A bit late

emrgency:

neil young unknown legend

seriously, once i listen to one neil young jam i have to listen to like, 40 neil young jams. i was just saying to my roommate that neil young is one of the very few musicians i intensely love that i haven’t seen live. to be honest, i think neil might be the only one left, unless talking heads reunite.

some facts about my life and neil young:

• in undergrad, i named all of my jump drives after him and associated musical acts. there was the original “neil”, followed by “crazy horse”, and then finally “csn” for crosby stills & nash. i think i only still possess csn. someone has crazy horse, i think it’s alyson.
• one of the worst revelations i ever had revolves around the “helpless” scene in the last waltz. i have watched it countless times, and it is truly one of my favorite performances ever. part of this was rooted in the fact that neil dances over to robbie and rick and they all sing on the mic together and look totally joyful, like they are having the most fun performing this music they love together. then i read that neil young was coked up for that whole performance and while that doesn’t necessarily take away from how wonderful that performance is, the fact that he was high for it crushed me. somehow the joy now seems synthetic, and i think i’m still not over how finding that out made me feel. i mean, obviously not, since that happened years ago and i’m still fucking talking about it.
• i will forever remain jealous of the fact that neil young is amber tamblyn’s godfather. i don’t even believe in the notion of godparents, but i would willingly, gratefully take neil young as mine. (apologies to my real godfather.)
• in my apartments in cleveland and columbus, i considered tom wilkes’ album cover for harvest art and kept my second copy (it’s fun to buy record lots off ebay) on display. this will probably resume again when i have my own place.

i am sure there are more facts i am forgetting, possibly the one where the weekend before i knew i would be laid off i just watched jonathan demme’s heart of gold over and over to calm myself down. you know, just how i live my life.

I have friends with boys named Strummer and Neil. It’s just what you think: superfans.