NEIL YOUNG ON "GREENDALE"
It's like a huge overcoat: no matter how hot it gets, I have to fucking wear my overcoat," Neil Young says in a hard, even voice. He is referring to that which he likes to discuss least: the past; his classic records and four decades as one of rock's best-loved singer-songwriters. "I'm trying to get rid of it," he says over coffee in a Los Angeles hotel suite. "It drags me down. I want to be as creative as I was when I started -- to be as free as that."
On his current tour with distortion warriors Crazy Horse, Young, 57, proves how serious he is. Most of each night is given to Greendale, a new ten-song cycle that Young has turned into an album, a full-length movie and an eccentric stage production. Greendale is the story of a fictional American town and the extended family, the Greens, who live, love and struggle there: Grandpa, the outspoken patriarch and pioneer spirit of the clan; his son Earl, an unemployed artist and Vietnam vet; Earl's daughter Sun, an aspiring environmental activist; and Jed, the black-sheep Green who kills a cop in a moment of panic and sets off a chain reaction of further tragedy and rebirth. Greendale is not Young's first plunge into multimedia. He has directed idiosyncratic, loosely scripted films (usually under the nom de lens Bernard Shakey) since the early 1970s. In 1978, Young dramatized his own teenage rock & roll fantasies in Rust Never Sleeps, a legendary theatrical tour that spilled over into an album and concert movie of the same name. But Greendale is a bold leap, in execution and theme, for Young. In concert and in the film (to be issued on DVD this fall), Young sings all the words; he and the Horse play the stark, bluesy music. But the cast -- mostly Young's family, friends and road crew -- lip-sync and act out the lyrics with a homespun earnestness that suits both Young's zero tolerance for slickness and the urgent truth inside his sprawling tale: America is in deep crisis but not beyond redemption.
The Greendale concerts have met with mixed critical and public reaction, from confused disappointment to, at a recent run of dates at L.A.'s Greek Theater, standing ovations. Young is pleased by the latter, unmoved by the former. "It's easy to go out and play a bunch of songs people already think they know," he says at the start of a two-hour conversation that also covers America under Bush, American Idol, his songwriting methods and the sorry state of the music business. (Young is currently between record deals; Greendale is the last album under his contract with longtime label Reprise.) "I cannot assume the position," he says, "where I do a rehash of everything I've already done. It's either stop, or do something else. I chose to clean the plate."
You were on the road with Crazy Horse when America went to war with Iraq in 1991, under a president named Bush. Twelve years later, you're singing these new songs to a nation at war in Iraq, under another Bush. Does the deja vu scare you?
This is a time, I believe, of great inner turmoil for the majority of the American people. There is a new morality coming out of this administration -- fundamentalist religious views; a holier-than-thou attitude towards the rest of the world -- that is not classically American.
I don't think Americans felt holier-than-thou in the twentieth century. We were happy and successful, with a great lifestyle. But something else is going on now. That's what Greendale is about. That's what Grandpa's problem is. He can't understand what's going on. He sees all of these things that the Patriot Act has taken away from what he feels is America.
The other night, you ended "Rockin' in the Free World" with military funeral music -- a feedback quote from "Taps."
That's for the soldiers who die in Iraq every day, because of this stupid plan that the administration didn't have. They didn't know what the hell was going to happen. Bush makes Clinton look like sandpaper -- that's how slippery he is. A lot of people in this country obviously think President Bush is a great leader. If they're happy, they should vote to keep him in office. But if you're not happy, you should also go and vote. Everybody has a right to their opinion, only now it's at the risk of not being patriotic. And you might wonder what difference it makes to me, being a Canadian citizen.
That's my next question.
I have an American family: three American children and an American wife. I pay taxes. I do everything other citizens do, except I'm not allowed to serve on juries, vote or serve in the military. That gives me a right to say whatever I feel like saying.
One video image in the Greendale show is a cartoon of a Clear Channel billboard with the words support our war! It gets an eerie mix of cheers and laughs, as if the audience can't tell which side you're on.
It's a disturbing image. Some people have the immediate point of view: "Yeah! Support the war." On the other side, it's "No! We don't want war." Then you have people going, "What is Neil doing, supporting the war? Is Neil married to Clear Channel?" This is all from one billboard. That's what's going on in this country. Everybody is disturbed inside, because no one really knows what to believe.
What do you believe? Where is the hope in the Greendale songs and story?
The energy in the last couple of songs ["Sun Green" and "Be the Rain"] - that's youth rising out of this. It hasn't gotten to the point where things have started moving yet, but this period is the biggest breeding ground for revolution in this country since the mid-Sixties. I don't think there's been a more ripe time for a generation to come along and rebel against all this.
Many people your age see a generation lined up to buy Justin Timberlake albums.
That's not what I see. You can't fool youth. There's a lot of kids who do not like what's going on. They don't like the country the way it's being run. They don't like the corporations getting off scot-free.
Will those kids relate to Greendale?
I don't think they'll ever get to hear it. The whole system of getting music around has passed me by. I don't fit into that anymore. I'm more concerned with making records I believe in. I try to create a place where my art can live -- writing and singing songs, filming things myself, going my own way.
You've been playing all of Greendale live onstage every night since April, as a solo act in Europe and here with Crazy Horse. Aren't you asking a lot of your fans -- to deal with ten new songs and a complex family saga before the album is even out?
No. It's a breath of fresh air, after seeing the same thing over and over, hearing the same old songs, seeing the same guys getting older and older. OK, it's nice, it's a ritual. Is that the way you want to live your life? Great -- there's a lot of other acts to do that with. But my audience is used to this. If they've been with me for a long time, they're real used to it.
:inlove:
It's like a huge overcoat: no matter how hot it gets, I have to fucking wear my overcoat," Neil Young says in a hard, even voice. He is referring to that which he likes to discuss least: the past; his classic records and four decades as one of rock's best-loved singer-songwriters. "I'm trying to get rid of it," he says over coffee in a Los Angeles hotel suite. "It drags me down. I want to be as creative as I was when I started -- to be as free as that."
On his current tour with distortion warriors Crazy Horse, Young, 57, proves how serious he is. Most of each night is given to Greendale, a new ten-song cycle that Young has turned into an album, a full-length movie and an eccentric stage production. Greendale is the story of a fictional American town and the extended family, the Greens, who live, love and struggle there: Grandpa, the outspoken patriarch and pioneer spirit of the clan; his son Earl, an unemployed artist and Vietnam vet; Earl's daughter Sun, an aspiring environmental activist; and Jed, the black-sheep Green who kills a cop in a moment of panic and sets off a chain reaction of further tragedy and rebirth. Greendale is not Young's first plunge into multimedia. He has directed idiosyncratic, loosely scripted films (usually under the nom de lens Bernard Shakey) since the early 1970s. In 1978, Young dramatized his own teenage rock & roll fantasies in Rust Never Sleeps, a legendary theatrical tour that spilled over into an album and concert movie of the same name. But Greendale is a bold leap, in execution and theme, for Young. In concert and in the film (to be issued on DVD this fall), Young sings all the words; he and the Horse play the stark, bluesy music. But the cast -- mostly Young's family, friends and road crew -- lip-sync and act out the lyrics with a homespun earnestness that suits both Young's zero tolerance for slickness and the urgent truth inside his sprawling tale: America is in deep crisis but not beyond redemption.
The Greendale concerts have met with mixed critical and public reaction, from confused disappointment to, at a recent run of dates at L.A.'s Greek Theater, standing ovations. Young is pleased by the latter, unmoved by the former. "It's easy to go out and play a bunch of songs people already think they know," he says at the start of a two-hour conversation that also covers America under Bush, American Idol, his songwriting methods and the sorry state of the music business. (Young is currently between record deals; Greendale is the last album under his contract with longtime label Reprise.) "I cannot assume the position," he says, "where I do a rehash of everything I've already done. It's either stop, or do something else. I chose to clean the plate."
You were on the road with Crazy Horse when America went to war with Iraq in 1991, under a president named Bush. Twelve years later, you're singing these new songs to a nation at war in Iraq, under another Bush. Does the deja vu scare you?
This is a time, I believe, of great inner turmoil for the majority of the American people. There is a new morality coming out of this administration -- fundamentalist religious views; a holier-than-thou attitude towards the rest of the world -- that is not classically American.
I don't think Americans felt holier-than-thou in the twentieth century. We were happy and successful, with a great lifestyle. But something else is going on now. That's what Greendale is about. That's what Grandpa's problem is. He can't understand what's going on. He sees all of these things that the Patriot Act has taken away from what he feels is America.
The other night, you ended "Rockin' in the Free World" with military funeral music -- a feedback quote from "Taps."
That's for the soldiers who die in Iraq every day, because of this stupid plan that the administration didn't have. They didn't know what the hell was going to happen. Bush makes Clinton look like sandpaper -- that's how slippery he is. A lot of people in this country obviously think President Bush is a great leader. If they're happy, they should vote to keep him in office. But if you're not happy, you should also go and vote. Everybody has a right to their opinion, only now it's at the risk of not being patriotic. And you might wonder what difference it makes to me, being a Canadian citizen.
That's my next question.
I have an American family: three American children and an American wife. I pay taxes. I do everything other citizens do, except I'm not allowed to serve on juries, vote or serve in the military. That gives me a right to say whatever I feel like saying.
One video image in the Greendale show is a cartoon of a Clear Channel billboard with the words support our war! It gets an eerie mix of cheers and laughs, as if the audience can't tell which side you're on.
It's a disturbing image. Some people have the immediate point of view: "Yeah! Support the war." On the other side, it's "No! We don't want war." Then you have people going, "What is Neil doing, supporting the war? Is Neil married to Clear Channel?" This is all from one billboard. That's what's going on in this country. Everybody is disturbed inside, because no one really knows what to believe.
What do you believe? Where is the hope in the Greendale songs and story?
The energy in the last couple of songs ["Sun Green" and "Be the Rain"] - that's youth rising out of this. It hasn't gotten to the point where things have started moving yet, but this period is the biggest breeding ground for revolution in this country since the mid-Sixties. I don't think there's been a more ripe time for a generation to come along and rebel against all this.
Many people your age see a generation lined up to buy Justin Timberlake albums.
That's not what I see. You can't fool youth. There's a lot of kids who do not like what's going on. They don't like the country the way it's being run. They don't like the corporations getting off scot-free.
Will those kids relate to Greendale?
I don't think they'll ever get to hear it. The whole system of getting music around has passed me by. I don't fit into that anymore. I'm more concerned with making records I believe in. I try to create a place where my art can live -- writing and singing songs, filming things myself, going my own way.
You've been playing all of Greendale live onstage every night since April, as a solo act in Europe and here with Crazy Horse. Aren't you asking a lot of your fans -- to deal with ten new songs and a complex family saga before the album is even out?
No. It's a breath of fresh air, after seeing the same thing over and over, hearing the same old songs, seeing the same guys getting older and older. OK, it's nice, it's a ritual. Is that the way you want to live your life? Great -- there's a lot of other acts to do that with. But my audience is used to this. If they've been with me for a long time, they're real used to it.
:inlove: