Books by or about Neil Young: have you read any and what did you think of them? I’ve only read Waging Heavy Peace (by NY) and Stories Behind the Songs by Nigel Williamson. Both are good books - WHP for its conversational honesty and SBTS for its brevity and directness, although unfortunately it only goes up to 1992. I am thinking of reading 2 other books - Shakey by Jimmy McDonough and Neil and Me by his father, Scott. Both of these get such mixed reviews though……
Shakey is essential., although probably missing a big chunk of his later career. Apparently Neil collaborated on the book for a good part of it's gestation, then washed his hands of it.
I've just finished 'Love To Burn' by Paul Williams. It's really a personal analysis of Neil's career by the author, interspersed with chapters reviewing unreleased material the Rock And Roll Cowboy multi-disc pre-NY Archive unofficial compilation (so it's handy to have a copy to refer to). I quite enjoyed it, but it sometimes went a little over analytical for me. If you can find it cheap, worth picking up although it stops at 1996 ... I agree that Shakey is essential, I'd guess that should be next. I bought a used copy from Amazon for virtually nothing a few years back.
Shaky is a great read though the author is too generous with his biases, IMO. (He’s scathing of CSN, for example). What’s interesting too is that Neil was still pretty bulletproof at the time it was written. Unfortunately, the quality of his material has gone down dramatically since. It’s hard to believe the author would be so arrogant in his assessment of NY vs his colleagues if the book were written today. I’m actually reading Neil And Me now, nice to hear his father’s perspective. It’s controversial as you can imagine. (Neil’s Mom was pretty bitter following their divorce.)
I would be interested to read your assessment of Neil and Me when you finish it. Hope you enjoy it. I’m probably in the minority of Neil Young fans in that I really like his album A Letter Home. The parts where he has a ‘conversation’ with his mom and pa, I find heartfelt and charming. I feel there was a lot of love in the family, even if not between parents.
i've read both 'shakey' and 'waging heavy peace' shakey - truly wonderful. a wealth of information and well written. waging heavy peace - not so much, a whole hell of a lot about cars, just unnecessary.
Johnny Rogan's book is by far the best, in my opinion. The attention to detail is very impressive and an accurate critical analysis indeed.
Shakey has been my standard but sadly it needs to be updated. Also: the articles, essays, letters and file cards in the NYA site are a treasure trove on information.
It seems highly unlikely that Shakey will ever be updated as the author and Neil had to fight a court case against each other over the publication of the book. It seems a huge shame as there is so much to write about Neil since 2000 with a lot a great records released. And, as Jimmy interviewed a lot of people who have since passed away, nobody else can possibly write such a book.
David Browne’s CSNY book is another good reference book though it may not make anyone a huge fan of CSNY anytime soon.
Good to hear so much positivity for the Shakey book. I may well have to order it before it goes out of print….
Neil and Me is quite good. Still have my copy from all those years ago. I always liked Scott Young’s sports writing.
I got this early '80's when it first hit the shelves. Was amazed and thought it was a misprint when Rogan stated Neil had something like 1400 recorded unreleased songs in his vaults. Since the first Archives box set and with a third soon to released I think it is clear, it was no misprint.
Shakey and Zero to Sixty are both essential. Both are detailed and critical portraits. Of course Love to Burn is well worth reading since I love the writing of my mentor Paul Williams. I was unable to make it through Neil's own writing. It's about what you would expect from Neil. Idiosyncratic and sometimes frustrating. Neil and Me is interesting and worth a read as well, though a bit less essential than the others.
As several others here have already mentioned, my favorites are Waging Heavy Peace and Shakey. I also thought Special Deluxe contained a lot of great stories Neil tells about his life. Another one I like (which I mentioned in another thread, instigating a trunk load of nasty comments from some folks here disparaging the work of music critic/author of this book, Alexis Petridis- and no, I won't take the bate so fuggedaboudit), is Neil Young from the "Kill Your Idols" series. I didn't always agree with Petridis, but I found his writing and perspective engaging. An interesting collection of articles on Young that I enjoyed reading is Neil Young, The Rolling Stone Files. Definitely worth checking out. A good basic resource book on Young is Glen Boy's Neil Young FAQ. Lot's of detailed info. Also on my shelf but in the "need to read" category is Scott Young (Neil's dad), Neil and Me. I'm told it's quite good.
My favorite: Neil Young "Long May You Run - The Illustrated History" (Daniel Durchholz & Gary Graff) - A must have coffee table book for any Neil Young fan. Would love some of the poster & handbill prints that are illustrated.
Shakey is essential reading when it comes to NY and should have been your starting point. Everything else is periphery around that.
Shakey is one of my favorite music books. I used to leave it in my car to pull out and read whenever I had to wait for something. Yes, the author has strong biases and opinions but he’s so open and clear about them being biases that I think it adds to the book. Jimmy McDonnagah(I think that’s the author’s name) also wrote a great bio on Tammy Wynette, who isn’t someone I listen to but I still found the book a good read.
There are indirect things Young says in Waging Heavy Peace that would indicate Neil hates Shakey. I never could figure out what that was about.
Shakey My favourite music biography.What Neil hating the book is about is that Neil gave Jimmy access to every person in his musical and personal life except Pegi.Then Neil didn’t like the book’s honesty and tried to stop publication.