Well I've just finished reading THE BIG NEW BIOGRAPHY by the guy with the very high pompadour. The first thing that pops into my mind is that the author's constant references to how close he is to the Neiler, and how Young LOVES to be insulted and cajoled by said author, is distracting to say the least.

No, I didn't buy the book (I was never a fan) it was loaned to me by a friend who loves every one of Neil's acoustic guitar riffs.

But hey....there's something in Neil's favour right there. Geez, he has a LOT of memorable little guitar figures, many in D going to F.

Have to agree with **Catspaw** that his way of expressing himself is somewhat otherworldly ( of course so is Dylan's) but I kept getting the impression that he was really TRYING to be honest, although weirdly inarticulate when forced into an interview situation

** ** Regarding anonymous Guest's take on why Catspaw is beloved my multitdes of Mudcatters ("in" ones that is): personally I don't think he's EVER said ANYTHING funny that wasn't stolen directly from me, or Helen keller's autobiography. But I'm told he's contributed more than 7000.00 to Mudcat just to prevent his membership being deleted, so I follow the other blind fools and slavishly worship him.

By pure accident, I started listening to a (sort of) sophisticated Golden Oldies radio station, the day I finished the book, and apparently they were on a Neil Young kick. Gotta tell ya, I was surprised at how damn CATCHY so many of his tunes were. I was not REALLY familiar with most of them, but I started humming them after they'd get played.

His lyrics never did a darned thing for me, but I suspect they were very important to a lot of kids who wanted to write their own songs, but would never have even ATTEMPTED to write poetry if all they were confronted with was Dylan's stuff, or Cole Porter, or Yeats or Shakespeare or even later McCartney and Lennon.

A fairly inarticulate kid COULD write something like "I am a child, I last a while", and feel that it was valid........simply because of Young.

The "Lionel Trains" thing was a complete surprise to me, and certainly shows that Young can be convincing in a Boardroom....whatever that might mean.

Anyway, I found him more interesting than I had previously thought, and the childhood references to protecting a kid named Gary Renzetti were fun, 'cause I've known Renzetti for thirty years, and he's a pretty big hulking guy....never could have imagined him being bullied in his youth.

Rick....despite himself now humming "Harvest Moon".