00:02Neil just shot big by us. After the gold rush, we couldn't even see his best.
00:09He is, to this day, bigger by himself than the three of us are together.
00:14Neil's career was at a peak, but his personal life was still full of conflict.
00:18His marriage ended and he began experiencing severe back pain.
00:22He was told to rest and to wear a back brace.
00:25While visiting doctors, Neil met the actress Carrie Snodgrass,
00:29who had just been nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the film Diary of a Mad Housewife.
00:34Soon, Carrie moved in with Neil on his Broken Arrow ranch in Northern California,
00:38and he began writing songs for his next album, Harvest.
00:43You know, most of the record, I had my back in a brace,
00:46and I ultimately ended up having surgery and getting it fixed.
00:49And I had a couple of slipped discs, and if I moved the wrong way, it hurt.
00:54But the music just kept on going anyway.
00:57That's just a good example of, you know,
01:01not letting something get in the way of a musical idea, you know.
01:05Harvest was the biggest selling album of 1972.
01:09Heart of Gold was Neil's first number one single.
01:11He had left the biggest group in America and not lost a step.
01:15I want to live, I want to give.
01:21I've been a miner for a heart of gold.
01:27It's these expressions I never give
01:33that keep me searching for a heart of gold.
01:39And I'm getting old.
01:46Neil's relationship with Crazy Horse had ended over guitarist Danny Witten's heroin use.
01:51But in November of 1972,
01:53Neil asked Danny to join him on the Harvest tour.
01:56When Danny showed up for rehearsals,
01:58he was too stoned to play.
02:01Neil fired him and gave him money for a ticket home.
02:04It's like, you know, when you're playing professional football,
02:06if the guy drops the ball too many times,
02:08he's not on the team.
02:10And that seems to be understandable.
02:14So, it's the same thing with music.
02:16Witten used his severance pay to buy heroin.
02:19He died of an overdose that very night.
02:21I've seen the needle and the damage done.
02:25A little part of it in everyone.
02:30But every junkie's like a set in sun.
02:40Witten's death shook Neil.
02:42His music began to turn darker.
02:44People coming to his concerts expecting the mellow sounds of Harvest
02:48were instead confronted with a brace of new songs.
02:51He later said of Heart of Gold,
02:53This song put me in the middle of the road.
02:56Traveling there soon became a bore,
02:57so I headed for the ditch.
02:59A rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there.
03:02As he walked away from the main street,
03:04Neil Young was in for a much rougher ride
03:06than he could have possibly expected.
03:21Well, I dreamed I saw the knights in armor
03:25coming, saying something about a queen.
03:31Neil Young had achieved commercial success
03:33with the Buffalo Springfield,
03:35Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young,
03:37and as a solo artist.
03:38But he didn't want to stay in the mainstream.
03:40He spent most of 1972 working on a movie called
03:44Journey Through the Past.
03:45The first films that I made,
03:47especially the first one,
03:48I made to get away from music,
03:50to do something that was a little out of the,
03:55you know, different from whatever I'd done so far.
03:58It was easy to make Journey Through the Past,
04:02which ended up distracting me
04:04from making music for about a year.
04:06I got so into it.
04:08So that was good to get away from making music
04:10so that when I came back to making music
04:11that I was fresh.
04:18Neil's next albums were a departure
04:20from the radio-friendly sounds
04:21of After the Gold Rush and Harvest.
04:24I think right after Harvest,
04:25I started feeling like I was getting in a box
04:32and I had to get out of it.
04:34So instead of writing one kind of songs,
04:37I just turned around and wrote all the songs
04:40that I kind of wouldn't write before,
04:42and they just, all the other ones that were there.
04:45The dark themes of his new music
04:46reflected the events in Neil's life.
04:49The fatal O.D. of Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten
04:52and the drug death of CSNY roadie Bruce Barry.
04:56Bruce Barry was a working man
04:59He used to load that economy line
05:05In September 1972,
05:08Neil Young and Carrie Snodgress' son Zeke was born.
05:11Soon after his birth,
05:13the child was diagnosed as having cerebral palsy.
05:16Neil began to build a wall around his personal life.
05:19His reputation grew as a man
05:21who was reclusive and mysterious,
05:23known for walking away from projects
05:25and from his mainstream audience
05:26without looking back.
05:28This reputation grew during his brief reunion
05:31with Crosby, Stills and Nash in 1974.
05:34Oh man, take a look at my life
05:37from a God like you
05:42I need someone to love me the whole day too
05:49The four embarked on an enormously successful tour
05:52playing in football stadiums.
05:54At the end of the tour,
05:55they met in Los Angeles to record an album.
05:57But Neil backed out of the project
06:00soon after recording began.
06:02Well, I can be a team player
06:05but I won't be a team player
06:08unless I can play my game.
06:12If you have to compromise what you're doing too much
06:15or lay back too much on something you want to do
06:17to be part of a team
06:19I'm not a good team player there.
06:21Neil, you can't predict Neil.
06:24You cannot...
06:26No one except Neil can tell you
06:28what Neil's going to do next week.
06:31And I like that about him.
06:33One of the reasons why
06:34some of the albums never got made
06:36some of the tours didn't go off
06:37was because he has no toleration for balls.
06:41Very little.
06:43Zero.
06:43If we're not giving 100% to the music
06:47he's gone.
06:49And gone like that.
06:52So I got four in the left and there
06:55They were just dead waiting to me
07:00Better down the road
07:02Without that hope
07:07In 1976,
07:09Neil reunited with Stephen Stills
07:11for an album and a short tour.
07:12But after the tour began
07:14Neil quit.
07:16He ditched Stephen before a show in Atlanta
07:18leaving behind a telegram that said
07:20Funny how some things that start spontaneously
07:23end that way.
07:25I don't work for anybody but the muse.
07:30And once that's gone I'm out.
07:32It's hell.
07:34But I have a boss.
07:36And that's where I go.
07:37And I wake up some morning
07:39in the middle of a project
07:41and I start thinking about something else
07:43and I can't get it out of my mind
07:44and I'll give it a day
07:46if it doesn't go away
07:47I'm out of there.
07:49I just, you know,
07:49that's what I want to do.
07:50I try to be mature about it.
07:52I try to, you know,
07:53take into consideration
07:54everything I can
07:55but in the end
07:56I'm not.
07:57I'm going to go for it.
07:58That's what I've done.
08:00It's left kind of a charred path
08:02behind me.
08:04He has managed to keep
08:06this mysterious attitude
08:08and this sense of
08:10keeping people off balance slightly
08:13because they're not sure
08:14what's coming next.
08:15His madness
08:17is backed up by being brilliant.
08:19By writing great songs
08:20by playing great guitar
08:22by making great arrangements
08:23and making great recordings.
08:25And you can't deny that.
08:28In the late 70s
08:29Neil reunited with Crazy Horse
08:31and Daylight broke through again.
08:33Their new work won them
08:34both critical praise
08:35and commercial success.
08:37It's a simple group.
08:39It's a basic rock and roll band.
08:42It's all spirit
08:43and no technical ability.
08:45And there's a big power there.
08:52The 1980s were the most difficult time
08:55in Neil Young's life.
08:57It was a period
08:57when his devotion to his family
08:59pulled him away
09:00from his audience.
09:01In November 1978
09:03Neil and Peggy
09:04gave birth to a son, Ben.
09:06Ben was diagnosed
09:07as having severe cerebral palsy.
09:10Cerebral palsy
09:11is not a genetic disease.
09:12Only about 6,500 children
09:14in the U.S.
09:15are diagnosed with it each year.
09:17But Neil now had two children
09:19by two different women
09:20with the disorder.
09:21A statistical near impossibility.
09:34Neil and Peggy began to learn
09:37how children like Ben
09:38can communicate
09:39through computer technology.
09:41Again,
09:41his life shaped his music.
09:47Trans was Neil's first album
09:49for Geffen Records.
09:50The label didn't know
09:51what to make of it.
09:52When he handed in a country album,
09:54Geffen didn't want to put it out.
09:56They asked him to make
09:57a rock and roll record.
09:58One, two, three, four.
10:02Neil responded by handing in
10:04a collection of rockabilly songs.
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