Daniel Durchholz - Neil Young: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History

LONG MAY YOU RUN

THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY

DURCHHOLZ & GRAFF

First published in 2010, 2011 by Voyageur Press, an imprint of MBI Publishing Company, 400 First Avenue North, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA

Copyright 2010 by Voyageur Press, an imprint of MBI Publishing Company

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Digital edition: 978-1-61060-453-6
Softcover edition: 978-0-76033-647-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Durchholz, Daniel.
Neil Young : long may you run : the illustrated history / Daniel Durchholz and Gary Graff.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references, discography, filmography, and index.
ISBN 978-0-7603-3647-2 (plc)
1. Young, Neil, 19452. Young, Neil, 1945---Pictorial works. 3. Rock musiciansCanada
Biography. I. Graff, Gary. II. Title.
ML420.Y75D87 2010
782.42166092--dc22
[B]
2009045541

Editors: Danielle Ibister and Dennis Pernu
Designer: John Barnett / 4 Eyes Design
Design Manager: Katie Sonmor

Printed in China

Frontispiece: Circa 1972. Photo by Gems/Redferns/Getty Images

Title page: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Reunion Tour, Wembley Stadium, London, September 14, 1974. Photo by Mick Gold/Redferns/Getty Images

Front cover: Neil Young, Fleadh Festival, Finsbury Park, London, June 16, 2001. Richard Skidmore/Retna UK

Back cover: Neil Young with Crazy Horse, L.A. Sports Arena, Los Angeles, April 26, 1991. Robert Matheu
Bluebird poster. Artist: Jake Early (jakeearly.com)
Matchbox. Courtesy Cyril Kieldsen

Opposite: Crazy Horse Live in a Rusted Out Garage Tour, Patriot Center, George Mason University, Fairfax,
Virginia, September 26, 1986. Chester Simpson (Rock-N-RollPhotos.com)

Contents page: U.S. and Canada Fall Tour, Madison Square Garden, New York, December 15, 2008.
AP Photo/Jason DeCrow

For Mary and Shari

The crowd is restive and confusedand unhappyat the Pine Knob Music Theatre north of Detroit on a warm September night in 1983.

The fans came expecting a two-part show from Neil Young. The first went off as planned, with warmly received solo acoustic renditions of favorites such as Comes a Time, Heart of Gold, The Needle and the Damage Done, and Ohio. But when Young returns to the stage that night, its not with the Shocking Pinks, the rockabilly-styled group he put together for his latest release, Everybodys Rockin1, and with which he has closed shows throughout this tour. Instead he encores with a pair of gentle favorites, Sugar Mountain and I Am a Child.

Goodnight.

House lights up.

Show over.

There are surprised lookswhat the hell?and then some boos. Ushers look at each other uncertainly. A few folks up front crane their necks toward the stage wings, as if Young was just kidding and is doing a quick-change into his Shocking Pinks suit. Nobody seems in a hurry to leave, fully knowing that theres supposed to be more to the show.

Backstage theres similar confusion. Pink-suited musicians mill around, shrugging at each other. Larry Byrom, the former Steppenwolf member whos part of the Redwood Boys, the Pinks adjunct vocal troupe, walks by and asks nobody in particular, Are we going on? One reporter grabs Scott Young, Neils famous sportswriter father, to ask why the Pinks section isnt happening. Another asks tour manager Glen Palmer if he can talk to Neil or if Young will issue some sort of explanation.

It was the gentlest possible way of giving Neil a chance to explain his cancelation of the Pinks, Scott Young relates in his book Neil and Me, or to say anything else he wanted, even to give an excuse, if he wished, that he wasnt feeling well, or whatever. All of us waited for this answer. No, theres really nothing I want to say, he said. Just tell him I hope he enjoyed the concert.

On the tour bus, Young told his father and some visitors, That crowd just didnt deserve the Shocking Pinks!... I guess Ill get criticized, but I just have to follow my instincts.

Neil Young does not explain. He simply does. Over the course of a more than forty-five-year recording careerstarting with the Squires and Buffalo Springfield and continuing both on his own and in irregular associations with David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham NashYoung has followed his muse without question or second-guessing. Hell switch from roaring electric rock to gentle acoustic fare in less time than it takes to put a guitar strap over his shoulder. Projects are launched and either seen through or abandoned as he sees fitoccasionally, as was the case with the short-lived Stills-Young Band, in the midst of a tour.

Collaborators are embraced and moved aside as needed: Crazy Horse, arguably the most popular of all Youngs own bands, has suffered through several long periods of inaction. Were always waiting, guitarist Frank Poncho Sampedro says with a sigh to PBSs American Masters. And CSNY was on ice for sixteen years on record and twenty-six years as a live act.

He cycles through different entities, one after another, to keep it fresh, Crosby explains to PBS. He doesnt leave it; he just puts it on hold. Stills, meanwhile, calls his longtime friend willfully charming, willfully erraticand willful. And Nash confesses to PBS that theres a part of me that doesnt like that part of him because I know people get hurt. If you play only a certain amount a year and youre going on a Neil Young tour and the day before it gets canceled, your life is changed desperately, and that makes me uncomfortable. But I have to admire Neil for sticking so true to the muse.

Im still trying to do whatever it is that the music makes me do, says Young, whos even been sued for that pursuit, to