Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young

Neil Young is one of my favorite artists. Along with Bruce and Bob he certainly appears in the top three and at any one time he might well be at the top of my personal chart. Whether I am listening to Down by the River at about ten on a boozy night of my youth, or wandering through his mid seventies moment in time albums like Zuma. On the Beach or Tonight's the Night or enjoying his commercial period of Harvest and After the Gold Rush there is always a mood to be enjoyed in Neil's music.

As one of the refugees from the sixties I thought that he might well have some interesting stories to tell in this book. From Rod Stewart to Pete Townsend it seems writing an auto biography appears to be the thing to do for aging rock Gods these days. The Young book is a bit different. If you pick up this book expecting anything like a normal biography you will be sorely disappointed.

Young does not write in anything like a linear way. It is more like a conversation between friends. When Neil thinks of something he talks about it, in that way it truly is like you are sitting with an old friend, one memory leads to another, there is no pattern or straight line of thought.

In the book we hear much about Young's childhood in Canada and his formative years starting out in rock and roll in Toronto and the plains of Winnipeg. Young's parents divorced when he was young and while his Mother never forgave his father Neil did. He speaks with reverence for both his parents which in this era of " My parents are to blame for everything wrong in my life" is certainly a tribute to him and his upbringing. I did not realize that Neil's father Scott Young was a famous author, journalist, and sportswriter in Canada, being Canada however, he was most famous as the longtime studio host of Hockey Night in Canada. Imagine that.

That last sentence is much of how Young writes. Young will offer a memory often of his youth, or a friend that has passed on, and often after commenting on the vagaries and unpredictability of life will end his observation with a two word sentence such as " Life man. "

It is easy to see that Mr. Young is not that removed from his sixties youth. Old though he may be if he had his way it would still be all peace, love, and happiness. Perhaps that is not such a bad way to be.

Through the book Young tells us of many friends he has lost along the way. Most telling on his heart is clearly the loss of original Crazy Horse member Danny Whitten of an overdose but as one can imagine there are numerous losses along the way.

One cannot read the book without hearing, too many times, to be truthful, Young's fascination with getting the best sound out of music. Young has his own system he is trying to market that he feels will be a revolution in sound. Certainly we all know that the sound of MP3's and CD's is soul crushingly bad, but we also know that as superior as the sound of records was we are never going back to that format. I wish we would though, albums, the shape, size, liner notes, Young is right, they were a true art form. As that is not going to happen it is Neil's mission to have his system become the standard going forward so that listeners can hear the music as it is meant to be . It will be interesting to see if he makes progress, my guess is that he is just a little too idealistic to work with " the man" to see this take hold in a meaningful way. I am not sure that compromise is a word that is in his vocabulary.

In the book we hear much of about Young's many loves. We hear about his love with the actress Carrie Snodgrass and his longtime love his wife Pegi. Young's children, one of whom Ben is severely disabled are a big part of his life. Certainly having the financial resources has helped but he has made a strong and honorable effort to include his son in any and all parts of his life. The pride he speaks of when discussing his oldest sons, also moderately disabled, getting a job on his own at Home Depot and working there for years with pride, is heartfelt.

The other abiding passion for Young are his cars. A lover of classic cars he has a story for every car he owns and tells them well. Mr. Young also names his cars. An interesting example of Young's feelings for his cars is the story of a car of his he got in an accident with in 1975 that still remains in pieces, awaiting another restoration in his car barn. Young is a man of projects, as he says he starts many things and often has too many things awaiting a finish. This car, he insists, will be finished as well, after all he claims it has only been 35 years.

This book is not great. At times if one wants to be judgmental they will find plenty to judge. If one is a fan of Neil's work they will most likely enjoy the book. For me reading this book was like having a long conversation with my older brother. He too went through the ravages of the late sixties and early seventies, he fought his demons and had many ups and downs. In the end though he was a good man, a man who was simple in his tastes, and sure in his desire to do the right thing. He made plenty of mistakes, he owned up to them ane he grew his whole life.

He died a few years ago, much too young, for me reading Neil write like my brother talked felt more personal than the author probably intended.

Even so for me this book gets a big Thank you Neil.