0:15

Pushkin. Even

0:20

if you've only listened to Broken Record a few times,

0:23

you've likely heard Rick Rubin absolutely

0:25

gush about Neil Young. Neil

0:28

has been on the show three times now, and his legendary

0:31

body of work has been brought up by more

0:33

musicians interviewed on this show than likely

0:35

anyone else except for maybe Joni Mitchell.

0:38

That's because Neil is a true artist.

0:40

He's been writing and singing songs since the early

0:43

sixties, and his creative output has been

0:45

near constant and in my opinion, virtually

0:47

flawless for the last six decades.

0:51

Neil recently stopped by Shangri La following

0:53

the release of Crazyhorse's latest

0:55

album, World Record. The album

0:57

was produced by our own Rick Rubin, and on today's

1:00

episode, Neil talks to Rick about the

1:02

remarkable way the new songs were conceived.

1:04

Neil also reminisces about recording after

1:06

the gold Rush and Harvest and lanes,

1:09

how THHC changes his relationship

1:12

to music. This

1:16

is Broken Record Liner notes for the

1:18

digital age. I'm justin Mitchman. Here's

1:21

Rick Rubin and Neil Young. Thank

1:23

you so much for coming and talking to me today. It's

1:26

my favorite thing. It's a favorite of mine

1:28

too. Rick. We're like a couple of birds

1:30

of a feather here and sitting

1:33

here in your studio, this

1:36

beautiful place that I was in almost

1:38

fifty years ago with Robbie

1:41

and Rick. And tell me about

1:43

that. Well, you know, the

1:46

board was smaller, it was a quad eight.

1:48

It was up against the wall more that way.

1:50

There was no area here. It

1:53

was a little too crowded, but it wasn't bad.

1:56

We had a good time. You know. I wasn't making music

1:58

with him or anything. I was down

2:00

here with I was with

2:02

Bob. He was in here, Dylan

2:04

was in here, and I played him a couple of songs.

2:07

I played him Cortez,

2:10

and he liked Cortez and

2:12

he played in the recording and you played it for him. I just

2:14

played it, just played it on the

2:16

guitar. Yeah, in a little room down there.

2:18

Yeah, And I was playing it for him, and I played it

2:20

and then I played him, you know,

2:22

I mean, the guy is so great. I

2:25

just had to play these songs. So I

2:27

played this other song. Uh, it's

2:29

called Hitchhiker, and it's

2:32

it's a song about every drug I ever took.

2:35

And it tells a story of you know, being

2:37

straight and get you know, just everything all

2:40

the way through it chronologically,

2:43

through this whole long story. And

2:45

at the end of the song he said, he looks at me,

2:47

he goes, that's a very honest

2:49

song, Neil, And that was it

2:52

was. It wasn't good, It wasn't

2:54

bad. But yeah,

2:59

have you seen his new book? Yep,

3:02

it's cool. Yeah. I started listening to the audio

3:04

version of it. It's really cool. I'd

3:07

like to listen to the audio. Did he do it? He

3:09

did parts. He did parts

3:11

in a bunch of guests. But it's cool. It's cool

3:14

the way it's put together with the different people and his

3:16

voice cool. Yeah, it's

3:18

amazing. I've been doing interviews, you

3:20

know, for the record. Yeah. I don't usually

3:22

do interviews like this, but I love this record.

3:25

I love it so much and I want people

3:27

to know that I'm alive. Yeah, you know,

3:29

it's a very basic thing. Well, I haven't

3:31

heard from Neil Young in a long time. Where

3:35

is Neil Young? What happened? Well, I stopped

3:37

playing a couple of years ago, and

3:39

so I haven't been anywhere. There's been

3:42

three farm aids in a row I've missed, and

3:45

the same with the Bridge School and all that, But

3:50

I don't really miss it that much. I

3:52

liked playing music. I've made a lot of

3:54

records. I've made many records

3:56

during that period of time, three brand new

3:58

ones, and you know, so

4:01

I feel really good about that. What's

4:03

the longest you've ever gone not

4:06

playing with Crazy Horse? Probably

4:09

a year and a half or something. So

4:11

it's max. It's been a constant

4:13

in your life for fifty years. Yeah,

4:16

amazing since nineteen seventy sixty

4:19

nine seventy. When you

4:21

write new songs, do you always

4:24

know in advance whether this is something you

4:26

want to record with Crazy Horse or not? No,

4:29

I really don't. I don't, but usually

4:32

you know, I'm hanging out with them when I write it, and

4:34

you know, it's just happens

4:36

like a song that I would

4:39

anything that's spacey, anything

4:42

that's got any cosmic vibe

4:44

to it at all, it's got to be Crazy

4:47

Horse because that's the loosest

4:48

that it can be, and

4:51

simple and loose, and that's what I like.

4:54

When you play with other musicians,

4:56

does it change the way you play? Oh?

4:59

Yeah, how does it? I don't know,

5:02

but I'm different. I don't. It's not the same

5:04

as playing with the Horse. Yeah, I

5:06

mean I've become I think I just I

5:08

play the song, then I deliver the song,

5:10

and I try to immerse myself in it. I'm playing

5:12

with promise of the reels. A lot of fun. And

5:16

we even done some stuff here in this studio that

5:18

was pretty cool. And uh,

5:20

there's one that I laugh in. I

5:23

don't know what I'm laughing in it,

5:25

and we recorded it right here at Changer Law and

5:27

it has to do with going

5:30

to a fair or a circus or something,

5:32

and it's wild. Do

5:35

you always know what the songs

5:37

are about when you're writing them? No, Usually

5:40

I don't even care. I don't. I just start,

5:43

you know. And with the

5:45

new songs on this record, there's

5:47

no there's no thinking. I mean, everything

5:49

was just the flow was just all

5:52

I wasn't trying to do anything. That's

5:54

why it was so special. That's why I think

5:56

it came out the way it did because

5:59

there's no there's no preconception

6:01

of it. I remember when you first

6:04

talk to me about it before before we recorded

6:06

it, do you explained that the

6:08

melodies came in a way that none had

6:11

ever come to you before they

6:13

were delivered. They came through

6:15

me whistling while I was walking.

6:18

And I realized as I was walking along

6:21

and I was whistling a different

6:23

song every day, because I'd go in these long walks

6:25

every day through the

6:27

forest and stuff in the snow

6:30

and just whistling along.

6:32

And then I remember it, Wow, I

6:34

really had a nice melody. I was whistling

6:36

yesterday and I could hardly bring

6:38

it back. And because I was whist

6:40

seeing a new melody, and that's what made me think,

6:42

Wow, it was a different melody from

6:45

yesterday's melody. What was that

6:47

melody? And I liked it. As I approached

6:49

the part of my walk that

6:52

was the same place I remember seeing whistling

6:54

it, I remembered it. So

6:57

I remembered it, and then I started whistling

6:59

it again, and I got out my flip

7:01

phone and recorded it on my flip

7:03

phone, but I used a movie, you

7:06

know. So I got this partly my thumb

7:09

and partly the sky and some

7:11

trees going by and dogs running

7:13

and footsteps and stuff. But I'm

7:15

whistling along with it. That's

7:17

how I got all those melodies. And every

7:20

day after that, I kept walking,

7:22

and most days I'd have a new melody,

7:24

and I just pulled out the phone and I even

7:27

had harmony parts or bass

7:29

parts and things like that that I put on the phone

7:31

too, that I imagined them, you

7:33

know, like on that one the

7:36

world is in trouble Now there's

7:39

a bass part, and we went through it in

7:41

the studio. I remember it was like, Wow, this

7:43

is a part. We have an idea. It

7:45

was like because none of the other ones even had that. No,

7:48

at what point did you realize this

7:50

could be a collection of songs to

7:52

record? Well, you know, I was.

7:55

It was last April, and

7:57

I was thinking I

8:00

had that song Break the Chain, which

8:03

I wrote before I did my previous album

8:05

barn I wrote that just as

8:07

COVID started. It

8:10

was about COVID. So I was walking in

8:12

the same general area, but

8:14

this time I'm walking and I'm writing the words

8:17

on a piece of paper and the melody's

8:19

really kind of a blues melody, so

8:22

you can't you know, you don't need to write it or whistle

8:24

it or anything, and you kind of know it from the from

8:27

I just remembered it. So I did

8:29

that, and then later

8:31

that winter, I was in Canada

8:34

and I have a piano there that was in the house

8:36

I was in and I wrote

8:39

Chevrolet on the piano, which

8:41

is interesting because it's this huge, long guitar

8:43

song. I did it totally on

8:45

the piano over the period of about

8:47

a month, where I passed by on the piano

8:50

and stopped and play a minute and then keep

8:52

on going. And well, I was there the

8:54

last time. I noticed all the lyrics are still sitting

8:56

there on the piano, and it

8:59

reminds me I should get those. But so

9:05

anyway, yeah they did. And then the other

9:07

eight I'm thinking. I was thinking,

9:10

hey, I'd like to make a record. It'd be fun horses

9:12

available, and I

9:14

said, I don't have any songs. And when I talked

9:17

any songs, then I started thinking,

9:19

uh, wait a minute. I

9:22

got all those melodies whistling,

9:24

and then I got the flip

9:27

phone out and recorded all

9:29

of the recordings from the flip phone. I

9:31

put the phone down on top

9:33

of the computer and made another movie

9:36

of just the you know the

9:41

yeah, yeah, the phone

9:43

is seeing to a microphone yea, and

9:45

yeah, there's no phone speaker

9:47

to the microphone of the computer. So

9:50

I put it down and I remember and I copied

9:53

all of the whistling and they were like fifty

9:55

eight tracks but

9:57

I had multiple tracks for each song, and each

10:00

day was different, and so I had to

10:02

organize it. And then I found out at the end

10:04

I had nine, maybe ten

10:06

or eleven different melodies, and

10:09

eight of them seem to be pretty

10:11

darn close to, you know, a whole

10:13

thing melody wise, but

10:16

to just whistling, no idea, what

10:18

the chord changes are, no idea,

10:20

no instrument. So that's

10:23

really different for me to have the whole melody

10:25

and be sitting there writing words to

10:27

a melody and

10:30

not knowing the chords, any

10:32

chords, or the instrument or anything. So

10:35

I did that in two days. I wrote all of the

10:37

words.

10:41

It sounds funny, it is. It's funny. It happened

10:43

so fast, and I never rewrote

10:45

anything, I never fixed anything. Everything

10:48

came out right the first time, and

10:50

that's very rare, as it never

10:53

never like that. But it was like that this

10:55

time. So you

10:57

got these two unheard of things that I'm

10:59

you know, for me that I'm doing, And

11:02

then I had to figure out what instrument to do it

11:04

on and what the chords were. And

11:06

as I was doing that, it

11:09

was easy for me to make a video

11:12

of a verse and chorus for

11:15

Billy, so he'd have the changes

11:18

for the base, so I'd do

11:20

a FaceTime video thing to

11:22

him, which I did. I don't know

11:24

how I did it. I think I did a quick time file and

11:26

then I sent it to him or something, but I

11:29

I just did that. At six o'clock in the morning,

11:31

I get up and I go to the organ and

11:33

put the computer down, press record

11:35

and play what it was that I thought

11:38

it was with the one verse and one chorus. So

11:40

we use those things too in the movie.

11:43

Cool. So we got the whistling in the movie,

11:45

and then that and then the studio

11:48

and then we're in then we do it with the band, so

11:51

we have the evolution of these melodies. It's

11:54

so cool that it can't you know that it just came.

11:56

It was wacky. You can't.

11:58

You can't. You can tell that it's mindless

12:02

when you see the footage, it's

12:04

crazy. And when you listen to the

12:07

Our experience of listening to the album has

12:09

been every every time I hear it, I

12:12

hear different things than I heard before. Yeah,

12:14

or if I hear something that sounds wrong, and

12:17

then go back and listen to it again, that's

12:19

gone. That happened with us several

12:21

times we'd have a thing. We'd

12:24

be together and we'd hear something and

12:26

we said something gla and

12:28

then it happened. Yeah, well we'll fix

12:31

that, well, make a you know, make a note.

12:33

We'll come back and the next day we come back

12:35

and we couldn't find it. No, So

12:38

it's remarkable. The whole process

12:41

was strange. Yes, the whole process was strange,

12:43

really different. It was like a gift. It

12:45

was like a gift for us. We didn't have to do any

12:47

work. Yeah, we just you know, we

12:49

thought. We both made records for

12:52

years, and we both like making

12:54

records and we love music, and

12:56

we know about the ways of

12:58

making records. Things that we do, you know, like

13:01

with me, it's like occasional double

13:03

tracking one line or a couple

13:05

of words or something like that to punch

13:07

them out a little. So I just kind of sing

13:09

along and sing a little more when I want

13:12

it and a little less when I don't. And

13:14

so you understood that right away. And bang, when

13:16

I said let's do a double track, it

13:18

wasn't like I'd go in and I'd do it, and

13:20

it was like I was only singing part of the time

13:22

and kind of half singing the rest of the time. But

13:25

it was cool. It wasn't like, hey, well you

13:27

know, I try to sing the whole thing. That

13:30

never happened. Yeah, So on the only

13:32

purpose I think you ever double tracked

13:34

anything was if you couldn't understand here

13:37

or understand the words the first time.

13:39

It was so loud in the room when you're playing and

13:41

you're singing live with the band, Yeah, it's

13:44

hard to get the yeah

13:46

everything, every little nuance. Yeah. So we

13:48

picked out a couple of things and backed

13:51

them up and mixed it

13:53

in and it came out really great.

13:56

I'm just really happy with the record. It's

13:58

one of my if it's one of my favorite

14:01

processes, and the music

14:03

is some of my favorite music I've ever made.

14:05

I mean, how I listened to it.

14:07

It's good, it's really and it's really

14:10

the way that it happened was so magical.

14:13

Even after the way that it happened

14:15

to you, once it got to the studio,

14:18

it was weird. Yeah, It's like

14:20

I remember the first week the

14:22

band was learning the songs, and the

14:24

feeling I got by the end of the first week was

14:27

they might not ever be able to play the songs.

14:29

That was the feeling was like, this

14:31

is like not really happening. Yes, And

14:34

then I thought, okay, well they played through everything,

14:37

even though they couldn't play them, they

14:39

played through them. So probably next week is going to be

14:41

better because now it won't be the first time. And

14:44

then and I remember when you called out the

14:46

song to start the second week with, and Ralph

14:48

said, well, we already played that one. Why would we play that?

14:51

And then

14:53

we went back and we listened to it and it

14:55

was pretty good. Yeah,

14:58

Ralph was right. Ralph was right. Turns

15:00

out yeah, it's crazy.

15:03

We didn't think we got anything. No, it

15:05

turns out we got I think maybe the whole album

15:08

was recorded when we didn't think any of it. We

15:10

didn't think anyone was happening. Yeah,

15:12

and it certainly

15:14

nothing like that's ever happened to me before. For

15:17

sure, nothing like that. No. I mean I'm

15:19

used to the horse getting things on the first or second

15:21

take. Yeah, but this was

15:23

like I had no idea.

15:26

You didn't know the songs. No, I didn't know the songs.

15:28

I was learning how to play it on the pump organ or on

15:30

the piano. And uh, because

15:33

I did want to play guitar. Remember, we'd say to Nils.

15:36

You know, Nils sounds like a guitar lick,

15:39

you know, and we don't really don't want

15:41

to hear. Yeah, you know, we know

15:43

it's great and you played it, but it made it

15:45

sound ordinary when't Yeah, but when we when

15:47

we heard it was like, we really don't want

15:49

to hear a guitar. And then on one or one or

15:52

two songs, I mean you can hear it in

15:54

the room. Yeah, but you

15:56

only thing we featured was

15:58

between the riffs where it'd

16:00

be a clunk and scratch on

16:03

the thing and you know, the pick guards

16:05

all these weird sounds that he was making

16:07

as he was playing between when he played

16:09

his thing. Yeah, and we take his thing

16:12

off and just leave the other things up real loud.

16:14

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We we took out the playing

16:16

and left the noises in between. Yeah. So it

16:18

would go from the noises to the leakage

16:21

of something too. It

16:23

was like we broke every rule that

16:26

wasn't crazy, and we were enjoying

16:28

it very much and seem normal. I mean no,

16:30

but it sounded good. It's like you can't argue with

16:32

the sounds, Like if it sounds good,

16:35

it's right. You know. It was wild

16:38

and then we got what was that one? Uh,

16:40

I think it was The Wonder Won't Wait? Or either

16:42

that or the World is in Trouble

16:44

now one of those two where I was.

16:48

We started doing the harmonica through

16:51

the octave divider with the

16:53

organ on certain notes to

16:55

create this instrument that was like, and

16:58

I get kind of picture, who are these

17:00

guys playing these instruments because I don't

17:02

even know what that kind of instrument that it is. It

17:05

sounded like an old organ

17:08

but with an elect drake funky part

17:10

of it, like two or three notes were

17:13

just jamming, and

17:15

it was weird. It wasn't working

17:17

exactly properly either, I

17:19

don't I don't think, no nothing, that

17:22

fictional instrument was not at its best.

17:24

No, No, it wasn't. But

17:27

it didn't matter. No, So

17:29

you know, we had a blast. We had a really good

17:31

time, the time of a lifetime. Actually,

17:33

I thought, I there's

17:36

nothing I can look at that compares

17:38

to it. Everything else is they're all great,

17:40

And there's a lot of really cool things that we

17:42

did. Yeah, and you know that I

17:44

did with with Crazy Horse

17:46

in the past and everything, and

17:49

the stuff we did in the studio in the nineties

17:51

was cool too. I mean, I've still got that and actually

17:53

getting ready to put it out in the archives because

17:55

it's some of it's really cool. Yeah,

17:58

there's a couple of really cool songs there,

18:00

but they're not like this,

18:02

this was what is this? Yeah,

18:05

it's definitely new music. Yeah,

18:07

it's new very old music,

18:10

very old new music. Because something

18:12

is like if the song sounded like

18:14

a folk

18:17

songs from the

18:19

forties, or they sound like songs from

18:21

before you ever wrote songs. Somebody

18:23

else wrote these first, and here

18:25

I am and and I don't

18:28

know, he kind of got us mosis or something.

18:31

It's strange, it really is, man, So

18:33

we gotta we just gotta be thankful

18:35

because we got a gift and we will find out

18:37

if other people think so. Yeah, either

18:39

way, I think it works out fine.

18:43

We got to experience it and we did. I'm glad

18:45

people get to hear it. Yeah, I am too, And whatever

18:48

they think is fine. I think they're gonna like it.

18:50

I've got a couple of reactions from people who

18:52

are like whoa, whoa,

18:56

and I'm going, well, you know, it's it's

18:58

me and crazy Horse and we're just doing

19:00

what we do. And if you listen to it, that

19:03

way you can say that's what it is. But the fact

19:05

that I only play guitar on what

19:07

three songs I think, Oh, I did overdubbed

19:09

a note or two on another song that's

19:12

chords, power chords I put on

19:14

one of the I don't think it ever really

19:16

sounds like guitar. No, No,

19:20

we had a great time. We ought

19:22

to be thankful. Let's be thankful.

19:25

So cool. Have any new songs come to you

19:27

since now? Do they

19:29

typically come in bunches like

19:31

that over the course of your life. Well,

19:33

there's nothing typical about this bunch. But

19:37

usually what happens is as soon

19:39

as I finish an album, I'm

19:41

starting to think about other things, and other music

19:43

starts coming in my head. Finishing

19:46

this album, not being able to play it and

19:48

have it come out for six months after we finished

19:50

it because of the way things are with

19:52

vinyl and everything else. That

19:55

was very weird. But I haven't

19:57

got any new songs. I have not

20:00

thought of any new songs. All

20:02

I think of is the songs that we did and

20:05

for months I was still listening

20:07

to it, and I'm going one of my do

20:09

it, let's do this, I did this. Could you imagine

20:12

how you would play these songs live because

20:14

it kind of is its own thing. I don't

20:16

even know how you do it live. I don't know either,

20:19

but we did it live. Yes, No,

20:21

I know that, so we yes. I

20:24

just can't imagine that they would sound

20:27

you know, pump organ, electric guitar,

20:29

bass and drums, pump organ

20:32

accordion. But I

20:34

think though that probably would sound

20:36

good if we if we got to

20:38

do them. We'll see what happens,

20:41

yeah, I hope. So I'd be curious

20:43

to see what that is. Yeah,

20:45

I would be too, I would be. But

20:48

things move along and they move on, you know,

20:50

and Nils is you know, Nils is

20:52

part of the Eastet band, so Bruce

20:54

is probably going on a megatour.

20:57

So Nils is gone, and

20:59

Nils is like what I'm

21:02

I can't be in two places at

21:04

once. Yeah, because he was, you

21:07

know, really into this. I mean, we were all

21:09

really into it. So actually

21:12

I feel I feel for Nils a little bit because

21:15

I know he wants to be here with us. You

21:17

know, he's with Bruce, and that's Bruce

21:19

has been there for him for years and years,

21:22

and that's an old old thing. Now. It

21:24

was amazing to me that you played with Nils

21:27

before Bruce did. I didn't. I wasn't aware

21:29

of that until this. Oh yeah, this project

21:32

Nils is on after the gold Rush

21:34

Wild. Yeah, he plays piano

21:36

on After the gold Rush.

21:37

And you wanted him to play

21:39

piano because he couldn't play piano, Is that correct?

21:41

Yeah? Well he

21:44

played accordion, right, so

21:46

I knew he could play piano, right, And

21:48

I knew, you know, he's a music he's

21:51

everything, you know, So I just didn't

21:53

want him to sound like he really knew what he was doing

21:56

so sure of himself, you know, because

21:58

that wouldn't go with everybody else. We

22:05

had a good time. It's amazing that you found

22:07

guys who you can play with for fifty years and

22:09

still sound like maybe

22:12

it's not going to happen. Yeah, it's amazing.

22:14

Yeah. Well, Nils is a great,

22:16

great musician, and we'll miss him

22:19

when he's out there with Bruce, but he'll be back

22:22

for sure, and uh, you know, we'll

22:24

just wait around, let's see what happens,

22:27

and uh, if I do anything anything

22:30

else in the meantime, yeah, I've

22:32

asked Micah, Mica and Nelson

22:34

and he'll step in and be with the horse.

22:37

So you know we were ready to rock. If

22:40

we decide to go out, we're

22:42

gonna take a quick break and then we'll be back

22:44

with Rick Rubin and Neil Young. We're

22:51

back with more from Rick Rubin and Neil

22:53

Young. Is it different writing

22:56

a song on guitar versus piano? For

22:58

you? You know, they're

23:00

all the same. It's just wherever

23:03

I am and whatever it is. I don't

23:05

have much method. I just

23:08

I'm just there in it, and I

23:10

never try. I only

23:12

do it if it happens. If I hear

23:14

a melody and I start seeing

23:17

a keyboard or a guitar or listening,

23:19

then I'll pick it up and try it, and then

23:21

I'll stay with it until I don't hear it anymore. Usually

23:24

that's how a song arrives. But in the last

23:26

six months since we finished this, I haven't heard anything.

23:29

But over the course of your life, there's been no rule

23:32

of how and when it comes it comes. At

23:34

first, it was all guitar because I could hardly

23:36

play piano. At any point, did you pack

23:39

this piano, like, did you decide I want to be able

23:41

to play pianomore? Yeah, when I was in high school

23:43

or there was a piano downstairs, and we

23:45

lived in a triplex and my

23:48

mom and I were on the top floor, and

23:50

then in the basement there were some college

23:52

guys. Outside of their room

23:55

was a piano. So the piano wasn't

23:57

really in their room. It was at the bottom

23:59

of the stairs, understood, And

24:01

then then you went into their room. It

24:04

felt like their space or kind of.

24:06

But that's how I learned to play what's

24:09

the name of that song by the

24:11

Marquis Dana Doo

24:14

doo doo doo doo doo

24:16

doo, do not last dance

24:20

something? Let me check on Marquis, Yeah,

24:22

Marquis check. Maybe I can even play it, let's

24:24

see. Anyway, I learned how to play

24:26

that on the piano and kind of a very

24:29

vanilla fashion because they were pretty

24:31

funky. What the heck is the name? And that's I

24:33

think they might have been from New Orleans last

24:35

night last night. That's it. Let's

24:38

see.

24:49

So would you have heard that on the radio? Yeah?

24:52

So I learned how to play that on the piano. It's the first

24:54

song I learned how to play. And it sounds

24:56

like if you could play that on the piano, you could play a lot of

24:58

songs because it was all of the songs

25:00

that I can play. Now, that's

25:03

basically all I know how to do. Luckily,

25:07

a lot of songs go like that. Yeah they

25:09

Yeah, now that was fun. So

25:12

that's how I started when I was in high school of playing

25:14

a piano on that thing. Yeah, I

25:16

just thinking about the h the

25:18

process of having a melody

25:21

and figuring out chords. Did you

25:23

figure out all the chords using the pump organ

25:25

or or different instruments to find

25:28

them? Pump organ was mostly

25:30

what I used sometimes, the upright piano.

25:33

The song Chevrolet

25:36

I learned on the guitar from

25:39

the piano. And then

25:41

the other song that I did was Break

25:44

the Chain, and I just

25:46

played that on guitar because it was, you

25:49

know, obviously a guitar song.

25:52

But really the first

25:54

time I played it was well,

25:56

we played it, and that's the one that's

25:58

in the record. Yeah, you can tell

26:00

it's it's we just pick up

26:02

the beat in the beginning, it kind of finds itself,

26:05

and that was the first time we played it. We played it a

26:08

few times after that, but on them were anything like

26:10

that. Yeah, I mean they were good. We got through

26:12

it, yeah, but it wasn't like that one

26:14

that is a thing that normally you

26:17

know how to play the song and the band maybe

26:20

has never heard it. Yeah, so they

26:22

can follow you because you're solid

26:25

and they're they're accompanying

26:28

your performance. Yeah. And then but you get

26:30

it. Yeah, but in this case, you

26:32

don't really know the songs because you

26:34

didn't write them the way they normally come now.

26:37

But both Chevrolet and Uh and

26:40

the other song that we were just talking about, both those

26:42

songs break the Chain and Chevrolet,

26:45

we're both take one, Yeah,

26:47

I mean Chevrolet. We did six more versions

26:50

after that. Yeah, but they weren't better. They weren't like, they

26:52

weren't better than that one. There were a couple

26:54

of minutes and a couple of the other ones. That's

26:57

an interesting thing too, that sometimes you gotta go

26:59

past it to know which is the horns,

27:01

like you never you never know until you go. You

27:04

gotta go buy it exactly and experience

27:06

well, just as good as that was.

27:09

Yeah, And we know from

27:11

past experience that coming in the next day

27:13

and trying it again does work. Yeah,

27:16

that's hardly ever works with me. We

27:19

try to get it. I try to get them so I know the songs

27:22

well enough to do them

27:24

and so I had all the lyrics, I had everything

27:27

done it. You know, everything was ready, you know,

27:29

I wasn't. You know. Chevrolet was a

27:31

big song with a lot of changes, and

27:33

I jammed on the changes with the band for

27:35

a while without singing it. You

27:38

know, we did that before we played it. And

27:40

then the good thing about that is, you know,

27:42

when you start playing the stuff and

27:45

you're playing it, it's the first time. It's

27:48

the first time I heard it, yeah, and

27:50

the first time they heard it, and we were all playing

27:52

it together, and it just grows

27:55

and there's something there

27:57

is. There's something to that that I really enjoy.

28:00

And that's the way I try to make records. There's

28:02

definitely an excitement when you don't know

28:04

what it's going to be when you get to

28:06

hear it, yeah, and it's exciting.

28:09

It's got to go into your playing, you know, you

28:12

have to play it differently when

28:14

you're feeling the thrill of experiencing

28:16

it for the first time. Yeah,

28:18

Like in Chevrolet, when we get to

28:20

the second instrumental after

28:23

the intro and then the first verse and it

28:25

comes back and this is now worth three

28:27

and a half four minutes into the song and

28:30

the first repetition happens. Yeah,

28:33

and so you figure it's got three verses,

28:36

so it's like, you know it. You know it's

28:38

going to be a journey. So we started playing

28:41

that and I was playing the guitar riff and I

28:43

can hear it, and I'm going this,

28:45

it's cool, this is good, and

28:48

we just keep doing them and

28:50

just advancing along, and it's

28:53

like a long trip in a car, you know, sometimes

28:55

the road is great, sometimes it's not. Yeah,

28:59

it's real, it's real. It's real. That's

29:01

why I think that hangs in there for whatever

29:04

fifteen minutes. Yeah. It's also

29:06

after like some of the solo sections

29:09

are so long and

29:11

deep that when you come back

29:14

and singing, it's strange

29:16

like that, there's still there's a song going on

29:18

it because we've do you know what I mean, it's

29:20

a new verse. This it's like, wow, there's

29:22

still a song. Yeah, because where we've

29:25

gone a long ways away.

29:27

Yeah, that's right. That's a special. It's

29:29

a special in that song because of that.

29:32

The verses are over two minutes

29:34

each verse. That's a long verse.

29:37

Yeah, And you know that came from writing

29:39

it on the piano and developing

29:41

all the chord changes. And I just didn't feel

29:43

like it was time to repeat anything. I

29:45

didn't want to go back. I wanted to keep on going.

29:48

And the parts are cool, like one part

29:50

after another. It's a cool part, that another

29:52

cool part, and another cool part. If you

29:54

don't analyze the music of

29:56

it, it doesn't feel strange or like it's long.

29:58

It doesn't feel long, No, it does. It just

30:01

flows really naturally. Yeah,

30:03

we're lucky. We were very fortunate.

30:05

We got a gift, that's how I look

30:07

at it, and we're we're in

30:09

the right place at the right time. At

30:12

what point in your life would you say you listen

30:14

to the most music. Probably

30:16

I'd say I listened more in the

30:19

sixties and seventies. You

30:22

think because it was just new to you. Yeah,

30:25

I think so. I used to

30:28

like to listen to things over and over again and hear

30:30

them. Now I just uh,

30:33

if I hear it once, I know, you know. But

30:36

these songs I like to listen

30:38

to over and over again. Yeah, I think

30:40

because it's so abstract

30:42

what's going on. I mean, it's funny way to describe

30:45

it, because it's they are as

30:47

songs. They're pretty straightforward songs, pretty

30:49

straight ahead. Yeah, but for some reason.

30:52

The paintings of them are pretty

30:55

abstract. Yeah, yeah, I don't know how

30:57

that happened, man, I just I just know

30:59

that we're here and we were all

31:01

together, and I remember i'd look at Ralph

31:03

after we finished, because that's the barometer. You

31:06

just look at Ralph and you can tell whether you got it or

31:08

not. And it was not because he's going, hey, that

31:10

was great. It's not like that. No, it's

31:12

a body thing, you know. And

31:15

uh, at

31:17

the end of Chevrolet it

31:20

ends, and then there's a break

31:22

and nobody's saying anything much, and then Ralph

31:25

says to Billy, how

31:27

long was that song? And

31:30

Billy looks at Ralph and goes, not

31:32

long enough. It's

31:38

crazy. Yeah, it's still high school for a crazy

31:40

horse. Oh yeah, it's unbelievable. And

31:44

then oh yeah. And then somewhere in there Ralph's

31:46

Ralph told Neils, he said, you know,

31:49

I think you're playing a little timid, and

31:53

Neils went off to Timid. You

31:56

know, it's funny,

31:59

but only in a you know, in

32:01

a high school kind of group way would

32:04

you have these comments. And you know,

32:06

this ship and it's all so real

32:08

with these guys, so it's amazing. I enjoy it,

32:10

man, I really truly do. I'm glad we got

32:12

to share that. Is there every time

32:15

with the songs that happen over the course

32:17

of your life, When you're

32:19

writing them, you don't really know what they're about. Is

32:22

there ever a time later

32:25

where it's like, oh, maybe this is about this. Do

32:27

you ever have insights into the songs

32:29

later? No, I really don't.

32:32

I don't have any insights in the one

32:36

song I was thinking of when you started saying that was

32:38

I did a song called will to Love and

32:42

I did it on a cassette player

32:45

sony cassette, sitting on the

32:47

hearth of a fireplace with the fire burning,

32:49

and I'm sitting there in the middle of the night, playing

32:52

my guitar and playing this song which I just

32:55

had written, which I was writing. So

32:57

I wrote the words and had them all

32:59

written out, and then I started playing it. And

33:02

I only did it once and that

33:05

was it. And then a couple of months

33:07

later, I was here in Malibu

33:10

up on that Indigo ranch.

33:12

Yeah, I was up there with Briggs

33:16

and we did the recording up

33:18

there of where I overdubbed all

33:20

the other instruments, you know. I played

33:22

drums. I played bass

33:25

in a certain area. Suddenly kind of

33:27

a jazz band joins in and

33:29

plays for maybe four or five or six bars

33:32

and then stops. It's very

33:34

weird. It's like a big sketch the

33:36

whole thing. And so I sketched in background

33:38

vocals that I couldn't sing the same thing at

33:41

two parts at the same time that I

33:43

knew they had to be there for it to make sense. And

33:46

the song was about a fish,

33:49

a fish swimming, a salmon

33:51

trying to make its way up the river. So

33:54

I really didn't know what I was thinking

33:56

about, but it was just that the

33:58

salmon had had the will to love.

34:01

The salmon wanted to go and

34:03

get to this place, and that's that

34:05

was it. So that's that's the whole

34:08

thing. What was it like working Briggs? Briggs

34:11

was great, brings a lot like you. He

34:13

was. You guys are very similar. Briggs

34:16

is different, you know, definitely

34:19

his own unique guy. But he

34:21

wasn't shy about what he knew how

34:23

to do, wasn't shy about organizing

34:26

things, telling people what to do. And

34:29

uh, well, Briggs was a good engineer.

34:31

Yeah, he was at the board at Hyder

34:33

all the time. When we recorded it on

34:36

Selma and Coega there and

34:39

we recorded. Everybody knows he was at the board.

34:42

He was at the board during my first album.

34:45

And we went out and I

34:47

remember recording somewhere

34:50

out in Glendale. I was a pipe organ in

34:52

a building and I used it

34:54

on a song called I've Been Waiting for You and

34:56

went out and recorded that pipe organ. That's

35:00

an amazing thing. And then we came back to Hiders

35:03

and we did that whole trip

35:05

with it. But Briggs is great.

35:07

Briggs is great, and you know, so I look

35:09

at you. Two guys are like brothers as far as I'm

35:11

concerned. Her brothers who never met.

35:14

How do you first meet Briggs? I was

35:16

walking down to Panga Canyon Boulevard

35:19

Old to Panga on

35:21

my way to go to the Canyon Kitchen

35:24

to have breakfast. And I'm

35:26

walking along and this

35:29

World War two army vehicle drive

35:32

spy and that

35:34

stops in front of me and I

35:36

walk up to it and there's two guys in there,

35:38

and one guy says he want to ride. I

35:41

said, sure, I'm just going down

35:43

to the Canyon Kitchen that we'll

35:45

give you a ride down there. So that's how I met him.

35:47

Had you ever recorded at this point? Oh?

35:50

Yeah, I made the Buffalo Springfield Records.

35:53

I had not made my first solo record.

35:56

I was at the point where the Springfield was breaking

35:58

up, and I was living

36:01

at a girl's house, Linda

36:04

Stevens was her name, and I'm

36:07

around a mile and a half walk from where she us

36:09

to that place, and somewhere along there

36:11

along comes this old you know, it's like it's not

36:13

like a Humby or something that was, but

36:15

it was an open military

36:18

vehicle, like a giant jeep,

36:20

huge, big tires and everything.

36:23

And it was Briggs and somebody

36:25

else I can't remember who it was. That's

36:27

how we met. And then on the way back,

36:30

they showed me where they lived, where he

36:32

lived. He took me in there and

36:34

I looked at it and I said, wait,

36:37

this is where Stills used to live. Stills

36:41

was having a party out there we were, and

36:43

we all got busted, and so we ended

36:45

up going to jail for smoking weed, and

36:48

we all got you know, we got out and everything was

36:50

okay, but that's

36:52

a Springfield days. Then

36:55

Briggs is living there and I

36:57

recognized the place, and sudden I'm going,

36:59

hey, I've been here before and then,

37:01

uh, you know, I would since it was just down

37:03

the road, I'd go visit him, and he

37:06

was doing Murray Roman. I

37:09

don't know Murray Room. He was a comedian and

37:12

Briggs was recording him, and he also

37:14

was getting here. I think he recorded Spirits

37:17

first album, How Cool, And

37:19

you know he was doing stuff like that and just getting started.

37:22

And we just started talking about

37:25

Megan Records and we

37:27

made my first record and many

37:30

many more after that. Was it obvious

37:32

when the band broke

37:35

up that you wanted to make solo records as opposed

37:37

to putting together a new band. Yeah,

37:39

I wanted to do a solo because I didn't want to be

37:41

hindered by held back by

37:44

other things, other opinions. Yeah,

37:46

I had a lot of ideas, too many

37:48

songs. I don't enough time.

37:51

Did you feel held back in Buffalo Springfield?

37:53

Not really. That was a great band.

37:56

I just had more songs than I could

37:58

put in the band because there

38:00

were you know, Stephen was

38:02

writing, Richie wrote, and I

38:04

was writing, and Bruce and Dewey

38:07

didn't write. But I could write enough

38:09

songs for an album myself. And the time that it

38:11

would take the Springfield to get

38:13

ready to record an albums, So

38:16

I wrote a lot of songs. Do

38:19

you remember the first time you heard

38:21

Crosby Stills in Nash?

38:24

I think it was after that record came out.

38:26

I listened to some of it, and

38:28

and I because Stephen. I always missed Stephen,

38:31

and what's Stephen doing? You know? And

38:34

I could hear him, what are you doing? I

38:36

could hear he was producing and playing a

38:38

lot of instruments and doing that. And I

38:40

could hear that in the tracks for

38:42

the first CSN album, And

38:46

I knew he could do that, But I like

38:48

playing with him live better. Yeah,

38:51

he's a great musician. Yeah.

38:53

He had a lot of great ideas, and he

38:56

had big, big ideas,

38:58

big beautiful ideas.

39:02

Yeah, he was an amazing talent.

39:05

A lot of respect for Stephen. Do

39:08

you feel like he would push you to

39:10

be better or was his greatness

39:12

something that would make you better? Oh? Definitely.

39:15

He was just so naturally good. Yeah,

39:18

kind of singing was great. What

39:20

a singer. He was learning

39:22

how to play guitar and singing

39:25

great, and learning how to play

39:27

piano, and he just never stopped

39:30

growing, just kept growing. And

39:32

that was a lot of fun. How did

39:35

you end up joining that band, a

39:37

CSN band. Yeah, Stephen

39:40

came out and asked me if I wanted to join and do

39:43

a CSMY thing because they wanted to go on

39:45

the road. And I

39:47

think almeded To suggested

39:49

to Stephen that Stephen and I play

39:51

really well together and if that was

39:54

happening, that would hold the whole

39:56

thing together. So they never

39:58

toured without you. No, I

40:00

don't think that would have happened, or it might

40:03

have happened, yeah, But the history is they

40:05

put out an album, then decide,

40:08

Okay, if we want to play live, it'd

40:10

be better to do it with you. Yeah, And

40:12

then you play live with them, and did

40:14

you play songs from the first album. I

40:16

didn't play live with them until after we'd done

40:18

Deja Vu. Wow. So

40:21

they never toured for their first album.

40:23

I don't think so that's amazing. We

40:27

went right in and did another one, wow, although

40:29

we did. I think the Greek theater was.

40:32

I remember doing I've Loved Her So Long,

40:34

which was on my first solo

40:36

album. I did it with Graham Nash,

40:39

but I don't remember doing Helpless,

40:43

so maybe we hadn't done Helpless yet. It

40:46

might have been one gig. Yeah,

40:49

you know before we got out there and recorded

40:52

Deja Vu. But I'd have to look

40:54

on If I looked at my archives, I'd be able to figure

40:56

it out right away because Woodstock,

40:59

the gig, happened in between

41:01

right at that time, also, so that

41:03

it'd be the separator. I think

41:06

Woodstock was between Deja Vu and

41:09

CuSn, But it was also one

41:11

of the first times I ever played with CSN,

41:14

So if it was that I was playing with them

41:17

live before we did Deja

41:19

Vu, that would be a

41:22

gig in Chicago, maybe

41:24

the gig in la at

41:26

the Greek Theater and a

41:29

Chicago auditorium gig, and

41:32

then Woodstock. I think that's all

41:34

we did, so I may not when

41:36

we did Woodstock, we

41:39

may not have recorded Deja Vu yet

41:42

because Woodstock the

41:44

song is on Deja Vu. Yeah,

41:47

Joni wrote it after Woodstock. Yeah,

41:50

so that's probably the chronology.

41:53

Do you remember what it was like recording the Deja Vu

41:55

album at all? We recorded a lot

41:57

of it up in San Francisco at Hiders,

42:00

and it was pretty cool. It

42:02

was fun. Good to be playing with Stephen

42:04

again. Yeah, great to be playing with Stephen again

42:06

and in the studio, and those guys

42:08

were great, and they were great in the studio.

42:11

I think that was about the time that did

42:14

Crosby started getting into the free

42:16

base and kind of got out of it,

42:19

but it got him. It's

42:21

too bad. But anyway, he

42:23

you know, we had a good thing going on there for a

42:25

while, but that after

42:27

the drugs and all that stuff

42:29

happened. Maybe that's when we tried

42:32

to do another album that

42:34

he had taken the drugs. But I don't know,

42:37

you saw hazy back. You always planned

42:39

on continuing your solo career, regardless

42:41

of whatever whatever else he would. I mean, you know, I

42:43

had too many songs. Yeah, it was just it

42:46

was a project essentially. Plus I'd

42:48

already done. I think I already done. Everybody

42:50

knows it is nowhere by then. I

42:52

don't know how at all evolved, but it

42:56

feels like there was a stark change from your

42:58

first solo stuff to

43:01

everybody knows or yeah, or even

43:03

after the gold Rush is like really, it

43:06

feels like after the Goldish in some ways is the first

43:09

Neil Young sounding record, you

43:11

know, for do you know what I'm saying?

43:13

Yeah, yeah, how do you think that happened?

43:17

Well, I built a studio in

43:19

my house into Panga and that's

43:21

where we recorded after the gold Rush.

43:24

Before that, I was going into the studio and

43:26

recording more more professional,

43:28

professional studios, like kind of like from

43:31

Buffalo Springfield type of

43:33

thing. Yeah. And then when

43:35

I got together with Crazy Horse, we

43:38

practiced in the house into Panga,

43:40

but we went into Hiders and that's

43:42

where we played all those songs and that

43:44

was so much fun. Still remember

43:46

looking at Ralph when we were doing down

43:48

by the River and he was playing,

43:51

and he just looked at me for a second and he

43:53

just shook his head and looking up in the

43:55

air and

43:56

uh. And he never likes

43:58

anybody to ever look at him.

44:01

Don't ever look at Ralph. Stop, don't

44:03

look at me. He just wants to play, doesn't

44:05

want to make any contact. He just wants to be in the

44:07

music. Yeah, amazing.

44:10

Yeah, it's a great Drummer's amazing

44:12

field drummer. So yeah,

44:15

feel it's all it is. Yeah.

44:17

So some of these songs he stops playing, Yeah,

44:20

but it's works for the song. It's like a big

44:22

Phil Yeah, there are no drums.

44:25

Then he comes back in. Yeah,

44:27

that's pretty wild. He really is one

44:29

of a kind drummer. He really is. Yeah, and

44:31

Billy is a one of a kind based and

44:34

they groove together incredibly

44:36

well. Yeah, Crazy Billy

44:39

is great one note at

44:41

a time, and each

44:43

note is like a universe, yeah

44:46

of soul and sound. Yeah,

44:48

he definitely means it. Yes, he

44:51

really means every

44:53

note. Yeah. So in some ways it

44:55

sounds like the album you recorded at

44:57

home that sort of set the stage for it. Seems

45:00

like most of what's happened since.

45:02

Yeah, even when you're in a professional

45:04

place, you're still approaching it

45:06

in this same way,

45:09

homemade, personal, not

45:12

concerned with the technically right

45:14

way to do anything. No, that's

45:16

what was so different about Harvest, because

45:18

there was I had no idea what I was

45:21

doing. I had never met the musicians

45:23

before Elliot Maser put that all together

45:26

and we went in the studio in Nashville.

45:28

He was in a barn or in a studio in Quadraphonic

45:32

Nashville on sixteenth.

45:34

Yeah, it was this house studio

45:36

with a house with the studio and yeah,

45:38

a lot of studios like that in Nashville.

45:42

A great studio, really good

45:44

sound, and

45:47

that was a lot of fun. Elliot Maser did a great job,

45:49

and you know, so there were four or

45:51

five six songs recorded at that time and

45:53

then but that was in the studio and

45:56

we were sitting there playing like we were making a

45:58

session and more like the Springfield.

46:00

But those for those songs,

46:02

you knew the songs at that point. I knew him

46:04

really well. I was playing them on the road. Great. So you're

46:06

playing them as a solo ARTI like solo acoustic

46:09

and the band had never heard them, and

46:12

they started playing him right away.

46:14

They learned him real fast. Those guys were really

46:16

good. They were like great

46:18

studio players from Nashville. That

46:20

was that was unique. It

46:22

sounds like that probably happened really fast. If you knew

46:25

this das well it did. I

46:27

knew the songs really well. As soon as

46:29

they had the chart they were

46:31

playing what they played. Battery wore

46:33

a great drummer, amazing drummer,

46:36

Tim Drummond, great bass player Ben

46:39

Keith. Ben played with me

46:41

from that moment until when he died. Yeah,

46:44

made a lot of great records with Ben. I

46:47

think there's that BBC concert that you

46:49

did solo with those songs

46:51

before you made the album. It seemed like

46:53

it was before you made the album. Yeah, that was

46:55

during the time of the album.

46:58

If I remember correctly. One of the songs he played

47:00

was not the whole like it was

47:02

a part of one of the songs that ended up being a

47:05

full song on the album. I can't remember specifically,

47:07

but something like that. The

47:09

timing of that, I'll have to check that out in the archives

47:11

and see how it worked. But that's all part

47:14

of the Harvest fiftieth

47:16

anniversary. So Carvest Time

47:19

movie, it's got all that stuff

47:21

in it. And when does that happen? That's happening off

47:23

immediately. Really, this is the fiftieth

47:25

anniversary of Harvests now probably the fifty first.

47:28

I mean we're probably oh, that's unbelievable.

47:30

I know, well, yeah, it was seventy

47:32

one, so this is twenty two. So

47:35

explain the archive. That's

47:39

a good one. You

47:41

know. I collect things so

47:44

and I like the idea of things being in

47:46

order. And then when

47:48

I thought learned about a website, I

47:50

thought, wow, I could just put this all in a build

47:53

a file cabinet and put everything in the file cabinet

47:55

like an old school And

47:57

I just came up with all these ideas

48:00

for how to do it. And it's the same system

48:02

that any archival thing would be just

48:05

in a giant file cabinet, but each

48:07

song has got its own index cards

48:09

and everything about the song is there,

48:12

so you know, it's chronological. Everything

48:15

from the beginnings of the end is all of this time

48:17

going by, and it's your personal

48:20

archive. But it's accessible

48:22

by everybody. Yeah, anybody

48:24

can go and look at it. Check it out if you

48:26

want to listen to all of my music and high

48:29

res I think you have to subscribe

48:31

to do that, but it's all

48:33

there, and I think it's nineteen

48:35

ninety five a year. I

48:38

just don't want to charge for it, you know, I just I

48:40

just don't think. I just

48:43

wanted to be there. Yeah, and

48:45

I probably could make more money from it if I charge

48:47

more, but I don't know. So

48:50

far, so good.

48:51

Yeah, people could

48:53

listen to anything in the

48:56

same quality that they could hear it in

48:58

the world for free. Yeah

49:01

that's only Yeah, you can only you're

49:04

only paying to hear it in a way that you can't

49:06

hear it anywhere else in a higher

49:08

quality. Yeah. Or you can hear

49:10

it on Amazon, yeah, and you

49:12

can hear it on Apple, and you can hear it on cobuzz.

49:15

Those are the three high res services and

49:18

apples. Not all high res. But and

49:20

they're not even like in that thing

49:23

anymore like they were. I don't know

49:25

really what they're doing, but they do

49:27

supply music and you could get to

49:29

stream all kinds of stuff and you can

49:31

get it from them. So they sell

49:33

my stuff high Amazon does high

49:35

res. So anybody who does hi res,

49:37

I'm there for them one hundred percent, yes, because

49:40

I think that's what the music. That's

49:42

the only saving grace of digital is

49:44

that it has high res and we

49:46

need that. We need it to sound good,

49:48

we need it to sound as great as it can. We'll

49:51

be right back with the rest of Rick Ruben's conversation

49:54

with Neil Young. After a quick break,

50:00

here's the rest of Rick Ruben's conversation with

50:03

Neil Young. Tell me about when you first

50:05

heard, because you made a handful

50:07

of albums in digital and digital first

50:10

hit, Yeah, do you remember what the first one

50:12

was? It was around in the

50:14

eighties. After US

50:16

Never sleeps afew was

50:18

Trans after that, Yeah, Trans was

50:20

definite. Trans was on the edge of that eighty

50:23

two. We recorded in on

50:25

analog tape and then we mixed

50:27

it to analog. Trans is actually

50:29

almost a whole analog, but it

50:32

came out on CDs. You know, it

50:34

was getting to be the end of vinyl. After

50:36

that was everybody's rocking. Yeah,

50:39

that was that was all digital. That

50:41

was Mitsubishi thirty

50:43

two track, you know, sixteen

50:46

bit forty four one CD

50:49

quality. And if anytime

50:51

you'll listen to that for very long loud, your

50:54

head hurts. That's what I discovered

50:56

because I always listened loud and long,

50:59

and that's that's when I realized something was

51:01

wrong. When did you

51:03

switch back to recording analog?

51:06

Probably in the nineties again, Yeah,

51:09

I started going back because I wanted

51:11

to have the analog source. And then

51:14

Vinyl started making a comeback. Here's

51:16

an idea. I got an

51:18

idea, let's go check this

51:20

out. Vinyl very popular

51:23

because people when they hear a good Vinyl,

51:25

they love it. Right, So there's

51:27

only one other way to get that. It's

51:29

radio. Remember those old analog

51:32

transmitters on top of the buildings in New

51:34

York and Chicago, Cincinnati

51:37

and Boston. Yeah,

51:40

and they went far, long

51:42

way yeah analog. Yeah,

51:45

So you could play a Vinyl record on

51:48

an analog radio station and

51:51

you never went digital, and

51:53

it would go to everywhere everywhere

51:55

that they had a radio that wasn't

51:58

a digital radio. So

52:00

you'd have to have an analog radio that

52:03

can play can pick up a digital station, but

52:05

it's not a digital radio picking

52:07

up a digital station. But

52:10

that's could be the future of

52:13

great sound is radio,

52:16

AM, radio or

52:18

FM, whatever, as long as it's analog

52:21

because it can be broadcast. Imagine vinyl

52:23

quality. You say how hard it is it to get

52:26

vinyl, but a radio station could

52:28

send it to millions of people. Yeah,

52:31

and it's one step away.

52:34

It's one step away from being possible.

52:36

Yeah, that'd be cool. It would

52:39

be cool. The difference

52:41

between play and what they play? What is it? MP

52:43

three's most of the time on the radio? Yea.

52:46

At the best it'd be a CD, yeah,

52:49

which is not very good compared to analog.

52:51

It's like really not good. And

52:54

if that was coming through people's radios.

52:57

But you know people are now, they're they're

52:59

in this thing about well they did the cars

53:01

digital. This is digital ads digital

53:05

and it still don't realize how much gets

53:07

lost. Digital loses

53:09

it all. I'm really a great amount. Like

53:12

I'm looking out this window and looking out of the beautiful

53:14

green wand and a blue sky and beautiful

53:17

trees and all the detail

53:19

of every little part of everything

53:21

is all there. And if this was

53:24

a digital picture, it going to be

53:26

like there was a screen up, yeah,

53:28

and I was looking through each little hole

53:30

in the screen, But that's

53:33

been averaged out to the dominant

53:35

color in that hole. So

53:37

instead of seeing a universe of color

53:39

when I move up and look through it, I

53:43

get up because that thing and it's all like

53:45

one shade of blue or one shade of green.

53:49

And that's why our bodies don't feel.

53:51

That's why we don't feel the music like

53:53

we used to, because it's not there. It's

53:57

only a reconstitution of something

53:59

that sounds like it for ones and zeros.

54:03

But businessmen love the ones

54:05

and zeros because they can say,

54:07

well, the cheap stuff is

54:10

less numbers. The most expensive

54:12

and best stuff is the high numbers.

54:16

So we'll only sell

54:18

the good stuff to the people with the

54:20

most money. You know, it's not

54:22

really a common thing for everybody

54:25

to have that, so basically

54:27

yet because of that thinking, yeah,

54:29

the floor went to the bottom for quality

54:31

and music. That happened about nineteen

54:34

eighty five. So the regular people get

54:36

the low quality, yeah, instead

54:38

of regular people used to get the high quality.

54:41

That was analog. Everybody got the

54:43

same thing. That was music. That's

54:45

what happened. That's a sad

54:47

thing. As I said, we're having a moment of silence

54:51

for the music. Yes, there

54:55

was a high fi store in Santa Monica that

54:57

I would go to sometimes and listen

54:59

to vinyl and it would frustrate me

55:01

so much because it sounded so good

55:03

there. And I

55:06

decided I can't listen to vinyl because

55:08

I spent all my time. I'm making music for other people

55:10

to hear it, and they don't have vinyl. And

55:13

if that's my reference point, it's

55:16

not achievable. Do you know what I'm

55:18

saying. It's like, it's not it's a different animal.

55:20

Yep. We got to start a radio

55:22

station in La Man and broadcast

55:25

on off and down the West coast. Would be great,

55:27

pirate station. Pirate station, Yeah,

55:29

pirate analog. But you'd

55:31

have to sell people. I'd have to make analog

55:34

radios. I wonder if anyone still makes them. They

55:36

may someone, But

55:40

that's the missing thing. That's so easy.

55:43

Had a cool old car that

55:45

had a AM

55:47

tube radio in it. Oh yeah,

55:50

and then I wanted to listen to music I was working

55:52

on, so I replaced it for a new super

55:55

duper sound system. Never sounded.

55:57

It is good. It really

55:59

never sounded as you

56:01

gotta get that other one back. Yeah,

56:05

that's what the world ought to do. It's

56:08

a cool idea. It is

56:10

a cool idea. Yeah, radio could

56:12

be the future. We can do that. I mean,

56:14

we can do it at very least for ourselves,

56:16

yes, easy. Yeah, So maybe

56:19

we start there, yeah, and then maybe

56:21

it grows. Yeah, Malibu radio, you

56:24

know it's it's possible. Yeah.

56:27

And you you just play analog sources

56:30

through this thing and it sounds

56:32

great and people are going,

56:34

why is my radio sounding so good?

56:37

It's like I got a record player in here.

56:41

That's pretty wild. And

56:43

all the time I spent talking to people about

56:46

this record, and I've done a few interviews

56:48

and some of them. I did one with

56:50

some guy and it's supposed to be this big thing and

56:52

everything, and he starts talking about

56:54

Love Earth like it's the melody

56:57

of Love Earth's actually did you know it's shaboom

57:00

by the crew cuts? And he

57:02

said it's the same changes in the same

57:04

thing and the whole idea

57:06

of the song and everything,

57:09

and that's all he said about the

57:11

music. And this is a guy with

57:14

the big magazine that we do

57:16

every year that my management told me, oh,

57:18

yeah, they've heard this, they heard the

57:20

record, they love it and everything. I'm

57:22

talking to this guy, he has no idea

57:24

what the record is. After that,

57:27

that's when I figured I'm really

57:30

doing some heavy screening on these people,

57:32

and you know they're gonna have to Then

57:34

I spoke to Edna Gunderson, who

57:36

is great and she's

57:39

from AARP. That's how she's

57:41

interviewing for Okay.

57:43

So she's great. She's listened

57:45

to every song and

57:47

she says to me, Neil, what happened

57:50

to music? I remember

57:53

about nineteen eighty five I

57:55

stopped listening. I just

57:57

didn't want to listen anymore. And

58:00

I said, what that was? CDs?

58:03

That's when the digital revolution happened, right

58:05

about then? Yeah, And she

58:07

just looked, you know, she's real And

58:09

I said, yeah, I mean check to

58:11

go back and check the history and

58:14

that she came out of nowhere with

58:16

that date. Yeah, And she

58:18

said, I don't know what happened to music? You

58:21

know, I think the songs that we used

58:23

to sing are the songs that we sing that are songs

58:25

that have emotion in them and everything.

58:28

About them is like echo and

58:31

all the stuff that we have that we the

58:33

way we blended it, the melodies, the

58:35

arrangement, all of the melodic

58:38

content of the lyrics,

58:40

the feeling of the whole thing that

58:43

requires playback

58:46

of the recording that is

58:48

deep and has a universe

58:51

of sound in it, so you can feel all the emotion.

58:54

Now, those are old records that we loved

58:56

were very emotional. New

58:58

records that are big hits are clever.

59:01

Yeah, they're not as emotional

59:04

at all. They're clever and tricky,

59:07

and that's kind of where all of this stuff that's happening

59:09

now it lives. So if you just

59:11

listen to that kind of music, you're not going to hear the difference.

59:15

So everything changed. It

59:17

was interesting when you look back at it and you can't

59:19

figure out how it happened. I don't know how

59:21

it happened, but I know what happened. There's

59:24

even an argument that it sounded

59:26

better before multitrack. You

59:29

know, like if you listen to Frank Sinatra

59:31

recordings from the fifties where

59:33

it's him and an orchestra and it's going

59:36

down live, that's it, and it's

59:38

it. That's it. There's nothing to change. There's nothing

59:40

to mix, there's no you can't do better.

59:42

All it is is that, and

59:45

there's something about it that just hangs

59:47

together in a way that nothing else does. Yeah,

59:50

well there's nothing between it and you. Yeah,

59:53

it didn't have to be mixed. It was already

59:56

mixed, and it went one to

59:58

one big track, and maybe

1:00:00

they recorded it four times and cut

1:00:03

the tracks together to get a good beginning and

1:00:05

a good end, but it was always one

1:00:07

track. Then we went to three track

1:00:09

and four track and started doing the same things,

1:00:11

ping ponging back and forth between two of

1:00:13

the tracks, overdubbing and putting

1:00:16

the chorus vocals and doing those kinds of things.

1:00:19

But it was still a basic track. Was on

1:00:21

two of those. Then they'd mixed to a two

1:00:23

track or a mono, so

1:00:26

that was a generation away from what

1:00:28

franked it in the beginning, from the

1:00:31

straight mono live. Oh

1:00:33

that's the greatest that stuff. Yeah, there's something

1:00:35

about the limitations

1:00:38

of all of the information coming

1:00:40

together right from the beginning, where

1:00:44

the way that it's mixed isn't

1:00:46

electronics, it's it's

1:00:48

something else. It's it's real. Yeah,

1:00:51

it's really what happened, it's really what they or

1:00:53

they might have mixed a few microphones up and

1:00:55

down, yeah, to get to that mono

1:00:57

track

1:00:59

in the room. Yeah, and maybe they

1:01:01

only had three or four mics in the whole room

1:01:04

at the most. Yeah, you know,

1:01:06

because they had everybody to stand in the right place.

1:01:09

Okay, Frank, when you move in one

1:01:11

foot because we need you a

1:01:13

little louder, but stay on

1:01:15

the right, don't stand on the left because you're going

1:01:17

to block the bass. That's the way

1:01:19

it was mixed. Yeah,

1:01:22

so you know, that's pretty good. That's why when

1:01:24

we were doing some backup vocals

1:01:26

would be like okay, Billy, take a step back,

1:01:29

I'll take a step forward. Yeah. Yeah, and

1:01:31

just trying to get that balance

1:01:34

with everybody singing on one mic, and it's like,

1:01:36

okay, it's a little too much of the high voice.

1:01:39

What's it like if we have a little more bass and the next

1:01:41

time none too much bass. Let's go back and

1:01:43

move back yeah, and tiny,

1:01:46

tiny moves. Yeah, but it all made a

1:01:48

difference. Yeah, I did. I'm very, very

1:01:50

proud of the of the vocals that

1:01:53

we did. Somebody was listening to this record, I

1:01:55

mean somebody up in Canada that I played it for

1:01:57

and they said, my God, the vocals.

1:02:00

When these guys come in singing, they sound

1:02:02

great. Who's singing yea? Who's

1:02:08

thinking? Yeah?

1:02:12

Crazy? Okay, here's a good

1:02:15

one. How do you connect to spirit? How

1:02:17

do I connect to spirit? Yes? I

1:02:20

try not to connect to spirit. Okay,

1:02:23

I try to not do anything. If

1:02:25

it's gonna come, it's gonna come. I

1:02:28

just try to stay open. But I

1:02:30

can't get it. You can't stand over a hole

1:02:32

with a gun waiting for it to come out. Spirit

1:02:35

is there or it isn't. You've got

1:02:37

to be in the right place at the right time. How

1:02:40

would you say? THHC changes

1:02:43

your relationship to music. It

1:02:46

enables other things to get lost,

1:02:49

so you're only in the music. After

1:02:52

the session's over, you can't do anything for

1:02:54

a while. But while the session's

1:02:56

happening, you're living in the music. And it's

1:02:58

not because you're not in the music when you're not

1:03:00

high. It's just that because

1:03:03

you're high, you can only focus on one thing.

1:03:05

I see. It removes the distract removes the distractions

1:03:08

you see. You know, that's what

1:03:10

it does for me, and I enjoy

1:03:13

it. So you get so into it, you enjoy it,

1:03:15

you feel it yeah. Yeah,

1:03:17

imagine it's different for different people, like everything.

1:03:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Like

1:03:22

math is not good for getting into the spirit.

1:03:24

I don't think I would. I would imagine math

1:03:26

and spirit not working

1:03:28

harmonically. Well,

1:03:30

we've seen so much good

1:03:33

music being made with hallucinogenic

1:03:38

influences, and then

1:03:40

when the popular drugs shifted

1:03:42

to more other kinds of drugs, music

1:03:45

wasn't as good. No, It's like

1:03:48

the difference between the sixties and the seventies

1:03:50

was different drugs, and

1:03:52

you can kind of hear where it shifts. Yeah,

1:03:55

yeah, you can. Cocaine

1:03:58

had a big effect, and then after

1:04:00

that as things rode along, But

1:04:02

in the beginning, it's it's interesting

1:04:05

to look at music that way, the way it's developed

1:04:08

over the deckcades, and I

1:04:10

think we're you know, we were lucky

1:04:12

to be there, because if

1:04:15

you're just getting here now, it's

1:04:17

hard to pick up on it. You have to go back

1:04:19

in time and check it out. It

1:04:22

almost feels like it's a different thing now.

1:04:26

I don't know what it is. Yeah, but I'll say

1:04:29

I'll say it's not that it's

1:04:31

bad, it's just different.

1:04:33

Yeah, it's just different. Really is different?

1:04:35

Yeah, No, it's what people

1:04:38

need now it's what they it's in the

1:04:40

neighborhood that where people are accepting

1:04:42

it, which is basically as wallpaper

1:04:45

almost. I mean, it's like in the background,

1:04:47

it's part of everything. There's so many

1:04:49

other distractions. Music

1:04:52

used to be the big thing. Now tech is the

1:04:54

big thing. Tech is how you

1:04:56

get involved. People are on their phones, they're

1:04:58

just lost in the little box and

1:05:01

they so they don't have that time in their

1:05:03

day where there's nothing to do but listen

1:05:05

to music, because as soon as they

1:05:07

start listening to music, they got a call. All then

1:05:10

they're on the online trying to figure out

1:05:12

what that person in the call was talking about,

1:05:14

googling something to find out what

1:05:17

it is. Yeah, when we

1:05:19

think of folk music now, we

1:05:21

think of it as music from the sixties, and

1:05:24

those songs were old songs or songs

1:05:26

from writers in New York, from writers

1:05:29

that wrote pop songs, and people would

1:05:31

do them. But it wasn't

1:05:33

like the singers of the songs were writing

1:05:36

their own songs or the band

1:05:38

was writing a song. You never did

1:05:40

many cover You did a few cover songs over the

1:05:42

course of your life, but not many. You

1:05:44

did it four strong wins that I loved. Yeah,

1:05:47

that was like one of my favorite songs of all time.

1:05:50

It's a beautiful song. It's a great song.

1:05:52

Yeah, Ian and Sylvia.

1:05:55

I used to pour coins

1:05:58

into a Nickelodeon and

1:06:00

listen to that song over and over again by Ian

1:06:02

and Sylvia four Strong Wins. That's

1:06:05

how I I got familiar

1:06:07

with it. I think in sixty two sixty

1:06:09

three or something. I loved that song,

1:06:12

so that felt really good to do that. Do you ever

1:06:14

meet those guys Ian and Sylvia matter in And

1:06:17

I've met Sylvia too. It not for long,

1:06:19

just very casual. And

1:06:22

did you know Janie from Canada? Yeah,

1:06:25

from the coffee house scene. We met in the coffee

1:06:27

houses. When I met her, she

1:06:29

was with Chuck Mitchell, Chuck and Joni Mitchell.

1:06:32

It wasn't even the thing. Then she

1:06:34

came back as Janie and I

1:06:37

played Sugar Mountain for her when

1:06:40

I met her, I'd already been to

1:06:42

Toronto and came back and I

1:06:45

met her and I played Sugar Mountain for her, and

1:06:47

then she she later wrote

1:06:49

Circle Game. Yeah after

1:06:52

hearing Sugar Mountain as her as her

1:06:54

conversation with me. Wow, I

1:06:57

never knew that. Yeah, so

1:06:59

cool. Yeah, Circle

1:07:01

Game is a great song. It's a wonderful song.

1:07:03

She's written so many great songs. I'm

1:07:06

thinking of doing both sides now

1:07:09

with Crazy Horse. Great, it would

1:07:11

be a wild thing, right, Yeah, you

1:07:13

could do a whole album of her songs. Would be cool. I

1:07:16

could do a bunch of songs like that with Crazy

1:07:18

Horse. Yeah, that would be very cool.

1:07:21

That's one musical thought that I

1:07:23

did have. That's about it. Yeah,

1:07:26

it's cool too with Crazy Horse. That wouldn't

1:07:28

it would not sound do you

1:07:30

know what I mean? It would be such an original take

1:07:33

on whatever the material that went

1:07:35

into it. Yeah, there's there'd

1:07:37

be no fear of it being derivative

1:07:40

in any way. I would crazy, I wouldn't

1:07:42

be stomping on the original arrangement. No,

1:07:45

it would be so different to be somewhere else. But

1:07:48

the same song, the same melody, the same

1:07:50

chords. It's a beautiful song.

1:07:54

And in those days, did you think of Elvis

1:07:56

as a singer or as a movie star. I

1:07:59

always thought him as a singer. I

1:08:01

saw the movies. Yeah,

1:08:03

you know it was okay, but it was always the

1:08:05

singing. Yeah, it was Elvis. It was great

1:08:08

if we love it Elvis or what he did. But

1:08:10

as a singer and a rocker. He was cool.

1:08:12

Did you have the same experience when you saw the Beatles

1:08:15

of it being different than what came before? All

1:08:17

the Beatles were great. When I first heard them, I think

1:08:19

it was you know, I can't

1:08:22

even remember what song. It was really

1:08:24

early sixty three or something. And

1:08:28

now they were great. We loved them right away. It won't

1:08:30

be long. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love

1:08:32

that song. A great song. That's such a great song.

1:08:35

And you know, they had a thing, they

1:08:37

had a great thing, and they were rocking. They

1:08:40

were having a good time. You couldn't miss it. Were

1:08:43

you already singing folk songs at

1:08:45

that time? No. I

1:08:47

started singing rock and roll

1:08:49

songs first, yeah, first,

1:08:52

But most of them I wrote myself, you

1:08:55

know, and they weren't like really hard rockers.

1:08:58

A song called I Wonder which turned

1:09:00

out to be Don't Cry No Tiarous later. That

1:09:03

was one of the first songs. And I had a

1:09:05

couple of two or three other songs

1:09:07

that I don't have copies of and I can't

1:09:09

remember, but they were there.

1:09:12

I did him in the Squires. That

1:09:14

was fun. Do you ever do gigs with the Squires?

1:09:17

Not since then? No, But then did Oh

1:09:19

yeah, we did about we

1:09:22

played community clubs all over Winnipeg.

1:09:24

Oh cool, you know we got

1:09:26

I've got the records of it, and I think in

1:09:28

the archives from Ken Coblan.

1:09:31

The bass player kept records of everything, all the

1:09:33

places we played and how much we made it so

1:09:36

cool. Yeah, like four dollars. Yeah,

1:09:38

that's all in the archive. Yeah, amazing,

1:09:41

amazing, it is crazy. I think

1:09:43

it's all in there. How did you

1:09:46

know to keep stuff? I just never

1:09:48

you know, I just keep track of who

1:09:50

has stuff, and the bass player and the

1:09:53

squires, he kept track of everything,

1:09:55

and he gave me the book. So

1:09:58

I copied the book and we have it. Like I'll

1:10:01

find it. Yeah, basically,

1:10:03

I'm pretty sure it's there. I just have to go back

1:10:05

and look for it. Yeah. Like I was thinking

1:10:07

the other day, somebody asked about

1:10:10

and I had a letter to the editor, which I answered

1:10:12

these letters every week, and they wrote

1:10:14

me about this thing where

1:10:16

I was at a Falcon lake in

1:10:19

nineteen sixty three or sixty two or

1:10:21

something with my buddies and we

1:10:23

went to the dump and we parked our

1:10:25

car and then the

1:10:27

bears all came out because

1:10:30

it was a dump. So there's bears all around

1:10:32

our car and we're sitting there trying

1:10:34

to be cool, and then we left.

1:10:36

Then I started thinking about Falcon Lake. Well,

1:10:39

Falcon Lake. Then I said, Jesus Springfield

1:10:41

did a song called Falcon Lake. It was an instrumental

1:10:45

and we recorded it and we did it at Columbia

1:10:48

and it was about the time when Stephen

1:10:51

was doing something had known

1:10:53

Buddy Miles and a few people

1:10:55

like it was back there

1:10:58

and I said, I said, Falcon

1:11:01

Lake. Jeez, I haven't heard that in a long

1:11:03

time. And so I checked

1:11:05

in with our archivist and I said, what

1:11:08

do you guys know about Falcon Lake by Buffalo

1:11:10

Springfield? And they say, well,

1:11:13

the next day I get it back. It's it's called

1:11:15

in the archives, it's called ash on the Floor.

1:11:18

For some reason, the title got changed, but

1:11:21

the original title was still in the in

1:11:24

the writings, and there

1:11:26

is a recording of it and it's there.

1:11:28

Incredible, So it's you know, that song

1:11:31

is in the archives. It's probably in volume

1:11:33

one, Disc one or disc two or something,

1:11:35

you know. Incredible. Yeah,

1:11:38

the fact that it all exists is so amazing. There

1:11:41

it's blowing my mind now. Yeah, because

1:11:43

I've been so thorough with it. Yeah, and

1:11:46

I've got a great archivist, John O'Neill,

1:11:48

our hard archivist, and a

1:11:50

really good uh keeper

1:11:52

of the tapes who's

1:11:55

really got a good, good method

1:11:57

of filing and keeping track of

1:11:59

everything. And we keep a lot of our

1:12:01

stuff and at Hollywood vaults

1:12:04

and all the backup for it is

1:12:06

in ox and ards somewhere. Just

1:12:09

a volume of stuff over the years.

1:12:11

It's it's unbelievable.

1:12:14

I was walking around in it yesterday. Yeah,

1:12:16

as we were looking for some stuff, and

1:12:18

I had the sky with me as a builder,

1:12:21

and it's working on

1:12:23

my model train layout with me, Like

1:12:25

we're building this outdoor train layout.

1:12:28

It's whack. So anyway, we're

1:12:30

looking for some old pieces of train stuff

1:12:33

and we get in this one room and it's a

1:12:35

room. It's about the size of Shangri Law almost.

1:12:38

You know, this whole area it's

1:12:41

full of boxes on shelves,

1:12:44

year after year after year of tapes.

1:12:46

It's all there, everything

1:12:48

that I recorded. Amazing. Yeah,

1:12:51

it's coming wild. I

1:12:54

mean, you know, so when you have a memory or something

1:12:56

triggers something that goes somewhere. If

1:12:58

I remember that there was something good that I didn't

1:13:00

finish yourself, Yeah, I can actually

1:13:02

get to it. It's so cool. Has there ever

1:13:04

been a time when you've worked

1:13:07

on something and left alone for whatever reason

1:13:09

and then come back to it later years later, realizing

1:13:12

all there's something there. There is a

1:13:14

song that was on the B

1:13:16

side of a Buffalo Springfield

1:13:18

thing. It was I don't know if it was a B

1:13:21

side or if it was in the session

1:13:23

for Expecting to Fly. There

1:13:25

was a song called Whiskey Booth Hill and

1:13:28

there's another song too, and

1:13:31

the track is there, but it has

1:13:33

no vocal, So I keep thinking

1:13:36

about that, maybe I should put

1:13:38

a vocal on it, just to have it. Yeah,

1:13:40

then it would be a complete song.

1:13:43

Yea, with the old original Jack Nietzsche

1:13:45

track. Wow, so vocal

1:13:48

and you remember the words and yeah,

1:13:51

it'd be cool. Yeah, it

1:13:54

seems like it's cool to do, regardless of why they

1:13:56

ever decided to put it out in right, it's like that it'd

1:13:58

be a good No, it's good to have those

1:14:00

things. Absolutely. I have another thing that

1:14:03

where Darrell shot something that I was I

1:14:06

was playing the guitar and I was playing

1:14:08

the changes to don't Think twice

1:14:10

It's all right, and sitting

1:14:13

on the bus and the bus

1:14:15

is going down the road, and

1:14:18

my silhouette is against the window and outside

1:14:20

these beautiful fields going by,

1:14:23

and then every once in a while the light changes

1:14:25

and you see me and I'm playing

1:14:27

the guitar a little bit, and then it goes

1:14:29

back to outside, and it goes through the whole

1:14:31

thing. And you know, I've often

1:14:34

thought it's got a great vibe. If

1:14:36

I just sang the lyrics on

1:14:39

top of it, I wasn't singing it. If I

1:14:41

just lightly sang the lyrics there, don't think twice,

1:14:43

it's all right. That would be my version

1:14:46

of it. But it would be like a video version

1:14:48

of don't think twice, It's all right with

1:14:50

you know. And I think about doing

1:14:53

it, and I know I could make it happen.

1:14:55

But somebody asked me, well what would you do with that? Where

1:14:58

would that go? And I said, well, I really don't

1:15:00

know what about that part of it? Yeah,

1:15:02

but this is, you know, the creative something

1:15:05

I could do. I

1:15:07

think that's the best way to make things. Yeah,

1:15:10

when you get the feeling, that's yeah, you make it to

1:15:12

make it, and then if there's a use for it later

1:15:14

that's fine. Well, this is a good idea,

1:15:16

And I think I could do it, you know, I'll try to get

1:15:19

the track together. And what was the

1:15:21

first film project you did the first time he made

1:15:23

a film, Journey through

1:15:25

the Past. I think it was the first movie that I made.

1:15:28

And what motivated you'd want to do

1:15:30

that. I just wanted to do something different,

1:15:33

so I didn't get bored with music. I see, I'll

1:15:36

distract myself, and it

1:15:39

got a big distraction. It's good. I

1:15:41

need distractions, yeah, because I'm

1:15:43

so you know, single minded, I just

1:15:45

go into it. I could get lost. Yeah,

1:15:47

and you do better being busy than not. Yeah.

1:15:50

Yeah, No, it's bad things

1:15:52

happening if I to have projects.

1:15:55

Yeah. So yeah,

1:15:57

but I really think that that's

1:15:59

the way it works. I feel like

1:16:02

if I'm working on the train layout, yeah,

1:16:05

and I really get immersed in that for months.

1:16:07

Yeah. Then I'll come out of that

1:16:09

and I'll write, Yes, something

1:16:12

will be fresh. Yes, but

1:16:14

I have to get a way to get back. Yes, you

1:16:16

can't just always be there waiting. I

1:16:18

got to be distracted by something. Yeah,

1:16:21

that's great. It's great advice

1:16:24

for people who think the way to do it is to

1:16:26

just do the one thing. Oh, it doesn't work

1:16:28

that way, No, it doesn't you've got to get away from

1:16:30

it, yeah, because it'll come to you when

1:16:32

it's ready. The thing people

1:16:34

think they're in charge, Yeah, you're

1:16:36

not in charge. Just forget it. We're

1:16:38

along for the ride now, we are along for the all.

1:16:40

We have to be as ready. Yes, Yes,

1:16:43

that's it, ready recognized. Do

1:16:46

finish out, Yeah,

1:16:48

and then you're on. And being ready is not easy.

1:16:51

No, You've got to be able to drop

1:16:53

anything that's happening at any time and

1:16:56

say I'll be back in a while. Yeah,

1:16:59

because there's something here that can, something that

1:17:01

can, and we don't have control

1:17:03

over it, and if we don't

1:17:06

act on it, we could forget it. Puff

1:17:08

a smoke exactly. Well,

1:17:10

I'm sure we will get to be together

1:17:13

again sooner than later, because that's

1:17:15

what we do, all right, man, Well,

1:17:17

I'll see you soon. Thanks

1:17:21

again to the legend Neil Young.

1:17:24

You can hear his new album World Record, along

1:17:26

with all of our favorite Neil Young songs on

1:17:28

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1:17:31

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1:17:42

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1:17:44

Jason Gambrel, Ben Holiday,

1:17:47

Eric Sandler, Jennifer Sanchez.

1:17:49

Our editor Sophie Crane. Our executive

1:17:52

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1:17:54

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1:18:21

Richmond.