Friday, August 16, 2013

Old Weird Neil's Stream of Consciousness

Waging Heavy Peace – A Hippie Dream – Neil Young (Plume)

To corrupt a line from an old financial services company commercial; Neil Young got his nickname, “Old Weird Neil” the old fashioned way…he earned it! A rock ‘n’ roll hall of famer, Young has released a paperback version of his book Waging Heavy Peace – A Hippie Dream.

 
 
Not an autobiography, not really a musical history, or even a Neil Young manifesto; Waging Heavy Peace can best be described as a no holds barred journey into the mind of what can best be described as a genius or a lunatic, depending on your point of view.

Young lets it all hang out with anecdotes from his musical, spiritual, geographic, and innovative journey. He uses the literary equivalent of a pinball machine approach to telling his tale; forget chronology this one takes on a whatever comes into my head at that moment ends up on page style.

When you look at the breadth and width of Neil Young’s career as a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and as a solo performer who has spanned everything from powerful straight ahead rock, solo acoustic, rockabilly and even electronic music, it shouldn’t be surprising that his life is full of entertaining and at times mystifying tales.

A skilled artist and songwriter; Young is also an inventor and innovator who has tried his hand at a wide range of projects that he writes about in loving detail. Not for the faint of heart,  Waging Heavy Peace is a candid portrait of unique individual.

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