Neil Young - Heart of Gold
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Movie Reviews of Neil Young - Heart of Gold
Movie Review: The Old Man Reaches Back and Looks Forward--Result: Pure Gold
Summary: 5 Stars
NEIL YOUNG--HEART OF GOLD THE MOVIE:
THIS RELEASE IS ONE OF HIS BEST.
Neil Young has always been a conumdrum; part genius, part guitar hack, part poet, part flack. He has played many roles;a Canadian-born singer songwriter, child of the late fifties, darling of the sixties and spokesman for the seventies. Then later, Reagan supporter in the eighties and grandfather to American grundge in the nineties. Now in the twilight of his career, Neil Young remains one of a handful of voices that can generate industry-wide attention just by releasing a new cd or heading out on tour. He has produced some of the most memorable and occassionally the most forgettable music in popular culture. So while it's no surprise that diehard fans continue to line up whenever the venerable rocker releases new material, many others check in sporadically to see what the old man is up to.
Well,diehards and estranged fans alike should be ecstatic. And they should check out Young and a cast of nearly forty as Jonathan Demme's Heart of Gold captures the singer-songwriter in at one of the most pleasing sonic moments of his four decade career.
This is Young at his best, backed by a host of top level players including Ben Keith, Tim Drummond, and Spooner Oldham, among others. These are all veteran musicians that Young has collaborated with several times over the years, most notably during his Harvest session and during his occasional reprises to that genre which produced Harvest Moon, Silver and Gold, and the recent Prarie Wind. Here under the watchful but never intrusive eye of award winning filmmaking Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lamb, Philadelphia, Stop Makin Sense)Young plays the part of a gracious host, welcoming his compadres and his audience alike to bask in the glow of nearly thirty songs from his prodigious catalog. The setting is appropriate-- Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, once the heart of country music and still one of its most nutritious arteries. As celestial light shines through the stained-glass windows of the sacred hall, Young and his castmates glide through almost the entirety of his recent release Prairie Wind, along with acoustic gems such as Old Man, I Am A Child, Harvest Moon, Four Strong Winds, Comes A Time, and of course the title track Heart of Gold.
Young has never sounded so good or so relaxed. He should be so satisfied.
With the recording of this series of concerts coming so soon after his subject had recovered from surgery to repair an aneurysm,Jonathan Demme has captured the artist at his most reflective. Youngs songs stand as testimonials to his family, his friends, and perhaps even his fans, many of whom have entered into middle age along with the singer. The sound is incredible --largely acoustic and there is so much of it. The voices soar toward to the heavens but thank God Demme was able to capture the waves before they sailed out into the Nashville night and onto the prairies.
Young has never cottoned to categories or to cliches. His reunions with country music have always been his most commercially successful, which for Young often meant they were shortlived, the better to move away from quickly lest he be bored or repeat himself.
Still, Heart of Gold records for all history or at least for anyone that calls themself a Neil Young fan that sometime during the last half of the twentieth century and early into the next one, there was a singer-songwriter who loved Hank Williams, loved his family, and loved to play sweet,haunting, celebrations and salutations of life and love. His name was Neil Young and he did it right.
Movie Review: Tryin to remember what Daddy said.....
Summary: 5 Stars
There is a lot to recommend this film - Young's best music in a very long time, the twin passionate motivators of his father's passing from dementia and his own brush with an aneurism, the brilliant musicianship of all the support players, and perhaps most importantly, Emmylou Harris. (hopefully there will be some additional material on the dvd)I can't think of any better pairing in music than these two, and it has always been that way. More so than with CSN, CH, whatever garbanzo group he cobblers together, the moment he and Harris collaborate, whatever the song, it takes on a majesty that is unsurpassed in my ears. In all honesty, in this film, Harris is riveting. It is as much her film, in a supporting role, as it is Young's, and that is without attempting to grandstand. It is the pairing that does it.
The first half of the film is devoted to PRAIRIE WIND, its recording and presentation on stage. Demme delivers as impressive a tableaux for Neil as he did for Talking Heads. You'd forget altogether the coked stumble bum of THE LAST WALTZ, or even the crazed Dylan uber-fan from the Zimmerman tribute. Demme gets up close with Neil and lets his sardonnic humour shine through. To Young's credit, he knows the camera is there and slyly mocks it, and the whole genre of concert footage. At the opening he explains he never asks for any particular musicians and just goes with the flow of who is assembled. Then all of the supporting players tell how he has explicitly asked for them. It is just a perfect example of an extraordinarily dry wit who, as he explains in the background of the story about Louis Avila, "I'm just lucky, I guess."
The second half of the film reminds you just how powerful his country-folk-rock material is, be it the incredible take on "Four Strong Winds" (any Canadian kid worth his salt knows this better than O Canada), the aforementioned "Old Man," the acknowledgement to Nicollete Larsen with "Lotta Love," or the show stopping tour de force song to his dog with Emmylou matching him rif for rif and harmonizing like her life depended on it. The instensity of these two locked in on this song especially, but in nearly every song she's featured in, takes this concert to a place almost no other Neil Young concert I have ever seen reaches. There is a point in STOP MAKING SENSE where you wonder can the band can be any more incendiary than it is. You'll hit that same point with Young's canine ode. In fairness, everyone in the band is on fire by that point, it's just that Harris and Young take this terrific tune to the temple of the gods and offer it up to Music itself. The audience in the movie theatre stood and applauded.
The film ends with a solo, empty theatre version of "The Old Laughing Lady." And that profoundly reminds you why Young put both this concert and this record together. This early metaphor of death haunts the screen as Young packs up and walks off the stage, his boots knocking on the Nashville floor, his face clearly brooding, tryin to remember what Daddy said...
Movie Review: Classic Acoustic Neil Young, the solo part
Summary: 5 Stars
We don't need yet another person telling you that this DVD is a fantastic, intimate, look at Neil Young.
The passion in his music is clear, and I can not add anything to what nearly 100 other reviews have said.
HOWEVER, I happen to also like the "CSN&Y" Neil young, and remember seeing CSN&Y as the very first
concent I ever went to at the Roosevelt Raceway, Long Island, NY. (The stage was on one side of the inside of
the oval raceway, and I was not far from the front stage left on the field. There were people of course in the
stands, hanging off of anything they could. They performed much of what was to make it on to the 4-WAY Street Album,
which is the album I feel in love with CSN&Y. The break up was devistating to me. Looking back, it was another side of Neil,
as was his Electric side which is not represented here. So if you happen to only like Neil's Electric side, this DVD is not for you.
I myself enjoy all of Neil, but I indeed do prefer his electric side. He has provided us with many DVD's of live
concerts for his electric side. He is multi-talented and hence has multiple sides, and he knows how to express
them in music. How lucky we are! I wish some other artists I grew up with in the 70's as a person born near
the tail of the baby boom would come to life like this on DVD.
Sadly they are not all around anymore, or the technology during the 70's does not do justice to Hi-Def
780/1080 video and 5.1/7.1 or DTS audio encoding. :( With Neil, we are lucky his career has extended
over 3 decades.
I love acoustic neil, but I will always remember Rocking in the free world, when even us New Yorkers were
Southern men, and wont forget the Vietnam War, Kent State, or the four that died in Ohio on the electric side,
and when I hear the acoustic side remember those 4 guys up on stage, nervous, knees knocking,
when they performed at Woodstock.
I can never help but wonder what would have happened if CSN&Y had
stayed together. Would we have missed all the great sides we have seen of Neil? Or would they have still
come out only along with the added talents of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash?? I wonder....
Movie Review: Ethereal, utterly sincere, limpid, humble music
Summary: 5 Stars
First, a confession: I was a big Neil Young Fan when I was young. I am now 59. Over thirty years have passed, and I lost touch with him as a musician while my musical taste led me to classic jazz and Delta blues. (For over five years in the 90s I was the Executive Producer for Robert Parker's Jazz Classics In Stereo weekly one hour radio programs on Public Radio International.)
Neil Young recently came back to my attention as one of the owners and developers of a fantastic new electronic control system for Lionel O-gauge model trains called the Legacy system. As a model railroader, I was impressed with the product and especially by Mr. Young's attention to his customer base and commitment to improving the product through direct customer feedback. He is completely open to criticism and inculcates all valid issues into product optimization. Who does that these days?
Since his music was important to me when I was young and stupid, would it still be, I wondered, now that I am old and stupid?
So I started digging around to see where his career had led him, and I came across this DVD, Heart Of Gold, and I bought it to reacquaint myself with the man and his music. It is a film of Mr. Young's 2006 performance, with friends such as Emmylou Harris, in Nashville, and it was directed by Jonathan Demme, famous for movies like Silence of the Lambs.
I was unprepared for my reaction to Mr. Young's performance.
Simply put, it is stunningly beautiful music that comes across, as my title says, utterly sincere. Mr. Young's youthful eclectic creativity has grown and matured. His instrumental and vocal deliveries are deeply emotional without being in the least affected. His songs are tone poems. His on-stage fellow performers are all close friends who share his inner rhythm and his dreams, and it shows. Their musicianship is as perfected as Mr. Young's, and in absolute harmony.
The result is something rare and difficult to describe. The music and the performances are ethereal and deeply moving. It comes directly from Mr. Young's heart without filters or distortion.
I recommend this DVD without reservation or qualification.
Movie Review: It just might make you a fan
Summary: 5 Stars
To be perfectly honest: I'm not THAT much of a Neil Young fan. Yeah he's got some good songs and records but for me they tend to be few and far-between. For every great record like Zuma or Harvest he's got tons that simply don't work like Trans, This Note's For You or Are You Passionate. His latest record, Prairie Wind has been hailed as his return-to-form, a classic Neil Young record. He debuted it at the Grand Ole Opry and it's certainly a breath of fresh air from the other concerts available on DVD.
Performing his Prairie Wind album live in its entirety as well as some hits, Neil Young takes the stage with his band as well as some guests. No stage trickery like pyrotechnics and laser shows, it's just straight Neil Young and he's quite captivating. Even if certain songs don't gel, there's a aura he is where he's like a calmer kind of intense, he's not energetic or dynamic like most but you almost can't keep your eyes of him. Again, his voice is one of those love-it-or-hate-it deals and while I do like Megadeth and Rush who don't have the most range-y singers, Neil's I can tolerate too.
One nice thing about the show is that the editing has finally been given a shot of morphine. Unlike the hyperkinetic cameras of other DVD concerts, this often has loooong shots on Neil or the band and there's a more relaxed feeling about the show and it works because of it. As for the music itself, I don't mind Neil Young but he's not really an artist where every single song he does I'm a fan of, it's more like "I like this one and that and that but all this? No".
Should you buy this? If you're a Neil Young fan yes. If you're not and want to get into him? Hm, maybe buy Harvest first and if you like what you hear, get this but since this concert is the full Prairie Wind album with only a handful of hits, it may not be the best "cherry popper" so to speak.