Neil Young hangs up on reporter, insists he use Pono

I think he's lost it, this is exactly the kind of behavior I expect from ol' Neil going forward.

 

Who woulda thunk it. After all these years, Stills seems to be currently most rational of all four geezers (CSNY); concentrating on making music and staying out of the tabloids.

 

As much as I don't mind poking fun at his surliness, I have to admit that I still love the guy....

And after a couple real misfires last few albums , I actually did like The Monsanto Years quite a bit ...

 

Don't see how...

The music is great but come on...

 

Why? I'm trying to figure out what was so offensive about the remark. The interviewer already listened to this record on some weird Poco system (or whatever the **** that contraption is called). He heard all the weird crud that Neil wanted him to hear. Would Neil want that interviewer to do his dishes as well???

 

So you think it is an obscenely underpriced device that everybody needs?...

Now that would make a great advertising tag-line!...

 

I think it's been safe to say he has been both for 50 years

 

I guess you have to be an old, senile, eccentric, and cranky old man like Neil to get offended about nothing.

 

Maybe I'm getting old and crotchety myself because I would have thought as a prerequisite of an interview to discuss my new album,that you should have listened to it first.Makes perfect sense to me.
Also,starting off by calling it 'bonkers' and 'warning' that it was 97 minutes long raises questions about the interviewers objectivity.

 

You're right, it's my opinion, and I'll defer to you, as a Pono owner, to the extent that you're satisfied with it. But Pono has failed in multiple blind tests against less-expensive gear (including an iPhone) playing similarly encoded files, which doesn't fill me with confidence.

 

Young seems to have this Pono thing up his ass, which obviously he has put a lot of time and money into, BUT!
the most general person doesn't give a **** about hi res audio. 'most' are happy with their mp3/pcm audio that
is on their phones or ipod/pad items. Also, how many times can you keep rebuying music you already have to hear
some sonic differences that you may or may not hear at his prices? it is fine for the audiophile with plenty of cash,
but this won't wash on the general market. For a smart guy, he still shouldn't be a dick in interviews.

 

After over 40 years of bring a hardcore music fan, I have gotten used to ultimately discovering that some of my music heroes have feet of clay, or are even a bit off the beam.

It no longer bothers me as ...if we were all to be perfectly honest...we're all a bit messed up ourselves but fortunately, we're all not on a national platform where people can dissect and broadcast to the world our every foible and eccentricity in close to real-time.

Musicians and artists may tend to be intelligent, sensitive, intuitive people, (you need those attributes , I think, to create), but they are not gods after all. They are flawed, sometimes noticeably so, just as we all are to varying degrees.

The one thing that I do love about the guy is that he has always followed his musical muse, wherever it has lead him, commercial considerations be damned. I have loved his music, merely liked his music, been confused by his music, been indifferent to his music, and even been infuriated by his music. Neil's point of view is , if you like his latest album, great, if you don't, great, maybe you'll like the next one. Just don't assume that the next one will be in any way similar to the last one. There is something both a bit perverse and admirable in that single minded approach IMO.

I hope that he is not stating to succumb to some of the tragic ravages that old age can bring, but maybe he is . I hope not.

But regardless of that , I do respect your opinion as well as agree with you that his music can still be great. I found The Monsanto Years and Psychedelic Pill to both be excellent.

On the other hand, I found Letters From Home, and most of Storytone to be true Neil WTF moments ...

 

You might want to read the entire article - the writer is actually a big fan, going on what he wrote there. It sounds like the rep he spoke to, on the other hand, likely is not.

He spent a few days listening to the new album, prior to the interview.

 

He's a critic. He's paid to be UNobjective.

 

Hmmm....in my computer programmer mind, the opposite of "obscenely overpriced" is not "obscenely underpriced" but "NOT obscenely overpriced". OK, I need a break.

 

I read about the thing he did with "Comes a Time" on his barn roof. Gotta love the old man.

 

It's amazing when a bunch of ordinary pugs posting on Internet forums internalize the absolute worst tendencies of tabloid nastiness—a ginned-up sense of phony outrage (Neil Young hung up on a reporter in a maddened rage!), ugly trolling speculation about Alzheimer's (complete with crackpot stuff about heredity and his parents), and a malignant characterization and marginalization of the stuff he cares about (hi-fi sound, environmental issues) as mental illness. Way to avoid debating the man on the actual merits of his confrontational stances by Kardashianizing the context down to its most moronic level.

It is convenient, though, to have all this flash-mob Neil hate in one nicely consolidated heap of sneering smallness. Happy 4th of July, and enjoy your freedom to embrace those mind-forged manacles!

 

Score.

 

Huh? News to moi.

 

Oh Neil. If you're trying to evangelize and spread the Pono word you've already lost.

If I were the interviewer I'd have hung up on him.

 

Ordinaries. You have to work 9-5 and be a normie to satisfy the artistic needs here.

 

After reading the interview, I'm not sure that I will be bothered buying his new alb (click!).

 

Hasn't Neil always been an unpredictable and grumpy old buzzard?
Suggesting that he's losing his marbles on the basis of a grouchy interview seems a bit of a long shot to me. Seems to me that, on and off he's been treating some interviewers like this for 40 years or more.
It's kind of what you expect with Neil.

 

It's called a divorce

 

yeah, sure, but he still owns the ranch. he said so in the wtf interview with marc maron.

all you people who think neil is suddenly"losing it" might want to check out "human highway".