Neil's Golden Heart

Given the opportunity to see a really good Neil Young concert for seven bucks , I simply couldn't pass it up. Actually, it wasn't really a concert, it was Johnathan Demme's new film, Heart of Gold. Still, it felt like a concert to me. I found myself wanting to clap and whistle after every song, and then I'd stop myself... "oh yeah, I'm in a movie theatre." After awhile I even forgot that I was hearing this music through the faded sound system of an old neighborhood cinema. All of the music touched me deeply.

In August 2005, Neil Young and friends (including a choir, string ensemble and horn section) performed for two consecutive nights at Nashville's legendary Ryman Auditorium. This came on the heels of Neil's brush with death due to a brain aneurysm and the completion of his grammy-nominated album, Prairie Wind. He was inspired and his band was sharp as a tack. In addition to that, Neil had the brilliant sense to make sure that this very special moment was captured by one of the finest cinematographers around. I own a DVD copy of Demme's last concert film, Stop Making Sense, by The Talking Heads. I've watched it dozens of times and its still good. In this new film, the combination of epic musical performance and stunning filmmaking left me feeling very satisfied.

During the opening set, Neil's new material from Prairie Wind was revealed to me in a deeper way. I liked all of it. The second set brought an excellent mix of material from Harvest, Harvest Moon and Comes A Time. For the first time ever, I got to see Neil play his legendary banjo-guitar on Old King. The display of several vintage Martin and Gibson guitars left my mouth watering. The performance of Old Man was the best I've ever heard that song, in no small part due to the story that Neil told prior to the song that revealed to all of us who the old man really was. Neil's storytelling and dry wit was in top form throughout the show.

Most of the critics are falling over themselves in praise of this film and of Young himself. Perhaps Neil's illness revealed his mortality, and a lot of people woke up to the fact that "Shakey" is still here, making great music just like he has for the past 40 years. This is no surprise to those of us who have been paying closer attention. Oh sure, I've had to indulge Neil his creative whims, but he always comes back to knock me on my tail one more time. Upon leaving the theatre, my friend Willy echoed the voice of another in saying, "Neil's a genius." Agreed. To me, Neil is like an old friend. I'm just glad I get to share the planet with him. He has influenced my own musical creativity in countless ways. When I got home, the first thing I did was grab my guitar and lower the "E" string to a "D", dropped D tuning, with the echoes of Neil's beautiful solo encore tune, The Old Laughing Lady, still ringing in my ears.

Please take my advice. Please take my advice. Everyone who reads this blog should go and see this film. You'll dig it. And a few of my friends that read this blog (you know who you are) would be making a huge mistake by not seeing this film on the big screen during its limited run. Are we clear? By the way, it's in Portland for two more days.