A touching story about an exchange between Neil Young & Pete Seeger at 2013 Farm Aid turned up in the editorial section of the New York Times.
It was the last time the 94-year old troubadour of Americana performed on stage.
Written by NYT editorial writer Jesse Wegman, who attended the benefit concert, and exchange between Young & Ochs involved the deaths of musicians Phil Ochs and Curt Cobain. Seeger told Young of the night in 1976, he was with Ochs before he hanged himself.
Wegman writes:
On Tuesday morning, the day after Pete Seeger died, Mr. Young told me the story that Pete had told to him: Pete had been in New York City and was late for the train home to Beacon, an hour up the Hudson River. Ochs, a good friend and fellow folk singer, was in trouble. He’d been depressed and drinking for a long time, and he reached out to Pete.
“Phil really wanted to talk,” Mr. Young recalled. Pete had to choose between staying in the city another night or getting home. He chose the train.
“Pete remembered shaking hands with him, and when he said goodbye to him for the last time,” Mr. Young said. “He regretted not talking to him.”
For 37 years, the decision to leave that night ate at Pete. “ ‘I wish I’d done something more to stop that from happening,’ ” Mr. Young recalled him saying shortly before he took the stage.
Neil, having a similar experience dealing with Kurt Cobain’s death, gave Seeger this advice:
“Don’t try to take it with you. Leave it where it happened. I felt similar to how Pete felt for a while. But there’s nothing — you can’t carry it with you.”
Young added lyrics to the song, which originally appeared on his album Ragged Glory. “Respect Mother Earth and her healing ways,” he sings. “Don’t trade away our children’s days.” The Honour The Treaties concerts –held in Toronto, Regina, Winnipeg and Calgary — raised funds for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Legal Defense Fund. It also sparked debate among Canadians about the oilsands and some criticism of Young.
Neil holds the late Ben Keith’s award up toward heaven.
“You’re in heaven…I’m workin’ “
Neil Young honored his friend and band mate Ben Keith at the Musician’s Hall of Fame induction concert, held Tuesday, Jan. 28 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.
He appeared on stage with Keith’s grandson, DJ Tyson.
The Tennessean is reporting that Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Neil Young was among those accepting medallions in honor of posthumous inductees — in Young’s case, it was for pedal steel guitar master Ben Keith, who was one Nashville’s top session players before becoming a member of Young’s band for nearly 40 years until his death in 2010. Stevie Ray Vaughan’s band Double Trouble attended and was set to perform on behalf of the blues guitar great, and members of Roy Orbison’s family
After a cocktail hour, the inductees and their friends, family and fans gathered upstairs at Municipal for a musical celebration of the songs they helped make famous – from “American Woman” to “Elvira.”
Retro rock crooner Chris Isaak opened the evening with a cover of Orbison’s “Only the Lonely,” as the first of several well-known performers to salute the inductees, including ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and the Oak Ridge Boys. Young didn’t perform on Tuesday, but took the stage to share his memories of Keith.
2014 Musicians Hall of Fame inductees
Randy Bachman, Jimmy Capps, Peter Frampton, Buddy Guy, Ben Keith, Will Lee, Barbara Mandrell, Corki Casey O’Dell, Velma Smith, Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble.
2014 Iconic Riff Award – Roy Orbison for “Oh, Pretty Woman”
2014 Industry Icon Award – Mike Curb
Read more at: http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2014/01/28/musicians-hall-of-fame-welcomes-12-new-inductees/
Neil Young did not win the Grammy for Best Rock Album.
Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin each won an award at the Grammys’ annual Pre-Telecast Ceremony this evening, Ultimate Classic Rick is reporting.
Led Zeppelin won Best Rock Album for ‘Celebration Day,’ a document of their 2007 reunion concert which was released in late 2012. They beat Black Sabbath, Young, David Bowie, Kings of Leon and Queens of the Stone Age for this award.
Black Sabbath won Best Metal Performance for the song ‘God is Dead?‘ from their 2013 Ozzy Osbourne-reunion album ‘13,’ beating out Anthrax (who were covering an AC/DC song), Dream Theater and Killswitch Engage.
Continuing classic rock’s domination of the early awards, Paul McCartney racked up five Grammy Awards before the main show even started, including a Lifetime Achievement Award for the Beatles, a packaging award for a Wings live album, and various awards for his 2012 ‘Live Kisses’ collection.
““If you go for a walk in a junkyard, every car is talking to you,” he said. “There are voices. It’s like a cacophony of sound. Every car has got people in them. There are junkers, all piled up, but if you get close to them there’s history in every one of them: the families that grew up in those cars, the kids, the lovers. Everything that happened in those cars, it’s all right there. That’s why I love cars. They all have a soul and story to tell.”” by -- Neil Young, about cars
Neil Young on Tour
Sugar Mountain setlists
Tom Hambleton provides BNB with setlists, thankfully. His website is the most comprehensive searchable archives on the Internets about anything Neil Young related setlists. Goto Sugar Mountain.