Coordinates	56°50′″N53°11′″N
name	Powderfinger
landscape	yes
background	group_or_band
origin	Brisbane, Australia
genre	RockAlternative rockHard rockPost-grunge
years active	1989–2010
label	Polydor, Universal Music
associated acts	DragFar Out CorporationThe Predators
website	powderfinger.com
past members	Bernard FanningDarren MiddletonIan HaugJohn CollinsJon CoghillSteven Bishop }}

Powderfinger was an Australian rock band that formed in Brisbane in 1989. From 1992 until their break-up the band line-up consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bassist John Collins, and drummer Jon Coghill.

Powderfinger became a commercial success with their third studio album ''Internationalist'' in 1998. They followed up that success with several hit singles and award-winning works, earning a total of eighteen ARIA Awards and making them the most awarded band behind Silverchair. Numerous Powderfinger albums have reached multiple-platinum status, as well as top 5 rankings in the weekly Australian music charts. ''Odyssey Number Five'', Powderfinger's most successful album earned over eight platinum certifications and ARIA Awards in five different categories.

After the release of their first DVD ''These Days: Live in Concert'' and a "best of" release, Powderfinger announced a hiatus in 2005. The announcement of a two month-long nationwide tour with Silverchair titled ''Across the Great Divide'' followed the release of their sixth studio album, ''Dream Days at the Hotel Existence'' in June 2007.

Powderfinger was actively involved in philanthropic causes. In 2005, they performed at a WaveAid concert in Sydney, to help raise funds for areas affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Another performance at the Sydney Opera House in October 2007 raised funds for breast cancer victims and their families. The aim of their recent Across the Great Divide tour was to promote the efforts of Reconciliation Australia, and to promote awareness of the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children.

On the morning of Friday 9 April 2010 Powderfinger announced at a press conference that they would be breaking-up after their "Sunsets" tour, saying it would be their last ever as the band had musically said everything they wanted to say. On 13 November 2010, Powderfinger played their last concert as a band, signifying their departure and the splitting of Powderfinger.

History

Formation and early releases (1989–1993)

Powderfinger was formed in 1989 by vocalist and guitarist Ian Haug, bassist John Collins and drummer Steven Bishop, who took their band's name from the Neil Young song "Powderfinger". Before the band's formation, the members had all played in other Brisbane-based outfits. The band later sought an extra guitarist, Bernard Fanning, who Haug had met in a university class. Fanning took over the role of lead vocals from Haug, and at the same time Jon Coghill joined the band, replacing Bishop after a "mutual leaving." Powderfinger's final line-up change came with the addition of guitarist Darren Middleton into the band. The group consisting of Fanning, Collins, Haug, Middleton and Coghill remained as such since 1992.

Powderfinger initially performed cover versions of other artists' songs, but gradually developed into writing and performing their own material. Playing a heavy metal show in Newcastle in 1990, Powderfinger was booed off the stage. In 1992, the group self-funded a recording of their early works and released them as a self-titled extended play, more commonly known as the ''Blue EP''. The EP became successful and the group was signed by Polydor Records. Upon its release in 1993, ''Transfusion'' reached the #1 spot on the Alternative ARIA Charts, replacing Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box". The group recorded their first music video for the EP's lead track "Reap What You Sow". It was directed by David Barker, who went on to direct the next seven videos for the group.

Early albums (1994–98)

Powderfinger released their debut studio album ''Parables for Wooden Ears'' under Polydor on 18 July 1994. The album, which Fanning describes as the band's "dark days," received limited radio coverage. Following the release, the band toured heavily appearing at the Livid and Homebake music festivals, including an appearance at one of Australia's largest music festivals, Big Day Out, in 1994. Three singles were released from the album – "Tail", "Grave Concern", and "Save Your Skin". Following the album's release, and lukewarm reception, the group recorded and released another EP entitled ''Mr Kneebone'' in 1995.

The band released the highly successful ''Double Allergic'' on 2 September 1996. This, their second album, reached double platinum status in Australia. Four singles were released from the album – "Pick You Up", "D.A.F.", "Living Type" and "Take Me In". "Take Me In" was released as a video-single featuring several other music videos by the group. ''Double Allergic'' debuted at #7 on the Australian charts and remained in the top 20 for seven weeks. A reviewer for FasterLouder, a music review web site, commented that "when Double Allergic was released in 1996, it showed the band were here for the long haul to become arguably one of the best of the decade."

Critical acclaim and chart success (1998–2003)

In September 1998, Powderfinger released ''Internationalist'', their third studio album. It propelled Powderfinger to a prominent position on the Australian music scene, reaching #1 and later spending 100 weeks on the ARIA Albums Chart. The album, which sold over 280,000 copies and went over five times platinum domestically, reached European audiences for the first time. ''Internationalist'' was the first Powderfinger album to win the ARIA Music Awards. In 1999, it won "Album of the Year", "Best Rock Album" and "Best Cover Art", and "The Day You Come" won "Single of the Year". "Passenger", which was among the singles released from ''Internationalist'', was also nominated for three other ARIA Awards in 2000.

The band received much praise and criticism for their political views on several tracks on ''Internationalist''. In an interview with Benedict Watts, guitarist Ian Haug said that the political messages in "The Day You Come" were not something they were just preaching about, but rather were something they saw as a responsibility.

Powderfinger's fourth studio album, ''Odyssey Number Five'', was released in September 2000, shortly after they were asked to write songs for the soundtracks of two films; ''Two Hands'' and ''Mission: Impossible II''. The song "These Days" was written for ''Two Hands'' and "My Kind of Scene" was written for ''Mission: Impossible II''. ''Odyssey Number Five'' was Powderfinger's most successful album to-date, selling 560,000 copies. "My Kind of Scene" was also released as a single from the album, as were "My Happiness", "Like a Dog", "The Metre", and "Waiting for the Sun". ''Odyssey Number Five'' won "Album of the Year", "Highest Selling Album", "Best Rock Album", "Best Cover Art", and "Best Group" at the ARIA Awards in 2001. "My Happiness" was also awarded "Single of the Year", and other songs were nominated for ARIA Awards in various other categories.

Many songs from this era of Powderfinger were ranked on Triple J's Hottest 100 list. "These Days", "Already Gone", "Good-Day Ray", and "Passenger" were ranked in 1999, and "My Happiness" and "My Kind of Scene" in 2000.

In 2009 "These Days" was voted number 21 and "My Happiness" number 27 in Triple J Hottest 100 of all time, ranking them as the second and fourth highest Australian songs in the countdown after the Hilltop Hoods' "Nosebleed Section".

Rock resurgence (2003–05)

''Vulture Street'' was released on 4 July 2003. The album, recorded in January and February 2003, was named after a street in West End, Queensland, which was the location of the band's first recording room. The album was described by critics as "a rawer, louder, but by no means unrefined, album", and that it featured guitarists Middleton and Haug dominating in a way they had not since their 1994 debut. Simon Evans of musicOMH.com described the band as having "opted for a visceral live feel, adding a real punch to songs".

"(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind", "Since You've Been Gone", "Love Your Way", and "Sunsets" from ''Vulture Street'' were released as singles. Like earlier Powderfinger albums, ''Vulture Street'' won several ARIA Awards. It won "Album of the Year", "Best Group", "Best Rock Album" and "Best Cover Art" in 2003. Several songs on the album were also nominated for awards in 2003 and 2004.

''These Days: Live in Concert'' was the first live release by Powderfinger. Both the CD and DVD versions were released in late-2004. One single,"Stumblin'" a song which originally appeared on ''Vulture Street'' as a normal track, was also released from the album. Powderfinger released a "best of" album entitled ''Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994-2000'' a few weeks later. It included many of the band's singles to-date as well as non-singles "Thrilloilogy" and "Belter" and a re-release of "These Days". "These Days", although never officially released as a single, was ranked at #1 on the Triple J Hottest 100 poll of 1999. The album also included two new songs; "Bless My Soul" and "Process This", although only "Bless My Soul" was released as a single.

Following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Powderfinger appeared at the WaveAid fund raising concert in Sydney, to raise funds for aid organisations working in the disaster affected areas. Fanning sang for The Wrights when they performed "Evie" at the concert and released a studio version of the song as a single, with the proceeds from the sale also going to tsunami relief efforts.

Era of side projects (2005–07)

Powderfinger had a period of hiatus after the release of ''Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger'' in 2005. During that time, several band members pursued other musical projects. Darren Middleton and Ian Haug both had children during this time and Fanning married his girlfriend Andrea.

Middleton and his side project Drag released their debut album, a follow-up to their 2002 EP ''Gas Food Lodging''. The album, titled ''The Way Out'', was released on 10 July 2005. Shortly after this, guitarist Ian Haug and bassist John Collins formed the group The Predators with Powderfinger's former drummer, Steven Bishop, on drums and lead vocals. The group released a six-track EP, ''Pick Up the Pace'', in 2005 and performed a short tour around Australia.

Bernard Fanning released his solo album, ''Tea & Sympathy'', in October 2005, reaching the top of the Australian charts and earning Fanning numerous ARIA Music Awards, including the coveted award for "Album of the Year". The lead single from album, "Wish You Well", was ranked at #1 on the Triple J Hottest 100 poll in 2005.

Return from Hiatus (2007–2010)

Powderfinger's sixth studio album, ''Dream Days at the Hotel Existence'' was released on 2 June 2007. Debuting at #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, it broke the Australian digital sales record, with over 3000 copies sold online. Reviewers, however, did not rate it as highly as its predecessor, ''Vulture Street'', with Cameron Adams of the ''Herald Sun'' HiT describing it as "consistent." Bernard Zuel, who reviewed ''Vulture Street'' in 2003, described ''Dream Days at the Hotel Existence'' as "Powderfinger's first dull album", but the band as "the biggest rock band in the country."

On 12 June 2007, Powderfinger and Australian rock group Silverchair announced a nine-week tour titled Across the Great Divide tour, an effort to promote reconciliation with Indigenous Australians. The tour appeared in all state capital cities and fourteen regional centres across Australia, and included four performances in New Zealand. The first single from the album, "Lost and Running", was released on 12 May 2007, and reached #5 on the ARIA Singles Chart on 21 May 2007. A second single, "I Don't Remember", was released on 4 August 2007. A song from the album, "Black Tears", was amended following concerns that it could prejudice a trial over the 2004 Palm Island death in custody case. Bernard Fanning said in a statement that an alternative version of the song would now be featured on the album as a result of the claims.

''Dream Days at the Hotel Existence'' was the recipient of the ARIA Award for "Best Cover Art" in 2007. It was nominated for "Album of the Year", "Best Rock Album" and "Best Group", while "Lost and Running" received nominations for "Single of the Year" and "Best Video". The album failed to win any of the awards it was nominations for, losing to Silverchair, who won all five awards they were nominated for. The awards were announced at the Acer Arena in Sydney on 28 October, and Powderfinger performed their single "Lost and Running".

On 18 August 2007, Powderfinger performed a concert in Karratha, Western Australia, to thousands of fans as part of Triple J's AWOL Series. The band was accompanied by performances from Australian bands The Grates and Muph N Plutonic and other local acts. While in Karratha, Fanning and Coghill visited Gumala Mirnuwarni, a local school in Roebourne that encourages children to stay in school. On 27 September 2008, Powderfinger performed "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind" and AC/DC's "Long Way to the Top" at the AFL Grand Final.

Their song "Drifting Further Away" features on the fifth season Grey's Anatomy episode 'Stairway to Heaven', which aired on 21 January 2009.

Golden Rule & The End (2010)

On 4 December 2008, the band announced on their official website that they were currently writing material for their 7th studio album.

On 16 June 2009, the following announcement was made on MySpace: "Saddle up 'Finger fans, it's the news you've been waiting for! This coming Monday 22 June Powderfinger are returning to the studio! Taking the helms for this album will again be Nick DiDia, responsible for Internationalist, Odyssey Number 5 and Vulture St! After recording their last album Dream Days at the Hotel Existence in LA, the band are looking forward to recording the new album in Australia. While we don't have a release date as yet, you can expect to see the new album out at the end of 2009". On Thursday 10 September they announced that new album was to be called Golden Rule and was set to be released on 13 November 2009.

In July 2009, Bernard Fanning spoke to Triple J radio to confirm the band as the 2009 Homebake Festival headline act, which sees the band return to the festival after a 10 year absence. He also suggested that the new album may include cameo performances from other Australian musicians. The album was recorded in Byron Bay on the New South Wales north coast. The band announced in early September that the title of their upcoming seventh album was ''Golden Rule'' and it was subsequently released on 13 November 2009.

The album's first single was released to radio on 25 September 2009, and was titled "All of the Dreamers". Burn Your Name, the second single from the album, was released on 18 December 2009, just before they began touring at the 2010 Big Day Out. The third single from the album, Sail The Widest Stretch, was released on 30 April 2010.

''Golden Rule'' debuted at number 1 on the ARIA albums chart.

On 9 April 2010, Powderfinger announced before media, and on their website that after 21 years, the group will disband as a touring and recording band following their Sunsets Farewell Tour in September and October 2010. In a statement read by Bernard Fanning, the band said:

''"With the completion of our last album, Golden Rule, we feel that we have said all that we want to say as a musical group. We firmly believe that it is our most complete and satisfying album and can't think of a better way to farewell our fans than with music that we all believe in and also with, hopefully, our best tour to date."''

In April 2010, radio station Nova106.9 revealed Brisbane's favourite Powderfinger song to the band in an interview about the farewell tour. The result was These Days and surprised Bernard Fanning who thought it was going to be My Happiness (that was second).

During an interview with 'Australian Times' band drummer Jon Coghill said that the final tour “is going to be great fun, but it’s also going to be sad.” He confirmed that there are not any plans for starting up a new band, or embarking on a solo project. Instead he will be going back to study to finish his degree. “Once I’m done with that, I might put the feelers out and see what’s happening. I don’t think I’d be doing anything solo, but I might look to join other bands, just to have a chance to keep playing. I’m just not keen to be off touring the world anymore.”

Powderfinger played their final show at the River Stage in Brisbane on 13 November 2010 in front of 10,000 fans. The last song they played was 'These Days'

On 25 January 2011, the band released a previously unreleased song as a fund raiser for the Premier's Flood Appeal as a result of the major flooding in the band's home state of Queensland. The song, "I'm on your side" was released through the band's website with all proceeds going towards the cause.

Musical style

In an interview with Paul Cashmere after the release of ''Vulture Street'', guitarist Darren Middleton stated that a couple of songs they had written "were just too ''Odyssey Number Five'' based," and that the first track, "Rockin' Rocks", was "probably the start of where we were heading" with the album. Cashmere stated in the interview that the album was "the toughest [he has] heard Powderfinger sound".

Bernard Zuel of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' reviewed both of Powderfinger's more recent albums. Describing ''Vulture Street'' as "a rawer, louder" album in comparison to ''Odyssey Number Five'', Zuel highlighted Fanning's "talent as a lyricist" and stated that it featured guitarists Haug and Middleton "dominating in a way they haven't since their 1994 debut." Zuel stated that there is a "real energy here that has some connections to early Powderfinger," and described "On My Mind" as having "AC/DC meatiness", and "Love Your Way" as "acoustic tumbling into weaving Zeppelin lines."

In his review of ''Dream Days at the Hotel Existence'', Zuel described it as "[having] high-gloss and muscular framework," and stated that that was what "American radio considers serious rock."

Clayton Bolger of Allmusic stated in his review of ''Dream Days at the Hotel Existence'' that Powderfinger "largely revisit the sound of their ''Internationalist'' album, leaving behind much of the glam and swagger of 2003's ''Vulture Street''." He commented on Fanning's "commanding and distinctive vocals," the "twin-guitar attack" of Middleton and Haug, Collins' "innovative basslines," and the "powerhouse drum work" of Coghill.

Philanthropy

In their time as a band, Powderfinger have been active in supporting causes or opposing actions taken in charitable, philanthropic, disaster, and political circumstances.

In 1996, Crowded House decided to break up, and organised a farewell concert as a charity event for the Sydney Children's Hospital, to be held on 24 November 1996. They approached Powderfinger and Australian acts Custard and You Am I to contribute by appearing in the concert to be held on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. The concert, which was recorded and later released as a live album titled ''Farewell to the World'', was believed to be the largest Australian live concert, with estimates of between 100,000 and 250,000 people in attendance.

In the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, also known as the ''Boxing Day Tsunami'', Powderfinger performed at the WaveAid fund-raising concert in Sydney in January 2005. The disaster killed more than 225,000 people from 11 countries in the area. The total profit from the funds raised from ticket sales and donations was A$2,300,000.

The song "Black Tears" from the album ''Dream Days at the Hotel Existence'' featured the lyric ''An island watchhouse bed, a black man's lying dead'' which sparked fears that it might prejudice the trial of the former Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley over the 2004 Palm Island death in custody case. The band claimed that the lyrics were primarily based on the climbing of Uluru by tourists despite requests from the Indigenous people of the area to not do so. The original version of the song was retracted from the album, and replaced with an alternate version with the criticised material removed.

The legal team for Hurley, who was charged with manslaughter over the death of Mulrunji in 2004, referred the song to the Attorney-General of Queensland, Kerry Shine, in their attempt at altering the track. Lawyer Glen Cranny stated that "the content and proposed timing of the song's release raises some serious concerns regarding Mr Hurley's trial." Powderfinger's band manager, Paul Piticco, stated that Fanning had confirmed that the song was related to the case. However, he added that the lyric in question could refer to "a watchhouse in The Bahamas or something."

In June 2007, Powderfinger announced a nationwide tour featuring Australian rock band Silverchair titled the Across the Great Divide tour. The tour was an attempt to promote the efforts of Reconciliation Australia, a foundation helping to improve the welfare of the Indigenous people of Australia and to "show [that] both bands are behind the idea of reconciliation." Reconciliation Australia aims to promote awareness of the 17-year difference in life expectancy between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous children of Australia.

The ''Across the Great Divide'' tour, which included 34 concerts in 26 towns across Australia, lasted over two months with an estimated 220,000 people in attendance. Powderfinger and Silverchair announced the release of a limited edition tour DVD, featuring two Melbourne concerts and a 90-minute documentary following both bands during each concert. The DVD was released on 1 December 2007, and shared its release date with that of the third single from ''Dream Days at the Hotel Existence'', "Nobody Sees".

In October 2007, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Powderfinger performed at a concert on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. The concert was for invitees only – only breast cancer patients and survivors and their families were eligible to attend. Powderfinger performed alongside Silverchair, Missy Higgins, and other artists to an audience of 700. The concert was filmed and later broadcast as a ''MAX Session'' on Foxtel channel MAX on 3 November.

For the Sunsets tour in September 2010, the band's final outing, Powderfinger will promote another indigenous cause, the Yalari organisation. The organisation provides indigenous children with opportunities to get a proper education.

In January 2011, following the Queensland flood disaster, undercover.fm reported that Powderfinger has announced that they will not reform for a benefit concert but instead will donate a never before released song to help raise money for the victims.

Personnel

Powderfinger consisted of five members: vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist and harmonicist Bernard Fanning, bass guitarist John Collins, guitarist and backing vocalist Ian Haug, guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist Darren Middleton, and drummer and percussionist Jon Coghill. This has remained the lineup of the band since 1992. Steven Bishop had been the group's drummer before this, but had left wanting to focus on his studies. The band often refers to one another with partial pseudonyms. Most notably John Collins and Jon Coghill, presumably to avoid confusion, are referred to as JC and Cogsy respectively.

Powderfinger have collaborated with few artists, but have had pianist Benmont Tench play on ''Dream Days at the Hotel Existence''. For their second album, ''Double Allergic'', the group enlisted producer Tim Whitten. Powderfinger approached American expatriate Nick DiDia as their producer for ''Internationalist'', and recorded with him at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne. DiDia also produced the following two albums. In 2007 Rob Schnapf, producer for Beck, was asked to produce their sixth studio album in Los Angeles.

Powderfinger's first music video for the song "Reap What You Sow" in 1993 was directed by David Barker, an award-winning director. Film companies who directed other videos of the group include Fifty Fifty Films, and Head Pictures.

Discography

1994: ''Parables for Wooden Ears''

1996: ''Double Allergic''

1998: ''Internationalist''

2000: ''Odyssey Number Five''

2003: ''Vulture Street''

2007: ''Dream Days at the Hotel Existence''

2009: ''Golden Rule''

Awards and accolades

Powderfinger is highly successful in the Australian recording industry, being a recipient of the industry's flagship awards, the ARIA Music Awards, fifteen times. "These Days" and "My Happiness" were ranked #1 on the Triple J Hottest 100 list in 1999 and 2000 respectively, and 21 other Powderfinger tracks have ranked on the list in other years.

See also

Music of Australia

Popular entertainment in Brisbane

References

External links

Official website

:* Discography on official website

Powderfinger interview with Audio Addiction Magazine

Category:ARIA Award winners Category:Australian rock music groups Category:Musical groups established in 1989 Category:Queensland musical groups Category:Universal Music Group artists Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2010 Category:Australian alternative rock groups

de:Powderfinger es:Powderfinger fr:Powderfinger ko:파우더핑거 pl:Powderfinger simple:Powderfinger th:พาวเดอร์ฟิงเกอร์

Coordinates	56°50′″N53°11′″N
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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Crazy Horse (Lakota: '''' (in Standard Lakota Orthography), literally "His-Horse-Is-Crazy" or "His-Horse-Is-Spirited"; ca. 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S. Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people, including leading a war party at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876. After surrendering to U.S. troops under General Crook in 1877, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a military guard while allegedly resisting imprisonment at Camp Robinson in present-day Nebraska. He ranks among the most notable and iconic of Native American tribal members and has been honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a 13¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.

Early life

Sources differ on the precise year of Crazy Horse's birth, but they agree he was born between 1840 and 1845. According to a close friend, he and Crazy Horse "were both born in the same year at the same season of the year", which census records and other interviews place at about 1845. Encouraging Bear, an Oglala medicine man and spiritual adviser to the Oglala war leader, reported that Crazy Horse was born "in the year in which the band to which he belonged, the Oglala, stole One Hundred Horses, and in the fall of the year", a reference to the annual Lakota calendar or winter count. Among the Oglala winter counts, the stealing of 100 horses is noted by Cloud Shield, and possibly by American Horse and Red Horse owner, equivalent to the year 1840-41. Oral history accounts from relatives on the Cheyenne River Reservation place his birth in the spring of 1840. Probably the most credible source, however, is Crazy Horse's own father. On the evening of his son's death, the elderly man told Lieutenant H. R. Lemly that his son "would soon have been thirty-seven, having been born on the South Cheyenne river in the fall of 1840."

Crazy Horse was named at birth ''Cha-O-Ha'' (In the Wilderness or Among the Trees, meaning he was one with nature.) His mother's nickname for him was "Curly" or "Light Hair"; his light curly hair resembled that of his mother.

Family

Crazy Horse was born to Oglala Lakota parents. His father, born in 1810, was also named Crazy Horse. One account said that after the son had reached maturity and shown his strength, his father gave him his name and took a new one, ''Waglula'' (Worm). (Another version of how the son Crazy Horse acquired his name was that he took it after having a vision.) His mother was Rattling Blanket Woman (born 1814). Rattling Blanket Woman was the daughter of Black Buffalo and White Cow (also known as Iron Cane). Black Buffalo is famous for stopping Lewis and Clark on the Bad River. Rattling Blanket Woman was the younger sister of Lone Horn (born between 1790 and 1795, and died in 1875) and also of Good Looking Woman (born 1810). Her younger sister was named Looks At It (born 1815), later given the name They Are Afraid of Her. Crazy Horse's cousin (son of Lone Horn) was Touch the Clouds. He saved his life at least once and was with Crazy Horse when he died. It has been claimed Crazy Horse's mother was Minneconju and the sister of Spotted Tail, who was a Brule head chief.

In the summer of 1844, Waglula (Worm) went on a buffalo hunt. He came across a Minneconjou Lakota village under attack by Crow warriors. He led his small party of warriors to the village and rescued it. Corn, the head man of the village, had lost his wife in the raid. In gratitude he gave ''Waglula'' his two eldest daughters as wives: Iron Between Horns (age 18) and Kills Enemy (age 17). Corn's youngest daughter, Red Leggins, who was 15 at the time, requested to go with her sisters; all became Waglula's wives. (Painter George Catlin made a portrait of Corn while visiting the tribe in 1832.)

Genealogy

According to Frederick Hoxie's 'Encyclopedia of North American Indians' the genealogy of Crazy Horse, both his ancestors and his descendants, was: Crazy Horse was the third in his male line to bear the name of Crazy Horse, which in Oglala is Tasunke Witko. Tasunke Witko III (1840–1877) was the son of Rattling Blanket Woman and Tasunke Witko II. He was married three times: 1st to Black Buffalo Woman, 2nd to Black Shawl, and 3rd to Nellie Larrabee (Laravie). Only his second wife, Black Shawl bore him any children: a daughter named They Are Afraid of Her, who died at age three.

Visions

Crazy Horse lived in the Lakota camp with his younger brother, High Horse (son of Iron Between Horns and ''Waglula'') and a cousin Little Hawk. (Little Hawk was the nephew of his maternal step-grandfather, Corn). The camp was attacked by Lt. Grattan and 28 other US troopers during the Grattan massacre.

After witnessing the death of Lakota leader Conquering Bear, Crazy Horse began to get trance visions. His father ''Waglula'' took him to what today is Sylvan Lake, South Dakota, where they both sat to do a ''hemblecha'' (vision quest). A red-tailed hawk led them to their respective spots in the hills; as the trees are tall in the Black Hills, they could not always see where they were going. Crazy Horse sat between two humps at the top of a hill north and to the east of the lake. Waglula sat south of Harney Peak but north of his son.

Crazy Horse's vision first took him to the South, where in Lakota spirituality one goes upon death. He was brought back and was taken to the West in the direction of the ''wakiyans'' (thunder beings). He was given a medicine bundle to protect him for life. One of his animal protectors would be the white owl which, according to Lakota spirituality, would give extended life. He was also shown his "face paint" for battle, to consist of a yellow lightning bolt down the left side of his face, and white powder. He would wet this and put marks over his vulnerable areas; when dried, the marks looked like hailstones. His face paint was similar to that of his father, who used a red lightning strike down the right side of his face and three red hailstones on his forehead. Crazy Horse put no makeup on his forehead and did not wear a war bonnet. He was given a sacred song that is still sung by the Oglala people today. Lastly, he was told he would be a protector of his people.

A contemporary tribesman and cousin of Crazy Horse, in his classic text, ''Black Elk Speaks: being the life story of a holy man of the Oglala Sioux'' was said to provide an account of Crazy Horse's vision from which he derived his name.

"When I was a man, my father told me something about that vision. Of course he did not know all of it; but he said that Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that world. He was on his horse in that world, and the horse and himself on it and the trees and the grass and the stones and everything were made of spirit, and nothing was hard, and everything seemed to float. His horse was standing still there, and yet it danced around like a horse made only of shadow, and that is how he got his name, which does not mean that his horse was crazy or wild, but that in his vision it danced around in that queer way.

It was this vision that gave him his great power, for when he went into a fight, he had only to think of that world to be in it again, so that he could go through anything and not be hurt. Until he was killed at the Soldiers' Town on White River, he was wounded only twice, once by accident and both times by some one of his own people when he was not expecting trouble and was not thinking; never by an enemy. "

This story appears to be an addition by John G. Neihardt, as his original interview transcripts with Black Elk make no mention of the origination of Crazy Horse's name.

Crazy Horse received a black stone from a medicine man named Horn Chips to protect his horse, a black-and-white "paint horse" which he named ''Inyan'' (rock or stone). He placed the stone behind the horse's ear, so that the medicine from his vision quest and Horn Chips would combine; he and his horse would be one in battle.

Title of "Shirt Wearer"

Through the late 1850s and early 1860s, Crazy Horse's reputation as a warrior grew, as did his fame among the Lakota. The Lakota conveyed accounts of him in their oral histories; they had no written language. His first kill was a Shoshone raider who had killed a Lakota woman washing buffalo meat along the Powder River. Crazy Horse fought in numerous battles between the Lakota and their traditional enemies, the Crow, Shoshone, Pawnee, Blackfeet, and Arikara, among Plains tribes.

In 1864, after the Third Colorado Cavalry decimated Northern Cheyenne in the Sand Creek Massacre, Lakota Oglala and Minneconjou bands allied with them against the US military. Crazy Horse was present at the Battle of Red Buttes and the subsequent Platte River Bridge Station Battle in July 1865. Because of his fighting ability, in 1865 Crazy Horse was named a ''Ogle Tanka Un'' (Shirt Wearer, or war leader) by the tribe.

Battle of the Hundred in the Hand (Fetterman Massacre)

On December 21, 1866, Crazy Horse and six other warriors, both Lakota and Cheyenne, decoyed Capt. William Fetterman's 53 infantrymen and 27 cavalry troopers under Lt. Grummond into an ambush. They had been sent out from Fort Phil Kearny to follow up on an earlier attack on a wood train. Crazy Horse lured Fetterman's infantry up what Wyoming locals now call Massacre Hill. Grummond's cavalry followed the other six decoys along Peno Head Ridge and down toward Peno Creek, where several Cheyenne women taunted the soldiers. Meanwhile, Cheyenne leader Little Wolf and his warriors, who had been hiding on the opposite side of Peno Head Ridge, blocked the return route to the fort. The Lakota warriors swept over Massacre Hill to attack the infantry. Additional Cheyenne and Lakota hiding in the buckbrush along Peno Creek effectively surrounded the soldiers. Seeing that they were surrounded, Grummond headed his cavalry back to Fetterman.

The combined warrior forces of nearly 1,000 killed all the US soldiers, in what became known as the Fetterman Massacre. It was the Army's worst defeat on the Great Plains up to that time. The Lakota and Cheyenne call it the Battle of the Hundred in the Hand.

Wagon Box Fight

On August 2, 1867, Crazy Horse participated in the Wagon Box Fight, also near Fort Phil Kearny. Lakota forces numbering between 1000 and 2000 attacked a wood-cutting crew near the fort. Most of the soldiers fled to a circle of wagon boxes without wheels, using them for cover as they fired at the Lakota. The Lakota took substantial losses, as the soldiers were firing new breech-loading rifles. These could fire ten times a minute compared to the old muzzle-loading rate of three times a minute. The Lakota charged after the soldiers fired, expecting the delay of their older muskets before being able to fire again. The soldiers suffered only five killed and two wounded, while the Lakota suffered between 50 and 120 casualties. Many Lakota were buried in the hills surrounding Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming.

Controversy over his first wife

In the fall of 1867, Crazy Horse invited Black Buffalo Woman to accompany him on a buffalo hunt in the Slim Buttes area of present-day northwestern South Dakota. She was the wife of No Water, who had a reputation for drinking too much. It was Lakota custom to allow a woman to divorce her husband at any time. She did so by moving in with relatives or with another man, or by placing the husband's belongings outside their lodge. Although some compensation might be required to smooth over hurt feelings, the rejected husband was expected to accept his wife's decision. No Water was away from camp when Crazy Horse and Black Buffalo Woman left for the buffalo hunt.

No Water tracked down Crazy Horse and Black Buffalo Woman in the Slim Buttes area. When he found them in a tipi, he called Crazy Horse's name from outside. When Crazy Horse answered, No Water stuck a pistol into the tipi and aimed for Crazy Horse. Touch the Clouds, Crazy Horse's first cousin and son of Lone Horn, was sitting in the tipi nearest the entry. He knocked the pistol upward as No Water fired, deflecting the bullet to Crazy Horse's upper jaw. No Water left, with Crazy Horse's relatives in hot pursuit. No Water ran his horse until it died and continued on foot until he reached the safety of his own village.

Several elders convinced Crazy Horse and No Water that no more blood should be shed. As compensation for the shooting, No Water gave Crazy Horse three horses. Because Crazy Horse was with a married man's wife, he was stripped of his title as Shirt Wearer (leader). At about the same time, the warrior Little Hawk was killed by a group of miners in the Black Hills while escorting some women to the new agency created by the Treaty of 1868.

Second and third wives

In addition to his first wife Black Buffalo Woman, Crazy Horse married Black Shawl Woman, a member of the Oglala Lakota and relative of Spotted Tail. The elders sent her to heal Crazy Horse after his altercation with No Water. Crazy Horse and Black Shawl Woman were married in 1871. Black Shawl gave birth to Crazy Horse's only child, a daughter named They Are Afraid Of Her, who died in 1873. Black Shawl outlived Crazy Horse. She died in 1927 during the influenza outbreaks of the 1920s.

While married to Black Shawl Woman, Crazy Horse took Helena "Nellie" Laravie as his third wife. Nellie, also referred to as ''Chi-Chi'' and Brown Eyes Woman, was the daughter of a French trader and a Cheyenne woman. William Garnett's first-hand account of Crazy Horse's surrender alludes to Nellie as the "half blood woman" who caused Crazy Horse to fall into a "domestic trap which insensibly led him by gradual steps to his destruction."

Great Sioux War of 1876–77

On June 17, 1876, Crazy Horse led a combined group of approximately 1,500 Lakota and Cheyenne in a surprise attack against brevetted Brigadier General George Crook's force of 1,000 cavalry and infantry, and allied 300 Crow and Shoshone warriors in the Battle of the Rosebud. The battle, although not substantial in terms of human losses, delayed Crook's joining with the 7th Cavalry under George A. Custer. It contributed to Custer’s subsequent defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

A week later at 3:00 p.m. on June 25, 1876, Custer's 7th Cavalry attacked a large encampment of Cheyenne and Lakota bands along the Little Bighorn River, marking the beginning of his last battle. Crazy Horse's actions during the battle are unknown.

Hunkpapa warriors led by Chief Gall led the main body of the attack. Crazy Horse's tactical and leadership role in the battle remains ambiguous. While some historians think that Crazy Horse led a flanking assault, ensuring the death of Custer and his men, the only proven fact is that Crazy Horse was a major participant in the battle. His personal courage was attested to by several eye-witness Indian accounts. Water Man, one of only five Arapaho warriors who fought, said that Crazy Horse "was the bravest man I ever saw. He rode closest to the soldiers, yelling to his warriors. All the soldiers were shooting at him, but he was never hit." Sioux battle participant, Little Soldier, said, "The greatest fighter in the whole battle was Crazy Horse."

On September 10, 1876, Captain Anson Mills and two battalions of the Third Cavalry captured a Miniconjou village of 36 lodges in the Battle of Slim Buttes, South Dakota. Crazy Horse and his followers attempted to rescue the camp and its headman, (Old Man) American Horse. They were unsuccessful. The soldiers killed American Horse and much of his family after they holed up in a cave for several hours.

On January 8, 1877, Crazy Horse's warriors fought their last major battle at Wolf Mountain, against the US Cavalry in the Montana Territory. His people struggled through the winter, weakened by hunger and the long cold. Crazy Horse decided to surrender with his band to protect them, and went to Camp Robinson in Nebraska.

Surrender and death

Crazy Horse and other northern Oglala leaders arrived at the Red Cloud Agency, located near Camp Robinson, Nebraska, on May 5, 1877. Together with He Dog, Little Big Man, Iron Crow and others, they met in a solemn ceremony with First Lieutenant William P. Clark as the first step in their formal surrender.

For the next four months, Crazy Horse resided in his village near the Red Cloud Agency. The attention that Crazy Horse received from the Army drew the jealousy of Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, two Lakota who had long before come to the agencies and adopted the white ways. Rumors of Crazy Horse's desire to slip away and return to the old ways of life started to spread at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies. In August 1877, officers at Camp Robinson received word that the Nez Perce of Chief Joseph had broken out of their reservations in Idaho and were fleeing north through Montana toward Canada. When asked by Lieutenant Clark to join the Army against the Nez Perce, Crazy Horse and the Miniconjou leader Touch the Clouds objected, saying that they had promised to remain at peace when they surrendered. According to one version of events, Crazy Horse finally agreed, saying that he would fight "till all the Nez Perce were killed". But his words were apparently misinterpreted by half-Tahitian scout, Frank Grouard (not be confused with Fred Gerard, another U.S. Cavalry scout during the summer of 1876), who reported that Crazy Horse had said that he would "go north and fight until not a white man is left". When he was challenged over his interpretation, Grouard left the council. Another interpreter, William Garnett, was brought in but quickly noted the growing tension.

With the growing trouble at the Red Cloud Agency, General George Crook was ordered to stop at Camp Robinson. A council of the Oglala leadership was called, then canceled, when Crook was incorrectly informed that Crazy Horse had said the previous evening that he intended to kill the general during the proceedings. Crook ordered Crazy Horse's arrest and then departed, leaving the military action to the post commander at Camp Robinson, Lieutenant Colonel Luther P. Bradley. Additional troops were brought in from Fort Laramie and on the morning of September 4, 1877, two columns moved against Crazy Horse's village, only to find that it had scattered during the night. Crazy Horse fled to the nearby Spotted Tail Agency with his sick wife (who had become ill with tuberculosis). After meeting with military officials at the adjacent military post of Camp Sheridan, Crazy Horse agreed to return to Camp Robinson with Lieutenant Jesse M. Lee, the Indian agent at Spotted Tail.

On the morning of September 5, 1877, Crazy Horse and Lieutenant Lee, accompanied by Touch the Clouds as well as a number of Indian scouts, departed for Camp Robinson. Arriving that evening outside the adjutant's office, Lieutenant Lee was informed that he was to turn Crazy Horse over to the Officer of the Day. Lee protested and hurried to Bradley's quarters to debate the issue, but without success. Bradley had received orders that Crazy Horse was to be arrested and forwarded under the cover of darkness to Division Headquarters. Lee turned the Oglala war chief over to Captain James Kennington, in charge of the post guard, who accompanied Crazy Horse to the post guardhouse. Once inside, no doubt realizing the fate that was about to befall him, Crazy Horse struggled with the guard and Little Big Man and attempted to escape. Just outside the door of the guardhouse, Crazy Horse was stabbed with a bayonet by one of the members of the guard. He was taken to the adjutant's office where he was tended by the assistant post surgeon at the post, Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, and died late that night.

The following morning, Crazy Horse's body was turned over to his elderly parents who took it to Camp Sheridan, placing it on a scaffold there. The following month when the Spotted Tail Agency was moved to the Missouri River, Crazy Horse's parents moved the body to an undisclosed location. There are at least four possible locations as noted on a state highway memorial near Wounded Knee, South Dakota. His final resting place remains unknown.

Controversy over his death

Dr. McGillycuddy, who treated Crazy Horse after he was stabbed, wrote that Crazy Horse "died about midnight." According to military records, he died before midnight, making it September 5, 1877.

John Gregory Bourke's memoir of his service in the Indian wars, ''On the Border with Crook'', describes a different account of Crazy Horse's death. He based his account on an interview with Crazy Horse's relative and rival, Little Big Man, who was present at Crazy Horse's arrest and wounding. The interview took place over a year after Crazy Horse's death. Little Big Man said that, as Crazy Horse was being escorted to the guardhouse, he suddenly pulled two knives from under his blanket and held them in each hand. One knife was reportedly fashioned from an army bayonet. Little Big Man, standing behind him, seized Crazy Horse by both elbows, pulling his arms up behind him. As Crazy Horse struggled, Little Big Man lost his grip on one elbow, and Crazy Horse drove his own knife deep into his own lower back. The guard stabbed Crazy Horse with his bayonet in his back. The chief fell and surrendered to the guards.

When Bourke asked about the popular account of the guard bayoneting Crazy Horse first, Little Big Man said that the guard had thrust with his bayonet, but that Crazy Horse's struggles resulted in the guard's thrust missing entirely and lodging his bayonet into the frame of the guardhouse door.

Little Big Man said that, in the hours immediately following Crazy Horse's wounding, the camp Commander had suggested the story of the guard being responsible as a means of hiding Little Big Man's involvement in Crazy Horse's death, and thereby avoiding any inter-clan reprisals.

Little Big Man's account is questionable, as it is the only one of as many as 17 eyewitness sources from Lakota, US Army, and "mixed-blood" individuals, that fails to attribute Crazy Horse's death to a soldier at the guardhouse. Author Thomas Powers cites various witnesses who said Crazy Horse was fatally wounded when his back was pierced by a guard's bayonet.

The "last words" often attributed to Crazy Horse contain a terse implication of the guard. This widely published account directly contradicts the prior, witnessed statement made to the Post Commander.:

The identity of the soldier responsible for the bayoneting of Crazy Horse is also debatable. Only one eyewitness account actually identifies the soldier as Private William Gentles. Historian Walter M. Camp circulated copies of this account to individuals who had been present who questioned the identity of the soldier and provided two additional names. To this day, the identification remains questionable.

Photograph controversy

Most sources question whether Crazy Horse was ever photographed. Dr. McGillycuddy doubted any photograph of the war leader had been taken. In 1908, Walter Camp wrote to the agent for the Pine Ridge Reservation inquiring about a portrait. "I have never seen a photo of Crazy Horse," Agent Brennan replied, "nor am I able to find any one among our Sioux here who remembers having seen a picture of him. Crazy Horse had left the hostiles but a short time before he was killed and its more than likely he never had a picture taken of himself."

In 1956, a small tintype portrait purportedly of Crazy Horse was published by J. W. Vaughn in his book ''With Crook at the Rosebud''. The photograph had belonged to the family of the scout, Baptiste "Little Bat" Garnier. Two decades later, the portrait was again published with further details about how the photograph was produced at Camp Robinson, though the editor of the book "remained unconvinced of the authenticity of the photograph."

Recently, the original tintype was on exhibit at the Custer Battlefield Museum in Garryowen, Montana, who have promoted the image as the only authentic portrait of Crazy Horse. Historians however continue to refute the identification.

Experts argue that the tintype was taken a decade or two after 1877. The evidence includes the individual's attire (such as the length of the hair pipe breastplate and the ascot tie). In addition, no other photograph with the same painted backdrop has been found. Several photographers passed through Camp Robinson and the Red Cloud Agency in 1877 — including James H. Hamilton, Charles Howard, David Rodocker and possibly Daniel S. Mitchell — but none of them used the backdrop that appears in the tintype. After the death of Crazy Horse, Private Charles Howard produced at least two images of the famed war leader's alleged scaffold grave, located near Camp Sheridan, Nebraska.

The image of Crazy Horse at the top of this page was made in 1934 by a forensic artist from a description given by Crazy Horse's sister. This drawing belongs to Crazy Horse's family, and has been publicly shown only once, on the PBS program ''History Detectives''.

Crazy Horse Memorial and Memorial Highways

Crazy Horse is commemorated by the incomplete Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota near the town of Berne — a monument carved into a mountain, in the tradition of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial (on which Korczak Ziółkowski had worked with Gutzon Borglum). The sculpture was begun by Ziółkowski in 1948. When completed, it will be 641 ft (195 m) wide and 563 ft (172 m) high. It is still incomplete because of funding constraints; learning from Borglum's difficulties, Ziółkowski and his family have refused to accept Federal funding in any form. Although the sculpture was originally requested by Henry Standing Bear and other Sioux elders, it has been criticized by some American Indian activists (most notably Russell Means) as exploitative of Sioux culture and Crazy Horse's memory as well as desecrating sacred ground. However, it is a popular tourist attraction, and visitor fees are a major source of funding for the family to continue the carving. Crazy Horse's memorial statue depicts him pointing out toward his land in the Black Hills. His famous quote is "my lands are where my dead lie buried."

Crazy Horse has also been honored by having two highways named the Crazy Horse Memorial Highway. In South Dakota, the SDDOT designated US-16/US-385 between Custer and Hill City, which passes by the Crazy Horse Memorial. And in November, 2010, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman approved designating US-20 from Hay Springs to Fort Robinson in honor of Crazy Horse, capping a year-long effort by citizens of Chadron. The designation may extend east another 100 miles through Cherry County to Valentine.

Notes

Further reading

Ambrose, Stephen E. ''Crazy Horse and Custer: The epic clash of two great warriors at the Little Bighorn''. 1975.

Bray, Kingsley M. ''Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life''. 2006. ISBN 0-8061-3785-1

Clark, Robert. ''The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse: Three Eyewitness Views by the Indian, Chief He Dog the Indian White, William Garnett the White Doctor, Valentine McGillycuddy''. 1988. ISBN 0-8032-6330-9

Marshall, Joseph M. III. ''The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History''. 2004.

Guttmacher, Peter and David W. Baird. Ed. ''Crazy Horse: Sioux War Chief''. New York Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1994. 0-120. ISBN 0-7910-1712-5

McMurtry, Larry. ''Crazy Horse (Penguin Lives)''. Puffin Books. 1999. ISBN 0-670-88234-8

Pinn, Lionel Little Eagle. ''Greengrass Pipe Dancers''. 2000. ISBN 0-87961-250-9

Sandoz, Mari. ''Crazy Horse, the Strange Man of the Oglalas, a biography''. 1942. ISBN 0-8032-9211-2

"Debating Crazy Horse: Is this the Famous Oglala". ''Whispering Wind magazine'', Vol 34 #3, 2004. A discussion on the improbability of the Garryowen photo being that of Crazy Horse (the same photo shown here). The clothing, the studio setting all date the photo 1890–1910.

''The Authorized Biography of Crazy Horse and His Family Part One: Creation, Spirituality, and the Family Tree''. DVD. William Matson and Mark Frethem, producers. Documentary based on over 100 hours of footage shot of family oral history detailed interviews and all Crazy Horse sites. Family had final approval on end product. Reelcontact.com, 2006.

''The Authorized Biography of Crazy Horse and His Family Part Two: Defending the Homeland Prior to the 1868 Treaty'''. DVD William Matson and Mark Frethem, Producers. Reel Contact Productions, 2007.

External links

Final Days and Death of Crazy Horse

PBS Biography of Crazy Horse

Newly Discovered Alleged Photo of Crazy Horse

A timeline of Crazy Horse's life

Trimble: What did Crazy Horse look like?, Indian Country Today

William Bordeaux's Crazy Horse sketch at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library

Complete Crazy Horse Surrender Ledger

Category:1840s births Category:1877 deaths Category:1877 crimes Category:Lakota leaders Category:Murdered Native American people Category:Native American leaders Category:Native American people of the Indian Wars Category:People of the Great Sioux War of 1876–77 Category:People from South Dakota Category:Red Cloud's War Category:Deaths by stabbing Category:People of the American Old West

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