Not a massive fan and I haven't heard everything but I rate him, really love After the Gold Rush and Harvest, also the stuff with Crosby Stills and Nash is real good. Neil Young - Southern Man - YouTube Favourite song, I think.
I love the Harvest album :icon_bigg Haven't really listened to his stuff with Crosby Stills and Nash.
Like a couple of his songs, I don't like how he got involved in American politics when he is from Canada and so were his parents. If an American wrote a lot of his songs, I would like it, but I can't listen to Southern Man knowing it's some guy from the same area as me. It just doesn't resonate as much. He didn't really write a lot of music about his home; and that would've influenced the most you would think. So a lot of it just seems contrived, as if he wrote a lot of his music with an American audience in mind. Which is ok if you are in it for the cash, but I find it to be almost as if he was pandering to the biggest population of english speakers. A lot of people don't agree with me on this, but Prairie wind is the only song I can think of that is slightly Canadianesque. And for someone to have been born and raised in the Toronto area, and to create music that is mainly about American politics and society really seems strange to me. I am not saying I can't lissten to non-Canadian music, but I like to listen to music that the artist actually has business making. If someone is going to sing a twangy song about the south, I would sure hope they would be from the U.S. Almost like if a white person made a song about how hard it is to be black. It may have a good message...etc, but it just doesn't mean anything because they can't truly understand. Just like Neil Young could never fully understand being American, he was raised in a different country, his influence and values all are from here.
I'm Canadian and honestly don't care. He's influenced by the american artists who do sing about the south and such, most musicians write from the musical influences they had when they were younger and try to mix that with their own style or flair. Besides the fact that I don't think he's lived in Canada since he was about 18, which I think has earned him the right to write about American life. Also have you heard him sing? He had little choice but to do at least a few twangy country songs. And as for the man himself I love him! Seen him twice and both shows he played close to three hours and are among the most memorable gigs I've been to. His autobiography was none too bad either, I identify with his grumpiness.
I like his music a good deal, especially After the Gold Rush. As for the politics, I think they're more universal, though he just happens to use American images as metaphors. Love that title song... "After The Goldrush" Well, I dreamed I saw the knights In armor coming, Saying something about a queen. There were peasants singing and Drummers drumming And the archer split the tree. There was a fanfare blowing To the sun That was floating on the breeze. Look at Mother Nature on the run In the nineteen seventies. Look at Mother Nature on the run In the nineteen seventies. I was lying in a burned out basement With the full moon in my eyes. I was hoping for replacement When the sun burst thru the sky. There was a band playing in my head And I felt like getting high. I was thinking about what a Friend had said I was hoping it was a lie. Thinking about what a Friend had said I was hoping it was a lie. Well, I dreamed I saw the silver Space ships flying In the yellow haze of the sun, There were children crying And colors flying All around the chosen ones. All in a dream, all in a dream The loading had begun. They were flying Mother Nature's Silver seed to a new home in the sun. Flying Mother Nature's Silver seed to a new home.... Aslo, sounds really, really good when you're stoned.
When he wrote a lot of his music, and all of his hits, he had lived in Canada for the majority of his life. I am influenced by American music but don't think I should go and write a song about Obamacare, 9-11 or anything else significant to Americans. I just don't like knowing he is a Canadian who basically fell in love with American life so much that he wrote politically infused songs. He grew up in Canada, all his education was Canadian, he really doesn't have a right to stick his nose in American politics, maybe now after living there for so long,, but at the time, definitely not. I just see a problem with it, don't think it is as authentic because he was a "new" American at the time of writing the songs. I think it is wrong to benefit another country, especially one that is already wealthy and the main producer of media. The U.S controls media in the world; and I like a lot of it, but Neil Young is just proof that the U.S is the only country worthy pandering to when writing music, Young must have known this and cashed in on it. Honestly how can someone who grew up in Southern Ontario write a song like SOUTHERN MAN. I mean he has absolutely no experience with the real south and their train of thought, it was belligerent and intolerant. He had no business writing that song, Canada doesn't even have a history with slavery(we have under 10,000 slaves in total and most of them weren't treated nearly as badly as in the south). But yet he decides to write a song about how the Southern States has a dirty history of slavery and racism. It wasn't his place to be doing such a thing, especially as a Canadian, I would have been insulted if an American wrote a song about how the English in Canada oppresses the French. Just like how the south didn't like Neil Young for that song. He chose a hot topic with a rich history and benefited from writing a song about it. If I moved to germany and lived there a couple years it still wouldn't be my place to write a song about the holocaust, or if I lived in Ireland it still wouldn't be my place to write a song about the IRA and the Irish wars. Or in egypt or anywhere that isn't Canada. When I was 18 I didn't feel politically heated about American politics, so why did Neil Young; most likely just bored and decided to profit off the history of another nation. He was born here, raised here, educated here, paid taxes here, and decides to write about the deep south. I see no logic His music is good but I cannot get over that. Perhaps I'm hurt that Canada lost an artist that could've written "Canadian" music, and helped Canada grow artistically and not just be a carbon copy of the U.S. The Guess Who wrote the song "American Woman" and yes it was about the US and politically charged but from a Canadian standpoint. The lyrics segregate them from the U.S and managed to make it become an "American Classic" even though it is closer to a Canadian anthem than anything; we are influenced by the U.S and the song clearly is about fighting that influence. The song was written and produced in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I doubt Neil Young could've garnered the success they did by writing from a Canadian perspective.
Maybe he just felt an empathy towards injustice, and the US happened to have more of it to write about, especially at the time, and even today. I've never been bothered by it. People write songs about all kinds on injustices and issues without actually having been though them, as with fiction and poetry. I don't see what the problem is with empathy. If a straight man wrote a song about how hard it was to be gay, I doubt it would bother me, if it was sincere and well executed.
Okay I guess where it stands with me I think we're way too obsessed with ourselves and celebrating those who are Canadian less for their accomplishments mainly because they happened to be born here. Neil Young is a great talent who knew he couldn't do the job he wanted to do in this country and be successful at it. So he went to the States along with everyone else. He arrived during a time of huge musical expression and political strife, he was a young guy (Har har) arriving in a hugely interesting place in time. You're gonna want to write about it. And you don't HAVE to write about where you come from or parts of your background I'm Canadian but I'm much more interested in American politics and following that. I'm gay but I'm not particularly interested in writing about it, I get bored beyond just saying the words. I mean Vince Gilligan wasn't ever part of the meth trade but does that mean he shouldn't have made Breaking Bad because he didn't live in that world and therefore didn't have a right to be sticking his nose in it? No, he wanted to write about, so he did and he made one of the greatest dramas of all time. Write what you wanna write, period.
I don't know a lot of his stuff, but what I have heard of his impressed me greatly. I wouldn't disagree with his "rock legend" status for a second.
Am a bit young but my dad is a huge fan seen him live several times first time in 1972 when he was 16 years old I like ''old man'' from harvest album dad likes allot of classic Rock I have been known to sing along to clearance clearwater revival .
