Rating: 
Summary: Save your money and buy a copy of Tonights the Night instead
Review: Ugghhh. 700 pages of jealous, uninsightful blah blah blah.
After 700 pages, McDonough comes to the conclusion that Neil is a "Human Being." Wow! What did you think he was, Jimmy? Well, from reading the book, I would say that Jimmy thought Neil was a monster. The author should go back to Tiger Beat magazine and start writing about n'sync.
Rating: 
Summary: Go to the library
Review: I am still waiting for the authoratative Neil Young biography.
This is a quick skim at best. Skip past all the literal translations of Neil interviews and fawning from a lifelong fan for small bits of info. Huge Neil fan still waiting for archives and good biography.....Innnaresting????
Rating: 
Summary: Tough Project
Review: Getting behind Neil Young's personal story would seem a tough project, if not near impossible. To have the amount of access, yet still retain the ability to observe with a genuine critical perspective, makes this book the daily-double of rock reporting. Tremendous research by an obviously obsessed author neither weighed down the assignment with minute detail nor diluted his journalistic integrity. Brilliant works by Young are championed, whereas the music and other stuff that fails is given equal time in the spotlight. The real treasuer is Young's personal thoughts and feelings. As much as I admire Neil Young as an artist, after reading this book I'm not sure I'd wish to drive cross-country with him. The definite source on Neil Young.
Rating: 
Summary: Shakey, it rattles and rolls
Review: Indubitably, hardcore fans have been waiting for the ultimate biography on Neil Young, and this is without a doubt the closest we'll ever get.On the plus side, this book is hard to put down once you pick it up. It covers just about everything, and there is a lot to cover. Jimmy portrays Neil as very human, very much the tempermental artist. On the down side, I have to agree with other reviewers that Jimmy's personal opinion should have been left out. If he were to call it something like... oh I don't know, maybe "Neil and Me," then I could understand his interjecting himself into the story so much. But his part was to be the unbiased biographer, and he didn't keep his end of that bargain. Granted, a couple of scenes reflected Neil's personality, but overall, the inclusion of Jimmy into Neil's story seemed a bit self serving. But, before I give him too much crap about that, I have to give him credit for spending about the right amount of text for the various times in Neil's life. He focuses a lot of attention from the early Buffalo Springfield years to the late 70's, where Neil's life is truly the most interesting. By the 80's Neil had established himself, and by the mid-80's Neil started talking to the press with more frequency, and while the whole Geffen debacle was intensely interesting, there wasn't much else to focus on. Same with the 90's. So, on the whole, it's a great biography, and while there are certainly some flaws, it's worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: Fittingly, a Mess
Review: I agree with the readers who have noted that there is probably a very good 300-page book here; there is no question that the book is self-indulgently long and McDonough self-importantantly annoying. But in some ways this is a very fitting biography for Neil Young; although -- like his career -- it rambles and is filled with plenty of dross, when you get to the good stuff it's pretty darn good. Due to the high dross-to-good ratio, I'd recommend this for fans only. One final curious note: this book was repetitive enough, and frustrating enough, that at times it made me like the music less (not because of the artist's "flaws," the main one of which, we are told (hundreds of times) is that he tends to do whatever he wants). Neil Young is worth of a biography that inspires interest, not distaste. It's too bad McDonough, unquestionably a fan, couldn't achieve that result.
Rating:
Summary: BEST BIOGRAPHY IN ROCK
Review: This is the best biography on Neil Young.
This is the best book on rock n roll.
Hilarious, heartbreaking, inspiring.
Forget the whiners who complain and nitpick because they can't deal with their hero as a HUMAN BEING.
SHAKEY is **GREAT**
Rating:
Summary: The Real Point
Review: The author does a great job of portraying the core of Neil Young's life. Like all artists, it is about the "Body of Work" as a whole. All the song writing, all the living - ups and downs, really don't matter as separate events. In the end, as with Van Gogh or Bach or Shakespeare, it's what the entire collection tells us. Neil Young knows the price for that is high. He has paid the price and has the whole to show for it.
Rating:
Summary: Shakey by Jimmy McDonough
Review: As a student and die hard fan of Neil Young's work I read this book with keen interest. Mr. McDonough could have titled this book "A Fly On The Wall", or, "He Did It His Way",...
What a painstaking effort on the part of the author. But this book serves as more than a travel log of Neil Youngs life. It's a huge window into the whole music scene and lifestyles of that era. It's brutally honest as promised, and will make one come away not only feeling better about living and surviving in that era but seeing all the people involved in music as mere mortals with the same daily worries as the commoner has.
My opinion of Neil Young as a person has not changed after reading this book. It's all "cause and effect". The music business is full of people feeding off of you like dopers. I can see why the people around Mr. Young's music train felt as they did and do. Is Neil Young eccentric? Of course!. Is he crazy?..borderline probable as most creative people are. Are his actions justified as an artist?. Absolutely. I think Jimmy McDonough caught the flavor, the complexities of the charactor, and the feelings of all the supporting cast beautifully! And he did it without injecting color, judgement, or personal emotion. This book is a great read for anybody who wants to take a look behind the curtain as Dorothy did in the Wizard Of Oz.
Rating:
Summary: Skip this one!
Review: I hated this book -- it was poorly written, unevenly detailed, presented the author's opinions as fact, and was continually critical of both Neil Young as a person and of his music. I got through all 740+ pages, despite feeling increasingly disappointed and annoyed, and found it to have no redeeming qualities. While I'm sure many of the book's criticisms about Neil Young as a personare accurate, the disection of Neil's music was incredible harsh and degrades some of his best work. In the end, I came away wondering why would motivate someone to spend 6 years on a book about a subject he clearly doesn't even like.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting read
Review: Having never really been interested in the 60s or the 70s hippie scene, I picked up this book on a whim not really knowing much about Neil Young; only that I liked his music and knew he'd been around a long time. His tenure in the music world is what made me interested in reading about him. I thought McDonough did a great job documenting Young's life given the subject's elusive nature and the amount of time that dragged out with the various roadblocks towards publishing the book. Young is extremely interesting and has lived many lives. It seems that you learn more about him from those around him than you do from the interviews with him. I definitely would recommend checking this book out as it miraculously will hold your interest for all 738 pages.
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