“Walk Like a Giant” ( Psychedelic Pill, 2012)Ī guitar epic of social conscience the way Uncle Neil and the boys used to make ’em, “Walk Like a Giant” was the towering 16-minute climax to 2012’s Psychedelic Pill, full of six-string passages equally soaring and tumultuous - and a whistle hook more brain-sticking than any of the distorted riffing - as Young laments the turning tides: “It breaks my heart/ To think about how close we came.” He could still get there in his own way, at least. The ten-minute closer to Neil’s controversial Trans album, “Like an Inca” doesn’t share the electronic affectations of much of the album, but still rides a fixed groove reminiscent of Kraftwerk’s motorik pulse to soundtrack a sprawling lyric seemingly overwhelmed by personal and/or global oblivion (“The gypsy told my fortune/ She said that nothin’ showed.”) It’s a confusing but transfixing blend, demonstrating that - despite his possible concerns - Young’s future in middle age remained as rich as his past. Less than 10 months after Harvest (which features a live performance of “The Needle and the Damage Done” from 1971 sandwiched among the studio cuts) came out, Crazy Horse’s Danny Whitten - one of the addicts likened to a “setting sun” - died at age 29 of a lethal combination of alcohol and diazepam, which he was taking to mitigate pain from his arthritis, while trying to get over a heroin addiction. Hard to believe this gut-punch of a song is a scant two minutes, as Young’s harrowing vignette about heroin feels like a fully realized epic of addiction, despair and decay. “The Needle and the Damage Done” ( Harvest, 1972) Here are our 25 favorite examples of ol’ Neil putting it down.Ģ5. It’s far too grand and wide a catalog to capture the scope of in one best-of list, but we here at Billboard wanted to pay tribute to one of the all-time greats with our list of the best Neil Young songs (not counting his work in groups like Buffalo Springfield and CSNY). It’s all resulted in Young’s truly incalculable influence on multiple generations of future musicians, as well as a handful of the most acclaimed albums of the entire rock era, and even a No. Dating from 1969’s self-titled set and classic breakthrough Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere all the way up to 2019’s Colorado, Young’s catalog has provided popular music with some of its most searing protest anthems, its most swooning love songs, its most righteous rockers and its most leveling ballads.
However, Young is still best-remembered for his lead work - as a solo artist, and as frontman of backing groups as renowned as Crazy Horse, Promise of the Real and fellow RNRHOFers Pearl Jam. Neil Young Sells 50% of Song Catalog to Hipgnosis Going back to his days as a core member of ’60s psych-folk outfit Buffalo Springfield, and a late add to vocal powerhouse quartet Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at the turn of the ’70s, Young has endured as one of rock’s most recognizable voices - both in terms of his emotive, piercing countertenor, his gorgeously messy guitar work, and his singularly purposeful and uncompromising writing. It’s not shocking that Young’s work would carry such a hefty price tag, considering that he’s served as one of North America’s preeminent singer-songwriters for well over half a century now. Coming hot on the heels of similar deals reached by Hipgnosis with Bob Dylan and Lindsey Buckingham, the terms of the agreement were not shared, but the cost of such a share in Young’s 1,180-song catalog has been estimated to be worth tens and potentially even hundreds of millions.
The first week of 2021 saw Neil Young become the latest rock legend to go into business with ever-expanding publishing behemoth Hipgnosis Songs, with the song management accompany acquiring a 50% stake in the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s back catalog.
0 kommentar(er)
