And the radio stations have everything separated, so I made records like that for a while. The records became focused more on one kind of music. And then things changed in the '80s and the '90s. "I used to make those records all the time in the '70s. " Chrome Dreams represents a kind of record that I like to make where there's a lot of different kinds of music," he says. For Young, it also marks a return to glories such as After the Goldrush and Harvest, records that boasted both acoustic and electric songs. It features three old songs and seven new compositions. His upcoming album, Chrome Dreams II, takes its inspiration from the 1977 set of songs first played to King. Instead, like Dylan, he prefers to concentrate on the only two truisms that have maintained his career to date: touring and recording. Most of his peers - Johnny Cash, Gram Parsons and Jerry Garcia - are long departed. The history of a 40-year career in rock music lines his weather-beaten face - those deep wrinkles, the prominent sideburns, the intense stare. Freshly showered after a morning workout, and dressed in a faded T-shirt and jogging bottoms, he looks buoyant with energy. When I meet him in New York, I find Young, now 61, still looking to hide from the heavy hand of musical history as if it might corrode his music. In 1976, he abruptly walked off the Stephen Stills-Neil Young tour, sending Stills only a brief note by way of explanation. On more than one occasion, his mercurial anger has seen him fire his session groups for failing him. He has been sued by his record company, Geffen, for failing to turn in music representative of his career. After the runaway success of Harvest, a landmark country rock album, he spent five years recording a deliberately uncommercial trilogy of albums in order to confound his fans. He has followed up chart-topping albums with over-sized disasters. A rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there."īefore Heart of Gold, Young had already experienced considerable fame - firstly with the continually bickering Buffalo Springfield, later with America's first supergroup, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. "Travelling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch. " Heart of Gold put me in the middle of the road," he said at the time. After his only hit single, 1972's Heart of Gold, the singer-songwriter made a path for deliberate obscurity. Collectively, they display a wide independent streak.
Individually, Young's recordings all point to a fear of musical stagnation. In today's musical landscape, only Bob Dylan can be regarded as a fellow journeyman. Casting a backwards look over his career, now etched out over 40 studio albums that display a curiosity for blues jams, heavy metal, soul music and country rock, would be deemed aberrant behaviour by Young.
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