Product Description

In 1966, Neil Young drove a battered funeral car two thousand miles from his native Toronto to Los Angeles to seek his fortune in the music business. Nearly forty years of continuous writing and performing later, he is firmly established as one of the most influential and idiosyncratic singer-songwriters of his generation. His restless and innovative spirit ensures that he is one of the few rock veterans as vital in his old age as he was in his youth. Simmons provides fresh insights into Young's life so far. She also uncovers new facts about his friendship with Charles Manson, and closely examines his schizophrenic eighties output and musical return to form as the "Godfather of Grunge" in the nineties.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1488268 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Neil Young is an odd rock star. Never a big sex-and-drugs guy, he overdid the music part of the equation, making more than 35 records in as many years. So it's fitting that this volume the first in the new Mojo Heroes series of short music-legend bios should dedicate most of its space to Young's work. Simmons (Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful of Gitanes) condenses her own reportage, along with a wealth of secondary sources, into a breezy and succinct narrative. She demonstrates that Young's career has been shaped mostly by his utter capriciousness. For example, immediately after making a hit record with Crazy Horse in 1969, he dumped the band for Crosby, Stills and Nash; when CSN&Y's new album became a smash, he went solo. Likewise, Young followed up his critically acclaimed rock and acoustic albums of the late 1970s with a handful of baffling synth-rock, rockabilly and electro-pop albums in the early '80s. (Even his own record company sued him in 1983 for making records that were "musically uncharacteristic" of earlier recordings.) This isn't the comprehensive Neil Young biography his fans may be awaiting, but it provides a selective tour of his varied and wildly diverse oeuvre. (Mar.)Forecast: Rock collectors and Young enthusiasts will likely snatch up this attractive hardback, as it's strictly limited to 7,500 copies. Other subjects in the Mojo Heroes series so far include Otis Redding, Arthur Lee (of Love) and Marvin Gaye.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
"This is a beautifully produced book which, even if you didn't like Neil Young, you'd want to beg, borrow, or steal."

Customer Reviews

Small but perfectly Formed
I'll lay my cards on the table, I am what is commonly called a Neil Young obsessive so I wouldve been driven to buy the book whatever it was like. So no surprise I have a library full of, how shall I put this politely, mouse food. When I bought Sylvie Simmons' book on Neil Young I was a bit disappointed on first viewing to see that it wasn't very long - I've always loved her writing in MOJO magazine, especially of course when she's written about Neil Young, so I would have loved something the length of the Jimmy McDounough book (which I also bought). But do you know what? She packed more information and real insight into that short space than McDounough did into his huge tome (and actually I liked that too). So I'd say to any Neil Young fan, check Miss Simmons' book out, you won't be disappointed

Slight.
After reading this biography, I've no more insight than I would from reading cd liners. Very little insight into the characters in his life; nothing more than say CS&N's large egos. No interviews from on the scene characters, old band mates for ex. This book does not do justice to its subject.

whats the beef
I just don't get what some of these complaints are about this book. Yeah it's short but how I understand it is it was meant to be short - an introduction to Neil Young. And that was exactly what I was looking for. I've only just started getting into the man (yeah, I know!) and I didn't want to plough through 600 pages, but this really gave me a lot of insights into his character and his life and made me want to read further. Now I'm going to buy Jimmy macDonoughs book. But if you want something to the point and well written I would recommend this