Neil Young

The perfect gift for music lovers and Neil Young fans, telling the story behind Neil Young's legendary career and his iconic, beloved songs. “I think I will have to use my time wisely and keep my thoughts straight if I am to succeed and deliver the cargo I so carefully have carried thus far to the outer reaches.”—Neil Young, from Waging Heavy Peace Legendary singer and songwriter Neil Young’s storied career has spanned over forty years and yielded some of the modern era’s most enduring music. Now for the first time ever, Young reflects upon his life—from his Canadian childhood, to his part in the sixties rock explosion with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, through his later career with Crazy Horse and numerous private challenges. An instant classic, Waging Heavy Peace is as uncompromising and unforgettable as the man himself.

Neil Young took on the music industry so that fans could hear his music—all music—the way it was meant to be heard. Today, most of the music we hear is com-pressed to a fraction of its original sound,while analog masterpieces are turning to dustin record company vaults. As these record-ings disappear, music fans aren't just losing acollection of notes. We're losing spaciousness,breadth of the sound field, and the ability tohear and feel a ping of a triangle or a pluckof a guitar string, each with its own reso-nance and harmonics that slowly trail off intosilence. The result is music that is robbed of its original quality—muddy and flat in sound compared to the rich, warm sound artists hear in the studio. It doesn't have to be this way, but the record and technology companies have incorrectly assumed that most listeners are satisfied with these low-quality tracks. Neil Young is challenging the assault on audio quality—and working to free music lovers from the flat and lifeless status quo. To Feel the Music is the true story of his questto bring high-quality audio back to musiclovers—the most important undertaking ofhis career. It's an unprecedented look insidethe successes and setbacks of creating thePono player, the fights and negotiationswith record companies to preserve master-pieces for the future, and Neil's unrelentingdetermination to make musical art availableto everyone. It's a story that shows how muchmore there is to music than meets the ear. Neil's efforts to bring quality audio to his fans garnered media attention when his Kickstarter campaign for his Pono player—a revolutionary music player that would combine the highest quality possible with the portability, simplicity and affordability modern listeners crave—became the third-most successful Kickstarter campaign in the website's history. It had raised more than $6M in pledges in 40 days. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response, Neil still had a long road ahead, and his Pono music player would not have the commercial success he'd imagined. But he remained committed to his mission, and faced with the rise of streaming services that used even lower quality audio, he was determined to rise to the challenge. An eye-opening read for all fans of Neil Young and all fans of great music, as well as readers interesting in going behind the scenes of product creation, To Feel the Music has an inspiring story at its heart: One determined artist with a groundbreaking vision and the absolute refusal to give up, despite setbacks, naysayers, and skeptics.

Neil Young is one of rock and roll’s most important and enigmatic figures, a legend from the sixties who is still hugely influential today. He has never granted a writer access to his inner life – until now. Based on six years of interviews with more than three hundred of Young’s associates, and on more than fifty hours of interviews with Young himself, Shakey is a fascinating, prodigious account of the singer’s life and career. Jimmy McDonough follows Young from his childhood in Canada to his cofounding of Buffalo Springfield to the huge success of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to his comeback in the nineties. Filled with never-before-published words directly from the artist himself, Shakey is an essential addition to the top shelf of rock biographies.

Quirky and wonderfully candid, Neil Young's second book of reminiscences is as compelling as his first book. He returns with more unforgettable stories about his six decades in the music business - but this is not your average rock biography. He centres this work on one of his life's passions, cars, using the framework of all the cars he's ever owned to construct a narrative of his life and career, exploring and demonstrating how memories are attached to objects. Young also expresses regret for the environmental impact of his past cars, and now passionately advocates the use of clean energy. 'Special Deluxe' is a mix of memoir and environmental politics by one of the most gifted and influential artists of our time.

"Neil Young is a figure who straddles divisions: he's Canadian and American, folkie and rocker, an old guy relevant enough to be quoted in the suicide note of Kurt Cobain. His brilliant, gnomic, lyrical music has earned him fans of all vintages and persuasions - among them novelist Kevin Chong." "Fast approaching the dreaded age of thirty, Chong is shocked to realize that his boyhood hero is turning sixty. He takes to the road in celebration, crisscrossing the continent with three buddies and a hatbox full of space cakes to visit places central to Neil's life and career. Chong doesn't meet the man in his travels, but that was never his intention. Instead, his brief vacation from adulthood - recounted to hilarious effect in these pages - teaches him something about rock 'n' roll, contrarianism, being cool, and aging gracefully: staying Young."--BOOK JACKET.

DIVSince his first recordings with Buffalo Springfield in 1967, Neil Young has been described as brilliant, cantankerous, confounding, ruthless, mercurial, and vexing. Regardless, his profound musical influence and his status as a critical favorite cannot be denied. Now the first illustrated biography to span Young’s 40-plus years as a recording and touring musician (and nearly as many forays into divergent musical genres, some wags might say), is updated through 2012./divFrom Young’s earliest days in the Canadian folk and rock scenes through his tenures with Buffalo Springfield and CSN&Y and on to his varied solo career backed by bands including the Stray Gators, the Ducks, the Bluenotes, Booker T. & the MGs, Pearl Jam, and, of course, Crazy Horse, every aspect of Young’s long and varied career is covered. The book features the work of rock photographers from the 1960s to the present, as well as concert posters and ephemera from around the world, including picture sleeves, LPs, ticket stubs, pins, T-shirts, backstage passes, and more. Notable musicians from around the world chip in with commentary, and the book is further complemented with a discography and sidebars examining topics like Young’s involvement with Lionel toy trains (of which he is a part owner), Farm Aid, and San Francisco’s Bridge School.

NEIL YOUNG FAQ: EVERYTHING LEFT TO KNOW ABOUT THE ICONIC AND MERCURIAL ROCKER

“A supremely compelling chronicle” of Neil Young’s early life (Rolling Stone). Covering the years from 1945 to 1966, this book documents the childhood and teenage life of Canadian musician and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Neil Young. From his birth in Toronto through his school years in Florida, Ontario, and Manitoba, the book examines the development of Young’s unique talent against a backdrop of shifting postwar values, a turbulent family history, and a musical revolution in the making—and includes many previously unseen photos and set lists. “Not only takes us on Neil’s voyage but also uncovers life in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s in Ontario and Manitoba . . . Wonderful.” —Bernie Finkelstein, author of True North: A Life In the Music Business “Having covered Neil Young for a good portion of his career, I thought I knew everything there was to know about the man and his music. I was wrong. Sharry Wilson’s book, marked by enormous depth of study and research, opens windows into Young’s early life and creative development I never knew existed.” —Dave Zimmer, author, Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Biography