name	Phish
landscape	yes
background	group_or_band
origin	Burlington, Vermont, USA
genre	Rock, alternative rock, jazz fusion, neo-psychedelia, progressive rockjam rock, folk rock, avant-garde, funk rock, experimental rock
years active	1983–20042009–presentHiatus: 2000-2002
label	Elektra, Rhino/WMG, JEMP
associated acts	Phil Lesh and Friends, Oysterhead, 70 Volt Parade, Amfibian, Benevento/Russo Duo, Jazz Mandolin Project, Pork Tornado, Ramble Dove, Rhythm Devils, SerialPod, Surrender to the Air, Trey Anastasio, Trey Anastasio Band, Vida Blue
website	www.phish.com
current members	Trey AnastasioMike GordonJon FishmanPage McConnell
past members	Jeff Holdsworth Marc Daubert }}

Phish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, and exploration of music across genres. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 (with the current line up solidifying in 1985), the band's four members – Trey Anastasio (guitars, lead vocals), Mike Gordon (bass, vocals), Jon Fishman (drums, percussion, vocals), and Page McConnell (keyboards, vocals) – performed together for over 20 years before breaking up in August 2004. They reunited March 2009 at the Hampton Coliseum in , and have since resumed performing regularly.

Phish's music blends elements of a wide variety of genres, including rock, jazz, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, hard rock, funk, folk, bluegrass, reggae, country, blues, avant garde, barbershop quartet and classical. Each of their concerts is original in terms of the songs performed, the order they appear in, and in the way they are performed.

Although the band has received little radio play or mainstream exposure, Phish—much like the band it is most often compared to, the Grateful Dead—has developed a large and dedicated following by word of mouth, the exchange of live recordings by trading tapes with other fans and selling over 8 million albums and DVDs in the United States. ''Rolling Stone'' stated that the band helped to "...spawn a new wave of bands oriented around group improvisation and superextended grooves."

History

Formative years: 1983–1988

Phish was formed at The University of Vermont in 1983 by guitarists Trey Anastasio and Jeff Holdsworth, bassist Mike Gordon and drummer Jon Fishman. For their first gig, at Harris-Millis Cafeteria at the University of Vermont on Dec. 2, 1983, the band was billed as "Blackwood Convention". The band was joined by percussionist Marc Daubert in the fall of 1984, a time during which they promoted themselves as playing Grateful Dead songs. Daubert left the band early in 1985, and Page McConnell then joined the group on keyboards and made his debut on Sept. 26, 1985 at a show for WRUV Radio in Burlington. Holdsworth left the group after graduation in 1986, solidifying the band's lineup of "Trey, Page, Mike, and Fish" — the lineup to this day.

Following a prank at UVM with his friend and former bandmate Steve Pollak — also known as "The Dude of Life" — Anastasio decided to leave the college. With the encouragement of McConnell (who received $50 for each transferee), Anastasio and Fishman relocated in mid-1986 to Goddard College, a small school in the hills of Plainfield, Vermont. Phish distributed at least six different experimental self-titled cassettes during this era, including ''The White Tape''. This first studio recording was circulated in two variations: the first, mixed in a dorm room as late as 1985, received a higher distribution than the second studio remix of the original four tracks, circa 1987. The older version was officially released under the title 'Phish' in August 1998.

The band's identity with its "hometown" of Burlington Vermont is evident in their actions. By 1985, the group had encountered Burlington, Vermont luthier Paul Languedoc, who would eventually design two guitars for Anastasio and two basses for Gordon. In October 1986, he began working as their sound engineer. Since then, Languedoc has built exclusively for the two, and his designs and traditional wood choices have given Phish a unique instrumental identity. Also during the late 1980's, Phish played regularly at Nector's restaurant and bar in Burlington. As a tribute to the owner, in 1992 the album "A Picture of Nectar" named for the song), featured a large orange with Nectar's photo superimposed subtly within the orange.

As his senior project, Anastasio penned ''The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday'', a nine-song concept album that would become their second studio experiment. Recorded between 1987 and 1988, it was submitted in July of that year, accompanied by a written thesis. Elements of the story — known as ''Gamehendge'' — grew to include an additional eight songs. The band performed the suite in concert on five occasions: in 1988, 1991, 1993, and twice in 1994 without replicating the song list.

Beginning in the spring of 1988, the band began practicing in earnest, sometimes locking themselves in a room and jamming for hours on end. Dubbed "Okipa Ceremonies" (also spelled Oh Kee Pa), one such jam took place at Anastasio's apartment, and a second was at Paul Languedoc's house in August 1989. The band attributes the sessions to Anastasio, who discovered the concept in the films ''A Man Called Horse'' and ''Modern Primitives.'' The product of one of these sessions was included in the band's first mass-released recording, a double album called ''Junta'', later that year.

Rise to fame: 1989-1992

On January 26, 1989, Phish played the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. The owners of the club had never heard of Phish and refused to book them, so the band rented the club for the night. The show sold out due to the caravan of fans that had traveled to see the band.

By late 1990, Phish's concerts were becoming more and more intricate, often making a consistent effort to involve the audience in the performance. In a special "secret language," the audience would react in a certain manner based on a particular musical cue from the band. For instance, if Anastasio "teased" a motif from ''The Simpsons'' theme song, the audience would yell, "D'oh!" in imitation of In 1992, Phish introduced collaboration between audience and band called the "Big Ball Jam" in which each band member would throw a large beach ball into the audience and play a note each time his ball was hit. In so doing, the audience was helping to create an original composition.

In an experiment known as "The Rotation Jam", each member would switch instruments with the musician on his left. On occasion, a performance of "You Enjoy Myself" involved Gordon and Anastasio performing synchronized maneuvers on mini-trampolines while playing their instruments.

Phish, along with Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and The Beatles, was one of the first bands to have a Usenet newsgroup, rec.music.phish, which launched in 1991. Aware of the band's growing popularity, Elektra Records signed them that year. The following year ''A Picture of Nectar'' was complete: their first major studio release, enjoying far more extensive production than either 1988's ''Junta'' or 1990s ''Lawn Boy''. These albums were eventually re-released on Elektra, as well.

The first annual H.O.R.D.E. festival in 1992 provided Phish with their first national tour of major amphitheaters. The lineup, among others, included Phish, Blues Traveler, The Spin Doctors, and Widespread Panic. That summer, the band toured Europe with the Violent Femmes and later toured Europe and the U.S. with Carlos Santana.

Peak of success: 1993–2000

Phish began headlining major amphitheaters in the summer of 1993. That year, the group released ''Rift'' packaged as a concept album and with heavy promotion from Elektra including artwork by David Welker. In 1994, the band released ''Hoist.'' To promote the album, the band made their only video for MTV, "Down With Disease", airing in June of that year. Foreshadowing their future tradition of festivals, Phish coupled camping with their Summer tour finale at Sugarbush North in in July 1994, that show eventually being released as ''Live Phish Volume 2''. On Halloween of that year, the group promised to don a fan-selected "musical costume" by playing an entire album from another band. After an extensive mail-based poll, Phish performed The Beatles' self-titled album — as the second of their three sets at the Glens Falls Civic Center in upstate New York. For their 1994 New Years Run, Phish played two sold out shows at Madison Square Garden and Boston Garden, which were their debuts at both venues. Following the death of Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia in the summer of 1995 and the appearance of "Down With Disease" on ''Beavis and Butthead'', the band experienced a surge in the growth of their fan base and an increased awareness in popular culture.

In their tradition of playing a well-known album by another band for Halloween, Phish contracted a full horn section for their performance of The Who's ''Quadrophenia'' in 1995. Their first live album — ''A Live One'' — which was released during the summer of 1995 became Phish's first RIAA certified gold album in November 1995.

Phish retreated to their Vermont recording studio and recorded hours and hours of improvisations, sometimes overlaying them on one another, and included some of the result on the second half of ''Billy Breathes'', which they released in the fall of 1996. Alongside traditional rock-based crescendos, the album has more acoustic guitar than their previous records, and was regarded by the band and some fans as their crowning studio achievement. The album's first single, "Free", peaked at #24 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart and #11 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, becoming the band's most successful chart single of their career.

By 1997 jams were becoming so long that several sets contained only four songs; their improvisational ventures were developing into a new funk-inspired jamming style. Vermont-based ice cream conglomerate Ben & Jerry's launched "Phish Food" that year and proceeds from the flavor are donated to the Lake Champlain Initiative. Part of Phish's new non-profit foundation, The WaterWheel Foundation was also composed of two other now-defunct branches: The Touring Branch and the Vermont Giving Program.

2000 saw no Halloween show, no summer festival and no new full-band compositions: May's ''Farmhouse'' contained material dating from 1997 and original material from Trey's 1999 solo acoustic/electric club tour. That summer, the band announced that they would take their first "extended time-out" following their upcoming fall tour. During the tour's last concert on October 7, 2000 at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, they played a regular show and left without saying a word as The Beatles' ''Let It Be'' played over the sound system.

Wilderness years: 2001-2008

Over two years after the hiatus began, Phish announced that they were getting back on the road with a New Year's Eve 2002 concert at Madison Square Garden. They also recorded ''Round Room'' in only three days. In their return concert, McConnell's brother was introduced as actor Tom Hanks. The impostor sang a line of the song "Wilson," prompting several media outlets to report that the actor had "jammed with Phish."

At the end of the 2003 summer tour, Phish held their first summer festival in four years, returning to Limestone for It. The festival drew crowds of over 60,000 fans, once again making Limestone one of the largest cities in Maine for a weekend. In December, the band celebrated its 20th anniversary with a four show mini-tour culminating at Boston's Fleet Center. During the Albany date on this tour, Phish invited founding member Jeff Holdsworth onstage for the first time since 1986.

In order to avoid the exhaustion and pitfalls of previous years' high-paced touring, Phish played sporadically after the reunion, with tours lasting about two weeks. After an April 2004 run of shows in Las Vegas, Anastasio announced on the band's website that the band was breaking up after a small summer tour.

Their final album (at the time), ''Undermind'', was released in late spring. In the summer of 2004, the band jammed with rapper Jay-Z at one show, shot a video called "Live in Brooklyn" for broadcast in movie theaters, and performed a seven-song set atop the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater during ''The Late Show with David Letterman'' to fans who had gathered on the street, a move reminiscent of The Beatles' final performance on the rooftop of the Apple building in London.

Their final show of 2004 — Coventry — was named for the town in Vermont that hosted the event. 100,000 people were expected to attend. After a week of rain that prompted fears of a sinking stage, Gordon announced on local radio that no more cars would be allowed in, though only about 20,000 people had arrived. Many concert-goers parked their vehicles on roadsides and hiked to the site; an estimated 65,000 attended the emotional finale.

Phish received the Jammys Lifetime Achievement Award on May 7, 2008 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

After performing three songs together at the September 2008 wedding of their former tour road manager, Phish announced that they would perform three reunion shows on March 6, 7, and 8, 2009 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia.

Reemergence: 2009–present

Following the reunion weekend, the band played thirteen shows of a summer tour, including an inaugural concert at Fenway Park, and headlined Bonnaroo 2009 in June with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Beastie Boys, and Nine Inch Nails. During their first set of the second day, Phish was joined by Springsteen on guitar for "Mustang Sally", "Bobby Jean", and "Glory Days". Twelve additional dates in July and August were announced as a Late Summer Tour, including four nights at Red Rocks, two nights at The Gorge, a stop in Chicago, and several nights in the Northeast.

Phish's fourteenth studio album, ''Joy'', produced by Steve Lillywhite, was released September 8, 2009. A single from the album, "Time Turns Elastic", was released on iTunes in late May. The band played nine of the ten tracks throughout the course of the first leg of their summer tour, starting with "Ocelot" and then "Time Turns Elastic" on the first night of the tour. The band announced a "save-the-date" for a three-day festival on October 30 & 31 and November 1. Phish.com contained an animated map of the United States, and individual states were slowly removed from the map, leaving California. Confirming several rumors, the band announced that ''Festival 8'' would take place in . Festival 8 featured the band covering the Rolling Stones album "Exile on Main St." as their traditional "musical costume", and also featured the band's first full acoustic set on Sunday, just after noon. Footage from Festival 8 was released in April 2010 as a 3D movie titled "Phish 3D".

In March 2010, Trey Anastasio was asked to pay tribute to Genesis, one of his favorite bands, upon being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to Anastasio's speech, Phish appeared and performed two Genesis songs, "Watcher of the Skies" and "No Reply At All". Genesis did not perform. On May 13, 2010, Phish played the Rolling Stones "Loving Cup" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The band was introduced by Keith Richards. In the late Spring and Summer of 2010, the band completed a two-legged, 29-show tour. The August Alpine Valley shows has been released as a DVD and CD.

On October 8, 2010, the band played at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. They then began a Fall tour, which highlights many indoor arenas that they had played in the early years of their career. These stops include Broomfield, CO, Utica, NY, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, Manchester, NH, and Providence, RI. They concluded the Fall tour with 3 nights in Atlantic City including a Halloween show featuring the "musical costume" Waiting For Columbus originally by the band Little Feat. For their 2010 New Years Run, the band played the DCU Center in Worcester, MA on December 27 and 28, and Madison Square Garden on December 30, December 31, and for the first time ever, performed on New Years Day, January 1, 2011. On March 31, 2011, the band announced Super Ball IX, a 3-day festival that was held in Watkins Glen, NY on the weekend of July 1.

Discography

''Phish'' (1986)

''The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday'' (1987)

''Junta'' (1989)

''Lawn Boy'' (1990)

''A Picture of Nectar'' (1992)

''Rift'' (1993)

''Hoist'' (1994)

''Billy Breathes'' (1996)

''The Story of the Ghost'' (1998)

''The Siket Disc'' (1999)

''Farmhouse'' (2000)

''Round Room'' (2002)

''Undermind'' (2004)

''Joy'' (2009)

Band members

Trey Anastasio – guitar, lead vocals (1983-present)

Mike Gordon – bass, vocals (1983-present)

Jon Fishman – drums, percussion, vocals (1983-present)

Page McConnell – keyboards, vocals (1985-present)

;Former members

Jeff Holdsworth – guitar (1983-1986)

Marc Daubert – percussion (1984-1985)

Solo work

The members of Phish have worked on various musical side projects. Anastasio continued the solo career he'd begun in 1998, formed the group Oysterhead, and began conducting an orchestral composition with the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Gordon made an album with acoustic guitar legend Leo Kottke and two films before launching his own solo career. Fishman alternated between Jazz Mandolin Project and his band Pork Tornado, while McConnell formed the trio Vida Blue.

During their break-up, members of Phish maintained various solo projects. Trey continued his solo career with his own band and performed with Oysterhead in June 2006. Gordon played with Leo Kottke and the Benevento/Russo Duo. At Rothbury in 2006, he played with his newest project, Ramble Dove, which is the name of the country outfit he fronted in his directorial feature ''Outside Out'', and also joined Grateful Dead drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann along with Steve Kimock and Jen Durkin as the Rhythm Devils. Anastasio and Gordon toured as a four-piece with the Benevento/Russo Duo in the summer of 2006. McConnell debuted his new solo project at a festival in September 2006 held by jam band moe. and released his self-titled debut on April 17, 2007. Fishman has performed occasional shows with the Everyone Orchestra, The Village and the Yonder Mountain String Band, but had, for the most part, retired from the music business.

Music

The music of Phish is "oriented around group improvisation and superextended grooves" that draw on a range of rock-oriented influences, including psychedelic rock, funk, reggae, hard rock and various "acoustic" genres, such as folk and bluegrass. Some Phish songs use different vocal approaches, such as a cappella (unaccompanied) sections of barbershop quartet-style vocal harmonies.

Some of their original compositions (such as "Theme from the Bottom") tend towards a psychedelic rock and bluegrass fusion, with more rock, jazz and funk elements than the Grateful Dead and other earlier jam bands like Pink Floyd. Their more ambitious, epic compositions (such as "You Enjoy Myself" and "Guyute") are often said to resemble classical music in a rock setting, much like the music of one of their heroes, Frank Zappa.

Live performances

The driving force behind Phish is the popularity of their concerts and the fan culture surrounding the event. Each a production unto itself, the band is known to consistently change set lists and details, as well as the addition of their own antics to ensure that no two shows are ever the same. With fans flocking to venues hours before they open, the concert is the centerpiece of an event that includes a temporary community in the parking lot, complete with "Shakedown Street": at times a garment district, art district, food court, or pharmacy. For many, one concert is simply a prelude to the next as the community follows the band around the country.

Because Phish's reputation is so grounded in their live performances, concert recordings are commonly-traded commodities. Official soundboard recordings can be purchased through the Live Phish website. Legal field recordings produced by tapers with boom microphones from the audience in compliance with Phish's tape trading policy are frequently traded on any number of music message boards. Although technically not allowed, live video of Phish shows are also traded by fans and are tolerated as long as it is for non-profit, personal use. Phish fans have been noted for their extensive collections of fan-taped concert recordings; owning recordings of entire tours and years is widespread.

In other media

Phish began appearing in video games in 2009. Their song "Wilson" (December 30, 1994 at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY as released on ''A Live One''), appeared in ''Rock Band'''s Bonnaroo song pack, along with other songs by artists playing at the Bonnaroo Festival that year. A Phish "Live Track Pack" for ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' became available on June 25, 2009. Recordings of "Sample in a Jar" (December 1, 1994 at Salem Armory, ), "Down With Disease" (December 1, 1995 at Hersheypark Arena, ) and "Chalk Dust Torture" (November 16, 1994, Hill Auditorium, University of Michigan, , as released on ''A Live One'') have been released, compatible with Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. On August 19, 2010, it was confirmed that Llama would be a playable song in Rock Band 3, released on October 26, 2010.

References

External links

Phish.net, Phish fansite

Category:Musical groups established in 1983 Category:American rock music groups Category:Alternative rock groups from Vermont Category:Jam bands Category:Jammy Award winners Category:Burlington, Vermont Category:Musical groups from Vermont Category:Musical quartets Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2009 Category:Vermont culture

de:Phish es:Phish fr:Phish it:Phish he:פיש (להקה) nl:Phish ja:フィッシュ pt:Phish ru:Phish simple:Phish fi:Phish sv:Phish zh:Phish

name	Clifford Ball
birth date	1896
death date	1947
occupation	writer
nationality	United States
period	1937 - 1941
influences	Robert E. Howard
influenced	}}

Clifford Ball (1896?-1947?) was an American fantasy writer whose primary distinction was having been one of the earliest post-Howard writers in the sword and sorcery subgenre of fantasy.

Before dropping from sight, Ball contributed six short stories to the pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' during its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s under the editorships of Farnsworth Wright and Dorothy McIlwraith. The setting of the first three is vaguely like Howard's Hyborian Age of warring kingdoms, and features the barbarian adventurers Duar, an amnesiac king protected by a guardian sprite, and Rald, a thief and mercenary. The remaining stories are more conventional fantasies.

Some of Ball's stories have been reprinted from the 1970s onward, most notably in the celebrated ''Ballantine Adult Fantasy series'' edited by Lin Carter.

Bibliography

All of Ball's known works were published in ''Weird Tales'', in the issues for the dates indicated.

"Duar the Accursed" (May 1937; reprinted in ''New Worlds for Old'', edited by Lin Carter (1971)

"The Thief of Forthe" (July 1937; reprinted in ''Savage Heroes'', edited by Eric Pendragon (1977) and ''The Barbarian Swordsmen'', edited by Sean Richards (1981)

"The Goddess Awakes" (February 1938; reprinted in ''Realms of Wizardry'', edited by Lin Carter (1976)

"The Swine of Ææa" (March 1939)

"The Little Man" (August 1939)

"The Werewolf Howls" (November 1941; reprinted in ''100 Creepy Little Creature Stories'', edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg and Martin H. Greenberg (1994)

Notes

External links

Category:1896 births Category:1947 deaths Category:American fantasy writers

name	Neil Young
landscape	yes
background	solo_singer
birth name	Neil Percival Young
alias	Bernard Shakey, Phil Perspective, Shakey Deal, Clyde Coil, Joe Yankee, Marc Lynch, Pinecone Young
birth date	November 12, 1945
birth place	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
origin	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
genre	Rock, folk rock, country rock, experimental rock, hard rock, proto-grunge
occupation	Musician, songwriter, producer, director, screenwriter
instrument	Guitar, vocals, harmonica, piano, keyboards, banjo, ukelele
years active	1960–present
label	Reprise, Motown, Geffen
associated acts	The Squires, The Mynah Birds, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Crazy Horse, The Stray Gators, The Stills-Young Band, The Ducks, Northern Lights, Pearl Jam, Booker T. Jones, Leon Russell, Elton John
url
notable instruments	"Old Black"Martin D-45"Hank" }}

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation. Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960, before moving to California in 1966, where he co-founded the band Buffalo Springfield along with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, and later joined Crosby, Stills & Nash as a fourth member in 1969. He then forged a successful and acclaimed solo career, releasing his first album in 1968; his career has since spanned over 40 years and 34 studio albums, with a continual and uncompromising exploration of musical styles. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website describes Young as "one of rock and roll’s greatest songwriters and performers". He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame twice: first as a solo artist in 1995, and second as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997.

Young's work is characterized by his distinctive guitar work, deeply personal lyrics and signature falsetto/tenor singing voice. Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments, including piano and harmonica, his idiosyncratic electric and clawhammer acoustic guitar playing are the defining characteristics of a varyingly ragged and melodic sound. While Young has experimented with differing music styles, including swing and electronic music throughout a varied career, his best known work usually falls into two primary styles: acoustic folk and country rock, or amplified hard rock in collaboration with the band Crazy Horse. Young has also adopted elements from newer styles such as alternative rock and grunge. His influence on the latter caused some to dub him the "Godfather of Grunge".

Young has directed (or co-directed) a number of films using the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, including ''Journey Through the Past'' (1973), ''Rust Never Sleeps'' (1979), ''Human Highway'' (1982), ''Greendale'' (2003), and ''CSNY/Déjà Vu'' (2008). He is currently working on a documentary about electric car technology, tentatively titled ''Linc/Volt''. The project involves a 1959 Lincoln Continental converted to hybrid technology, which Young plans to drive to Washington, D.C. as an environmentalist example to lawmakers there.

Young is an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and the welfare of small farmers, having co-founded in 1985 the benefit concert Farm Aid. In 1986, Young helped found The Bridge School, an educational organization for children with severe verbal and physical disabilities, and its annual supporting Bridge School Benefit concerts, together with his wife Pegi Young (née Morton). Young has three children: sons Zeke (born during his relationship with actress Carrie Snodgress) and Ben, who were diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and daughter Amber Jean who, like Young himself, has epilepsy. Young lives on his ranch in La Honda, California. Although he has lived in northern California since the 1970s and sings as frequently about U.S. themes and subjects as he does about his native country, he retains Canadian citizenship, having no desire to relinquish it. On July 14, 2006, Young was awarded the Order of Manitoba, and on December 30, 2009, was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Life and career

Early years: 1945–1966

Neil Percival Young was born in Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario at 6:45 AM on 12 November 1945. His father, Scott Young (1918–2005), was a journalist, and sportswriter who would later rise to prominence in Canada for his work. His mother, Edna "Rassy" Young (1918–1990), was of American, French, and Irish ancestry. They married in 1940 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with their first son, Robert 'Bob' Young, being born in 1942.

Shortly after Neil's birth in 1945, the family decided to move to the rural town of Omemee, Ontario, which Neil would later fondly describe as a "Sleepy little place." Omemee later established the Youngtown Museum in tribute to Young. Young was diagnosed with diabetes as a child, and also suffered from a bout of polio in 1951, in what was the last major outbreak of the disease in Ontario. This was in fact the same epidemic in which singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, then aged nine, also contracted the virus.

Following his recovery, the Young family went on holiday to Florida in the United States in 1952, and upon returning to Canada soon decided to move away from Omemee and into the city of Toronto, before relocating to Pickering, which was just east of Toronto, and then again to north Toronto soon afterward. It was during this period that Young began to take an interest in popular music that he heard on the radio, and also began to rear chickens in order to sell their eggs.

When Neil was twelve, his father, who had been having a number of extra-marital affairs, left his mother, and she subsequently asked for, and received, a divorce some years later, in 1960. Due to the breakup of the family, Neil went to live with his mother, who moved back to Winnipeg, Manitoba, while his brother Bob stayed with his father in Toronto. During the mid-fifties, at around the age of ten or eleven, Young was drawn to a variety of musical genres including rock and roll, rockabilly, doo-wop, R&B;, country, and western pop. He would listen to pop music broadcast on the CHUM radio station via his transistor radio. Young has stated in interviews that growing up he idolized Elvis Presley and strived to be just like him, later referencing him in a number of his lyrics. Other early musical influences included Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Chantels, The Monotones, Ronnie Self, The Fleetwoods, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Gogi Grant. He first began to play music himself on a plastic ukulele, before, as he would later relate, going on to "a better ukulele to a banjo ukulele to a baritone ukulele – everything but a guitar."

Neil and his mother settled into the working class area of Fort Rouge, Winnipeg where the shy, dry-humoured youth enrolled at Earl Grey Junior High School. It was there that he formed his first band, The Jades, and met Ken Koblun, later to join him in The Squires. While attending Kelvin High School in Winnipeg, he played in several instrumental rock bands. Young's first stable band was called The Squires, with Ken Koblun, Jeff Wuckert and Bill Edmondson on drums, who had a local hit called "The Sultan." Young dropped out of high school and also played in Fort William (now part of the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario), where they recorded a series of demos produced by a local producer named Ray Dee, whom Young called "the original Briggs." While there, Young first encountered Stephen Stills. In the 2006 film ''Heart of Gold'', Young relates how he used to spend time as a teenager at Falcon Lake, Manitoba where he would endlessly plug coins into the jukebox to hear Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds".

After leaving the Squires, Neil worked folk clubs in Winnipeg, where he first met Joni Mitchell. Mitchell recalls Young as having been highly influenced by Bob Dylan at the time. Here he wrote some of his earliest and most enduring folk songs such as "Sugar Mountain", about lost youth. Mitchell wrote "The Circle Game" in response. Winnipeg band The Guess Who (Randy Bachman being their lead guitarist) had a Top 40 Canadian hit with Young's "Flying on the Ground is Wrong," which was Young's first major hit as a songwriter.

In 1965 Young toured Canada as a solo artist. In 1966, while in Toronto, he joined the Rick James-fronted Mynah Birds. The band managed to secure a record deal with the Motown label, but as their first album was being recorded, James was arrested for being AWOL from the Naval Reserve. After the Mynah Birds disbanded, Young and bass player Bruce Palmer relocated to Los Angeles. Young admitted in a 2009 interview that he was in the United States illegally until receiving a green card in 1970.

Buffalo Springfield (1966–1968)

Once they reached Los Angeles, Young and Palmer met up with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, and Dewey Martin to form Buffalo Springfield. A mixture of folk, country, psychedelia, and rock lent a hard edge by the twin lead guitars of Stills and Young made Buffalo Springfield a critical success, and their first record ''Buffalo Springfield'' (1966) sold well after Stills' topical song "For What It's Worth" became a hit, aided by Young's melodic harmonics played on electric guitar.

Distrust of their management, as well as the arrest and deportation of Palmer, exacerbated the already strained relations among the group members and led to Buffalo Springfield's demise. A second album, ''Buffalo Springfield Again'', was released in late 1967, but two of Young’s three contributions were solo tracks recorded apart from the rest of the group.

In many ways, these three songs – "Mr. Soul," "Expecting To Fly," and "Broken Arrow" – on ''Buffalo Springfield Again'' are harbingers of much of Young's later work in that, although they all share deeply personal, almost idiosyncratic lyrics, they also present three very different musical approaches to the arrangement of what is essentially an original folk song. "Mr Soul" is the only Young song of the three that all five members of the group performed together. In contrast, "Broken Arrow" was confessional folk-rock of a kind that would characterize much of the music that emerged from the singer-songwriter movement. Young’s experimental production intersperses each verse with snippets of sound from other sources, including opening the song with a sound bite of Dewey Martin singing "Mr. Soul" and closing it with the thumping of a heartbeat. "Expecting to Fly" was a lushly produced ballad similar to the baroque pop of the mid-1960s, featured a string arrangement that Young's co-producer for the track, Jack Nitzsche, would dub "symphonic pop."

In May 1968, the band split up for good, but in order to fulfill a contractual obligation, a final album ''Last Time Around'' was released, primarily from recordings made earlier that year. Young contributed the songs "On the Way Home" and "I Am a Child", singing lead on the latter. In 1997, the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; Young did not appear at the ceremony. The three surviving members; Furay, Stills and Young appeared together as Buffalo Springfield at Young's annual Bridge School Benefit on 23–24 October 2010 and are planning a reunion tour for late 2011.

Crazy Horse & CSNY (1968–1970)

:''Main articles: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Crazy Horse'' After the breakup of Buffalo Springfield, Young signed a solo deal with Reprise Records, home of his colleague and friend Joni Mitchell, with whom he shared a manager, Elliot Roberts, who manages Young to this day. Young and Roberts immediately began work on Young's first solo record, ''Neil Young'' (November 1968), which received mixed reviews. In a 1970 interview, Young deprecated the album as being "overdubbed rather than played," and the quest for music that expresses the spontaneity of the moment has long been a feature of his career. Nevertheless, the album contains some songs that remain a staple of his live shows, most notably "The Loner".

For his next album, Young recruited three musicians from a band called The Rockets: Danny Whitten on guitar, Billy Talbot on bass guitar, and Ralph Molina on drums. These three took the name Crazy Horse (after the historical figure of the same name), and ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'' (May 1969), is credited to "Neil Young with Crazy Horse." Recorded in just two weeks, the album opens with one of Young's most familiar songs, "Cinnamon Girl," and is dominated by two more, "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "Down by the River," that feature lengthy jams showcasing Young's idiosyncratic guitar soloing accompanied sympathetically by Crazy Horse. Young reportedly wrote all three songs on the same day, while nursing a high fever of in bed.

Shortly after the release of ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'', Young reunited with Stephen Stills by joining Crosby, Stills, & Nash, who had already released one album as a trio. Young was originally offered a position as a sideman, but agreed to join only if he received full membership, and the group – winners of the 1969 "Best New Artist" Grammy Award – was renamed Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The quartet debuted in Chicago on August 16, 1969, and later performed at the famous Woodstock Festival, during which Young skipped the acoustic set and refused to be filmed during the electric set, even telling the cameramen: "One of you fuckin' guys comes near me and I'm gonna fuckin' hit you with my guitar". During the making of their first album, ''Déjà Vu'', the musicians frequently argued, particularly Young and Stills, who both fought for control. Stills continued throughout their lifelong relationship to criticize Young, saying that he "wanted to play folk music in a rock band". Despite the tension, Young's tenure with CSN&Y; coincided with the band's most creative and successful period, and greatly contributed to his subsequent success as a solo artist.

"Ohio" was written following the Kent State massacre on May 4, 1970, and was a staple of anti-war rallies in the 1970s. The song was quickly recorded by CSNY and immediately released as a single, even though CSNY's "Teach Your Children" was still climbing the singles charts. In the late 1970s and for much of the 1980s, Young refrained from performing "Ohio" live, as he considered the song to be dated. In the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Young revived the song in concert, often dedicating it to the Chinese students who were killed in the massacre. Crosby, Stills & Nash, as a trio, also returned the song to their live repertoire around the same time, even though Young had provided the lead vocals on the original recording.

Also that year, Young released his third solo album, ''After the Gold Rush'' (1970), which featured, among others, a young Nils Lofgren, Stephen Stills, and CSNY bassist Greg Reeves. Young also recorded some tracks with Crazy Horse, but dismissed them early in the sessions. Aided by his newfound fame with CSNY, the album was a commercial breakthrough for Young and contains some of his best known work. Notable tracks include the title track, with dream-like lyrics that run a gamut of subjects from drugs and interpersonal relationships to environmental concerns, as well as Young’s controversial and acerbic condemnation of racism in "Southern Man", which, along with a later song entitled "Alabama," later prompted Lynyrd Skynyrd to decry Young by name in the lyrics to "Sweet Home Alabama". Despite appearances to the contrary, the rivalry between Young and Skynyrd front man Ronnie Van Zant was a friendly one, with Van Zant famously photographed wearing a ''Tonight's the Night'' t-shirt on the cover of the band's 1977 album ''Street Survivors''.

Fourth solo album: ''Harvest'' (1971–1972)

With CSNY splitting up and Crazy Horse having signed their own record deal, Young began the year 1971 with a solo tour entitled "Journey Through the Past." Later, he recruited a new group of country-music session musicians (including Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor), whom he christened The Stray Gators, to record much of the new material which had been premiered on the preceding tour; the result was the album ''Harvest'' (1972). ''Harvest'' was a massive hit and "Heart of Gold" became a US number one single. It remains the only No. 1 hit in his long career.

Another notable song was "The Needle and the Damage Done", a somber lament on the pain caused by heroin addiction, inspired in part by the heavy heroin use of Crazy Horse member Danny Whitten, who eventually died of an overdose.

The album's success caught Young off guard, and his first instinct was to back away from stardom. In the handwritten liner notes to the ''Decade'' compilation, Young famously described "Heart of Gold" as the song that "put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there."

On September 8, 1972, the actress Carrie Snodgress, with whom he had been living, gave birth to Neil Young's first child. The boy, Zeke, was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Young fell in love with Snodgress after seeing her in a movie, ''Diary of a Mad Housewife'', on television; Young wrote about this experience in the song "A Man Needs a Maid" (from the ''Harvest'' album), featuring the lyric "I fell in love with the actress/she was playing a part that I could understand."

The Ditch Trilogy (1972–1974)

Although a new tour had been planned to follow up on the success of ''Harvest'', it became apparent during rehearsals that Danny Whitten could not function due to drug abuse. On November 18, 1972, shortly after he was fired from the tour preparations, Whitten was found dead of an overdose. Young described the incident to ''Rolling Stone''’s Cameron Crowe in 1975: "[We] were rehearsing with him and he just couldn't cut it. He couldn't remember anything. He was too out of it. Too far gone. I had to tell him to go back to L.A. 'It's not happening, man. You're not together enough.' He just said, 'I've got nowhere else to go, man. How am I gonna tell my friends?' And he split. That night the coroner called me from L.A. and told me he'd OD'd. That blew my mind. I loved Danny. I felt responsible. And from there, I had to go right out on this huge tour of huge arenas. I was very nervous and ... insecure."

The album made in the aftermath of this incident, ''Time Fades Away'' (1973), has often been described by Young as "[his] least favorite record," and it is, in fact, one of only two of Young’s early recordings that has yet to be officially re-released on CD (the other being the soundtrack album ''Journey Through the Past''). The album was recorded live over a tour where Young struggled with his voice and called David Crosby and Graham Nash to help perform the music. The tour featured Linda Ronstadt as the opening act. ''Time Fades Away'' occupies a unique position in Young’s discography as the first of three albums known collectively as the "Ditch Trilogy".

In the second half of 1973, Young formed The Santa Monica Flyers, with Crazy Horse's rhythm section augmented by Nils Lofgren on guitar. Deeply affected by the drug-induced deaths of Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry, Young recorded ''Tonight's the Night''. The album's dark tone and rawness led Reprise to delay and Young had to pressure them for two years before they would release it. It received mixed reviews at the time, but is now regarded as a landmark album. In Young's own opinion, it was the closest he ever came to art.

While his record company delayed the release of ''Tonight's the Night,'' Young recorded ''On the Beach'' (1974), which dealt with themes such as the downside of fame and the Californian lifestyle. Like ''Time Fades Away'' and ''Tonight's the Night'', it sold poorly but eventually became a critical favorite, presenting some of Young's most original work. A review of the 2003 re-release on CD of ''On the Beach'' described the music as "mesmerizing, harrowing, lucid, and bleary".

Return to prominence (1975–1979)

After completing ''On the Beach'', Young reunited with ''Harvest'' producer Elliot Mazer to record another acoustic album, ''Homegrown''. Most of the songs were written after Young's breakup with Snodgress, and thus the tone of the album was somewhat dark. Though the album was entirely completed, Young decided to drop the album and release ''Tonight's the Night'' instead, at the suggestion of The Band bassist Rick Danko. Young further explained his move by saying: "It was a little too personal ... it scared me".

In 1976, Young performed with Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and numerous other rock musicians in the high profile all-star concert ''The Last Waltz'', the final performance by The Band. The release of Martin Scorsese's movie of the concert was delayed while Scorsese unwillingly re-edited it to obscure the lump of cocaine that was clearly visible hanging from Young's nose during his performance of "Helpless."

''American Stars 'N Bars'' (1977) contained two songs originally recorded for ''Homegrown'' album, "Homegrown" and "Star of Bethlehem," as well as newer material, including the future concert staple "Like a Hurricane". Performers included Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and Young protégé Nicolette Larson along with Crazy Horse. Also in 1977, Young released ''Decade'': a personally selected career summary of material spanning every aspect of his various interests and affiliations, including a handful of unreleased songs. ''Comes a Time'' (1978) also featured Nicolette Larson and Crazy Horse and became Young's most commercially accessible album in quite some time, marked by a return to his folk roots. In 1978 much of the filming was done for Young's film ''Human Highway''. Over four years Young would spend $3,000,000 of his own money on production. This also marked the beginning of his brief collaboration with the band Devo.

Young next set out on the lengthy "Rust Never Sleeps" tour, in which each concert was divided into a solo acoustic set and an electric set with Crazy Horse. Much of the electric set was later seen as a response to punk rock's burgeoning popularity. "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" compared the changing public perception of Johnny Rotten with that of the recently deceased Elvis Presley, who himself had once been disparaged as a dangerous influence only to later become an icon. Rotten, meanwhile, returned the favour by playing one of Young's records on a London radio show. The accompanying albums ''Rust Never Sleeps'' (new material, culled from live recordings, but featuring studio overdubs) and ''Live Rust'' (a mixture of old and new, and a genuine concert recording) captured the two sides of the concerts, with solo acoustic songs on side A, and fierce, uptempo, electric songs on side B. A movie version of the concerts, also called ''Rust Never Sleeps'' (1979), was directed by Young under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey. Young worked with rock artist Jim Evans to create the poster art for the film, using the "Star Wars" Jawas as a theme.

Young was suddenly relevant again, and the readers and critics of ''Rolling Stone'' voted him Artist of the Year for 1979 (along with The Who), selected ''Rust Never Sleeps'' as Album Of The Year, and voted him Male Vocalist of the Year as well. The Village Voice, meanwhile, honored Young as the Artist of the Decade.

Experimental years (1980s)

The 1980s were often difficult times for Young, both personally and professionally. At the start of the decade, distracted by domestic medical concerns relating to his second disabled son, Ben, Young had little time to spend on writing and recording. After providing the incidental music to a 1980 biopic of Hunter S. Thompson entitled ''Where the Buffalo Roam'', Young released ''Hawks & Doves'', a short record pieced together from sessions going back to 1974. Young did not tour in support of either album; in total, he played only one show, a set at the 1980 Bread and Roses Festival in Berkeley, between the end of his 1978 tour with Crazy Horse and the start of his tour with the Trans Band in mid-1982.

The 1982 album ''Trans'', which incorporated vocoders, synthesizers, and electronic beats, was Young's first for new label Geffen Records (distributed at the time by Warner Bros. Records, whose parent Warner Music Group owns most of Young's solo and band catalog) and represented a distinct stylistic departure. Young later revealed that an inspiration for the album was the theme of technology and communication with his son Ben, who has severe cerebral palsy and cannot speak. An extensive tour preceded the release of the album, and was documented by the video ''Neil Young in Berlin'', which saw release in 1986.

Young's next album, 1983's ''Everybody's Rockin''', included several rockabilly covers and clocked in at less than twenty-five minutes in length. Young was backed by the Shocking Pinks for the supporting U.S. tour. ''Trans'' had already drawn the ire of label head David Geffen for its lack of commercial appeal, and with ''Everybody's Rockin''' following only seven months later, Geffen Records sued Young for making music "unrepresentative" of himself. The album was also notable as the first for which Young made commercial music videos – Tim Pope directed the videos for "Wonderin'" and "Cry, Cry, Cry". Also premiered in 1983, though little seen, was the eclectic full-length comedy film ''Human Highway'', co-directed and co-written by Young, and starring Young, Dean Stockwell, Russ Tamblyn, Dennis Hopper and members of Devo.

1984 was the first year without a Neil Young album since the start of Young's musical career with Buffalo Springfield in 1966. Young's lack of productivity was largely due to the ongoing legal battle with Geffen, although he was also frustrated that the label had rejected his 1982 country album ''Old Ways''. It was also the year when Young's third child, his second with wife Pegi was born; his daughter Amber Jean, a child who was later diagnosed with inherited epilepsy. Young spent most of 1984 and all of 1985 touring for ''Old Ways'' with his country band, the International Harvesters. The album was finally released in an altered form midway through 1985. Young also appeared at that year's Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, collaborating with Crosby, Stills and Nash for the quartet's first performance for a paying audience in over ten years.

Young's last two albums for Geffen were more conventional in genre, although they incorporated production techniques like synthesizers and echoing drums that were previously uncommon in Young's music. Young recorded 1986's ''Landing on Water'' without Crazy Horse, but reunited with the band for the subsequent year-long tour and final Geffen album, ''Life'', which emerged in 1987. Young's album sales dwindled steadily throughout the eighties; today ''Life'' remains his all-time-least successful studio album, with an estimated four hundred thousand sales worldwide.

Switching back to his old label Reprise Records, Young continued to tour relentlessly, assembling a new blues band called The Bluenotes in mid-1987 (a legal dispute with musician Harold Melvin forced the eventual rechristening of the band as Ten Men Working midway through the tour). The addition of a brass section provided a new jazzier sound, and the title track of 1988's ''This Note's For You'' became Young's first hit single of the decade. Accompanied by a video that parodied corporate rock, the pretensions of advertising, and Michael Jackson, the song was initially unofficially banned by MTV for mentioning the brand names of some of their sponsors. Young wrote an open letter, "What does the M in MTV stand for: music or money?" Despite this, the video was eventually named best video of the year by the network in 1989. By comparison, the major music cable network of Young's home nation, Muchmusic, ran the video immediately.

Young reunited with Crosby, Stills and Nash to record the 1988 album ''American Dream'' and play two benefit concerts late in the year, but the group did not embark upon a full tour. The album was only the second-ever studio record for the quartet.

Re-return to prominence (1990s)

Young's 1989 single "Rockin' in the Free World", which hit #2 on the U.S. mainstream-rock charts, and accompanying album, ''Freedom'', rocketed him back into the popular consciousness after a decade of sometimes-difficult genre experiments. The album's lyrics were often overtly political; "Rockin' in the Free World" deals with homelessness, terrorism, and environmental degradation, implicitly criticizing the government policies of President George H.W. Bush.

The use of heavy feedback and distortion on several ''Freedom'' tracks was reminiscent of the ''Rust Never Sleeps'' album, and foreshadowed the imminent rise of grunge. The rising stars of the genre, including Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, frequently cited Young as a major influence, contributing to his popular revival. A tribute album called ''The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young'' was released in 1989, featuring covers by alternative and grunge acts including Sonic Youth, Nick Cave, Soul Asylum, Dinosaur Jr, and the Pixies.

Young's 1990 album ''Ragged Glory'', recorded with Crazy Horse in a barn on his Northern California ranch, continued this distortion-heavy aesthetic. Young toured for the album with Orange County, California country-punk band Social Distortion and alternative rock pioneers Sonic Youth as support, much to the consternation of many of his old fans. ''Weld'', a two-disc live album documenting the tour, was released in 1991. Sonic Youth's influence was most evident on ''Arc'', a 35-minute collage of feedback and distortion spliced together at the suggestion of Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and originally packaged with some versions of ''Weld''.

1992's ''Harvest Moon'' marked an abrupt return to the country and folk-rock stylings of ''Harvest'' and reunited him with some of the musicians from that album, including singers Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor. The title track was a minor hit and the record was well received by critics, winning the Juno Award for Album of the Year in 1994. Young also contributed to Randy Bachman's nostalgic 1992 tune "Prairie Town," and garnered a 1993 Academy Award nomination for his song "Philadelphia", from the soundtrack of the Jonathan Demme movie of the same name. An ''MTV Unplugged'' performance and album emerged in 1993. Later that year, Young collaborated with Booker T. and the M.G.s for a summer tour of Europe and North America. Some European shows ended with a rendition of "Rockin' in the Free World" played with Pearl Jam, foreshadowing their eventual full-scale collaboration two years later.

In 1994 Young again collaborated with Crazy Horse for ''Sleeps with Angels'', a record whose dark, sombre mood was influenced by Kurt Cobain's death earlier that year; the title track in particular dealt with Cobain's life and death, without mentioning him by name. Cobain had quoted Young's lyric "It's better to burn out than fade away" (a line from "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)") in his suicide note, causing Young to then on emphasize the line "'cause once you're gone you can't come back" when performing the song. Young had reportedly made repeated attempts to contact Cobain prior to his death. Still enamored with the grunge scene, Young reconnected with Pearl Jam in 1995 for the live-in-the-studio album ''Mirror Ball'' and a tour of Europe with the band and producer Brendan O'Brien backing Young. 1995 also marked Young's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he was inducted by Eddie Vedder.

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Young's next collaborative partner was filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, who asked Young to compose a soundtrack to his 1995 black and white western film ''Dead Man''. Young's instrumental soundtrack was improvised while he watched the film alone in a studio. The death of longtime mentor, friend, and producer David Briggs in late 1995 prompted Young to reconnect with Crazy Horse the following year for the album and tour ''Broken Arrow''. A Jarmusch-directed concert film and live album of the tour, ''Year of the Horse'', emerged in 1997. From 1996–97 Young and Crazy Horse toured extensively throughout Europe and North America, including a stint as part of the H.O.R.D.E. Festival's sixth annual tour.

In 1998, Young renewed his collaboration with rock band Phish, sharing the stage at the annual Farm Aid concert and then at Young's Bridge School Benefit, where he joined headliners Phish for renditions of "Helpless" and "I Shall Be Released." Phish declined Young's later invitation to be his backing band on his 1999 North American tour.

The decade ended with the release in late 1999 of ''Looking Forward'', another reunion with Crosby, Stills and Nash. The subsequent tour of the United States and Canada with the reformed super quartet earned $42.1 million, making it the eighth largest grossing tour of 2000.

Renewed activism and brush with death (2000s)

Neil Young continued to release new material at a rapid pace through the first decade of the new millennium. The studio album ''Silver & Gold'' and live album ''Road Rock Vol. 1'' were released in 2000 and were both accompanied by live concert films. His 2001 single "Let's Roll" was a tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks, and the effective action taken by the passengers and crew on Flight 93 in particular. At the "America: A Tribute to Heroes" benefit concert for the victims of the attacks, Young performed John Lennon's "Imagine" and accompanied Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready on the song "Long Road", a Pearl Jam song that was written with Young during the ''Mirrorball'' sessions. "Let's Roll" was included on 2002's ''Are You Passionate?'', an album mostly composed of mellow love songs dedicated to Young's wife, Pegi, backed by Booker T & the MGs.

In 2003, Young released ''Greendale'', a concept album recorded with Crazy Horse members Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina. The songs loosely revolved around the murder of a police officer in a small town in California and its effects on the town's inhabitants. Young, under the pseudonym "Bernard Shakey", directed an accompanying film of the same name, featuring actors lip-synching to the music from the album. Young toured extensively with the ''Greendale'' material throughout 2003 and 2004, first with a solo, acoustic version in Europe, then with a full-cast stage show in North America, Japan, and Australia. Young began using biodiesel on the 2004 Greendale tour, powering his trucks and tour buses with the fuel. "Our Greendale tour is now ozone friendly,” Young said. “I plan to continue to use this government approved and regulated fuel exclusively from now on to prove that it is possible to deliver the goods anywhere in North America without using foreign oil, while being environmentally responsible.” Young spent the latter portion of 2004 giving a series of intimate acoustic concerts in various cities with his wife, who is a trained vocalist and guitar player.

In March 2005, while working on the ''Prairie Wind'' album in Nashville, Young was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. He was treated successfully with a minimally invasive neuroradiological procedure, performed in a New York hospital on March 29. Two days afterwards, Young passed out on a New York street from bleeding from the femoral artery, which surgeons had used to access the aneurysm. The complication forced Young to cancel his scheduled appearance at the Juno Awards telecast in Winnipeg, but within months he was back on stage, appearing at the close of the Live 8 concert in Barrie, Ontario on July 2. During the performance, he debuted a new song, a soft hymn called "When God Made Me". Young's brush with death influenced ''Prairie Wind'''s themes of retrospection and mortality. The album's live premiere in Nashville was immortalized by filmmaker Jonathan Demme in the 2006 film ''Neil Young: Heart of Gold''.

Young's renewed activism manifested itself in the 2006 album ''Living With War'', which was hastily recorded and released in less than a month. The album's overtly political songs rebuked U.S. President George W. Bush and the War in Iraq and included the provocatively titled "Let's Impeach the President". Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunited for the supporting "Freedom Of Speech Tour '06". ''CSNY Déjà Vu'', a concert film of the tour directed by Young was released in 2008, along with an accompanying live album.

While Young had never been a stranger to eco-friendly lyrics, themes of environmentalist spirituality and activism became increasingly prominent in his work throughout the 1990s and 2000s, especially on ''Greendale'' and ''Living With War''. The trend continued on 2007's ''Chrome Dreams II'', with lyrics exploring Young's personal eco-spirituality. Also in 2007, Young accepted an invitation to participate in ''Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino'', contributing his version of "Walking to New Orleans".

In 2008, Young revealed his latest project, the production of a hybrid-engine 1959 Lincoln called Lincvolt. A new album loosely based on the Lincvolt project, ''Fork in the Road'', was released on April 7, 2009. Unfortunately, the car caught fire in November, 2010, in a California warehouse, and along the way it burned an estimated $850,000 worth of Young's rock and roll memorabilia collection. Initial reports suggest the fire might have been triggered by an error in the vehicle's plug-in charging system. Young blamed the fire on human error and said he and his team were committed to rebuilding the car. "The wall charging system was not completely tested and had never been left unattended. A mistake was made. It was not the fault of the car," he said.

A Jonathan Demme concert film from a 2007 concert at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, called the ''Neil Young Trunk Show'' premiered on March 21, 2009, at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas. It was featured at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2009 and was released in the US on March 19, 2010 to critical acclaim.

Young's most recent album appearance was on the album ''Potato Hole'', released on April 21, 2009 by Memphis organ player Booker T. Jones, of Booker T. & the MG's fame. Young plays guitar on nine of the album's ten instrumental tracks, alongside Drive-By Truckers, who already had three guitar players, giving some songs on the album a total of five guitar tracks. Jones contributed guitars on a couple of tracks.

Young continues to tour extensively. In 2009, he headlined the Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England, at Hard Rock Calling in London (where he was joined onstage by Paul McCartney for a rendition of "A Day in the Life") and, after years of unsuccessful booking attempts, the Isle of Wight Festival in addition to performances at the Big Day Out festival in New Zealand and Australia and the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona.

Young was also the victim of an Internet hoax death in early 2011 triggered by the death of an English football player of the same name.

New performances (2010s)

On January 22, 2010, Young performed "Long May You Run" on the final episode of ''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien''. On the same night, he and Dave Matthews performed the Hank Williams song "Alone and Forsaken", for the ''Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief'' charity telethon, in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Young performed "Long May You Run" at the closing ceremony of the 2010 Olympic winter games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In May 2010, it was revealed Young had begun working on a new studio album produced by Daniel Lanois. This was announced by David Crosby, who said that the album "will be a very heartfelt record. I expect it will be a very special record." On May 18, 2010, Young embarked upon a North American solo tour to promote his then upcoming album, ''Le Noise'', playing a mix of older songs and new material. Although billed as a solo acoustic tour, Young also played some songs on electric guitars, including Old Black. Young is continuing his Twisted Road tour with a short East Coast venture during the Spring of 2011. Young also contributed vocals to the Elton John-Leon Russell album, "The Union", singing a beautiful second stanza in the track, "Gone to Shiloh", and providing backing vocals as well.

Young currently lives near La Honda, California on his Broken Arrow Ranch, named after one of his early Buffalo Springfield songs. The original 140-acre parcel was purchased in 1970 for $350,000 cash and has grown to thousands of acres.

Archives project

As far back as 1988, Young spoke in interviews of his efforts to compile his unreleased material and to remaster his existing catalog. The collection was eventually titled the Neil Young Archives Series. The first installment, entitled ''The Archives Vol. 1 1963–1972'', was originally planned for a 2007 release but was delayed, and released on June 2, 2009.

Three performances from the ''Performance Series'' of the archives were released individually before ''The Archives Vol. 1''. ''Live at the Fillmore East'', a selection of songs from a 1970 gig with Crazy Horse, was released in 2006. ''Live at Massey Hall 1971'', a solo acoustic set from Toronto's Massey Hall, saw release in 2007. ''Sugar Mountain - Live At Canterbury House 1968'', an early solo performance and, chronologically, the first disc in the performance series, emerged late in 2008.

In an interview in 2008, Neil Young discussed ''Toast'', an album originally recorded with Crazy Horse in San Francisco in 2000 but never released. The album will be part of the ''Special Edition Series'' of the Archives. No release date currently exists for ''Toast''. The album ''A Treasure,'' with live tracks from 1985 sessions with the International Harvesters, during a time when he was being sued by Geffen Records, was released in June 2011.

On July 14, 2009, Young's first four solo albums were reissued as remastered HDCD discs and digital downloads as discs 1–4 of the ''Original Release Series'' of the Archives.

Awards and recognitions

2011 Juno Awards Artist of the Year, Adult Alternative Album of the Year, and Allan Waters Humanitarian Award

2011 Grammy Awards Best Rock Song "Angry World" – Neil Young, songwriter

2010 Grammy Awards Best Art Direction On A Boxed/Special Limited Edition Package "Archives Volume One 1963-1973" – Neil Young, Gary Burden, Jenice Heo

Canadian Music Hall of Fame, 1982

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. First in 1995 for his solo work, with an induction speech given by Eddie Vedder, and again in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield.

As one of the original founders of Farm Aid, he remains an active member of the board of directors. For one weekend each October, in Mountain View, California, he and his wife host the Bridge School Concerts, which have been drawing international talent and sell-out crowds for nearly two decades with some of the biggest names in rock having performed at the event including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, The Who, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Waits, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Sir Paul McCartney and Dave Matthews. The concerts are a benefit for the Bridge School, which develops and uses advanced technologies to aid in the instruction of children with disabilities. Young's involvement stems at least partially from the fact that both of his sons have cerebral palsy and his daughter, like Young himself, has epilepsy.

Young was nominated for an Oscar in 1994 for his song "Philadelphia" from the film ''Philadelphia''. Bruce Springsteen won the award for his song "Streets of Philadelphia" from the same film. In his acceptance speech, Springsteen said that "the award really deserved to be shared by the other nominee's song." That same night, Tom Hanks accepted the Oscar for Best Actor and gave credit for his inspiration to the song "Philadelphia".

He was part owner of Lionel, LLC, a company that makes toy trains and model railroad accessories. In 2008 Lionel emerged from bankruptcy and his shares of the company were wiped out. At this time his status with Lionel is unknown, according to Lionel CEO Jerry Calabrese he is still a consultant for Lionel. He was instrumental in the design of the Lionel Legacy control system for model trains and it is believed he will continue to develop the system. Young has been named as co-inventor on seven U.S. Patents related to model trains.

Young has twice received honorary doctorates. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1992, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from San Francisco State University in 2006. The latter honour was shared with his wife Pegi for their creation of the Bridge School. In 2006, Young was given Manitoba's highest civilian honour, when he was appointed to the Order of Manitoba. In 2009, he was then given Canada's highest civilian honour, when he was appointed to the Order of Canada.

''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2000, ranked Young thirty-fourth in its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time, and in 2003, included five of his albums in its list of 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2000, Young was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2006, ''Paste'' magazine compiled a "Greatest Living Songwriters" list; Young was ranked second behind Bob Dylan. (While Young and Dylan have occasionally played together in concert, they have never collaborated on a song together, or played on each others' records). He ranked thirty-ninth on ''VH1's 100 Greatest Artist of Hard Rock'' that same year. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame explained that while Young has "avoided sticking to one style for very long, the unifying factors throughout Young’s peripatetic musical journey have been his unmistakable voice, his raw and expressive guitar playing, and his consummate songwriting skill."

Young's political outspokenness and social awareness influenced artists such as Blind Melon, Phish, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana. Young is referred to as "the Godfather of Grunge" because of the influence he had on Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder and the entire grunge movement. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam inducted Young into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, citing him as a huge influence. Young is cited as being a significant influence on experimental rock artists Sonic Youth, Jesse Marchant, and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. Yorke recounted of first hearing Young after sending a demo tape into a magazine when he was 16, who favourably compared his singing voice to Young's. Unaware of Young at that time, he bought ''After the Gold Rush'', and "immediately fell in love" with his work, calling it "extraordinary". Dave Matthews lists Neil Young as one of his favorite and most inspirational songwriters and covers his songs on occasion. The British Indie band The Bluetones named their number one debut album after the song "Expecting to Fly" (written by Young when still with Buffalo Springfield) and have covered the song while touring. Young also inspired Oasis singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher, with Gallagher covering "My My, Hey Hey (Into the Black)" on the live album ''Familiar to Millions''.

The Australian rock group Powderfinger named themselves after Young's song "Powderfinger" from Young's ''Rust Never Sleeps''. The members of the Constantines have occasionally played Neil Young tribute shows under the name Horsey Craze. While in Winnipeg on November 2, 2008 during the Canadian leg of his tour, Bob Dylan visited Young's former home in River Heights, where Young spent his teenage years. Dylan was interested in seeing the room where some of Young's first songs were composed.

Jason Bond, an East Carolina University biologist, discovered a new species of trapdoor spider in 2007 and named it ''Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi'' after Young, his favorite singer (a previous similar case was the dinosaur ''Masiakasaurus knopfleri'' named after the musician Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits).

In 2001, Young was awarded the Spirit of Liberty award from the civil liberties group People for the American Way. Young was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year on January 29, 2010, two nights prior to the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. In addition was also nominated for two Grammy Awards; Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance ("Fork In The Road") and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package ["Neil Young Archives Vol. I (1963–1972)"]. Young won the latter Grammy Award. In 2010, Young was ranked #26 in Gibson.com’s Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.

Juno Awards

{|class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Category ! Nominated work ! Result |- | rowspan=2 | 2011 || Artist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | Adult Alternative Album of the Year || ''Le Noise'' || |- | 2008 || Adult Alternative Album of the Year || ''Chrome Dreams II'' || |- | 2007 || Adult Alternative Album of the Year || ''Living With War'' || |- | rowspan=3 | 2006 || Adult Alternative Album of the Year || ''Prairie Wind'' || |- | Jack Richardson Producer of the Year || "The Painter" || |- | Songwriter of the Year || "The Painter", "When God Made Me", "Prairie Wind" || |- | rowspan=2 | 2001 || Best Male Artist || Neil Young || |- | Best Roots & Traditional Album – Solo || ''Silver & Gold'' || |- | 1997 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | rowspan=2 | 1996 || Best Rock Album || ''Mirror Ball'' || |- | Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | rowspan=3 | 1995 || Songwriter of the Year || Neil Young || |- | Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | Entertainer of the Year || Neil Young || |- | rowspan=2 | 1994 || Single of the Year || "Harvest Moon" || |- | Album of the Year || ''Harvest Moon'' || |- | rowspan=2 | 1993 || Songwriter of the Year || Neil Young || |- | Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1991 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1990 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1989 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1986 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1982 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1981 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1980 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1979 || Male Vocalist of the Year || Neil Young || |- | 1975 || Composer of the Year || Neil Young || |}

Instruments

Guitars

In 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' listed Young as eighty-third in its ranking of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time", describing him as a "restless experimenter...who transform[s] the most obvious music into something revelatory." Young is a collector of second-hand guitars, but in recording and performing, he frequently uses just a few instruments, as is explained by his longtime guitar technician Larry Cragg in the film ''Neil Young: Heart of Gold''. They include:

1953 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop. Nicknamed "Old Black", this is Young's primary electric guitar and is featured on ''Rust Never Sleeps'' and other albums. Old Black got its name from an amateur paintjob applied to the originally gold body of the instrument, sometime before Neil acquired the guitar in the late 1960s. In 1972, a mini humbucker pickup from a Gibson Firebird was installed in the lead/treble position. This pickup, severely microphonic, is considered a crucial component of Neil's sound. A Bigsby vibrato tailpiece was installed as early as 1969, and can be heard during the opening of "Cowgirl in the Sand" from ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere''.

Martin D-45. His primary steel-string acoustic guitar, used to write "Old Man" and many other songs. It was one of four instruments bought by Stephen Stills for himself and his band-mates in CSNY in order to celebrate their first full concert at the Greek Theater in 1969.

Martin D-28. Nicknamed "Hank" after its previous owner, Hank Williams. Hank Williams, Jr., had traded it for some shotguns; it went through a succession of other owners until it was located by Young's longtime friend Grant Boatwright. The guitar was purchased by Young from Tut Taylor. Young has toured with it for over 30 years. A story about the guitar and the song it inspired, "This Old Guitar," can be seen about 50 minutes into the film ''Neil Young: Heart of Gold''. It is Young's primary guitar for ''Prairie Wind''.

Vintage Martin D-18: Young used an old D-18 throughout his early days performing in coffee houses in Canada and on some early Buffalo Springfield work, before he received the D-45 from Stills. It can also be seen on unreleased footage from the Woodstock documentary, particularly on an exceptional acoustic duet of the Buffalo Springfield track "Mr. Soul" with Stills. The guitar has often been used to carry "dropped standard tuning" (DGCFAD) which Young often uses in concert. This allowed him to perform songs such as "Ambulance Blues" and "Don't let it Bring You Down" live without having to tune all 6 strings onstage.

Other notable (or odd) instruments played by Young include:

On CMT live he is shown playing with Phish in which he plays a Languedoc G2, Presumably that of Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio

Vagabond Travel Guitar, used for "Let's Impeach the President" on ''The Colbert Report''.

Taylor 855 12-string, used in the first half of ''Rust Never Sleeps''.

1927 Gibson Mastertone, a six-string banjo tuned like a guitar, used on many recordings and played by James Taylor on "Old Man."

Gretsch 6120 (Chet Atkins model). Before Young bought Old Black, this was his primary electric guitar during his Buffalo Springfield days.

Gretsch White Falcon. Young purchased a late 1950s model near the end of the Buffalo Springfield era; in 1969 he bought a stereo version of the same vintage guitar from Stephen Stills, and this instrument is featured prominently during Young's early '70s period, and can be heard on tracks like "Ohio," "Southern Man," "Alabama," "Words (Between the Lines of Age)," and "L.A.". It was Young's primary electric guitar during the ''Harvest'' era, since Young's deteriorating back condition (eventually fixed with surgery) made playing the much heavier Les Paul difficult. This particular White Falcon is the stereo 6137, in which the signal from the three bass strings is separated from the signal from the three treble strings. Young typically plays this guitar in this stereo mode, sending the separate signals to two different amps, a Fender Deluxe and either a Fender Tremolux or a low-powered Tweed Fender Twin. The separation of the signals is most prominently heard on the ''Harvest'' song "Words."

Gibson Flying V, on the ''Time Fades Away'' tour.

Fender Broadcaster, on the ''Tonight's the Night'' album and tour.

Reed organ

Young owns an Estey reed organ, serial number 167272, dating from 1885, which he frequently plays in concert and which was recently restored. The instrument and its restoration are documented in ''The Reed Society Quarterly'' (30.1: 6ff); a photograph of the instrument is on the cover.

Amplification

Young uses various vintage Fender Tweed Deluxe amplifiers. His preferred amplifier for electric guitar is the Fender Deluxe, specifically a Tweed-era model from 1959. He purchased his first vintage Deluxe in 1967 for $50 from the drummer of Crazy Horse, Ralph Molina, and has since acquired nearly 450 different examples, all from the same era, but he maintains that it's the original model that sounds superior and is crucial to his trademark sound. The Tweed Deluxe is almost always used in conjunction with a late-1950s Magnatone 280 (similar to the amp used by Lonnie Mack and Buddy Holly). The Magnatone and the Deluxe are paired together in a most unusual manner: the external speaker jack from the Deluxe sends the amped signal through a volume potentiometer and directly into the input of the Magnatone. The Magnatone is notable for its true pitch-bending vibrato capabilities, which can be heard as an electric piano amplifier on "See the Sky About to Rain". A notable and unique accessory to Young's Deluxe is the Whizzer, a device created specifically for Young, which physically changes the amplifier's settings to pre-set combinations. This device is connected to footswitches operable by Young onstage in the manner of an effects pedal.

Discography

:''See also the discographies for Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young''

See also

Music of Canada

Canadian rock

Notes

References

McKay, George (2009) "'Crippled with nerves": popular music and polio'. ''Popular Music'' 28:3, 341–365.

External links

Neil's Garage – Official website

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young official website

Sugar Mountain – a compilation of set lists from Neil Young's concert performances

Youngtown Rock and Roll Museum – Omemee, Ontario

Review of Crazy Horse at the Fillmore 1970

"Neil Young: Don't be Denied", PBS, ''American Masters'', TV documentary, 2009

Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:People from Toronto Category:Anti–Iraq War activists Category:Anti–Vietnam War activists Category:Buffalo Springfield members Category:Canadian activists Category:Canadian country guitarists Category:Canadian country rock musicians Category:Canadian country singers Category:Canadian film directors Category:Canadian folk guitarists Category:Canadian folk singers Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Canadian people of American descent Category:Canadian people of French descent Category:Canadian people of Irish descent Category:Canadian rock guitarists Category:Canadian rock singers Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:Canadian environmentalists Category:Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Category:Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young members Category:Juno Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:MusiCares Person of the Year Honorees Category:Lead guitarists Category:Musicians from Manitoba Category:Writers from Manitoba Category:Members of the Order of Manitoba Category:Crazy Horse (band) members Category:Musicians from Ontario Category:Writers from Ontario Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:People with epilepsy Category:People from Winnipeg Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees

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