Made it to the Neil Young concert film Heart of Gold at the Tower Theatre last night. Although I am not the biggest fan around, I do appreciate Neil's songwriting and all around originality. Not to mention the fact that he is the Godfather of Grunge.
Heart of Gold was sans grunge. Still, I have to share my enthusiasm about this movie. There were a number of tunes from Prairie Wind, some especially poignant with their backstory of having been written shortly after Neil & docs discovered a brain aneurysm that would require surgery. (Performed successfully shortly thereafter)
There was a sense of camaraderie in the audience. An occasional hoot or hollar for a surgically-altered-yet-always-talented Emmylou Harris could be heard. And we clapped. I don't know that I have previously clapped to the filmed performance of a song. Although odd, it seemed appropriate.
I felt inspired by this movie. I marvelled at the sight of Neil singing "...keeps me searching for a Heart of Gold, and I'm getting old..." thirty years after writing the lyrics. My thoughts travelled through time and I felt like I understood something Neil wanted to share about living, about life.
Wednesday, April 19
Comes a time...
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2 comments:
Neil Young is a superb song writer and an accomplished guitarist. Check out the "Freedom" CD which has some great songs. His tasteful use of incredible amounts of distortion is particulary interesting on several songs.
That being said, being the God father of grunge is a dubious distinction at best. In my not so humble opinion grunge is responsible for the near death of rock'n roll. Nirvana's influence has been imense and unfortunate. Grunge took the balls out of rock'n and roll and created a musical generation of uncreative and uninspired whiners. Not to mention a generation of guitarists who's knowledge of the instrument doesn't go far beyond a few bar chords.
During this weakened state caused by the influence of grunge, rock'n roll began to take a back seat to the pathetic musical talents the likes of the Back Street Boys and Britney Spears. Hip hop has also been able to shove rock'n roll on the shelf...... and let's not even talk about country music.
Rock'n roll has always been at its best when it is edgy and inspired driven by the force of the band and their talents. Unfortunately grunge typically meets none of these requirements. Unless of course you like repetious droning that goes on and on and on and.....
But of course this is just my not so humble opinion.
I beg to differ with Townshend's Grunge killed Rock n' Roll sermon. Music is an evolution. I like the do-it-yourself mentality of grunge. Also, I would like to formally thank heaven for hip-hop. It can be noisy, rude, nonsensical and just plain bad...but it can also be artful and provide insight into lives little known otherwise.
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