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00:02and sing tonight at nine only on bio
00:07folk rock heavy metal punk grunge each captured the spirit of youthful rebellion unique to its
00:16generation of listeners but one artist was rebellious enough and uncompromising enough
00:24to leave his mark on all rock's ultimate survivor neil young
00:35nothing to lose leads you to where you are today
00:41i believe in story time it's gonna make you a star i'm still trying to figure that out
00:50the year is 1995 the place new york's ultra swank waldorf astoria hotel a celebrity studded crowd
01:00fills the ballroom to see neil young inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame never was the honor
01:06more deserved for three decades music poured out of him enough to fill 26 albums his dark difficult
01:14songs broke every rule of pop hit making but his records sold millions his range was astounding
01:22from tender acoustic ballads to eardrum shattering rock anthems he fluctuated between styles and genres
01:30losing himself completely in each one you've heard of the three faces of eve well you could
01:36easily write a book or do a movie called the 47 faces of neil and that's what makes his music
01:44so
01:44interesting because because there's all these layers and differences in them and literally and within
01:50an hour you can encounter any three of these people his incendiary guitar and anguished vocals fueled
01:58legendary bands like buffalo springfield and crosby stills nash and young he excelled as a solo artist
02:05while drawing the best from some of the greatest musicians of his day
02:25but the real reason young deserved rocks highest honor was that his music still resonated with rock's target
02:31audience young people rock stars explode onto the scene and burn out just as quickly more than any
02:39musical artist of his day neil young navigated rock and roll's ever shifting currents the primal force
02:46of his work crashed through generational barriers the surname is no mistake okay young there's something
02:54about the guy that tapped into the youthful part of rock and roll that sort of thing that just says
03:02nanny nanny boo boo i'm gonna do what i want because i'm 15 years old and i don't know the
03:09cost of anything
03:11in the 70s punkers like johnny rotten proclaimed young a kindred spirit in the 80s he found common musical
03:19ground with bands like devo and sonic youth in the 90s he collaborated with pearl jam and was dubbed the
03:27godfather of grunge at first glance neil young seems the least likely candidate for rock and roll survival
03:35emotional and physical trauma haunted him throughout his life and personal tragedy waited to blindside him
03:42at every turn comes down to la band comes together and everything's happening and then there while he's
03:49performing his music in front of people epilepsy hits him loved by millions from a distance up close he could
03:57be a terror in an instant friends partners wives could be shut out or cast aside he may have left
04:09some
04:10wreckage along the road and who knows where it's all going to end up but neil's on that road he's
04:15on that
04:15highway and no one's stopping that guy he was the poster child for the self-absorbed artist he sabotaged
04:23his career to follow his creative muse leaving audiences bewildered and record companies enraged
04:31his record company was horrified i mean this sounded you couldn't make a worse sound by taking a live cat
04:38and banging it against the wall just yowling apocalyptic frenzy great stuff but how do you sell it to
04:45people who had bought heart of gold or old man driven focused defiant when it came to music neil young
04:54would not be denied physical torment shattered relationships personal tragedy all were fed into
05:03the fires of his creative genius the results rock and roll at its rawest and most authentic life ain't
05:11perfect life is full of uh uh never was's and almost been's and his music at its best has has
05:18uh train load
05:19a life to it great stuff you know the road to the rock hall wasn't an easy one and it
05:38took him from
05:38superstardom to hell and back again but neil young against the odds survived
05:52the road to hell and back again and back again and back again and back again and back again and
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08:20one sunday a ghost chases a family out of their home then follows them to 10 more on an all
08:25new
08:25psychic investigators a rape survivor asks a psychic for help then london's history saw heads rolling
08:31leaving monarchs seeking revenge and are ghostly visions a family affair the paranormal zone sunday
08:38starting at eight only on bio is one of your favorite dearly departed celebs having a death-aversary
08:43find in-depth profiles photos and more for those stars who burned out too soon
08:48only at bio dot tv neil young is a hard man to know intensely private and guarded he throws
08:58roadblocks into the path of those who attempt to enter his world he refuses interviews denies rights
09:05to his music and demands that those loyal to him not betray his trust one of the few outsiders to
09:13gain
09:14access to young's world is biographer jimmy mcdonough mcdonough connected with young's music from an early
09:20age when i was a mere lad a pimply face sad sack adolescent growing up uh the three records of
09:30neil
09:31young's in particular really hit me like a punch to the head and that was on the beach tonight's the
09:37night
09:37and zuma and i thought even then i'm gonna meet this guy one day i want to know what's going
09:43on
09:43inside of this person it was young himself who approached mcdonough about writing a book about
09:49his life he promised total access that promise was unfulfilled he'd blow me off for for for sometimes a
09:59year or two and i mean this is not uncommon in neil's life the story of this book in itself
10:06could
10:06be a very bad tv movie that would last at least 10 days that was the adventure of my life
10:12i wouldn't
10:12trade it for anything uh trying exasperating all those things it was a great challenge and i i thank
10:19neil for giving it to me young's need to protect himself and his privacy stems from childhood one with
10:27more than its share of emotional and physical trials his parents were a mismatch rassy his mom
10:34vivacious and volatile had family roots deep in american soil his dad scott was pure canadian pleasant
10:42dry and emotionally reserved that single-mindedness that defiance i have to say i think it comes from his
10:50mother she was her own person a very funny lady very tough character definitely had a a darker streak
11:02to the amber such as her son and very protective scott was ambitious he dreamed of a career in sports
11:11writing and moved his family wherever there was work uh his dad was a journalist who worked for
11:18newspapers in canada and for magazines also wrote books so quite often they were moving for a time
11:24the young settled in omimi ontario it was a backwards fly speck of a town some homes still lacked electricity
11:33but to neil it was paradise he fished and caught snapping turtles in the local pond he loved the sound
11:40and smell of the railroad that ran behind the house trains became a lifelong obsession there is a
11:47sense when you look at pictures when you go to omimi a very sort of stereotypical norman rockwell
11:55huckleberry finn existence but a deadly intruder was about to enter paradise on a hot august night
12:02six-year-old neil woke up with a sharp pain in his shoulder the next day he could barely move
12:08rassy
12:09and scott rushed their son to the emergency room and awaited the doctor's verdict it was polio
12:18the disease had already claimed hundreds of children in the toronto area miraculously neil
12:24survived but his once secure world had been badly shaken he found a refuge in music
12:33he stayed up late with his transistor radio listening to r&b artists like the fleetwoods
12:38and canadian country stars like marty robbins from the states wolfman jack came blasting with a cool new
12:47sound rock and roll neil was hooked he formed his first band with classmate comrie smith comrie banged
12:56the bongos while neil strummed the ukulele his dad had given him for christmas the uke soon gave way to
13:03the
13:03guitar young was determined to master it he practiced till his fingers hurt he definitely has an ability
13:11to focus you know people will tell you this guy will focus uh on something and whatever he's doing
13:18that's it you know 12 other things may need his attention they're not going to get through there was
13:24less harmony between his parents as the relationship soured scott's eyes wandered he fell for an attractive
13:32divorcee he met while on assignment it was the final straw neil's parents divorced the divorce was
13:40fairly acrimonious i know that that rassy certainly harbored bitterness for a long time
13:46over uh the split and neil really lost touch with his dad for for many many years neil and his
13:52mom
13:53headed for winnipeg to start a new life shortly after they moved to winnipeg rassy took a job working for
13:59cjay tv as a panelist on a local quiz show called 20 questions so that sort of raised her profile
14:06around the city as well his parents separation left neil emotionally shattered he lost himself in music
14:13and dreamed of making it as a guitarist for a talented teenager with musical dreams winnipeg was the right
14:21place at the right time neil came out of this whole canadian scene which was very important to him i
14:28think
14:28this whole scene in particular in winnipeg where you had these little clubs where people would get
14:34together and it was really kind of a wholesome experience of music neil and friend randy bachman
14:41took it all in bachman who later founded the guess who and the bachman turner overdrive was a few years
14:48older than neil and miles ahead on the guitar and neil used to go and watch randy playing all the
14:54time and
14:55he would stand at the community clubs and he'd stand at the stage and just look up at randy and
14:59watch his fingers and watch what he was doing intensely focused neil improved steadily rassy
15:06supported her son's efforts turning a blind eye when neil would cut classes to practice his dad wasn't as
15:12encouraging of neil's music career as his mom was rassy was behind her kneeler she called him kneeler
15:19her and she was behind kneeler all the way and whatever kind of equipment he needed and you know
15:23she would make sure he got it she she took bookings for the band she let the band rehearse in
15:28in their
15:28living room on on grosvenor young was now good enough to play backup guitar for local groups but neil
15:35young would never be satisfied in the background with high school buddy ken coblum he formed his own band
15:43the squires they played wherever there was work at wrestling matches and from the back of flatbed
15:49trucks sometimes in sub-zero weather the band's gung-ho attitude paid off bob bradburn a local radio fixture
15:58was impressed on july 23 1963 neil's band marched into the tiny studio of ckrc radio and cut its first
16:08single
16:10but neil young intense driven and focused dreamed of bigger things those dreams would come true
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19:27By 1963, the British invasion was in full swing.
19:31The Beatles and Stones took the Canadian airwaves by storm.
19:3617-year-old Neil Young was listening.
19:39I recall Alan Bates from the Squires telling me that he came running into Crescentwood Community Club one day
19:44with the Beatles album and said, wow, you've got to listen to these guys, they're great.
19:48So they put the album on, and then Neil was really, really smitten with the Beatles.
19:51You know, to the point that they even, the Squires even played a gig wearing Beatle wigs.
19:57With the Fab Four as his role models, Neil was more determined than ever to make it as a musician.
20:03He dropped out of school to pursue his passion full-time.
20:07He renamed the band Neil Young and the Squires and set his sights beyond Winnipeg.
20:12He bought an old run-down hearse and drove it to Fort William.
20:16It was a drab, working-class town, but it had a taste for rock and roll and folk music.
20:23Young supplied both, playing Beatle tunes with the Squires,
20:26then unplugging for a solo set of folk standards.
20:31Taking notice was a brash, talented guitarist-singer from Florida
20:35with a distinctively soulful voice.
20:38His name was Stephen Stills.
20:41They were going to open the show for a band from New York called The Company.
20:45So they arrived and set up and did their set,
20:47and in the audience was a member of the company, Stephen Stills,
20:51and he was absolutely blown away with what Neil was doing,
20:54because that's what he wanted to do.
20:55Stephen gave Neil an address in New York and said,
20:59if you're ever in New York, you know, come look me up.
21:02Neil Young and the Squires were making a name in Fort William,
21:06but Young hungered for bigger audiences and greater opportunities.
21:10He loaded up the hearse and set out for the music capital of Canada, Toronto.
21:17In 1965, Toronto's music scene was rich, lively, and diverse.
21:23On Young Street, you had the go-go bars,
21:25and you also had, in New Yorkville, this little folk enclave,
21:27kind of a mini Grinch village, a real folk scene happening.
21:31So Neil kind of gravitated between the two.
21:34Young fell in with another struggling singer-songwriter, Joni Mitchell.
21:38The two haunted the folk clubs, playing wherever they found an open mic.
21:43The response wasn't encouraging.
21:45Critics skewered Young's songs for being too cliché.
21:49Audiences grumbled about his thin, reedy voice.
21:54There was frustration at people not taking him seriously.
21:57An awful lot of people said, you can't sing.
22:00You know, his first recording session, at the end of the session,
22:03the record engineer said to him, you're a good guitar player, kid,
22:05but you'll never make it as a singer.
22:08Young found hope and inspiration in the work of a mesmerizing American folk singer
22:12with a less than perfect voice, Bob Dylan.
22:16Dylan's work would remain a touchstone for Young for the rest of his career.
22:20I call my blood
22:25I'm going back to Kelvin High School
22:28I do believe I...
22:30Times were tough.
22:32Paying gigs almost non-existent.
22:35Songwriting became his tool for exploring his feelings of loneliness and desperation.
22:41He wasn't getting any gigs.
22:43He was living, you know, really living hand-to-mouth.
22:46And a lot of songs, a lot of more introspective songs, like nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing,
22:51emerged from that frustration of his career going nowhere.
22:55Young was finding his unique voice, but no one was listening.
22:59On his father's advice, he cut his hair and got a straight job as a stock boy.
23:04It seemed like his career would end before it started.
23:08But a chance meeting with a bass player named Bruce Palmer brought new possibilities.
23:14He was walking along Yonge Street and ran into Bruce Palmer.
23:19And Bruce Palmer played in a band called the Minor Birds.
23:22And their shtick was that they had a talking Minor Bird named Raja,
23:25who they would bring to the gigs and he would actually speak.
23:29And the lead singer in the Minor Birds was Rick James.
23:32Bruce asked Neil, just on the street in Yorkville,
23:34hey, do you play guitar?
23:35And Neil said, yeah.
23:37Neil landed the job.
23:39The Minor Birds tore up the Toronto club scene.
23:42Soon, Motown Records came calling.
23:45The band laid down tracks under the watchful eyes of industry legends Smokey Robinson and Barry Gordy Jr.
23:52The success Young had been longing for seemed just within reach
23:55when lead singer Rick James was arrested.
23:59Rick James was busted.
24:00He was AWOL from the American Navy.
24:02So the band kind of folded.
24:04The Minor Birds were history.
24:07And Young was back on the street.
24:09Broke and frustrated, he wanted out of Toronto.
24:13With Bruce Palmer in tow and a vague plan to hook up with old pal Stephen Stills,
24:19he headed for California.
24:21He gets to L.A., and L.A. is just this wide-open, freak-out place.
24:26You know, 1966, you had all this stuff going on,
24:30and Neil was kind of dropped in the middle of it.
24:34Folk rock was the new vibration in the air.
24:37California bands like the Byrds finally pushed the British invaders off the top of the charts.
24:43Young, who played both folk and rock, saw his future.
24:48He tracked down stills, and with Bruce Palmer on bass,
24:52Richie Fury on guitar, and Dewey Martin on drums,
24:55launched Buffalo Springfield.
25:14The chemistry was powerful and highly combustible.
25:18Stills and Young clashed immediately over the band's musical direction.
25:22But when the group took the stage at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go on May 2, 1966,
25:27there was no question the chemistry worked.
25:31Buffalo Springfield and Neil Young had arrived.
25:39Man ships himself home, avoids airfare.
25:41Urban legends.
25:42Streaker's getaway car stolen.
25:44Tales told and retold forever.
25:46One-night stand costs man kidney.
25:48But are they real or man-made myths?
25:51Aviator flies high in lawn chair.
25:53At last, the truth will be told.
25:55Urban legends.
25:56Tonight at 11.
25:57Only on bio.
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28:40By the summer of 1966, Buffalo Springfield was the hottest band on the L.A. music scene.
28:47A contract with Atlantic Records soon followed.
28:51Neil Young had the success he craved.
28:54But it came with a price.
28:57Teenagers, especially teenage girls, buy the 45s, buy the albums.
29:00You know, in Hit Prater magazine, I mean, there would be articles that would say, win a dream date with
29:04Buffalo Neal.
29:05So there was that adulation element, that fan adulation element of the Buffalo Springfield that Neal had a lot of
29:10difficulty dealing with.
29:12The counterculture was revving up.
29:15Sex and drugs were readily available, especially to rock stars on the rise.
29:20For a self-conscious kid straight from Canada, it was a blessing and a curse.
29:27Neal was the kind of guy that a lot of girls were drawn to.
29:31Even though he was kind of like unkempt, but there was something, there was sort of a darker edge to
29:37Neal than there was to anybody else.
29:39People found that intriguing.
29:41He was a lot of fun.
29:43I spent time alone with him, just, you know, photographing him up at his house.
29:49Everybody partied.
29:50The whiskey was a great place to hang out.
29:52There were drugs everywhere.
29:54And people were always partying and everybody was being nude and all that kind of stuff, which I never did
30:01see Neal in the nude.
30:03Steve, yes.
30:05The battle for creative control of the band raged on.
30:10Still's drive to make the Springfield a popular success ran up against Young's demand for artistic integrity.
30:20One of the problems really was the fact that it was Steven's band from the get-go.
30:25That was very difficult for Neal because Neal had, with the exception of the Minor Birds, always been in charge
30:29of his bands.
30:31They really kind of wrote alone as opposed to writing together.
30:35And it was kind of competitive between them.
30:49The stress coupled with the fact that lights, strobe lights, trigger epileptic seizures.
30:54And they were, and light shows were just coming in at that time.
30:57And they would play clubs, they would play concerts, and the strobe lights would come on.
31:01And quite often, Neal would have a seizure.
31:03Richie would say he would look over and if Neal sort of started, you know, getting a little rigid and
31:07maybe shaking a little,
31:07and you could see his eyes kind of rolling, Richie would stop playing and grab his guitar.
31:11So that when Neal fell, the guitar wouldn't break or fall.
31:16Buffalo Springfield rolled on.
31:18But Young's world was spinning out of control.
31:22He became increasingly elusive and withdrawn.
31:26He skipped rehearsals and missed gigs.
31:30They're going to go on The Tonight Show.
31:32Neal bails out of the band.
31:34Nowhere to be found.
31:35Not the first time, not the last time.
31:37Dewey Martin, who's their drummer, he was livid with this guy because Neal was just AWOL.
31:42He didn't want to be on TV.
31:45You know, TV was not what he was about.
31:47By January 1968, the tensions between Stills and Young reached the breaking point.
31:53A fistfight broke out, and the two had to be separated.
31:57The band was going downhill fast.
32:00Two months later, it crashed.
32:02The band was busted at a party in Topanga Canyon.
32:06Stills slipped out a window and escaped.
32:09But Neal, Richie, and friend Eric Clapton were arrested, strip-searched, and taken to jail.
32:18The charges were dropped, but it was the last straw.
32:22On May 5, 1968, Buffalo Springfield gave its farewell performance.
32:27They had been together just 18 months.
32:31I don't think they were given as much credit by the sort of world at large, our world here in
32:38L.A., for their enormous abilities.
32:41I mean, it was more like the Doors, who I really thought, I mean, I thought they were good, but
32:47I didn't think they were on the level of the Buffalo Springfield.
32:49I mean, the sad tale of the Buffalo Springfield is they were probably, at that time in 1966, the most
32:56talented band in the United States.
32:59They could have been the contenders, had they had the right management, had they had the right ability to stay
33:06together.
33:08I don't, I mean, I think we'd be speaking of, you know, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Buffalo Springfield,
33:12the Birds, I mean, all within the same context.
33:16Young was emotionally exhausted.
33:19Where other people might have had a groovy experience in that 60s period, I think for Neal, it was a
33:25time of frustration and fear and feeling out of control.
33:29And you find that right after that time, not long after that time, he retreats from L.A., first to
33:35Topanga Canyon and then up North California.
33:39Located in an isolated stretch of mountains between Los Angeles and Malibu, Topanga Canyon was the ideal refuge for the
33:46L.A. weary musician.
33:48At a local bacon and eggs hangout, Young hit it off with a waitress named Susan Acevedas.
33:54They married, and Susan took charge of Young's life, doing the cooking and cleaning and fielding his calls.
34:03Neal was testing the waters as a solo artist.
34:06He had a wealth of songs that had not been released when he was in the Springfield, and he was
34:12also writing new material.
34:13And again, he was just testing out those songs, live in performance and in the studio.
34:19He released a solo album and played acoustic gigs where he could find them.
34:23But Young still wanted to rock, and for that, he needed a band.
34:28He sat in with a group called The Rockets, fronted by a talented, troubled guitarist named Danny Whitten.
34:36Young took the group over and renamed it Crazy Horse.
34:39It was an inspired match.
34:42Neil Young and Crazy Horse went on to make classic rock and roll off and on for decades.
34:48Watching Neil Young and Crazy Horse play live, right after they recorded Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,
34:56was like standing at the top of the highest mountain on the most beautiful day,
35:03and having the wind blowing with air so pure that it hurt to breathe.
35:13Newly married, with his recording career on track, Young's chaotic world was finally settling down.
35:19But a surprise visitor from his past was about to knock it out of orbit once again.
35:26Sunday, a ghost chases a family out of their home, then follows them to ten more.
35:31On an all-new Psychic Investigators, a rape survivor asks a psychic for help.
35:36Then, London's history saw heads rolling, leaving Monarchs seeking revenge.
35:40And are ghostly visions a family affair?
35:42The Paranormal Zone, Sunday, starting at 8, only on Bio.
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36:34Since the breakup of Buffalo Springfield,
36:37Neil Young had established himself as a solo artist
36:39and launched a stirring collaboration with Crazy Horse.
36:43But his successes paled in comparison to those of his former bandmate, Stephen Stills.
36:50Laurel Canyon in 1968 was a destination for a number of musicians between bands,
36:57including David Crosby and Stephen Stills,
36:59and ultimately Graham Nash of the Hollies.
37:03One afternoon, and no one can be certain if it was Joni Mitchell's living room or Cass Elliot's kitchen,
37:10but Crosby, Stills, and Nash sang together for the first time.
37:13And when that occurred, their lives were never the same.
37:17Crosby, Stills, and Nash were white-hot, rocketing up both the singles and album charts.
37:23The fans demanded a tour, but there was a problem.
37:27They could not take the album on the road because Stephen Stills played so many instruments on the record
37:33and earned the nickname Captain Many Hands.
37:36So Stephen went to Neil Young at the suggestion, frankly, of Ahmet Erdogan,
37:42then president of Atlantic Records,
37:43and tried to rekindle the relationship that they had in Buffalo Springfield.
37:50So after we had our first big success with Crosby, Stills, and Nash,
37:56and we were having a meeting at my house with all the guys,
38:03I said, you know, wouldn't it be great if Neil was with this group, you know?
38:10I mean, and Stephen Stills said, yeah, man, I guess we shouldn't have broken up.
38:18Young was interested.
38:20He explained why in a press conference before the band's reunion tour in 2000.
38:27We already had our history.
38:29We already had roots in playing together and developing our musical styles
38:34and learning how to play guitars together.
38:36Young agreed to sign on to the tour, but with one condition.
38:40Equal billing.
38:42It was a life-altering decision.
38:44The addition of Neil Young instantly took the band's success to another level.
38:49One of their first performances was in front of 400,000 rain-drenched fans at Woodstock.
38:57Woodstock made Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young instant cultural icons,
39:02the musical voice of a generation.
39:05They also really came upon a sound that allowed them to be truly spokesmen for a generation.
39:14They were talking about issues, expressing feelings,
39:17and musically driving home messages that were at the heart of the people that were coming to their shows.
39:25When they looked up on stage, they saw themselves.
39:29Beloved by fans and critics alike, CSNY soared.
39:34But the band couldn't stay at these giddy heights forever.
39:38Heavy drug use fed paranoia and emotional meltdowns.
39:42And again, Stills and Young locked horns over creative control.
39:49Try to get this guy to do anything, and you will find out.
39:52It ain't going to happen unless it happens in his way.
39:55And if he wants to happen upside down, with all of you wearing buffalo skins while beating a gong,
40:03you better get busy on the gong, Jack, because it's definitely going to happen that way.
40:09Finally, Young had had enough.
40:13They tried to finish recording the second CSNY album in Sausalito, California.
40:20During the session, David Crosby and Stephen Stills had an argument over a single harmony note
40:25and decided to take a break, and CSNY went outside.
40:30And at that point, David Crosby remembered,
40:33I could feel the pendulum swing.
40:35Neil said, I'll see you guys tomorrow, and he never came back.
40:40Career frustrations took their toll at home.
40:44Young's marriage to Susan collapsed.
40:45The pain of the breakup flowed into his next solo album, after the Gold Rush.
40:52It is considered by many to be Young's masterpiece.
40:56And it truly solidified his standing as a successful solo artist.
41:01With acoustic guitar songs, electric songs, with Crazy Horse, with Stephen Stills,
41:07it really covered the whole spectrum of his strengths as an artist.
41:11By 1971, Neil Young was music's most reclusive superstar.
41:17He moved to Broken Arrow Ranch near San Francisco,
41:20putting 140 acres of ancient redwoods between himself and the prying eyes of the world.
41:26Trusted friends and business associates closed ranks around him,
41:30forming an impenetrable ring.
41:33You know, he's got managers and producers,
41:36all people who are characters in their own right,
41:38who will definitely kill for the guy.
41:41And he's sort of got this sort of moat,
41:43a protective outer crust to him,
41:48that he didn't have in the 60s time.
41:51One person Young allowed in
41:53was a captivating refugee from Tinseltown named Carrie Snodgrass.
41:57Carrie burst into the limelight in the black comedy Diary of a Mad Housewife.
42:03Young saw the movie and was instantly smitten.
42:06Friends arranged a meeting.
42:08Love blossomed.
42:10Carrie was every bit Young's opposite.
42:13Open, loving, and free-spirited.
42:16Her shaggy friends dropped by the ranch and settled in for weeks.
42:21Young was too dazzled to care.
42:24He recorded an album of tender lyrical ballads called Harvest.
42:28It shot to number one on the billboard charts.
42:32Neil Young was in love,
42:33and the record-buying public was in love with Neil Young.
42:38On the momentum of Harvest,
42:41Young prepped for the biggest tour of his career,
42:43hiring his old friend from Crazy Horse, Danny Whitten, to play guitar.
42:48Whitten was deep into heroin abuse,
42:50but promised he'd stay clean.
42:54Danny broke his promise,
42:55and Young handed him $50 and a ticket back to L.A.
42:59A few days later, Danny Whitten was dead of an overdose.
43:04Danny Whitten, who was just a sublime songwriter, singer, musician,
43:12who just gave the right nuance to Neil's playing.
43:18Young blamed himself.
43:20Danny's suicide and the drug-related death of roadie friend Bruce Berry
43:25cast a dark shadow over Young's life.
43:28When Danny Whitten died,
43:31Neil Young was on the cusp of going on the biggest tour of his life,
43:35and it cast a pall over the rehearsals and the concerts themselves.
43:42Audiences, expecting the blissful sounds of Harvest,
43:45were confused and upset.
43:47Young forged art hammered out a string of albums,
43:51each more disturbing and less successful than the last.
43:55He'd do a record like Tonight's the Night,
43:57which is, you know, a yowling, howling, mess of a record
44:01where everybody's, you know, blotto
44:03and reminiscing about dead musicians and friends.
44:09People were kind of upset.
44:12It wasn't, you know, the mellow hippie in the field
44:14playing a folking number.
44:18Young drank heavily and acted badly.
44:21He signed on for a tour with Crosby, Stills, and Nash,
44:24then backed out at the last minute.
44:26His bandmates were left to clean up the mess.
44:29His relationship with Carrie suffered.
44:32Rumors of Carrie's infidelity dealt the final blow.
44:36It was Neil Young's darkest hour.
44:38He poured his heart out to a pretty blonde waitress
44:41named Peggy Morton and found a kindred soul.
44:44They were married, and Peggy gave birth to a son, Ben.
44:49Daughter, Amber Jean, soon followed.
44:53The darkness lifted on Young's career as well.
44:56A new generation was making itself heard,
44:59its voice loud, rebellious, and nasty.
45:02They called it punk.
45:04Young, the quintessential rock rebel,
45:07voiced his approval of the new movement,
45:09while punk deity Johnny Rotten
45:12proclaimed Young a kindred spirit.
45:15To Neil Young, punk rock was balls-out great.
45:20I mean, he looked at those guys as all energy, all raw,
45:25let's cut it now, let's keep it now, first take, best take.
45:29And that's how Neil himself approached a lot of his recordings.
45:32And when he saw these guys, angry guys, coming up,
45:35playing that music, he said, this is for me.
45:38Young was revitalized by punk's chaotic energy.
45:41He reached out creatively to robotic rockers Devo
45:44and found them receptive.
45:47It was a completely surreal interaction.
45:49There was a great intersection where we overlapped.
45:53We found out that he had a really twisted sense of humor
45:56and he was a really smart guy.
45:59He just articulated it in a different way.
46:02We were doing a song, I think we were doing Praying Hands.
46:06Neil jumps on stage and then he plays with us
46:10and then he jumps into the crowd like the punk's eyes did.
46:16Except nobody caught him.
46:21Young infused his next album, Rust Never Sleeps,
46:24with punk's vibrant energy.
46:26It proved his most successful work since Harvest.
46:30Rolling Stone named it the best album of the year
46:33and Young, the year's top artist.
46:37At 32, an age when most rock musicians
46:40had fallen by the wayside,
46:42Neil Young was on a roll.
46:44But once again, personal tragedy
46:47would stop his career dead in its tracks.
46:54While you prepare for bed,
46:56your mouth must prepare for battle.
46:58Because night is a time when your mouth is vulnerable to...
47:01Night at 11, only on Bio.
47:08In the late 70s,
47:09Neil Young made an improbable climb
47:12back to the top of the charts.
47:14But in 1979,
47:16his son, Ben,
47:17was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
47:21Music had always been the center of Neil Young's life.
47:24Now, he put it aside to care for his stricken son,
47:28searching out every form of help available.
47:31It would be four long years
47:33before Young began touring again.
47:35By that time,
47:37the country's political and musical tastes shifted.
47:41I, Ronald Reagan,
47:42do solemnly swear
47:43that I will faithfully execute
47:45the office of President of the United States.
47:48Ronald Reagan was president,
47:50and electronic bubblegum bands
47:52like Duran Duran
47:53and Flock of Seagulls
47:54dominated the charts.
47:56Rebellion was out of fashion,
47:58and so were rock and roll rebels
48:00like Neil Young.
48:03Young struggled to find his creative footing,
48:06experimenting with a mind-boggling array
48:08of genres and personas.
48:10In the 1980s,
48:12Neil Young was like
48:13the Robert De Niro of rock and roll.
48:15He assumed a whole series of characters,
48:18from the whacked-out,
48:19roots rocker,
48:21leader of the shocking pinks,
48:22to the twang guy dude
48:24in the barn
48:25with Waylon Jennings
48:26and Willie Nelson,
48:27to the blues man,
48:29Shades On,
48:30all night,
48:31all day,
48:32every moment of the life
48:34of the Blue Notes.
48:36He makes this record,
48:38God bless him.
48:39You know,
48:40he cuts off all of his hair,
48:41he puts on a new wave tie,
48:43he's singing through a vocoder,
48:45this little thing
48:46that makes your voice sound,
48:47you know,
48:47like a robot
48:48from Forbidden Planet
48:50or something.
48:52By 1989,
48:54Neil Young's career
48:55had bottomed out.
48:57The final insult came
48:58when he was sued
48:59by music honcho David Geffen.
49:02Geffen claimed
49:03Young was making
49:04unsellable records on purpose,
49:06costing his label
49:07millions of dollars.
49:11He really did, I think,
49:13disturb fans,
49:14critic, public,
49:15record companies.
49:16But the thing about Neil is,
49:18you know,
49:18Neil's gonna do
49:19what Neil wants to do.
49:20Neil split from Geffen
49:22and returned to Reprise,
49:23the label where he'd
49:24done his best work.
49:25He reconnected
49:26with his musical roots as well.
49:28His next albums,
49:30Freedom and Ragged Glory,
49:32won him a whole new generation
49:34of musical fans,
49:35from Smashing Pumpkins
49:37to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
49:39A lot of people
49:40had written Neil off saying,
49:42this guy's lost it.
49:44But Freedom
49:45capped the decade
49:46in a way that
49:47propelled him
49:48into a series of records
49:49with Crazy Horse
49:50in the early 90s
49:51that brought him back
49:52onto center stage
49:54with a whole new audience
49:55across the spectrum.
49:57Young kids,
49:58his old fans,
49:59and Neil was back.
50:02Long hair,
50:03flannel shirts,
50:04and ripped jeans.
50:05Grunge bands
50:06like Nirvana
50:07and Soundgarden
50:08dressed like Neil Young
50:10circa 1971.
50:12The connections
50:13were more than cosmetic.
50:15Young's rebel stance
50:16and unwillingness
50:18and unwillingness
50:18to compromise his art
50:19for commercial gain
50:20made him a role model
50:21for the new movement.
50:23He was dubbed
50:23the godfather of grunge.
50:26All these young upstarts
50:30admire Neil
50:31because, you know,
50:32he's not some anemic guy
50:34doing a beer commercial.
50:35And they admire
50:36that cantankerousness
50:38about him
50:38and that defiance.
50:42A musical alliance
50:43with Pearl Jam
50:44resulted in 1995's
50:46Mirror Ball.
50:48Here he is
50:49evoking the true spirit
50:52of the 1960s
50:53with 90s sensibilities
50:55backed up
50:57by grunge rockers
50:58from Seattle.
51:00Brilliant!
51:01Here's this band,
51:02Pearl Jam,
51:03what,
51:04half his age,
51:04more than that?
51:06And he,
51:08not only does he record
51:10with them,
51:10but he really kind of
51:11takes the band over
51:12and he goes out
51:12on the road
51:13minus Eddie Vedder,
51:14their lead singer,
51:16and really,
51:17they become
51:17his crazy horse.
51:21Some things
51:22refuse to change.
51:23Neil Young
51:24drives himself
51:25as hard as ever,
51:26following his creative muse
51:28wherever it takes him.
51:29But time and experience
51:31have left their mark.
51:34I also see
51:34a lot of his father,
51:35especially as he's
51:36gotten older,
51:37there's been a,
51:38a sort of mellowness
51:41to Neil
51:42that I would associate
51:43maybe with,
51:44with his pa.
51:45The self-absorbed artist
51:47evolved into
51:48an outspoken advocate
51:49for humanitarian causes.
51:51He is a prime mover
51:52in farm aid,
51:53lending his prestige
51:54and musical skills
51:55to keep the American farm
51:57in the hands
51:57of the American farmer.
51:59Shouldn't be having
52:00to do this anymore,
52:01but the government
52:01still hasn't woken up
52:02to what needs to be done
52:04to change the situation.
52:05There's nothing hip
52:06about this.
52:07This is real.
52:08This is,
52:09this is for America's farmers.
52:11Following the tragedy
52:12of 9-11,
52:13Neil Young participated
52:15in the telethon
52:16to benefit
52:16the victims' families.
52:17He performed a song
52:19by lifelong idol,
52:20John Lennon.
52:32And of course,
52:34he continues to play
52:35brilliant,
52:36blistering rock and roll
52:37on albums
52:37and in concert.
52:46when Neil Young stood
52:48before the crowd
52:49to be inducted
52:50into the rock hall,
52:51he seemed genuinely surprised
52:52at the standing ovation
52:54he received.
52:56He lived life
52:57to his own standard,
52:59burning important bridges
53:00along the way.
53:01His challenging,
53:02deeply personal music
53:04flew in the face
53:05of an industry
53:06obsessed with
53:07churning out product.
53:08And he's stuck
53:09to his artistic guns,
53:11often leaving his audience
53:13dazed and confused.
53:18Neil Young as an artist
53:20is fearless.
53:21He's not afraid to fail.
53:23He once said
53:24that he doesn't care
53:25if his audience
53:26is a hundred people
53:27or a hundred million people.
53:29Fourteen-year-old kids
53:30who know Neil Young
53:32have a deep admiration
53:33and respect for him
53:35when he's been around
53:36playing music
53:37since 1963.
53:40And one new fans
53:41along the way
53:41is really quite astounding.
53:43He has never become
53:44a nostalgia act.
53:45John Gotti once said,
53:46you may live
53:485,000 years,
53:49you ain't never
53:50gonna meet
53:50a guy like me.
53:52You can live 5,000 years,
53:54you're never gonna meet
53:55a guy like Neil Young.
53:56Through illness,
53:58conflict,
53:58and changing times,
54:00Neil Young survived.
54:01the only way
54:02he knew how,
54:03by staying true
54:05to himself.
54:11Neil Young continued
54:12breaking new ground
54:13in his musical career
54:14with the release
54:15in 2003 of Greendale,
54:17a multimedia project
54:19which began
54:19as an international tour
54:21and resulted
54:22in a CD and DVD movie.
54:25Young experienced
54:26a potentially fatal
54:27health scare of his own
54:29in the spring of 2005.
54:30when he was diagnosed
54:31with a brain aneurysm.
54:35After being successfully
54:36treated,
54:37he made a full recovery.
54:39That fall,
54:40he released
54:41Prairie Wind,
54:42his first album
54:42since Greendale,
54:43and followed with
54:44Neil Young,
54:45Heart of Gold,
54:46a concert film
54:47directed by
54:47Academy Award winner
54:48Jonathan Demme.
54:49The concert film
54:50was shot over
54:51a two-night period
54:52at Nashville's
54:53Ryman Auditorium.
54:54The following year,
54:56Young announced plans
54:56to release an album
54:57full of protest songs
54:59titled Living With War.
55:00The album became
55:01his most talked about
55:02release in years.
55:03Living With War
55:04was later made
55:05into a DVD
55:05laced with footage
55:07of the Iraq War
55:07and clips from
55:08Al Gore's
55:09An Inconvenient Truth.
55:11Then,
55:12after touring
55:12with Crosby,
55:13Stills,
55:13and Nash,
55:14Young released
55:14Live at the Fillmore East,
55:16which compiled
55:16Crazy Horse recordings
55:18from 1970.
55:19With over 40 years
55:20in the music business,
55:21the iconic rocker
55:22continues to remain
55:24Young at heart.
55:26Their first release
55:27became the fastest
55:28rising single
55:29in German history.
55:31In America, however,
55:32it was a flop.
55:33So how did NSYNC
55:34find an audience
55:35on their home turf?
55:36By playing
55:37just about anywhere.
55:38They would sing
55:38at an opening
55:39of a Target store
55:41to get an audience.
55:42NSYNC,
55:43tonight at 9,
55:44only on Bio.
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