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Summary: HAVEN'T GOT IT BUT YOU KNOW THAT I WILL!!!!!
Review: I HOPE THAT SOMEBODY BUYS ME THIS FOR FATHERS DAY. IF NOT, I'LL GET IT MYSELF. IT WILL BE A GREAT ADDITION TO MY LIBRARY OF NEIL BOOKS.
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Summary: It's about Neil Young...need I say more?
Review: I haven't read it yet...because it's not released, but I know it will be outstanding simply because it's about Neil Young...you just can't go wrong with such an amazing, interesting subject like him!
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Summary: GOD REST DAVID BRIGGS, He Drove Neil for years
Review: An amazing Journey through Neils life made me reflect on my own life growing up with Rock and Roll!
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Summary: Why can't all biographies be this entertaining?
Review: James McDonough has successfully overcome standard taboos and created a uniquely entertaining and unpretentious biography. Most biographies are a dull laundry list of events and accomplishments with the false impression of being an unbiased presentation of facts. Mr McDonough completely demolishes this conceit and writes himself in as an enthusiastic and proudly biased character in the story. So we not only get an interpretation of Neil Young's life, we also get the story of getting the story- those interviewed, their backgrounds and living conditions, plus Mr. McDonough's unrestrained and unapologetic opinions of all things Neil.
The author had the improbable luck of getting many years of access to Neil for interviews, which form the backbone of this book. Extensive excerpts from the interviews (conveniently italicized) puctuate the book at regular intervals. Neil is brutally honest about himself and others, which give his words a power and authority which is lacking in most vapid pop star interviews. His words provides valuable contrast and balance to the opinions expressed by the other interviewees and Mr. McDonough. The result is a fascinating kaleidoscope of stories- every chapter is packed with amazing details from multiple points of view.
Neil's life is much more convoluted and colorful than I would have imagined. He refuses to be pidgeonholed, and deliberately changes his style, band and attitude to keep things "innaresting". His life is filled with intense ups and downs and a primal drive to stick by his vision no matter how unpopular. Even when he seems to be selling out (like two appearances on MTV's "Unplugged") he ultimately avoids compromising his principles.
I admit that before reading this book, I was only familiar with Neil's earlier "classic" works ("After The Gold Rush", etc.) I have since sought out many of his less commercial works and discovered an immense treasure of beauty and creativity (such as the "Doom Trilogy" of the early 1970's). After reading this book, these gems hold a power and meaning for me that would otherwise be absent, and I am indeed grateful to Mr. McDonough for providing the insight.
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Summary: The Definitive Neil Young bio
Review: To quote a phrase Neil apparently uses often, this book was "very innaresting." Seriously, I could not put this down.
Before getting this biography, I was a casual fan and I knew less than nothing about Neil Young. From just listening to his radio hits I had put together a vague image of a patriotic hippy who dresses like a scruffy Indian. After just the first few chapters though, this image was shattered. Yet after finishing the book completely, I don't know if I'm any closer to knowing him. He is infinitely more complicated than I had thought.
Jimmy McDonough does the best possible job telling Neil's life story. And if you know anything about Neil, you know this is no easy task. The man has got to be the most elusive personality in rock and roll. You can't pin him down on a subject for long, and he's apt to up and leave any project at any time for any reason and you won't know he left till he's halfway across the country. Of course, this all makes the book just that much more of a good read.
Shakey reveals much about his life that I've never known. His childhood is covered pretty extensively and I think that's instrumental in understanding his songs. Dealings with CSNY are of course covered in detail. Interviews with David Briggs, Jack Nietzche, and others close to Neil provide great insight into life on Neil's huge ranch and into his recording process, which I think is priceless. But the best part of the book, for me, is the extensive interview with Neil that runs throughout the entire book. For someone who doesn't like to talk much about himself to the press, this is like a goldmine to a Neil Young fan.
Some reviewers have already mentioned that towards the end of the book Jimmy falters a bit. Yeah he does, there's no denying it. He gets a little too subjective, goes on for a little too long about Neil's association with trains, and basically loses focus. But really, it's no big deal. I went through this book in a week, then went back over certain parts. After being so immersed in Neil's world, I found myself not wanting to leave. Make sure you have plenty of Neil's albums around, cause you'll be wanting to hear them as they're being discussed in the book. This is a really "innaresting" read and for any fan of Neil it's a solid buy.
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Summary: Glad Author Wasn't Star-Dazzled
Review: So what if he gave alot of his own opinions? He's the one who went to the trouble to assemble all this material.
I think he draws a truthful portrait of the elusive singer-songwriter. We see Neil as a guy who should launder his language, is baffling, driven, one-of-a-kind--and so much more.
I was surprised by Neil's interest in Carrie Snodgress. Also, by his comment he never listened to other people's music tapes.
Receiving some scarce background on this standout artist was welcome, and added to my understanding of his indefinable persona and inimitable music.
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Summary: Long May You Run
Review: Jimmy McDonough, who obviously has a penchant for rubbing people the wrong way, crawled uphill in a hail storm to get this monster biography published. The struggle was well worth it. Young's formative years in Canada with his irascible mother Rassy make for an "innaresting" story of a frail, sickly boy who latches onto the sounds drifting north over the plains. This exhaustive study of his eventual career, though it celebrates the prodigious output of an insanely talented songwriter, never descends to idol worship. McDonough maintains a sharp critical eye throughout, and his unaffected prose is loose, often biting. When covering the Buffalo Springfield era, the author justifiably savages the pastiche excesses of "Broken Arrow" while praising the majestic "Expecting to Fly," a song that took Young and Jack Nitzsche a whole month to get right. And boy did they ever get it right.The book fleshes out a large supporting cast and literally drips with atmosphere. You can smell the hippie idyll of Topanga Canyon slowly sour and feel the chemical depravity of sessions dragged down to stupor by honey slides, tequila, and the memory of fallen comrades. Interviews with Young, interspersed throughout the biography, reveal a self-absorbed artist enslaved by his quixotic muse. Changing musicians like they were flannel shirts or guitar strings, Shakey Deal admits to leaving a considerable wake in his tenacious pursuit of the perfect vibe.
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Summary: me first
Review: Here's what I came away with after reading 'Shakey': 1) the age-old lesson that wealth and fame corrupts applies to the idols of the counterculture as much as everyone else who came before them. To Young's credit, he has recognized and attempted to avoid their trappings. Unfortunately, Young apparently started life with an illusion of self-importance that, like many of the other figures in the book, was only magnified by wealth and fame. In fact, it seems to be a reality of life that wealth and fame only magnify whatever it is that you are, good and bad.
2) it is possible to believe you are superior to others because you don't overtly try to make yourself superior to others.
3) having musical talent doesn't make you in any way better than anyone else. It is what it is: musical talent. It's no different, really, than being talented on the baseball field, the battlefield, or even the kitchen.
4) Neil, Stephen Stills, David Crosby, the record producers and managers, virtually everyone in the book, has had a lot of pain dished out to them in their lives, and dished out a lot of pain on others. There's an abundance of bad parenting and selfish living that is brought to the fore here. It's interesting how fame and wealth puts a gloss over people's lives that makes the grass seem greener on the other side. I don't think many people would enjoy trading places with Neil given the hardships he's had to endure, including bouts with polio, epilepsy, introversion, and having a disabled child.
5) It's interesting how beautiful music somehow rises to the surface in the midst of such suffering and selfishness. That is the inspiring and compelling phenomenon running throughout this narrative. It is the portions of the book that detail this process, whether taking place in songwriting or performance, that truly held my interest.
6) I excuse the writer for falling into self-excess. Just proves he's no different than anyone else he's writing about. No surprise that in illuminating everyone elses run for the spotlight, some of the photons fell on himself.
7) If there's a Neil Young lyric you've always thought was deep and mystical, forget about it... even Neil can't tell you what it means.
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Summary: One of the funniest books I have ever read.
Review: As a diehard Neil Young fan, I was surprised by just how little I actually knew about what made the guy tick and where that all fit into his music. Young is, after all, one of the most experimental rock artists ever- with each album, you never know what you're going to get, be it acoustic folk, electric grunge, country, or, god help us, synth pop. Yet he's done it all and has no apologies about it. Neil Young drips integrity, as Jimmy McDonough obviously found out the hard way while doing his research and interviews. He portrays Young as human...rarely is the book done in a "Neil Young is god" style. McDonough criticizes, praises, and, most of all, doesn't pull any punches. Of course, the best parts of the book come from Neil Young himself, as his own interjections and interview excerpts pop up all over the place, almost to the point where you could call "Shakey" an autobiography. I found the book funny because it seems like everybody Young associates with is a complete lunatic: musicians, managers, producers, roadies...except for Young himself. He comes across as being the calm in the eye of the storm, whether the storm is working with Crosby, Stills and Nash or taking Crazy Horse on the road. Yet he's had his own ups and downs, from spastic children to the deaths of some of his musical cohorts. Yet Young comes across as both humble and unrepentant: "I've left a big wake of destruction behind me," he freely admits. "Shakey" is not only a salute to Neil Young's music and general artistry, but to his survival. When reading it, you know you're reading about the life of a real human being with absolutely no superstar persona. Funny, introspective and cantakerous all at the same time, or, as Graham Nash puts it when talking about the "Better to burn out than fade away" philosophy, "You get the idea Neil is really pissed that he's survived."
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