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Greendale
In Greendale, Neil Young masterfully blends his activist bent with a poetic perversity and the irresistible musical hooks that have made him a legend. A David Lynch-esque portrait of a disturbingly off-kilter heartland, the movie-CD combination riffed on an imaginary small town and its doleful inhabitants, the Green family. In Young's unusual narrative (in the film all the characters lip-synch the lyrics) of a multigenerational family living in California, a cop is murdered, Cousin Jed is arrested, Grandpa confronts the media, and granddaughter Sun Green becomes an environmental activist. Joining the music CD, the elaborately staged concerts, the movie, and the DVD, this book provides a satisfying literary and visual complement to the multimedia masterpiece that is Neil Young's Greendale. James Mazzeo provides full-color illustrations that make this a must-have for all Neil Young fans.
300 pages, Hardcover
First published March 16, 2004
1 person is currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Neil Young
236 books146 followersNeil Percival Young OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist, and film director.
Young's work is characterized by deeply personal lyrics, distinctive guitar work, and signature nasal tenor (and frequently alto) singing voice. Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments—including piano and harmonica—his style of hammer-on acoustic guitar and often idiosyncratic soloing on electric guitar are the linchpins of a sometimes ragged, sometimes polished sound. Although Young has experimented widely with differing music styles, including swing, jazz, rockabilly, blues, and electronic music throughout a varied career, his best known work usually falls into either of two distinct styles: folk-esque acoustic rock (as heard in songs such as "Heart of Gold," "Harvest Moon" and "Old Man") and electric-charged hard rock (in songs like "Cinnamon Girl", "Rockin' in the Free World" and "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)"). In more recent years, Young has started to adopt elements from newer styles of music, such as industrial, alternative country and grunge, the latter of which was profoundly influenced by his own style of playing, often bringing him the title of "the godfather of grunge".
Young has directed (or co-directed) a number of films using the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, including Journey Through the Past (1973), Rust Never Sleeps (1979), Human Highway (1982), and Greendale (2003).
He is also an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and small farmers, having co-founded the benefit concert Farm Aid, and in 1986 helped found The Bridge School, and its annual supporting Bridge School Benefit concerts, together with his wife Pegi.
Although Young sings frequently about U.S. legends and myths (Pocahontas, space stations, and the settlement of the American West), he remains a Canadian citizen and has never wanted to relinquish his Canadian citizenship. He has lived in the U.S. for "so long" and has stated, about U.S. elections, that he has "got just as much right to vote in them as anybody else."
Young's work is characterized by deeply personal lyrics, distinctive guitar work, and signature nasal tenor (and frequently alto) singing voice. Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments—including piano and harmonica—his style of hammer-on acoustic guitar and often idiosyncratic soloing on electric guitar are the linchpins of a sometimes ragged, sometimes polished sound. Although Young has experimented widely with differing music styles, including swing, jazz, rockabilly, blues, and electronic music throughout a varied career, his best known work usually falls into either of two distinct styles: folk-esque acoustic rock (as heard in songs such as "Heart of Gold," "Harvest Moon" and "Old Man") and electric-charged hard rock (in songs like "Cinnamon Girl", "Rockin' in the Free World" and "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)"). In more recent years, Young has started to adopt elements from newer styles of music, such as industrial, alternative country and grunge, the latter of which was profoundly influenced by his own style of playing, often bringing him the title of "the godfather of grunge".
Young has directed (or co-directed) a number of films using the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, including Journey Through the Past (1973), Rust Never Sleeps (1979), Human Highway (1982), and Greendale (2003).
He is also an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and small farmers, having co-founded the benefit concert Farm Aid, and in 1986 helped found The Bridge School, and its annual supporting Bridge School Benefit concerts, together with his wife Pegi.
Although Young sings frequently about U.S. legends and myths (Pocahontas, space stations, and the settlement of the American West), he remains a Canadian citizen and has never wanted to relinquish his Canadian citizenship. He has lived in the U.S. for "so long" and has stated, about U.S. elections, that he has "got just as much right to vote in them as anybody else."
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 25, 2015
I realize I haven't added this book to my shelves on Goodreads yet. While thumbing through it, I recall a little Neil Young story of mine (one of many) that I like to share.
On May 1, 2003 I was on my way to the Old Opera House in Franfurt/Main, Germany to attend my 10th Neil Young show. I'm a fan since high-school days (some 35 years ago), and I couldn't wait to see the man again. Having seen Neil Young with his band Crazy Horse performing three times two years earlier I was eager for this solo show for a change.
After a two hour ride with my old black car (which was a young black car back then) I pulled into the venue's underground parking and immediately identified some friends' cars by their bumper stickers. Those friends (and I) were members of the so called Rust List (international list of Neil Young fans) and were called "Rusties". We had arranged for a meeting in a nearby "Biergarten" for the usual pre-show fest. I was a little late, but I could enjoy some 20 minutes of Rust-gathering anyway. I recall people from Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, England/Scotland, France and the USA. All in all there were about 50+ fans, quite a happy bunch.
There are hardly any jerks or morons among those Rusties, so as a rule of thumb you could say that a Neil Young fan is good person (including me, of course, haha).
Not surprisingly for an opera house there was reserved seating, and I managed to acquire a ticket for the second row. It turned out that the first row seats have been removed for some reason, so I was in fact sitting in the first row, dead center, the best place in the house, you could say.
Before I continue with the show's review, you have to understand one thing: A "Rustie" is a die-hard-fan. We know each and every song by heart, whether they are released on an official album, or unreleased. When seeing a show a Rustie notices every nuance in playing and every little deviation from the standard lyrics. A popular sport among Rusties is to collect songs played in public for the very first time, or at least after a long gap of ten years or more. Neil Young has the balls to play new songs live, sometimes a day or two after he wrote them, and years before he releases them (if ever). And sometimes, out of the blue, he pulls a very old song out of his hat and plays it after a long hiatus. Especially solo shows are a good fishing ground for these kind of songs. I'm not very good in this sport (I attend too few shows), but I think I have two or three "debuts" until now. There are basically two factions among Rusties: Those who check out the setlists of shows played before the current show, and those who don't. It all depends on whether you like to be surprised or not. Both approaches have their pros and cons. Contrary to my usual habit I didn't check prior setlists this time and that turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made (when it comes to attending show events). The show in Frankfurt was the seventh one of the European solo tour, the third one in Germany after Hamburg and Berlin.
The stage setup offered no big surprises. The usual half circle of acoustic guitars, a grand piano (instead of the normal one), the obligatory pump organ, a chair, a stool with a bottle of beer and a big plastic cup to water harmonicas before playing, some white candles, and the big wooden Indian chief in the corner, who accompanies Neil Young since the late seventies. Some things never change, thank God. The only thing I hadn't seen before was a small reddish megaphone mounted to a rack and attached to a second microphone. I had no idea what this thing was for. After a little chit-chat with the people around me, the lights went out pretty much on time and Neil entered the stage.
He was smiling, waving to the crowd, sitting down and preparing for the first song. Then something unusual happens. Neil Young spoke to us before he even played the first song! I never witnessed this before. He is usually pretty silent during a show, letting his songs speak for him. You'll get your fair share of How ya doin's and Thank you's but that's pretty much it. In Frankfurt (and any other show on that tour), he was talking like crazy; more of that later. What he exactly said, I cannot recall, but I'm sure it was profound.
Then he started the first song, a mid-tempo song with a long intro. During the intro I tried to figure out what the hell this song this was. I think I heard some of those chord changes before, but I couldn't really tell. I came up with a few possible candidates in my mind until the singing started. Then I knew what it was: A new song! Had to be. I was flabbergasted. I never would have thought he would open a show with a new song. Of course I knew there was an album called "Greendale" coming out, scheduled to be released in August, and this is probably a song from that album, but confronting the casual concert goers with something new? What a bold move! I hardly understood a word from the lyrics, because I was still sort of brain-stunned. You could say this song was falling from above onto me, because a) Neil Young was sitting about 4 yards in front of and 2 yards above, and b) that's the name of the song "Falling From Above", and these are my favorite lines:
The song lasted for about seven minutes, and after that the talking started. He was talking for several minutes, introduced us to Greendale, and the Green family (whose members have some funny names, like Sea, and Sky, and Sun). Those of you who are familiar with Neil Young probably know that he is singing in a high voice. His talking voice, however, is much lower. So while he was talking, sitting there alone on the dark stage, playing a few notes here and there on his guitar, I felt like a child again, sitting at a campfire with my daddy, listening to exciting stories. This never actually happened (the campfire thing), but if it were, I imagine it would have been quite like that. From what Neil Young was saying it was clear that he was going to play the entire new Greendale album, song by song.
In between songs the story of the Green family continued. This story, I think, has a high potential for a great novel (see the blurb of this book). It should work without the music very well. Alas, noone ever wrote such a novel.
The rest of the evening I was in a dreamlike state. I wasn't prepared for anything like that, a whole set of new songs plus Neil Young telling stories. After the ten songs from the Greendale album there was a short break before he played a second set with songs people actually knew. I don't recall much of this or how I found my way home. I was still in the grip of Greendale. The venue, my front row seat in the second row, the disciplined crowd, and of course the magic of Neil Young. Everything was perfect on that special night.
Links:
Neil Young's official website
The complete setlist on Tom Hambleton's Sugar Mountain site.
UPDATE:
The significance of the megaphone became obvious after watching the Greendale movie. Sun Green used the megaphone so that her/our concerns can be heard loud and clear.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
On May 1, 2003 I was on my way to the Old Opera House in Franfurt/Main, Germany to attend my 10th Neil Young show. I'm a fan since high-school days (some 35 years ago), and I couldn't wait to see the man again. Having seen Neil Young with his band Crazy Horse performing three times two years earlier I was eager for this solo show for a change.
After a two hour ride with my old black car (which was a young black car back then) I pulled into the venue's underground parking and immediately identified some friends' cars by their bumper stickers. Those friends (and I) were members of the so called Rust List (international list of Neil Young fans) and were called "Rusties". We had arranged for a meeting in a nearby "Biergarten" for the usual pre-show fest. I was a little late, but I could enjoy some 20 minutes of Rust-gathering anyway. I recall people from Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, England/Scotland, France and the USA. All in all there were about 50+ fans, quite a happy bunch.
There are hardly any jerks or morons among those Rusties, so as a rule of thumb you could say that a Neil Young fan is good person (including me, of course, haha).
Not surprisingly for an opera house there was reserved seating, and I managed to acquire a ticket for the second row. It turned out that the first row seats have been removed for some reason, so I was in fact sitting in the first row, dead center, the best place in the house, you could say.
Before I continue with the show's review, you have to understand one thing: A "Rustie" is a die-hard-fan. We know each and every song by heart, whether they are released on an official album, or unreleased. When seeing a show a Rustie notices every nuance in playing and every little deviation from the standard lyrics. A popular sport among Rusties is to collect songs played in public for the very first time, or at least after a long gap of ten years or more. Neil Young has the balls to play new songs live, sometimes a day or two after he wrote them, and years before he releases them (if ever). And sometimes, out of the blue, he pulls a very old song out of his hat and plays it after a long hiatus. Especially solo shows are a good fishing ground for these kind of songs. I'm not very good in this sport (I attend too few shows), but I think I have two or three "debuts" until now. There are basically two factions among Rusties: Those who check out the setlists of shows played before the current show, and those who don't. It all depends on whether you like to be surprised or not. Both approaches have their pros and cons. Contrary to my usual habit I didn't check prior setlists this time and that turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made (when it comes to attending show events). The show in Frankfurt was the seventh one of the European solo tour, the third one in Germany after Hamburg and Berlin.
The stage setup offered no big surprises. The usual half circle of acoustic guitars, a grand piano (instead of the normal one), the obligatory pump organ, a chair, a stool with a bottle of beer and a big plastic cup to water harmonicas before playing, some white candles, and the big wooden Indian chief in the corner, who accompanies Neil Young since the late seventies. Some things never change, thank God. The only thing I hadn't seen before was a small reddish megaphone mounted to a rack and attached to a second microphone. I had no idea what this thing was for. After a little chit-chat with the people around me, the lights went out pretty much on time and Neil entered the stage.
He was smiling, waving to the crowd, sitting down and preparing for the first song. Then something unusual happens. Neil Young spoke to us before he even played the first song! I never witnessed this before. He is usually pretty silent during a show, letting his songs speak for him. You'll get your fair share of How ya doin's and Thank you's but that's pretty much it. In Frankfurt (and any other show on that tour), he was talking like crazy; more of that later. What he exactly said, I cannot recall, but I'm sure it was profound.
Then he started the first song, a mid-tempo song with a long intro. During the intro I tried to figure out what the hell this song this was. I think I heard some of those chord changes before, but I couldn't really tell. I came up with a few possible candidates in my mind until the singing started. Then I knew what it was: A new song! Had to be. I was flabbergasted. I never would have thought he would open a show with a new song. Of course I knew there was an album called "Greendale" coming out, scheduled to be released in August, and this is probably a song from that album, but confronting the casual concert goers with something new? What a bold move! I hardly understood a word from the lyrics, because I was still sort of brain-stunned. You could say this song was falling from above onto me, because a) Neil Young was sitting about 4 yards in front of and 2 yards above, and b) that's the name of the song "Falling From Above", and these are my favorite lines:
Slammin' down a late night shot
The hero and the artist compared
Goals and visions and afterthoughts
For the 21st century
But mostly came up with nothin'
So the truth was never learned
And the human race just kept rollin' on
Rollin' through the fighting
Rollin' through the religious wars
Rollin' down the temple walls
And the church's exposed sores
Rollin' through the fighting
The religious wars
Mostly came up with nothin'
The song lasted for about seven minutes, and after that the talking started. He was talking for several minutes, introduced us to Greendale, and the Green family (whose members have some funny names, like Sea, and Sky, and Sun). Those of you who are familiar with Neil Young probably know that he is singing in a high voice. His talking voice, however, is much lower. So while he was talking, sitting there alone on the dark stage, playing a few notes here and there on his guitar, I felt like a child again, sitting at a campfire with my daddy, listening to exciting stories. This never actually happened (the campfire thing), but if it were, I imagine it would have been quite like that. From what Neil Young was saying it was clear that he was going to play the entire new Greendale album, song by song.
In between songs the story of the Green family continued. This story, I think, has a high potential for a great novel (see the blurb of this book). It should work without the music very well. Alas, noone ever wrote such a novel.
The rest of the evening I was in a dreamlike state. I wasn't prepared for anything like that, a whole set of new songs plus Neil Young telling stories. After the ten songs from the Greendale album there was a short break before he played a second set with songs people actually knew. I don't recall much of this or how I found my way home. I was still in the grip of Greendale. The venue, my front row seat in the second row, the disciplined crowd, and of course the magic of Neil Young. Everything was perfect on that special night.
Links:
Neil Young's official website
The complete setlist on Tom Hambleton's Sugar Mountain site.
UPDATE:
The significance of the megaphone became obvious after watching the Greendale movie. Sun Green used the megaphone so that her/our concerns can be heard loud and clear.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
November 18, 2014
Uh, everything Neil Young does gets 5 stars. Yep. This goes with his album by the same name, which also gets 5 stars. Yep. The book has illustrations that accompany the story told in the album. Worth it. Yep.
February 6, 2017
Powerful and ever relevant in the light of current world affairs. I very much enjoyed the pairing of supernatural horror with the all important environmental and political questions.
And...I will most definitely be checking the rock opera out.
And...I will most definitely be checking the rock opera out.
December 19, 2025
The Mazzeo art is interesting, but it’s not enough to salvage the poor source material: Neil’s incoherent concept album about a ridiculous, boring, enormous family. (A couple of the songs are decent musically, but when stripped down to just printed lyrics, they’re quite embarrassing.)
September 21, 2022
To be completely honest I didn’t “get” it until the end. Though there’s not much to get. It’s a made up place!
Lots of bad things happen that Neil reflects on through poetry.
Lots of bad things happen that Neil reflects on through poetry.
October 9, 2010
I enjoyed the film and love the soundtrack. I was hoping the book would clear up a few questions I had about the story, but it didn't help much. There were a few "aha" moments, though, when looking at the Green family tree.
August 23, 2010
Beautiful story telling on an epic scale.
September 13, 2010
Great story and art. Definitely worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews