neil young - no rust

Musically speaking, there is no greater American icon than Neil Young, which is really saying something because the dude be Canadian.

Ever noticed how the barroom comes to life anytime somebody plays a Tom Petty tune on the jukebox (especially "Mary Jane's Last Dance", go figure)? Well, multiply that times ten if there's a Neil Young song on the juke. The guy's been around forever, done things his own way from day one, and, in doing so, has come to symbolize all that is good about the part of America that isn't ruled by the very forces that corrupt.

I remember my first thoughts of Young being ones of bewilderment.

This was a guy who looked weird, sang weird, and, yet, was an icon of the California country-rock scene that included the Eagles, Jackson Browne, et al. By the time the 70's faded into nothingness, he'd led Buffalo Springfield, joined and quit CSNY, and achieved sizeable success as a solo artist with on-again, off-again backing band Crazy Horse.

He tried damn hard to commit career suicide in the 80's with a string of wildly different albums - futuristic rock on "Trans", rockabiily on "Everybody's Rockin'", and then country on "Old Ways". Along the way, his label Geffen Records sued him.

Six years and three albums later, Young released "Freedom", which included, among other songs, a barn-burning stomper called "Rockin' In The Free World" that established him with an entirely new audience.

Suddenly, everybody dug Neil Young again it seemed. Among his newfound fans were the members of Pearl Jam, who he would later collaborate with on 1995's "Mirror Ball."

While I admit that it was the harder side of Neil that first got my attention - via songs such as "Fuckin' Up" and the aforementioned "Rockin' In The Free World" - it seemed that at about the same time that I hit my thirties, I gained a new appreciation for the beauty of his more acoustic-based material. "Old Man", for example, is a song you just shouldn't be able to "get" until you've lived long and hard enough to see yourself in an old dude's eyes.

Having put out so many albums, in so many different styles, over the course of a 40-year-career, there's something for just about everyone to like Neil Young. I'm not gonna say there's something wrong with you if you don't dig him. Not to your face, anyway. :)

Here's a collection of my favorite Neil tracks, all live, mostly acoustic, and totally from the heart of one of the coolest guys to ever walk a stage.

Ohio
After The Gold Rush
The Needle And The Damage Done
Cinnamon Girl
Lotta Love
Comes A Time
Harvest Moon
Hey Hey, My My
Like A Hurricane
Long May You Run
No More
Old Man
Heart Of Gold