tune epitomizes what it must have been like at the Whiskey A Go-Go on the Sunset Strip in '67.
There's even a 20 minute live version floating around out there for us diehards.

Hey since this thread is still running, 20 post points for the first guy to name the connection between Neil and Steppenwolf.
Bonus points for the connection to a freaky funker from '70's.

Westerly Wood said:

Cinnamon Girl is a great tune.

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All these years later, I remember where and when I bought "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere". I hadn't heard any of the tracks and purchased it before I owned the first album. CSN&Y were hot, and I wondered how they sounded individually. I'd describe EKTIN, and in particular Cinnamon Girl, as a near-religious experience. Along with "The Band" just a year or two later. Neil Young and Crazy Horse were a match made in heaven. Neil's made a whole lot of albums since then, some fairly forgettable, but nothing he's done since ever wowed me the way EKTIN did when I was 19 years old. Cinnamon Girl is simple, pure genius !

coastie99 said:

Ol' Neil should be granted immortality !!

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Keith Richards had first dibs!

walrus

What I learned from Neil Young: guitar is a percussion instrument.

crank said:

What I learned from Neil Young: guitar is a percussion instrument.

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Actually that's true.
Only 2 families of instruments are capable of playing rhythm (percussion) and melody and chords: the "tar" (strung resonating bodies) family and keyboards (including xylophones and related types).

Had a go at "Down By The River" on my Gretsch this morning in tribute. Seemed appropriate. :redface-new:

One of my favorite later period Neil moments is his performance with Pearl Jam on the MTV video awards show in 1993.

http://youtu.be/pWRwD886m90

Got my tweed Fender Deluxe, and more recent Kendrick 2112 repro, 'cuz of Neil. Worked out seriously well. Never have been able to get into Les Pauls, though.

-Dave-

Happy Birthday. Played and sang "Old Man" a while today. Had to tune down, though.

adorshki said:

Hey since this thread is still running, 20 post points for the first guy to name the connection between Neil and Steppenwolf.
Bonus points for the connection to a freaky funker from '70's.

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Rick James, Goldy McJohn, Nick St. Nicholas, Bruce Palmer....

Nah, I don't get it Must be a Canadian thing, eh?

But I am reminded of a cartoon that used Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave Overture as the background when a certain bird was in the scene. It is here for the curious. I won't embed it because by today's standards it is racist (in the sense that Little Black Sambo is now considered racist) but the bird has something to do with this, I think.

fronobulax said:

Rick James, Goldy McJohn, Nick St. Nicholas, Bruce Palmer....

Nah, I don't get it Must be a Canadian thing, eh?

But I am reminded of a cartoon that used Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave Overture as the background when a certain bird was in the scene. It is here for the curious. I won't embed it because by today's standards it is racist (in the sense that Little Black Sambo is now considered racist) but the bird has something to do with this, I think.

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Good cartoon.

Bruce Palmer....met him in the kitchen at the band house in Toronto about '74. Did not look good....conversation was limited to a little Springfield, but mostly the antennae were out for copping something. Surprised he lived as long as he did.

Goldy McJohn....was on the bill with one of the reincarnations of Steppenwolf in Nacogdoches Texas bout 79....spent all night chewing the fat with him in his room about life, music, experiences. Very cool dude. Woke up to a parade going by outside the hotel, with the Lone Ranger on a big white horse (the original guy but he couldn't wear his mask due to copyright infringement)....there's a song in there somewhere.

Neil Young....He was gone from the Yorkville scene when I arrived for a sniff....genuinely happy for his success .. Tells the truth through his music to the best of his ability. Rock on' Neil....

I've followed Neil's career since the Springfield and we all learned a lot of tunes from his early solo albums.While I haven't loved everything he's done I respect the guy for always staying true to his beliefs and allowing those beliefs to evolve w/the changes the world has gone through,NEVER allowing his stuff to be used to sell cars,soap,or whatever,trying to stop an assbag like Trump from using that same music to promote his empty agenda and trying w/the Pono device to keep the real sound of the tunes out there.It will be interesting to follow the progress of how sound recordings survive now that the newer autos are being sold w/out c.d. players.MP3 may be the only format??

fronobulax said:

Rick James, Goldy McJohn, Nick St. Nicholas, Bruce Palmer...
Nah, I don't get it Must be a Canadian thing, eh?

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TO clarify for those who may not know yet, all those folks except for Rick James (and Neil) were in a band called The Sparrows, although not all at the same time, as Palmer went to the Mynah Birds from the Sparrows, opening the door for St. Nicholas .
Palmer, James and Young were in a band called the Mynah Birds.
McJohn and St Nicholas went on to evolve Steppenwolf from the ashes of "the Sparrow" when they hooked up with vocalist John Kay.
Rick James went his own way and just got freakier, super freaky in fact.
Neil was actually in the US illegally until 1970, explaining why he didn't have a license while driving a smog-belching old Cadillac around LA.
OK, sudden elimination round:
Who gave Neil his first hit record, that he didn't actually play on?

His recent autobiography is a very good read, but it's also sad to read of his love for his wife throughout the book, knowing how that ended after the book was published

And NY was and is a big inspiration to me as a guitar player, both on electric and acoustic (in my modest way)

Hello

A little tidbit to an old thread. When I was working at James Berns Music, Nick St Nicholas came to work there, too. I thought it was a joke when someone told me he had been in Steppenwolf, but after visiting his place and seeing the gold records I was convinced. He attempted new bands in MPLS area - like Timberwolf etc. Went to see one of his gigs in local bar - he had a Steppenwolf flightcase laying on stage like "who left that there" - but carefully positioned so everybody could clearly see the Steppenwolf logo on it.

I was looking info on him at Wikipedia one day - and I could not help the impression, that some of that stuff is made up - or is it? does anybody know?

I have a nice black&white photo of him - I took it when we were at Berns. He was nice guy to work with.

Nuuska said:

Hello
I was looking info on him at Wikipedia one day - and I could not help the impression, that some of that stuff is made up - or is it? does anybody know?

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As a big Steppenwolf fan as a kid, I recognized the name but didn't know about the in-n-out from the band until I saw that Wiki article myself when posting that Sparrow history.
AFAIK all the stuff in that Wiki article is true. When there's doubt there's usually a "Citation needed" note.
"Famous Groupie" Pamela De Barres coyly avoids naming him in her book "I'm With the Band" but her story would coincide with his tenure in T.I.M.E/Steppenwolf and also explain why he's the Oo Oo Man on the GTO's album (Des Barres was one of the GTO's).
THIS sounds like St. Nicholas might have written it himself as a bit of self-promotion:
"St. Nicholas was one of the driving forces in music of the hippie counterculture movement, the Summer of Love. Having booked the band at the Matrix club in San Francisco, on May 14, 1967,[5] two live shows were recorded, including a 20-minute version of The Pusher. These are the live recordings released by ABC Dunhill Records as Early Steppenwolf.[6]
I've never seen his named mentioned in any of several books I've read about the period, and it's a subject near and dear to my heart.
As I understand it the Matrix was Marty Balin's club. Think probably St. Nicholas was handling bookings for his band the Sparrow? But makes it sound like he was some kind of big-time promoter...
And Early Steppenwolf was one of my favorites when I was a kid, got it when it was almost newly released. Right up there with JA's ...Baxter's and Quicksilver's first 2...

Nuuska said:

I have a nice black&white photo of him - I took it when we were at Berns. He was nice guy to work with.

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That's nice to hear.
One kind of wondered why he had so much conflict with Kay, but then Kay's rep isn't all that great itself.