Following Part 1, this is also dedicated to Neil Young, whose music I have admired since I discovered his talents in 1967. As with Part 1, this counterpart has not been proofread professionally, but I hope that will not detract from any reading pleasure.
PART 2
My enthusiasm for Neil Young’s music has never waned and I have remained faithful to it throughout these last 56 years. I have to admit that some albums are not as good as others, but he is always prepared to experiment, change musical direction, jam with a variety of musicians and be generally unpredictable, while his writing remains among the best in Rock. He has dabbled in many themes but frequently returns to a subject of mutual interest – the native peoples of the American continent and their despicable treatment. His skills with words have inspired me to write – not songs but stories – and through his wealth of topics, I have found numerous ones of my own to pen.
However, I do think of the 1980s decade as Neil’s Wilderness Years when he signed to another record company. After a few releases, encompassing various musical genre, the owner sued Neil for recording albums which were “unrepresentative of his music”. The court came down in favour of Neil, concluding that as he had encompassed a variety of musical styles throughout his career, nothing could be considered unrepresentative of his music. After the court case Neil returned to his old record company and came back with his familiar electric style in 1990 with Crazy Horse and one of his finest albums ever, Ragged Glory.
During the 80s Neil had other things on his mind. At that time, he and his wife Pegi were involved in starting a school for disabled children. With their son Ben suffering with cerebral palsy, like his older brother Zeke but more severely, they found there was no ideal school for Ben in the San Francisco area, so they followed Pegi’s idea and opened The Bridge School which is still in existence and goes from strength to strength. They rely a great deal on the use of computers and technology in general to help the children and though Neil ploughs in quite a large amount of his personal fortune, for many years he organised a benefit gig every October which spanned two days and attracted Rock’s biggest names who happily gave their time and musical talent for free, with Neil playing a set both days. The children and their parents had complimentary tickets for front row seats, the rest of the audience bought theirs, and a good time was had by all and a fair amount of money raised for the school each year. These concerts have now ceased but the Bridge School is still a going concern.
Although so many of Neil’s songs are sad or protest against injustice, they have given me so much pleasure over the years and I have to say that with my interest in words and writing, Neil’s scribal talents have long proved irresistible to me. However, my parents must have considered me a tone-deaf Philistine and I do recall my mum telling me in my teens that there would come a day when I would like 1930s dance band music and opera! This day has never dawned and by the time I was 40 she seemed to have resigned herself to the fact that her only daughter would continue through the rest of her life listening to the high-pitched singing (or whining, as she put it, though not me as I love listening to his voice) that Neil is so famous for, along with his acoustic and electric guitar playing which has a recognisable style of its own. Added to his long hair, Neil was also famous for his patched jeans and my mum once made the hilarious statement, “You’d think with his money, he could afford to buy himself a decent pair of trousers”, seemingly unaware that the scruffy appearance was deliberate and financially unrelated.
In 1981, my husband and I “trekked” by underground, from West to North London to see Neil’s Rust Never Sleeps film – a recording of his 22nd October 1978 San Francisco gig with Crazy Horse. In the foyer of the cinema were some application forms to join the newly formed Neil Young Appreciation Society (NYAS), an invitation I could not refuse, and I am proud to say that I became one of their earliest and longest-serving members, receiving the first edition of the Broken Arrow magazine, which is synonymous with the society, and to which I have contributed many articles over the years. Through the NYAS (run by fans for fans, so it is a labour of love), I have made many friends around the world – some I have never met but others I have got to know from the get-togethers and we have kept in touch by email across the miles. The first I attended was in 2003 when a group of us met in a pub in Hammersmith, prior to Neil’s Sunday night concert at the former Odeon, now Apollo. Here I should point out that the NYAS comprised about 90% male and 10% female membership and as I have not only been a regular contributor to Broken Arrow over the years but also one of the few females writers, I discovered that evening that my fame went before me because as I was introduced to fellow fans, my name was recognised and, much to my husband’s amusement, I was given hugs and references were made to the articles I had written over the years. That was my 15 minutes of fame!
Later that year we had a Convention in South London which was virtually 48 hours of wall-to-wall Neil Young music, with his albums being played and tribute bands as well as solo musicians entertaining us on the Friday and Saturday evenings. Two years later we had another similar Convention to celebrate Neil’s 60th birthday and in 2010 with Neil approaching 65, another Convention was organised to celebrate this birthday and sadly, turned out to be the last. It is a lot of hard work for the organisers, and I was involved in this on the periphery, but we all agree that each one was a great success and very worthwhile, with all profits from the events going to the Bridge School. Unfortunately, after many years and over 130 quarterly issues of Broken Arrow, the NYAS is no longer in existence, but the magazines are a reminder of a part of my life which gave me the chance to write about various aspects of Neil’s music and what it means to me.
Born in November 1945, Neil is fast approaching his 78th birthday, but shows no sign of slowing down. He is releasing albums from his archives on a regular basis and his website Neil Young Archives comprises over half a century of his music, along with articles and regular updates, many from Neil himself.
Looking back to the day I bought that Buffalo Springfield album, I never thought that 56 years later I would still be listening to Neil, nor could I have ever imagined how his music would constitute such a part of my life. One of the many things I have learned about Neil’s music is to expect the unexpected and it is this which has kept his releases and concerts so interesting, while his faith and commitment to the music, as well as his enduring principles concerning wider issues, ensure his permanent popularity with so many rock musicians and fans alike.
Thank you so much, Neil!
© Chasqui Penguin, 2023
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