Synopses & Reviews
When Neil Young left Canada in 1966 to move to California, it was the beginning of an extraordinary musical journal that would leave song after song resonating across the landscapes of North America. From andldquo;Ohioandrdquo; to andldquo;Albuquerque,andrdquo; Youngandrsquo;s fascination with Americaandrsquo;s many places profoundly influenced his eclectic style and helped shape the restless sensibility of his generation. In this book, Martin Halliwell shows how place has loomed large in Youngandrsquo;s prodigious catalog of songs, which are themselves a testament to his storied career as a musician playing with bands such as Buffalo Springfield, Crazy Horse, and, of course, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
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Moving from the Canadian prairies to Youngandrsquo;s adopted Pacific home, Halliwell explores how place and travel spurred one of the most prolific creative outputs in music history. Placing Young in the shifting musical milieus of the past decadesandmdash;comprised of artists such as Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, the Grateful Dead, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Devo, and Pearl Jamandmdash;he traces the ways Youngandrsquo;s personal journeys have intertwined with that of American music and how both capture the power of Americaandrsquo;s great landscapes.
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Spanning Youngandrsquo;s career as a singer-songwriterandmdash;from his many bands to his work on filmsandmdash;Neil Young will appeal not just to his many fans worldwide but to anyone interested in the extraordinary ways American music has engaged the places from which it comes.and#160;
Review
andldquo;Halliwellandrsquo;s study of Neil Young is a superb cultural history and a highly informed piece of music criticism. By situating Youngandrsquo;s songs and films in specific locations, as well as the deterritorialised realms of time and space, Halliwell explores the boundary-smashing nature of a fifty-year career that has transformed the history of North American music.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;All of Neil Youngandrsquo;s changes are expertly accounted for here under the sign of the drifter, with its associated features of mobility, flight, and rootlessness. Halliwell unfolds a detailed map stretching from Thunder Bay to Topanga Canyon of a musical career with plenty of scenic drives and detours. Neil Young: American Traveller beckons us to stick out our thumbs and hitch a ride on the ongoing journey.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;In a half-century of music, Neil Young has been a sort of andlsquo;mindful drifter,andrsquo; offering wistful glimpses of the North American landscape from the tour bus window or behind the wheel of a retired hearse. In one moment, heandrsquo;ll nostalgically invoke his Canadian past in a piano ballad and, in another, conjure searing guitar rock about racial injustice in the US. If Young creates a musical map of North America in his songs, then Halliwell has done a wonderful job of annotating it. Neil Young: American Traveller is a pithy work thatandrsquo;s perceptive to the biographical undercurrents, cultural clashes, and thematic motifs that run through Youngandrsquo;s long, eventful music journey.andrdquo;andnbsp;
Synopsis
"This book uniquely and successfully sustains a cohesive analysis of the work, career, and reception of a single artist. That the artist is Neil Young, one of the most confounding and mysterious of rock stars, is an added bonus. Finally someone will explain what's been going on all these years!" --Daniel Cavicchi, author of Tramps Like Us: Music and Meaning among Springsteen Fans
As a writer in Wired magazine puts it, Neil Young is a "folk-country-grunge dinosaur [who has been] reborn (again) as an Internet-friendly, biodiesel-driven, multimedia machine." In Neil Young and the Poetics of Energy, William Echard stages an encounter between Young's challenging and ever-changing work and current theories of musical meaning--an encounter from which both emerge transformed.
Echard roots his discussion in an extensive review of writings from the rock press as well as his own engagement as a fan and critical theorist. How is it that Neil Young is both a perpetual outsider and critic of rock culture, and also one of its most central icons? And what are the unique properties that have lent his work such expressive force? Echard delves into concepts of musical persona, space, and energy, and in the process illuminates the complex interplay between experience, musical sound, social actors, genres, styles, and traditions.
Readers interested primarily in Neil Young, or rock music in general, will find a new way to think and talk about the subject, and readers interested primarily in musical or cultural theory will find a new way to articulate and apply some of the most exciting current perspectives on meaning, music, and subjectivity.
About the Author
Martin Halliwell is professor of American studies at the University of Leicester. He is an author or editor of ten books, including Beyond and Before: Progressive Rock since the 1960s and American Thought and Culture in the 21st Century.and#160;
Table of Contents
Contents<\>Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Words: A Neil Young Reception Primer
2. Unlock the Secrets: Waywardness and the Rock Canon
3. The Liquid Rage: Noise and Improvisation
4. Have You Ever Been Singled Out? Popular Music and Musical Signification
5. You See Your Baby Loves to Dance: Musical Style
6. Will To Love
Notes
References
Index