Waging Heavy Peace - Book 43

Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young is the singer-songwriter's recently released memoirs. Neil Young has been a presence in my life since childhood. My older brother had the Buffalo Springfield Again album. In my teen and college years, I listened to Young's albums After the Gold Rush, Harvest and Rust Never Sleeps over and over again. I remember one winter afternoon listening to the song Pocahontas again and again. "Aurora Borealis, the icy sky at night. . . " I love that song! I went to a CS&N concert once and I remember thinking that my favorite one, Y, wasn't there! I missed him. I never have seen Young in concert.

I didn't really keep up with Neil. I wasn't a groupie or anything. I just loved his music, whether it was acoustic or electric. He just was so creative and classy somehow. I had read an article one time about him and then at another time seen a bit of a movie about him, where they mentioned his disabled sons and how he'd invented something for them. But I really only knew bits and pieces of his life story. So when I somehow stumbled upon this book (cruising the internets somewhere) I immediately was curious and thanks to the wonders of the Kindle was able to download it right away.

I enjoyed this read. At first Young's writing struck me as childlike. He seemed like an old rocker who was stuck in the 1970's or something and had never grown up. I think I either had to get use to his voice or he actually began to write better as the book went on, because the simplicity of his writing style grew on me and I think it got more nuanced too. He's no intellect, and in a way he's stuck in that sex, drugs and rock n roll worldview because that's what he was in the thick of in his formative years. So he seems a bit arrested in his maturity in a way. However, not everyone has to be an intellect (I'm not!) and this isn't to say that he doesn't come across as intelligent, sensitive and passionate. I quite liked him. And his writing style, which is very direct and like he is breezily chatting with you, has an air of intimacy which makes it absorbing. And at times he is very funny too! I was a bit sad, though, that so much of that great music was a result of being stoned. That kind of took away some of my pleasure in it. However, Young, the man, is full of projects, reflections, memories, questions, creativity, gratitude and love as he looks back on his life and that made for really compelling reading. In a way this book reminded me of extended liner notes they used to put on album sleeves. He is so thankful to everyone who worked with him over the years. He has an uncanny memory for names and wonderfully describes little vignettes of people and places, cars and guitars, recording sessions and travel that he has known or experienced over the years. He loves his wife and kids, his music, his home in Northern CA and in Hawaii, and his current projects which are myriad.

He is working on two big projects: creating something initially called PureTone but subsequently changed to Pono because of copyright issues. This is something that will give music from ipods and itunes studio sound quality. Young is a true artist and the quality of the sound is very important to him. This struck a chord (pun!) with me because my own son, Will, who is studying guitar and composition at Berklee College of Music was blown away the first time he listened to music off an album on his father's old stereo system. The sound is just so much better than a CD and the sound is further corrupted via ipods and itune downloads. So Young is grappling with embracing new technology and at the same time being true to the aesthetic value of music. Young is also working on an electric/biomass car. He loves big old cars from the 50's but also is an environmentalist who wants to cut down on pollution and make our country energy independent. I thought that was really interesting and admirable.

He also has other ongoing projects like finishing up films he started long ago, finishing albums, organizing his archives, rebuilding cars, doing fundraising for The Bridge School and Farm Aid. At the beginning of the book Young talks about the fact that he's given up drinking and weed under doctor's orders. His own father suffered from dementia and the doctor has seen some anomaly on Young's brain scan that has him frighten. Young has a lot of lovely memories he shares about his childhood in Canada. He also has witnessed the deaths of many friends and had his own struggles with health, epilepsy, his sons' cerebral palsy, etc. The last chapter of the book is bittersweet.

I enjoyed this book very much. And now I want to download all the old Neil Young albums on my new ipod. Ironic! But I promise to get Pono the minute it is available!

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