Neil Young: Waging Heavy Peace

Soooo.

Neil Young Joins the Rock Star Memoir Parade
By JULIE BOSMAN
Neil Young, easily one of the most influential and enigmatic musicians of his generation, will write a memoir, his publisher said on Monday. Blue Rider Press, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, acquired the book after several years of discussions with Mr. Young, said David Rosenthal, the president and publisher.

“He’s been very busy playing and touring and making records, and the guy has 100 things going on all the time,” Mr. Rosenthal said. “He felt that this was a really propitious moment to try and put some stuff down on paper.” The book, tentatively titled “Waging Heavy Peace,” will be released in fall 2012. Mr. Young has already finished writing “a good deal of material,” Mr. Rosenthal said. “The intention is to cover pretty much everything — growing up, music, life,” he added. “I am astounded at his memory for detail.”

A long line of rock musicians — Keith Richards, Steven Tyler and Pete Townshend, to name a few — have written memoirs lately or signed up to write them. When Mr. Rosenthal was the publisher of Simon & Schuster he acquired and published “Chronicles, Vol. 1” by Bob Dylan. As with the Dylan deal, there was no traditional literary agent involved with Mr. Young’s negotiations; only his manager, Elliot Roberts, Mr. Rosenthal said.

I'm really excited to read this but, uh, Neil? Get back to work on the archives now, kthanxbye.

delayed until 2021 to allow for remastering to suit topical ereaders

will only be available on special hi-def e-reader not yet invented.

would read the shit out of this, but he's gonna have to go some way to trump Shakey

He'll design a fancy-pants new ereader that will work only for his book, with promised additional chapters to be added as time passes, but they'll never actually show up.

don't know how neil will rank as a prose stylist...but i'm curious!

yeah did any of those promises re. constant updates for the BLU RAY v of Archives I ever come true?

It'll be printed entirely in his handwriting font.

yeah did any of those promises re. constant updates for the BLU RAY v of Archives I ever come true?
would not say it was constant. there were a few things. a ringtone?

The audiobook version will only work in your antique car.

here are the extra things so far from the "bd-live" blu-ray thing
1965 Mar Post Informer Volume 1 #1, June 2, 2009 Audio Track: "I Wonder", The Squires, Basement, 1965 (2:12), previously unreleased track. Band photo. 73Mb 3-Jul-09
1968 Dec Post Informer Volume 1 #2, July 24, 2009 Audio Track: "Here We Are In The Years" mix by Neil Young (3:50), previously unreleased track. 161Mb 28-Jul-09
1970 Mar Post Informer Volume 1 #2, July 24, 2009 Audio Track: "Cinnamon Girl" NY+CH, Live, Fillmore East (3:29), previously unreleased track. Band Photo. 163Mb 15-Sep-09
1967 Apr Post Informer Volume 1 #2, July 24, 2009 Audio Track: "Mr. Soul" Buffalo Springfield, Live, Hollywood Bowl (4:34), previously unreleased track. Set list, poster and band photo. 122Mb 5-Oct-09
1967 Aug Post Informer Volume 1 #2, July 24, 2009 Audio Track: "The Rent Is Always Due" Gold Star Solo Demo, previously released on The Buffalo Springfield Box Set (3:03), Solo Photo. 111Mb 2-Nov-09
1971 Apr Post Informer Volume 1 #2, July 24, 2009 Audio Offer: "Shakey Fanfare" info, sheet music and downloadable ringtone. 9.5Mb 11-Nov-09
1966 Feb Post Informer Volume 1 #3, Jan 21, 2010 Audio Tracks: "It's My Time" (2:12), "Go On And Cry" (3:06), The Mynah Birds, previously released on "Motown, The Complete Singles, Vol6", Studio Photo 89.5Mb 26-Feb-10
1965 Oct Post Informer Volume 1 #3, Jan 21, 2010 Audio Track: "I Ain't Got The Blues" (2:35), Neil Young Solo demo for Elektra Records, previously unreleased track. 92Mb 29-Mar-10
1964 Mar Post Informer Volume 1 #3, Jan 21, 2010 Additional Perspective: Finding and restoring of the "Mustang" tape. 98.7Mb 28-Apr-10

Important Information

So nothing for almost 18 months now, got it.

hott stuff

actually those demos are kind of a drag

but that Hollywood Bowl "Mr. Soul" is fierce!

I would like to hear that.
So frustrating!

eulllller, hook us UP w/ that mr. soul.
& yeah, those solo demos for elektra are pretty skippable. he was no tim hardin!
mynah birds tracks are cool, but you can get them elsewhere.

shit I thought it was widely available? I'll have to look when I get back to my main library, gonna be a few days though.

well i dunno, i've got a live version i thought was from the hollywood palace, not the hollywood bowl. maybe it's the same?

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3f2stxko01qdf09mo1_500.png

out oct. 2, 2012!

lol this should be a real humdinger

Ha, his bio comes out exactly one week before Townshend's!

The problem with being uber-venerated is that no one wants to be the one to say, "Neil, you've got to do something about the title. It's a little better than Cannabilistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers, but a little worse than Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes."

haha.
will be interesting to see what angle this thing has. would be hilarious if it was this really gossipy tell-all. not likely though! i'm predicting a kind of vignette-y thing a la chronicles.

waging heavy peace

think about it man

I would think vignettes too, with a tone at times of a wide-eyed fan. Much more openly nostalgic than Dylan, though, without Dylan's arm's-length relationship (to put it mildly) to the hippie moment.

w/out "waging" it'd be kinda cool in a thurston moore kinda way

kinda

The original title was Channeling Heavy D, but they were afraid that would just confuse people.

Does Neil's hat say Rinse Dream?

Best pun since Eyes Wide Shut.

that would be the best hat

http://semensperms.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/vlcsnap-2010-09-29-22h45m33s27-540x405.png

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3pojaBELU1r6p0u7o1_500.jpg
ha, i guess that thing in his hat actually says "Hippie Dream". hmm.

hey it's the best song on landing on water!

rumor is the book is told from the point of view of neil's dog, who was present for the recording of landing on water.

Dude's neck looks photoshopped

dude's neck has looked unreal since before photoshop was invented tbf

guess you can read an excerpt on your kindle here? http://www.amazon.com/Buzz-Books-2012-Pre-Publication-ebook/dp/B0084F3N2K
i don't have a kindle tho.

Archives II will be Kindle-only.

read it and weep

I am honestly a bit concerned about it being limited to that new high def audio format he's supposedly inventing....or maybe the box set will be packaged in an electric car

hey here's a page from the excerpt
http://ow.ly/i/E0lz
model trains. later he talks about CSNY's American Dream! thrills.

lord that is boring.

haaaa. he also talks about some old cars and his new alternative to the mp3.

That excerpt totally reminds me of Ellington's writings on food/restaurants in Music Is My Mistress.

So basically this book is going to be like the end of Keith Richards, when he's just rambling? "So this one time I hung out with Paul McCartney in Jamaica ... did I ever tell you my bangers and mash recipe ... "

hey this is out today!

Would love a review of this from folks here (especially those who have read "Shakey" too). Have a feeling it will end up as a birthday or Christmas present if I don't intervene, and if its really boring I would just ask for my own copy of "Shakey" instead. So yeah, get on it people.

You need Shakey regardless; it's really essential! I'll probably end up getting this for Christmas; in no hurry to pick it up tbh.

yeah shakey is definitely one of the better rock bios out there -- even with all its flaws, it's by far the ultimate neil book. i'm going to get waging heavy peace sooner or later.

I already read Shakey btw, just a borrowed copy. Loved it, flaws and all of course.

if anything looks like waging heavy peace has some cool pictures
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_max07mVAb91qdf09mo1_400.jpg

also important http://twitter.com/neilyoung

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_max0sgXrZi1qdf09mo1_500.jpg
this one's kinda rad - american star n bars sessions

Shakey is terrific. Waging Heavy Peace, the little I've seen of it has been pretty disappointing.

On the tour with Sonic Youth: "We were a great bill; people got a real show. It rocked. How original are they? Very."

Like, really, that's the main takeaway from that tour? I thought people were booing the opening bands and losing their shit. Maybe he gets into that later (I only saw one page, posted on Lee Ranaldo's Instagram, lol).

Anyhow. I dunno. Book doesn't seem promising.

When I saw the Crazy Horse/Sonic Youth/Social D tour, people were into all of it. There were hippie girls twirling and dancing to Sonic Youth, Neil Young biker fans getting down to Social Distortion.

Nobody booed SY on the show I saw, but the guy next to me said, "You like this shit?". And a couple of kids in front of me left after Social Distortion's set.

maybe I am exagerrating what I had heard the reactions were, but in any case the prose seems very vanilla

completely not fair to judge based on one silly page screen shot but hey

Hah, never had time for Social Distortion, impossible for me to imagine that that was the band anyone, kids or no, was excited to see on that bill. Wonder where those kids are now, and what is on their iPod/turntable/car stereo?

Social Distortion.

Haha, yeah, their appeal completely escaped me (and still does). It was baffling/hilarious to watch these kids' reactions: "All right! They're playing 'Drug Train'!". And immediately after the set, they bolted, like they wanted to make sure they split before accidentally catching any of
NYCH's set.

Hah Alfred, probably true.

Tarfumes, is that last post implying that Social Distortion went on AFTER Sonic Youth, not before, of just that those kids could not even risk a whiff of the NYCH set. Have trouble wrapping my head around the idea of SY going on first.

"... or just that those kids"

I don't know Social Distortion was one of those bands that I would never mind hearing when they came on, but can't imagine ever getting worked up enough to become a "fan".

Yeah, SY definitely went on first. SD had a sort-of hit at the time ("Ball & Chain"), but that was one more sort-of hit than SY had.

social d = dadpunk rock

Oof, guess it would've provided a good break to go get some food or beer or whatever before Neil's set. This was post "Kool Thing", right? Not exactly a hit, but it was on MTV quite a bit. Still, I can imagine that Social Distortion was in the wheelhouse of more die-hard Neil fans than SY, probably made plenty of sense all around.

Yep, SY were still touring behind Goo. That was actually my third time seeing them in three months: saw them headline in November '90, open for Public Enemy in December, and then Neil in January. "Kool Thing" was only on 120 Minutes, though, while the SD song was in regular rotation (or at least it seemed like it).

In Philly, I want to say that Social D. went on first, but I may be wrong. Maybe they went on first ... in my heart.

Yeah, I am sure my fandom of SY clouds my memory a bit. I prefer my version of SY dominance!

nobody booed social distortion or sonic youth when i saw them as a kid in chicago, at the rosemont horizon. people were expecting loud crazy horse neil, jacked by all the noise

Hey! That was the show I saw! Cool!

I saw the Washington DC area show and most folks there did not seem interested in either SY or Social Distortion.

social distortion is the worst band

When I saw that tour SD was definitely first, every song sounded exactly the same and no one paid attention to them. SY played a short, weird set, that was marred by bass amp problems, I remember Kim Gordon stalking offstage at least once and featured a lot of Lee & Thurston talking/baiting the crowd.

Ahh, that's more like it

SY even played the bridge benefit in 91, to apparently disastrous results -- haven't heard a recording, but would be interesting to hear these songs unplugged.
Dirty Boots
Mote
Cinderella's Big Score
(Aborted twice)
Personality Crisis
Note: Bridge Benefit Concert held by Neil Young. The band struggled through every song and after Personality Crisis Kim screamed "FUCK!" and smashed her bass. The band was subsequently booed off stage. Sonic Youth claim that Neil Young's roadies sabotaged their gear due to bad comments the band made about them in interviews from earlier in the year.

so Neil Young mentions driving down country roads listening to the Pistol Annies album on Rhapsody. He loves it ("Those girls can sing!"). More reason to love him.

for some reason the opening of this article made me laugh

Aretha Franklin had never sounded so shocking, Flea decided last year, as "Respect" roared from the speakers of Neil Young's Cadillac Eldorado. Stunned by the song's clarity, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist listened alongside bandmate Anthony Kiedis and producer Rick Rubin while Young showcased the power of Pono, his high-resolution music service designed to confront the compressed audio inferiority that MP3s offer.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-young-expands-pono-digital-to-analog-music-service-20120927#ixzz27i0iDFat

that was also the song that neil played for the author of the nymag article, to demonstrate the power of his new proprietary sound system that will never take off. something's fishy here.

that is literally the only song Pono will play.

If Waging Heavy Peace contains any tidbits about how the name "Pono" was chosen, I'd love to hear them!

for some reason the opening of this article made me laugh

Me too. It's because Neil, Flea, Keidis, and Rubin have spent decades working at hearing-damaging volumes and, as such, probably aren't authorities on the finer nuances of sound systems.

but you can feel it maaan

there are already places where you can buy 24bit high-res downloads from the major labels:

https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php?file=9624albums

not sure if any sell 196khz

Archives II will only be available built into the dashboard of an electric car.

Anyone catch the Neil's next book will be about his favorite cars?

also after i noticed that this nice marantz CD/DVD player i bought on clearance online could play SACDs, i've gotten a couple

SACD rules! it's like the good things about vinyl and the good things about digital!

the RS article reminds me of a cool story: my chemistry teacher in high school was kind of audiophile and he set up his system in class one day, telling us our minds were going to be blown by the sound quality. and then he played "here i go again" by whitesnake.

True audiophiles don't listen to music; they listen to their systems.

whitesnake, right up there with aja, breakfast in america and famous blue raincoat as a classic reference record

I feel like there is an analog wrt guitarists who tell you about their awesome rigs and then play "here i go again" by whitesnake

usually thru some kind of awesome maxed out digital chorus effect

it sounded pretty amazing tbh, like the whole class was going down the only road we'd ever known ... together. and then we went back to talking about the periodic table or something.

dude in the future we will all run our Pono digital music players through a Line 6 Pod

Pono by Dr. Shakes

Pono is a Hawaiian word commonly rendered as "righteousness"

I'm convinced, I'm rebuying everything in Pono.

http://cog-ff.com/images/hungeringg-for-righteousness.jpg

Neil and Dave, gabbin' 'bout Pono.
http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1453695/Screen_20Shot_202012-09-28_20at_2010.04.19_20AM.png

anyone in NYC going to the central park free concert tonight?

oh hey Fuse is airing Neil's set from Central Park right now

Oh shit

Dude thanks, the onscreen listings on my cable mistakingly says queen of the damned lol

How long had it been going? I started taping halfway through powder finger

the festival broadcast was on the schedule til 9, they're letting him go long -- i didn't tune in too long ago so i didn't know how long Neil's been on

Ah damn :-(

Damn they are going in

Fuckin up....greatest rock band ever

KEEP HOPE ALIVE

Another encounter with Terry Gross. One or two fairly gross questions way in there, but he handles them well, as he did re Americana. Stick around for Ed Ward's li'l history of the English Beat, good talk/music ratio.
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/01/162082545/in-memoir-neil-young-wages-heavy-peace

does Neil cover "Save It For Later"????

Another encounter with Terry Gross. One or two fairly gross questions way in there, but he handles them well, as he did re Americana. Stick around for Ed Ward's li'l history of the English Beat, good talk/music ratio.
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/01/162082545/in-memoir-neil-young-wages-heavy-peace
― dow, Monday, October 1, 2012 9:02 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Heard part of this -- "When you play with fuzz tone, do you ever feel like you are giving your guitar a seizure?" \o/

That's the main one I was referring to--and it follows a discussion of his epilepsy. Cool to know he was methodically exploring guitar chaos very early on--listen up!

hey i bought this today! most exciting thing from idly flipping through the pages -- the photo of neil and joni mitchell jamming during the tonight's the night sessions.

Aw man, I was waiting to see that photo in it's rightful place hidden in a virtual file cabinet in the Pono Cloud edition of Archives II!

Speaking of Neil Young, I can only imagine his ridiculous ticket prices are why he hasn't sold out this Thursday's Crazy Horse hockey shed show. Heavy peace is expensive.

i heard there's a lot of car talk in the new book (yawn)

Neil should have been on Car Talk instead of Fresh Air. Click, Clack & Y.

Good New Yorker review:

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/10/the-vexing-simplicity-of-neil-young.html#ixzz29gTO54KH

that actually hits on something I've felt before at times about Neil Young.

hm interesting article. though neil does recommend the mists of avalon in waging heavy peace, so he totally reads.
just finished this book on the plane this week. it's ummm not a masterpiece, but it is very Young-ian, so I enjoyed it. Basically a collection of blog posts.

I read the book. I was a little shocked at how "simplistic" Neil seems. The fact he's not a reader is weird, since his father was a prolific author. Strange book, interesting guy.

And he's really into this new music platform he's apparently building. And cars. And cars.

Did i mention cars?

so Neil has never read his dad's writing? innaresting

I read the book. I was a little shocked at how "simplistic" Neil seems. The fact he's not a reader is weird, since his father was a prolific author. Strange book, interesting guy.

― One Way Ticket on the 1277 Express (Bill Magill), Thursday, October 18, 2012 4:46 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, I mean sometimes I get a simplistic vibe from some of his songs, and there are times when it just works perfectly, and then there are other times where it's like "Is he playing a character? Is this affected? Is it ironic?" and I can't tell.

there's a difference between simplistic and simple
some people are just plain spoken and uncomplicated, i always figured he was one of those people and it's something i genuinely like about him!

there's also something about the way he speaks in interviews that makes me think it's partly mental illness that's at play. I almost wonder if he avoids reading because of how strongly it affects him.

he also buys a clive cussler book at some point.
for all its faults, i did appreciate that the book is pretty obviously written (typed even) by Neil himself, as opposed to a ghostwriter.

and then there are other times where it's like "Is he playing a character? Is this affected? Is it ironic?" and I can't tell.

^its apparently not ironic. Sometimes he's able to pull a work of genius out of the air, sometimes he just really has a clunker. I dont think he has a sense of irony, now that ive read his book.

there's also something about the way he speaks in interviews that makes me think it's partly mental illness that's at play. I almost wonder if he avoids reading because of how strongly it affects him.

― michael bolton's reckless daughter (Hurting 2), Thursday, October 18, 2012 3:53 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there was a similar thing in Shakey where thurston moore was talking about going on tour with crazy horse and he was like "neil doesn't really know anything that's going on in music" like you could tell he only had the vaguest idea about what "punk" was when he wrote hey hey, my my, but it was just the idea of it more than the actual music that influenced him in his weird neil way

He's somewhat childlike. I'm anticipating when i get around to Townshend's book it's gonna be a 180 degree difference

Townsend's more of an adolescent

i've never thought of him as childlike because he clearly has a pretty good sense of human nature and adult feelings, but his uncomplicatedness and lack of broodiness is a quality i find really appealing.

i mean, you don't have to wear a hairshirt of pain to make noise. you can just enjoy making noise. that's admirable!

We're looking at this all wrong. He's just Canadian. (Thanks, tip your servers.)

Townsend's more of an adolescent

― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, October 18, 2012 5:27 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I guess cuz you say it its true

I just read a book about a guy playing with toy trains, is obsessed with cars, and keeps repeating the same shit over and over. It's not a criticism, its endearing, but he's childlike

lack of broodiness is a quality i find really appealing.

^he broods quite a bit

haha

Townsend's self-seriousness and self-consciousness strike me very much like a teenager's is all. Neil isn't like that, he's more like a moody 10 yo or something.

xp

Townshend's a smart fellow but his songwriting is often clumsy Thinking About Things exercises whereas Young has unfathomable depths behind the doggerel lyrics and nursery rhyme melodies.

Cortez the Killer, albeit written in high school, does at times sound like it was written by a 10-year-old. But an incredibly awesome 10-year-old.

ok well then i take it all back
i'm listening to american stars n bars right now btw

Hate was just a legend
And war was never known
The people worked together
And they lifted many stones.

They carried them to the flatlands
And they died along the way
But they built up with their bare hands
What we still can't do today.

although I love the way the next verse is a seeming nonsequitur about pining for a lost woman. I always hoped there was some mind-blowing metaphorical meaning to the whole song revealed by that part, but there probably isn't.

the mind-blowing metaphorical meaning to the whole song is revealed by the rad guitar solo

^^ as in most Young songs

otm

But they built up with their bare hands
What we still can't do today.

^i fucking love this couplet so much

one of the most enticing tidbits of waging heavy peace [aside from the hot model train action] was neil mentioning the Zuma era collection that will appear on archives vol. 2 -- neil says it's called DUME. [after this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Dume] oh man it is going to be so good. i hope.

seriously vol. 2 of archives....i can't even really quantify how excited i am for that and how insanely let down i will be once neil releases the actual version

lol yes. he also says that joni mitchell won't let him release the jams she did w/ the tonight's the night band in 73! so lame, joni. next time i talk to neil, i'm going to ask if he'll just give me the mp3s for my blog.

but honestly, i think he should just start releasing separate 10-disc box sets of the next few albums -- the time fades away tour, tonight's the night sessions/tour, on the beach sessions, zuma sessions/tour.

fuck i didn't even know about the joni stuff

vol 2 is supposed to have david brigg's "hardcore not pussified glossy commercial" version of tonight's the night right?

yeah the tonight's the night band backs joni on "Raised on Robbery" apparently.
no idea what exactly is going to be included in the archives vol. 2.

yeah the tonight's the night band backs joni on "Raised on Robbery" apparently.

!!

I can't really picture them playing that tightly tbh

haha, no. neil says something like "it's the funkiest thing joni ever did!"

I'm not a fan of the official "Raised on Robbery"'s arrangement so wau

I thought you said something similar on the Joni poll thread - kinda surprised, it's one of my favorites on that album. is it too fussy for you or something?

It's a hamhanded arrangement of a good song. I had the same problems on a couple of Wild Things Run Free songs too. She has such a sui generis sense of harmony and rhythm that I'd rather she do that than essay Jackson Browne or (on the latter) the Police.

there's something to be said about neil's disinterest in fields we'd assume him to be interested in, but not from somebody who assumes writes shit like "After the ride it occurred to me that his lack of reading accounted for some few of his lyrics being insipid or sentimental. He apparently had no examples of language carrying complicated thoughts or feelings, the way they are carried in the poems of writers such as Philip Levine or William Butler Yeats or the prose of a writer such as Isak Dinesen."

re: the new yorker piece

He was a reserved and slightly grave figure, and talking with him was like being trapped with someone whose mind had no reach. He could only talk about what he felt or had seen or thought. I couldn’t respond to one of his remarks by raising an idea it had made me think of and have him make some connection to some other thought and then respond to that. A part of him seemed to have been arrested at a very early age. I am, of course, accustomed to meeting people I don’t feel able to talk to, or who aren’t interested in talking to me. I hadn’t expected, though, to find that someone whose work had ranged so widely had no curiosity about such an obvious possibility for enlarging the imagination, or to have been so indifferent to it.

"I couldn't believe I was dealing with such a disinterested interview subject and then he said he didn't read, and i realized. oh, that's why this songwriter/tech geek with an author father doesn't seem to play along with my discussion, his mind has no reach."

I couldn’t respond to one of his remarks by raising an idea it had made me think of and have him make some connection to some other thought and then respond to that.

I get the feeling this guy is the kind of interviewer who doesn't actually ask questions.

"That reminds me of Moby Dick! You know, the great hunt..."

"..."

"don't you read?"

I didn't even want to comment on yet another horrible example of needless autobiographical shoehorning.

What about the reviewer's description of why reading is fundamental?

not that wilkerson claims to be "especially well read"

I think I need the audiobook. It's read by Keith Carradine.

for real? if so that is definitely going to be the way i experience this book, if i ever do

So many rock memoirs and bios coming out at once. Neil Young, Pete Townshend, Greg Allman, Bruce, Leonard Cohen. Fogerty just announced his.

Allman's was better than Young's. Will read Townshends and possibly Fogerty's. Dont care about the other ones, unless by "Bruce" you mean "Bruce Dickinson"

omg

Not a big fan of the "Boss", brah

I bought this from Audible. Carradine sounds great, but so far this book has more shilling than Sammy Hagar's Red. I hope it gets better and tones down the PR bullshit.

SPOILER ALERT: it doesn't.

ha, yeah, don't hold your breath. i don't know, it's worth it, you can just skim the pono. short version: pono is so cool.

It's harder to skim through an audiobook.

At least Keith sounds like such a badass when he says "biomass".

is the audio book in pono? i hear you're only getting 5% of carradine's badassness if not.

Sounds like its about a 64kbps mono mp3. Surprised Neil allowed it.

I actually didn't mind the constant shilling for Pono and the endless digressions about cars or toy trains. It kind of confirmed my long-held suspicions that Neil might be kind of a drag to spend any significant length of time with, no matter how much I love his music.

haha, yeah there were times when i imagined his friends/wife saying to him while he writing: "are you sure you don't want to smoke a little weed and calm down?"

Sadly, his digressions into fears of dementia seem incredibly relevant based on the book so far. :(

He seems to have written literally anything that came into his head and it was edited really minimally. It has an unusually intimate effect, like you're sitting beside him as he rambles on about his life; it's just that he rambles so often about his obsessions that it becomes absurd and hilarious. A "Waging Heavy Peace" drinking game based on taking a shot every time Pono, cars or model trains are mentioned would get you life-threateningly shitfaced in no time.

yeah, i can't imagine anyone edited this thing. i just think of it as neil spending an hour a day writing, and barely thinking about what he's already written about. so sometimes it's interesting, sometime's it's not.

i honestly wonder if he would have put more work into it if his dad were alive, but then i doubt he even would have tried

I hate to say it but this is pretty dire.

I think it's fair to say that Shakey remains the definitive book on Neil, yeah.

I actually didn't mind the constant shilling for Pono and the endless digressions about cars or toy trains. It kind of confirmed my long-held suspicions that Neil might be kind of a drag to spend any significant length of time with, no matter how much I love his music.

― bizarro gazzara, Tuesday, November 13, 2012 1:53 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha, yeah there were times when i imagined his friends/wife saying to him while he writing: "are you sure you don't want to smoke a little weed and calm down?"

― tylerw, Tuesday, November 13, 2012 1:55 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM, LOL

I considered buying the audiobook but found the book cheap-ish on eBay ($12 with shipping) and just bought the damn thing. It hasn't arrived yet but I'm looking forward to it. I like the idea of it being a window into Neil's famously ornery, cantankerous, uncompromising psyche, and by all accounts, that sounds like just what it'll be.

Its not really ornery, cantakerous and uncompromising: its more like depressed and childlike.

He's rarely cantankerous, unless he's talking about the sound quality of MP3s or the televising of the rock and roll hall of fame ceremony. I think Bill's on point with the childlike poutiness; there's a simplicity to his whole presentation of "the Neil Young experience" that makes me wonder how real this all is.

I do recommend the Gregg Allman book. Definitely a cool guy who admits to some serious missteps in the past.

oh god, another chancee!
Neil Young will do a Book Club Twitter Chat, sponsored by Blue Rider Press and Penguin Online, on Wednesday, the 28th of November, 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm (ET), when he will be taking questions about Waging Heavy Peace. To participate and for updates, follow @BlueRiderPress, @PenguinUSA, @NeilYoung
#WagingHeavyPeace

Did this happen? Didn't see anything on Twitter! Don't tell me I'm following Penguin books now for nothing.

Penguin Books USA ‏@penguinusa
Unfortunately our chat with @NeilYoung on Wed, 11/28 at 7:30 PM is postponed. We hope to announce a new date soon. #WAGINGHEAVYPEACE

He was on the Daily Show last night. Only caught a few seconds, where Stewart asked him about Pono. He neglected to ask the necessary follow-up, "How the fuck do you know what it sounds like? You've gone on record has having permanently damaged hearing!"

if you're anywhere near philly: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/music_nightlife/Neil-Young-books-Hurricane-Sandy-benefit-at-the-Borgata.html

I did some dramatic readings of the book on-air last week. I forgot what I picked because everything about this book is nonsensical in the best way possible.

That would be an excellent blurb--would get me to read the damn thing, unlike most other posts, and the mopey cover, and the sheer heft--but also, having read it, I think it does make (enough)sense. It's a jam, man, with recurring themes, images, segments of timelines--establishing a groove for a while, then we jump back to different roadtrips, incl in Lincvolt (for fun and possible profit), forward again to the band histories--but now we're with the Squires in Manitoba, where the trees always look like the wind's howling through them even when it isn't, and the people do too, and the bandstand starts shaking (just a polar bear, being chased out from under the building) and a guy's leaning up against a telephone pole, frozen in August--now Buffalo Springfield on the fabulous Sunset Strip, now rehearsing with the Horse, trying to find himself without weed, and without thinking too much (doesn't work with the Horse), now recording with Briggs, who hates him when he isn't daring to be great. His birth family, his marriages (frankness about his own shortcomings), his kids, his friends, great joy and smash-ups (he comes back to the death of Danny Whitten,just when and how I thought he wouldn't). It's all about bringing the resources of the past, present and future together, living up to and through it all, so far. Sure this involves some repetition, and vamping 'til he finds another telling turn of phrase, another story coming through the typing, another doggie door, rainbow, whatever. It's not pot but it's not bad.

Actually it may be pot.

I can only imagine how nonsensical this would be if Neil was still a stoner. Egad.

He might not have written it if he were still getting high, or he might have done the usual: light up, kick back and Skype with the journo, who hopefully knows what to ask, when to shut up, how to edit. He's looking for a new way to deal with the new, alarming sideffects of sobriety: "I walk the halls of straightness", but does eventually hear some new songs calling. He stopped smoking and drinking because of something his doctor spotted in his brain, so he's trying not to think about that too much. he has fun recalling musical adventures, but this leads him to and all around the departures of Whitten, Briggs, Palmer (thus Buffalo Springfield, basically), Tim Drummond, who's still around but drinking and in a wheelchair, having given up music when his wife left him. He wants to turn young people on to the glory of old sound made new, like he wants to feel inspired again, also not to be an imperious asshole to the people who work with and for him. He wants to play with his toys, and keep 'em nice. For instance.

i like dow's take on this book.
anyway, more PONO news: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-youngs-pono-plans-take-shape-with-new-trademarks-20121219
I like this quote from neil's manager:
"It's too early for me to talk about it, to give you anything that's based on reality," Roberts tells Rolling Stone. "Who knows what kind of problems there might be or might not be?"

He should release an album called PONOgraphy.

awesome posts dow

Tom Petty, Beastie Boys' Mike D, Kid Rock and members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers were among those consulted.

Pass.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik Pono

PONO's Boutique

I'll never read this, but like Everest it was there.

http://www2.alibris-static.com/isbn/9781897178454.gif

A book store here had a pile of these for $2.99 (different cover):

http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9781847326942_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG

I've skimmed it a bit and it seems okay. Odd to include Buffalo Springfield but not CSNY, leaving out two or (I'd say) three major songs. And couldn't disagree more about "Ocean Girl" (first entry I checked), described as "fluff" and "trite."

maybe i wouldn't be enjoying this so much had i not read shakey too with all the essential details laid out in that book. reading this one's like listening to a good neil record, cornball self-indulgence and cosmic asides in equal measure all held together by his confidence despite it all. feel like the digressions and elaborations of minor episodes from his life at the expense of talking about bigger things might be influenced some by dylan's chronicles

That is really otm and I feel pretty much exactly how I felt while reading it. Like, if I had picked this up never having read Shakey and maybe only having heard a few of his standards, I probably would've thrown it down in disgust 2 chapters in.

https://31.media.tumblr.com/fd9a3959850005625b3596dd916177c9/tumblr_n6h2s5BlGs1rbwx2xo1_400.jpg

Haha wut?

Waging Heavy Peace II: The Legend of Shakey's Gold

two chapters about his old classic cars from 1965-1979, 35 chapters about the lincvolt

When's he going to name a car the Pono Express?

Special Bonus Audio Book-only chapter (in PONO, from a recording made at Jack White's): "Inside Bruce Berry's Van".

Neil Young - Pono Express Record (2015)