The Crazy Uncle Who Raised Everyone: 80 Years of Neil Young

Neil Young raised them all. Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder, Tom Petty, David Bowie, Noel Gallagher. Even Chris Martin. Many artists, of different genres and generations, would not have made the same journey without “Uncle Neil”, the Canadian (naturalized American) storyteller who turns off tomorrow 80 candles. His mad genius has illuminated the world of music like a beacon since the 1960s – and continues to do so today.

It is difficult to summarize in a few lines the immense legacy of that loose cannon born in Toronto on November 12, 1945. If you had to describe her in three words, they would probably be boundless, coherent and rebellious. From the Canadian folk scene to the incandescent amplifiers of American rock, from the stages of Woodstock to the posters of environmental activism, there has not been a single time in which Neil Percival Young has been banal, since his beginnings with Buffalo Springfieldwhich he founded in Los Angeles in 1966 together with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. Their “For What It’s Worth” becomes a generational manifesto and Young establishes himself as a restless author, capable of blending protest and poetry.

Beyond labels

In 1968 he released his first, eponymous solo album (also with the record company of an exceptional friend, Joni Mitchell), but it was with “After the Gold Rush” (1970) and above all with “Harvest” (1972) that Young became a universal voice. “Heart of Gold”, “Old Man” and “The Needle and the Damage Done”: eternal anthems of a generation in search of authenticity. In parallel, the experience with i Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young consecrates him among the absolute protagonists of the American counterculture. In “Déjà Vu” (1970) he created masterpieces such as “Helpless” and “Ohio”; the latter, written after the Kent State massacre, remains one of the strongest examples of civil music in rock history.

During the Seventies and Eighties, Young proved that he could not be confined or labeled: he moved from country to rock, from the most intimate acoustic to the most ferocious electric. With i Crazy Horsehis “totem” band, has fun like a child, from the days of “Rust Never Sleeps” (1979) to those of “Ragged Glory” (1990) up until today. The rough and visceral approach to the guitar (also appreciated by illustrious contemporaries such as Jimmy Page and Johnny Rotten), the deep and sometimes dark lyrics earned him the nickname “godfather of grunge“. Kurt Cobain demonstrated all his devotion towards Neil on that tragic 5 April 1994, the day he took his own life: his farewell letter ends with the phrase “it’s better to burn out than to fade away”. (“Sleeps With Angels”) to Cobain Nirvana in the Canadian spiritual master’s repertoire, just listen to “Danger Bird” (second track of “Zuma”, a 1975 album) to realize how pioneering Young’s sound was.

Busy, elusive, restless

But talk about Neil Young’s career without referring to his political commitment it would be like talking about Eddy Merckx without mentioning the bicycle: the puzzle would be missing its most important piece. In 1985 he founded Farm Aid with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp, a permanent festival in support of American farmers. Shortly afterwards, the Bridge School was born, dedicated to children with communication disabilities, inspired by his two children suffering from cerebral palsy. In recent decades his commitment has extended to environmental sustainability, criticism of the recording and technology industries, up to the “LincVolt” electric car project and the battle for digital sound quality. The motto is simple: being an artist means take responsibility.

Neil Young he was never where audiences expected to find him. After acoustic, rock. After the success, the experiment. Electronic, rockabilly, traditional country. The common thread is always the purest sincerity, the fragile voice, the passionate guitar, the urgency to communicate. It is this authenticity that makes it, even today, a point of reference for those who believe that music can change something. “The world is divided in two: those who love Neil Young and those who don’t like him. And those who don’t like him are fucking idiots“, says Noel Gallagher. How can you blame him. Rock and roll can never die.