Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / Neil Young, Part One

Transcript

Neil Young, Part One · Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey, y'all, it's justin Richmond. We have a really
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: special episode for you today. When Rick Rubin and I
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: first talked about making Broken Record, we had a short
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: list of absolute dream guests for the podcast. Neil Young
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: was at the top of that list. We tried by
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: various means over the years to make it happen. Neil
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: had even been around the studio while we were taping
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: episodes with other guests, but we just couldn't make it work.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: So when Neil's new record was announced and we were
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: told he wanted to speak with Rick about it, we
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: were beyond ecstatic. Neil's won a very few popular artists
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: who seems to be singularly focused on creating. Wherever the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: muse goes, he goes. As a teenager, it led him
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: to the folk clubs of Canada. We first met Joni
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Mitchell in the late sixties. It led him to Los Angeles.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: We started Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills. Later, it led
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: him to a long solo career with intermittent stints with Crosby,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Stills and Nash in other groups he's put together over
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the years. It's also led him, at various points to
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: spurn fans, journalists, executives, labels, collaborators, or anyone who gets
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: in the way of his vision. Neil's an iconoclast, a renegade,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: someone who makes music vibrant and exciting, and we're lucky
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: to still have him around four gene, relentlessly ahead, as
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: vital as ever, depending on how you count. Neil's newest
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: release is his fiftieth solo album, not counting the dozens
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: of other archival and miscellaneous releases from decades past, or
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the dozen or so archive releases to come in the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: new year. The newest one was recorded in a barn
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: up in the mountains of Colorado with his on and
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: off again band since nineteen sixty eight, Crazy Horse Thubam's
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: called Barn. Let's listen to a bit of a song
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: from it, called Human Race. Today, no one cares Tomorrow,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: No one shares, because they all will be gone. But
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the children's children of the bars and floods. Who's gonna
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: say the human Race? The children gonna run it hid
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the fire, the fires and floods to these people have
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: left behind the people. Today's episode, Rick and Neil talk
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: about his new album, all of the archival projects he
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: plans I'm releasing in the coming year, The time they
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: spent working together on some abandoned songs in nineteen ninety
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: seven that may soon see the latter day, Neil's time
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: at a Rick James fronted band that was signed to Motown,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Driving to la from Canada, and a hearse. They talked
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: for so long we decided to make this the first
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of two episodes with Neil Young. This is broken record
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: liner notes for the Digital Age. I'm justin Richmond. Here's
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: part one of Rick Rubin's conversation with Neil Young. Hey,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: what is that in Maine? How's it going? Pretty good?
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: How you feeling? You're good? Good to see you, great
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: to see you. Oh my god. So how are you
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: being I've been great. I haven't seen you in a minute. Yeah,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: it's been maybe a minute and a half. Jeez, all
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: good everything. Well, if you're feeling good, I feel healthy. Yeah,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I feel good. Great, You're looking great, man, Thank you sir.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Trying my best. Yeah, so tell me where. First of all,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: where's the barn? What part of the world is the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: barn in? It's in Colorado? Beautiful. Yeah. The filming of
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: the sessions is beautiful and shed a lot of light
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: on the music. The album's beautiful, but seeing the images
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: and seeing the tranquility of the nature while listening to
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the music really is a moving experience. Yeah, Daryl did
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: a great job. It is quite interesting to watch it
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: stop at you every seven seconds, it takes a picture,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: and so the music has this timeless aura to it
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: because things are happening out of time. So when you're
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: looking at it, it doesn't distract you from the music.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: The music stays with you while it's happening, which is really,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: you know, very rare. Most videos are a distraction, and
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: you know, they don't help you get way into the music. Yeah,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: they support the music, but they don't help the music.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: It's interesting when when you listen to music, do you
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: close your eyes or do you keep your eyes open
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: when you're listening. You know, I'm really not sure when
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: I'm listening to music, I'm gone, i don't know where
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: i am, i don't know what I'm doing. If I'm
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: really into the music, Yeah, it just takes me away,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: transports me. That's that's actually one of the things I
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: wanted to talk about is I've seen you play a
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: lot of times. I've seen a lot a lot of times,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and I can't think of a case where it didn't
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: feel like you were being transported by the music. Always
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: it was always you were gone in it. Are there
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: ever bad shows? Can you ever not get into that place? Sometimes,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: but rarely, I'll take any kind of abuse of circumstance
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: to the music and try to use it. You know,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: whatever it is, I try to turn around and throw
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: it back at the music. Yeah, it's like I try
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: to make the best set it and I use it.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: A lot of times. Things go wrong in life, as
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: we all know, and you don't know what the hell
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: is going on? Why did that happen? I try to
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: take that anger or sadness and put it into music,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: and the same thing happens in real time. If I'm
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: playing and there's a lot of distractions or something, if
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: they're severe distractions, I'll freak out. But if they're not,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: I will use it in the music. Might the distractions
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: actually make it better? Based on what you're saying? In
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: some cases they might ye for me. I don't know
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: about other musicians. Only asking for you, I know, I
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: thank god. Yeah, it's only everything we're going to talk about.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: It's very personal. It's just like, how does it hit you?
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: What was it like being back in the room with
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: the horse. It was wonderful. It's always great to be
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: in the room with the horse. And now that we
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: have nos in Pancho's retire you know, Pancho got some
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: arthritis and the hand injury at the same time, so
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: that he did do another tour after that, but he
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: wasn't enjoying it as much because it really hurt, so
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: he decided to give it a rest. Mills was in
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: early two though, wasn't he. Yeah, he was with He
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: was with us for after the gold Rush. Tonight's tonight
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: trans So during my first ten years, he was around
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: a lot. Do you remember the very first time you
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: jammed with Crazy Horse? Yeah, it was in my living room.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: You know. I hung out with the Rockets a lot
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: at their house in Laurel Canyon, which was right on
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Loyal Canyon Boulevard. Someday we're in Loyal Canyon together, I
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: will show you the house still there. Great, one of
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: those funky wooden houses. Yeah, three years, four stories tall
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: with the garage under it that opens right onto Laurel
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Canyon Corner. It's dangerous, very dangerous. But we used to
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: get high there and party and have a great I'm
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: playing music and listening to music and talking. There was
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: you know, Annie Whitten and Robin Lane and Billion Ralph
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: and George Witzel and Bobby knock Coff from the Rockets.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: You know, I just liked it. They were they. I
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: think I met them through Buffalo Springfield somehow at some gig,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: maybe the Whiskey of Go Go, and I think that's
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: where I met them. And then they asked me to
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: over and hang out. They started talking, and so we
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: talked and we hung out and listening to music, had
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: a great time just hanging out. It was a good
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: place to go. I went there more than anywhere else
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: because I had a good time and we were jab
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: and play. It was always always felt good to me
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: because they weren't really you know, that accomplished, although Knotcuff
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: on the violin was amazing and George Witzel was a
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: great musician still is I believe. Then there was Billion Ralph,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: and Robin was Danny's girlfriend, and Dan was great. They're
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: just nice people, just a good group of people. I
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: enjoyed being with them. And from the first time you played,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: did it feel good. It always felt good playing with
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the Rockets then, but there were a lot of Rockets,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't really good for making a record for me.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: So that's when I decided maybe I could just borrow
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: a few people from the Rockets and make a record.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: And when that happened, I asked them to come up
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to my house. My house was into Panga Canyon and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: OHI way up on one of those roads and overlooking
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the shopping center and the corners and everything. And we
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: were up there playing in my living room and that
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: was great. We sounded great right away, instantaneous by playing
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: with different people. How does it affect you the way
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: you play or what happens, Well, there's nothing like crazy Horse,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: and I always loved playing with Skills the same way.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Still is just like a real musician. He's very open
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: and shares everything and loves to play. But the Horse
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: is like a group that's like that. So you know,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: the more I played with the Horse and then we
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: start jamming and just playing, and it's just always was easy.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: As long as the chords were right, it was good.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Nothing complex, because that wasn't that's not what the horse does.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: The horse does it groove, and if it's simple enough,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: we can all get into and get lost and not
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: worry about remembering anything or an arrangement. The window into
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the instrumental has got to be the window into the verse,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: so we can play for as long as we want,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and then we're in the verse whenever we want to go.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: And that's how we do it. There's really no there's
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: no rules about it. When you write the songs, do
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: you think of a structure or does it happen more
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: you're looking at the on the page and you're feeling
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: the jam, and the shape of it evolves naturally. The
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: best ones just naturally evolved. The best ones happened kind
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: of by mistake, if you can say that they happened
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: so naturally. You don't even know how that happened. It's
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: a real deal, and we have it and we respect it,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: and we love it. You honor it. I'm glad to
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: be together all the time. When we together, you appreciate
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: the whole thing. It's like a gift. Beautiful. There's one.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: There's one on the new album. I don't know. I
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: don't know titles. I don't know titles on anything. I
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: don't know titles on any songs I work on either,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: But you sing about stars in the sky. Oh yeah,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: let's welcome back, welcome back, welcome back. It's not the same,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: don't you love all those commercials Welcome back, Applebee's, welcome back.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Are you kidding? I'm not going in there. I mean,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I got nothing against Applebee's. Good luck to Applebe's, and
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry see EO, whoever you are. But so many
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: people started saying welcome back. I was thinking myself, I
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: don't think we're any farther away from this pandemic than
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: we were the first day we discovered it. Yeah, I
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: think we've made much progress, so I feel that we're
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: still there. So I don't go out and play. I
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: hardly go anywhere. I just stay at home because, lucky
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: for me, I've got a lot to do. Yeah. Same here,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: we don't leave the house because there's a lot to
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: do right here. Look at all the stuff you've gotten
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: your vault. I mean, you've got so much stuff that
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: you wish that you'd finished, or you wish that somebody
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: else had come along and help you finish it, or
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: whatever happened. What happened to that? That was great? How
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: come we stop? I understand all of that time is weird,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: because see, you keep going, and that's the way. That's
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: the way I've lived my musical life. I just go
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: from one thing to another. And coincidentally, I just was
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: visiting one of our sessions, one of our few sessions.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: We were actually in a studio. We were playing yeah
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: and some of that stuff, and there's some radical stuff
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: in there. There's one thing called hard Luck Stories that
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: you should give a listen to sometime just to refresh
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: your memory. I haven't heard anything since that day, so
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I know it's ridiculous. It is, yes, and that's not
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: the one. That's the best one real. The other two
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: are better, but hard Luck Stories it's ridiculous. Back and
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I think somewhere in the previous decade, Yeah, I did
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: a bunch of demos. It's when I got the synclaviar
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: and the Lynn drum and whenever they all that started,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: the seton drums, the sink system with the synclaviar and
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: all this stuff. I got all that stuff, and I
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: started laying down tracks and doing all kinds of stuff
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: by myself and my ranch. And then I did a
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: bunch of songs like that and recorded them next them,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and but there's no real guitar player or anything on them.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: And they were all on multi tracks, and that's what
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: we had when we went in the studio together. We
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: had we had one of those that I brought in
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: and I said, let's just try to play this song
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: or whatever. And I played it and I was singing.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I already sung on it and everything. So I must
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: have said, or somebody must have said, why don't we
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: just play with that? Which was weird because crazy Horse
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: playing with a bunch of computers, it is weird. Wow.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I don't remember this at all. I mean I remember,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I remember being in the room with Crazy Horse. I
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: remember the session, but I don't remember that. That's wild. Yeah,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: we only did one like that, Yeah, Hard Luck Stories.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: The other two are just live tracks of Modern World
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: and Horseshoe Man, the two songs. Yeah, I remember there
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: was a good version of Horseshoe Man as I think back. Yeah,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: it's a beauty things. It's great. I remember it being
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: really in the moment I remember it. I remember that. See,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: that was an early master that was probably if I remember,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: it might have been the original performance in the studio,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: as was Modern World and Hard luck stories. It was
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the first time if you if you say, okay, the
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: one I did with the computers and all the synthesizers
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: and the machines. The one I did with the machines
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: was the original one where I was writing it and
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I laid it all down. But the only other time
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: I played it was when we put that on and
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: we played with it, and it is so ridiculous. I
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: can't I can't wait to hear it. It's the war
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: of crazy horse against the machine versus the machines. That
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: sounds great. Yeah, it's really good. Wins the battle. I
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: think the horse one very they were very thankful the machines.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: The machines gave it them to some idea what they
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: were doing, and it was easy to do. Never count
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the horse out, Oh no, no. The horse just sniffed
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: the machines a couple of times. I can do this
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: and turn its back on the machine and kicked them
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: a couple of times. Don't bet against the horse. So
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: that was great and we had a great time. I
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: remember we booked the session and then you called me
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: and you told me that you cut off a piece
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: of your finger. Do you remember this, Yeah, that's where
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I happened after that session, no, before the session, and
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: you called and told me about it, and I said, so,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: which we'll cancel. You said, I can't play guitar, So
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: he said, we cancel the session, and you said, no,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I have an idea. I'm gonna play harmonica through my guitar,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: rig right, and it's said okay, And that's so. That's
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: that was what happened. That is so, that's why I'm
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: not playing guitar on some of it. The only thing
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I played on Hard Luck Stories. I believe the only
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: thing I played is one chord. Yeah, and I kept
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: playing with one chord and just yeah and the rest
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: of it. Poncho played his guitar, Yeah, played. Everything was good.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: But I remember you were able to play piano because
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: you were playing piano the whole whole. Yeah. Yeah, I
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: played piano on Horseshoe Man, and I didn't play anything
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: on Modern World because I played harmonica. Yeah. We just
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: kept going, We continued and we made good records. Yeah.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: I remember you had a marimba brought down. If I
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: remember correctly, I think there may be marimba in there somewhere,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: because because I remember, i'd never seen a marimba in
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: person before, so it was exciting. Well, that was the
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: big thing, like xylophone. It was like a xylophone but
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: made out of wood and really big, beautiful, and it
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: had some machine in it that like spun almost like
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: a Leslie. Yeah, that was used on I believe we
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: used that on Horseshoe. Yeah. Cool stuff. We'll be right
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: back with more from Neil Young after a quick break.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: We're with Rick Rubin and Neil Young. You mentioned Stills.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Do you remember the first time ever playing with Stills.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: I played with him in Fort William, Ontario, in like
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one, before I even went back, before I
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: even went down to La Wow. And I went down
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: to La looking for him, couldn't find him. And I
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: was driving down the street and they were thinking of
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: going to San Francisco. Bruce Palmer and I, you know,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: just driving down the street in our hearse's with all
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: of our stuff and you go to San Francisco, will
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: find some music there. So all the Sunset Boulevard around
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: uh right, it between the Screen Actors Guild and the
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Old Green Blacks and exactly where that is really close
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: to Earle Canyon, Yeah, really close to all canyon. I
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: looked out and there and I heard this somebody calling
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Neil Neil, and I looked out the window and it Stills.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: He's in a car going the other way, but the
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: graphics kind of going really slow. So I pulled over
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: and they came and Stills with Puree and they had
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: been trying to get it going. So that's how the
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Springfield started. So the the initial playing with Stills in
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Ontario must have been good for you to want to
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: come down to California to find him. Oh yeah, No,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: that was great. We played a lot of stuff and
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: it always felt good. And he was just really getting
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: into electric guitar for the first time. He had an
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: acoustic guitar and had done a folk but he had
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: gotten an electric guitar and he liked playing it. And
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: he was in a band called The Company and what
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: he played in the Company was his his electric guitar sometimes.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: And the Company was kind of a folk Christian minstrel's
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: kind of thing, only sixty four or something. It's pretty cool,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: like a vocal based group. Yeah, but they had instruments
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: and they played, so they the group going yeah, but
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: we were at the time. It was me and the Squires.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: It was me and a bass player and drummer and
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: we were just rock and roll, crazy rock and roll.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: I was doing stuff based on Jim Rose. Jim Rose
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: had Hey Joe, Yeah, and he also had great versions
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: of I think it was Oh Susannah, or maybe it
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: was anyway it was. There was some other guys in
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the group too, and from from his band, and they
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: played both folk songs with rock and roll arrangements, and
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: one of them was their version of Oh Susannah, which
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: I thought was really cool. I actually did a version
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: of it on one of my albums, Psychedelic Bill with
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Crazy Horse, decades later. So there was a rock version
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: of Hey Joe prior to Hendrix. I didn't know that.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh Hendrix game right, had no idea. I
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: don't know. Hey Joe was a very cool folk rock
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: thing and Jim Rose is great. Try to find a
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Tim Rose version I will. So you were in the
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Squires playing music inspired by that kind of stuff? Was
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: your group with Rick James prior to that? It was
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: after that? So Squires was first, then Mina Birds and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: what was that group? Like, anybody from the Squires and
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the Mina Birds or no, no, just me. What was
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: that group like? Well, Bruce Palmer was in that group.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Rick James was in that group, amazing, John Yacamac and
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: another guy, a guitar player and a drummer, Rick Rick,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the drummer Boost, the bass player John and the rhythm
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: guitar player. The lead guitar player was gone. That's why
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: they bought me and Rick Matthews, Ricky James Matthews, the
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: third was singing lead and he was in Canada and
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: we didn't know, but he was a draft dodger. I see.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: And what was the music? How would you describe the music?
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: R and B rock and roll, rolling Stones meets motown
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: meets old time southern blues? Great? Did you did you
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: do gigs? Oh? Yeah, how were the gigs? Gigs were great?
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: It was all over the place. I remember pulling my
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: guitar chord out multiple times, was playing, jumping around and
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: suddenly there's no sound. Oh yeah. We played high schools.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: We played, We played clubs in Yorkville, in Toronto. So
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: then you come down south, you find Stills, the band
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: starts and things go good. For Buffalo Springfield, It's great.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: It's a great band. Never was recorded. I wanted to
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: ask you about that. What do you remember about the
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: recording sessions for Buffalo Springfield. Our managers were our producers.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: That's the one thing I remember. They were awful. They
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: didn't know what the hell they were doing. They were
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: on the phone half the time, they were posing. They
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: had nothing. We if we'd had like, oh god, if
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: we'd had Barry Friedman, if we'd had Paul Rothschild, any
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: number of guys from the folk and blues scene, we
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: would have been in pretty good shape. We had two
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: managers from New York. They didn't know how to do it.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: They had Sonny and Share. Yeah, they didn't do that,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: though Sonny did that. Yeah, so we we didn't have
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: the benefit of We didn't even have Sonny. You need
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: I would have been something to here. So anyway, we
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: didn't have much. So the recording sessions was mostly up
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: to Skills and I and for a you know, the
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: whole band. But that that was it. On for what
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: it's worth. The guitar sound in the beginning of the harmonics,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: who plays that? I never knew that. It's it's funny
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: because the song is so it's obviously synonymous with Buffalo Springfield.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: But we think of it as a Stills song, Yet
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: that guitar part is kind of the musical signature of
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: the song. And um, it's just interesting to know that
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: you played it. Yeah, yeah, it was live. Do you
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: remember how that came about? How that part came about,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: because it's unusual. I never heard that in a song before,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: or maybe since. It seemed to me like the song
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: was a news warning or something, and I was thinking
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: of the sound of news, so the d could be
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: part of a news sound, you know. Yeah, and it
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: just it just going, Dad just doing that thing with
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: the tremolo and the tremolo, barn the gretch and it
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: seemed to work. The engineer, Tom May Columbia Studio B,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Sunset Boulevard. But yeah, that was great. That was That
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: was a good session. It's the only one we did
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: with Tom. Then. Were you in the band when they
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: opened for the Rolling Stones? Oh? Yeah, I played with
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: the band and when they opened for The Stones at
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the Hollywood Bowl. How was that, Well, it's just like
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: another gig. It was pretty good. Uh, you know, it
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: was a big crowd and everything was pretty exciting. I
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: remember I drove my eye at a Mini Cooper at
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the time. Of great. I remember driving it to the
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: gig and you know, trying to get in the backstage
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: with it, and I just said, well, you know, if
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: you don't want to let me in, you don't have
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: to just tell somebody that the guitar player from Buffalo's
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Prankfield can't get in, you know. So I sat there
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: for a while. You know, when I got in, eventually
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: I wasn't in a hurry. I said, that's okay with me.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, somebody's gonna notice I'm not there. They're gonna
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: be looking for them. Yeah. No cell phones in those days.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: It couldn't call anything. Oh no, everything was really different.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: It was all reality. People had talked to each other
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: face to face. What was Laurel Canyon like back then?
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: What was the vibe like? What was the feeling? What
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: was a community like? Pretty hippie, pretty hippified community. A
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: lot of beautiful green stuff, green plants, old houses. The
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: neighborhoods were full of people from bends. Down the hill
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: from me was Danny Danny Hutton from Three Dog Night.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: It was just like one hundred yards below me on
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: the hill. I lived up on a cabin up on
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a hill rented by an astrologer named Kio. I had
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: a little pine pine cabin where I wrote a lot
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: of those songs, you know, all those Buffalo Springfields songs
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: on pieces of newspaper I wish I still had. At
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: one point I had all the newspapers in a big
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: pack with felt dick markers on top of newsprints, you know,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: mister soul burling air, all those kinds of stuff, probably
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: expecting the fly and they're somewhere. Ever, they were in
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: a dumpster in the sky. But down the hill from me,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I was up the steps near Kio's house and my
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: little pine ham that was separated by about yeah, under
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: yards or so along the hill. But at the bottom
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: of the steps, which were quite numerous steps, there was
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: a garage and John Densmore lived in the apartment above
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the garage, and you know, everybody was just playing at
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: the whiskey. You go, though. The Three Dog Night was was,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of a manufactured group that was put
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: together by a record company, and they were pretty cool,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: and I don't remember them coming along and playing the
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: whiskey and kind of breaking themselves in. And further down
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the road was Denny from the Mamas and Papas and Michelle,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Michelle Phillips and Denny Doherty. Yeah, they were everywhere. Rockers
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: were everywhere down there. Did it feel good? Coming from
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Canada moving down and then being in this neighborhood of
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: like minded people? Was that different? I thought that's what
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: it was. What it was like. I just thought that's
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: what happened, you know, I was in Hollywood, that people
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: we were. I wasn't surprised because all the musicians lived
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: there because they all play there, That's where they all
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: come from, that's where all the record companies were in studios,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: and so they didn't strike me that much. Now retrospective,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: it does kind of. Yeah. Yeah, at the time, it
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: seemed normal. And then and then when did you move
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: to Penga sixty eight? Probably? I think sixty eight the
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Springfield broke up and I moved to I can't remember
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: exactly how it happened, but I think I moved to
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: the Chateau Marmont Well. I lived in a room there
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: for a while, an apartment. Well, I'm not really sure
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: that I was there a couple of times. I know
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: I did Tonight's to Night Learning there and somehow I
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: was at some point I moved up north. I saw
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: a ranch. I saw the land out of an airplane
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: window when I was growing up to play with this
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: ringfield sas Alito in this place called the Charles van
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Dam the ark where we played, and there was Moby
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Great was playing with us. So usin Moby Great playing
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: on this old paddle wheel. Incredible. Yeah. This guy Matthew
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Cats who was a promoter, you know, a Filmore or
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Avalon or something. He managed the arc and he employed
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: us to play there. I don't think we got much money.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: We did play there. Gave us a place to play.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: But you found the ranch ranch that way amazing? So
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: you didn't leave live long in Topanga? And did you
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: live in Malibu for a little a minute as well?
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: I lived in Topanga first. Then from Topanga I moved
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: to the Shatau Marmont again. When he got to the
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: shape Marmon, I moved from there. I took off and
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: went up to I might have been staying with Gary Burden,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: my art director for so many years, in his house,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: and then I then I thought, I went up north
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: and I found this ranch, so things must have been okay.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: I'd already recorded after the Gold rushing in to Panga.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Everybody knows while I was living in the Panga and
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: my first album with David Briggs. They were all with
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: David Bridge when I when I came to that was
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: my first album. And then so after the third album,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: I knew We've got North with Bruce Berry and Yermo
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Ketty and some of the road crew, John and John Barbada,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: who went playing drums to CSNY. He was a drummer
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: in the Turtles. So we went up north and I
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: bought the place and moved in. I stayed there for
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: a while and I started writing, started touring again. When
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: I wrote the songs and started writing Harvest. I remember
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: there was a there was a BBC live performance from
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: right around that time because Harvest was not out yet,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: but you played songs from Harvest on it. Yeah, I
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: remember that too. It's one of the It's one of
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: the greatest things I've ever seen. Tell me everything you
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: remember about that. I was interesting. They they did the
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: show and then they wanted me to do something else
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: after that. But the show itself was kind of like No.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: You see these shows that are in the round where
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: you see all the people sitting and they're all lit
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: and everything's clean. The artists just sitting up there on
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: a little round stage kind of reminded me of one
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: of those there's a lot like that. I had all
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: my songs and I was playing them and it was
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I don't know what hall. I don't think it was
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: a hall. I think it was a BBC studios, and
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: you know, I just played my show. There's the same
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: show basically that I played at Massive Hall, same show
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: I played basically the same one I play that Carnate Evil.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Strangely enough to have a bootleg is that I have
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: a bootleg series now because I recorded everything, I have
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: all the masters of every bootleg thats ever put out,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: So now I can put those all out and that
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: the sound great. You know, if anybody remembers them, they're
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: going to be there and they're pretty cool. It makes
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: me feel good down them. So yeah, I just pretty
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: well now just do whatever I want to do. I
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: put out way too many records. If I was going
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: to put out records and try to sell them, I
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: couldn't do it the way I'm doing. I'm putting them
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: out now because I want to. I just want to
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: make things right. I don't want to get all of
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: the stuff that I wanted to put out. I want
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: to put it out. Yeah, I want to beat you. Yes,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I want to enjoy whatever reaction there is, and I
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: want to enjoy the creation of it, and I want
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: to make sure it's done right and that the artwork
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: is correct and everything. So I can still do that.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: But the big problem with me is that I have
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: so much so I really stuck even that. What that
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: session we did, I think we did three songs in
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: one day and we were out of Yeah, it seemed
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: like went pretty fast, yes, and then I was on
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: into something else and couldn't play because of my finger
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: or whatever it was. Couldn't do the big live performances
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: because my finger was I think I hacked it up
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: with a knife making a tuna sandwich or something. I
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: think I was in my train bar because I like
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: to go to kind of gather my senses and lay
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: track and move move mountains through all kinds of stuff. Funny,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: I never it's funny to hear you say that, because
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: I never made the connection before of when you're in
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: train land, you can move mountains and you can't you
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: really have complete control of the universe. And then you
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: can turn the whole universe off and leave if you want. Yeah,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: that's good. But it gave me a place to go.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: I created the mountains out of stumps from the forest.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: So I took natural things that existed from burnt out
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: trees and stuff and cut a bottom on them that
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: was flat and put them on these tables and created
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: these mountain ranges out of them. And it was only
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: a matter of perspective. The way they were positioned on
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: the table made you think it was a mountain range.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: It couldn't be anything else, you know, all over the
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: track winding through it, going through tunnels and stuff. But
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: mostly it was the scenery. I used moss from the trees,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: moss from the ground, and I bring it into the
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: train barn and laid out all around the mountains and
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: it looked like fields, looked like green fields. Nice to
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: water it and do all kinds of stuff. It was
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: very cool. I'm very good, and I'm building another one
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: in Malibu right now. My son and I and all
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: of the grandchildren great when I took my son there
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: because I left the ranch about eight years ago. I
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: left broke the narrow r ansty line. But I loved
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: that training, so I didn't want people to have my training,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: so I dismantled it. I took it all apart, and
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: all I left was the stuff that was screwed down.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: I took all of the wood and took them all
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: to southern southern California and go to another table outside.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: The story does have a payoff when I took my
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: son Ben there, We went there together just a couple
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: of weeks ago, and I showed it to him and
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: when he saw it, he recognized the wood. And you know,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: he doesn't speak. He was in a wheelchair. He's at
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Quadrick Collegiate, so he doesn't speak. But he looked at
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: this stuff and then he looked at me with one eye.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: This gave me the greasy eyeball the smile on his face,
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: and you could tell you since he was like a
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: year old, he'd been going there and playing trains and
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: hanging out with me while I was working on the layout,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: and name these pieces of wood. So all the pieces
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: of wood that who saw were there. Amazing, It was amazing.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: It just then. So we're rebuilding and being ready to
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: do it again and have all the grand children. I'm
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: so happy you get to you get to have a
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: new train barn, and it'll be I bet it's going
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: to be an improvement over the old train barn. I'm
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: guessing it'll be great. We're gonna take a quick break
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: and then we'll be back with more from Neil Young.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: We're back with the rest of part one of Rick
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Rubin's conversation with Neil Young. Back to Buffalo Springfield for
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: a minute. There's a story that the day before Buffalo
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Springfield broke up, you fired the manager of the band,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: which was Elliott, our friend Elliott, and broke Elliot's heart
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: because he loved the band, and you coldly fired Elliott.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: And then, well, this is the story. You'll tell me
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: the truth. I'm telling you the the mythical story, the legend.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: In the legend, you fire Elliott, you break his heart.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: The next day you quit the band, the band breaks up,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: and then you call Elliott and you hire him to
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: be your personal manager. Is any of that? Is it
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: anything like that? It's all true. It didn't happen so fast,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: but it took a couple of weeks. Yeah, he did something.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: I didn't like it, but I can't even remember what
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: it was. But I told him that was us. So
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: what change that made you rehire him after firing him?
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: I loved him. I loved him, but you know, he
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: fucked up so bad I could have him, So I
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: think it's just my own immaturity. I had to have
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: him all for myself or not at all. It worked out.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: It worked out great. The love affair went on up
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: until he passed on, and still continues because we can
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: still send our love to Elliot, share what we're feeling,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: and if we listen clothes, we'll probably hear what he's
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: got to say. That's right. We will tell me about Briggs.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: First meeting Briggs. How do you meet him? That Briggs
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: into Panger Canyon. I was walking along Old to Panker
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Canyon Boulevard on my way to a restaurant to have breakfast,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: and it was about a mile and a half a
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: lot and I like walk, and Briggs and buy Pete
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: went by, and what it would have been a hummer,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: but it was earlier before hummers, so it was a
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: military vehicle, troop carrier. A cool vehicle. Yeah, cool vehicle.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: And he saw me and they stopped and picked me up.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: So I met him. Were you hitchhiking or you just walking,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: just walking, and he just said you you want to ride?
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Want to ride? And I said sure, thanks. Do you
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: remember good conversation in the car. Was he involved in
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: music at the time. Oh, yeah, it was producing. He
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: worked with Murray Roman, the comedian, and he worked with
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Tetra grammaton records. He was working on a record with
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Randy California from Spirit but a few things going on
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: and everything, and I just liked talking to him. Yeah,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: I got to know him and find out where he lived.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: We were hanging out of his house, just hang out
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: and talk and played in some songs. He started talking
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: about it. What was the first album you did with him?
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: My first album from the beginning? Amazing? Yeah, and that
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: was That's That's that record we made after I met him.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Then I moved from the house. I was living into
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: another house one in Topango where I recorded after the
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: Gold Rush. But this is long before that, and I
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: was living in Topanga at my new house and going
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: in and reporting with breaks at T T ANDNG Reporters
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: and a little bit of Wally Hiders and stuff, working
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: with Jim Messina and George Grantham. Jim that had been
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: had helped us out in Springfield as we were breaking up,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: and George Grantham was in Poco, which Jim Messina and
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Richie Furrey started. So I just you know, I played
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: with Jim and because I knew them in when did
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: you build the big red box with all the pedal box? Okay,
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: that's nineteen seventy six, the first iteration of it. Yeah,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: this was the simplest version of it. The first version
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: only had two levels. First of all, let me explain
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: what it did. It connected an electric potentiometer or a spring.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: A spring drive through a cable to an electric box
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: that you could turn on or turn off. I had
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: a spring on it, so if he turned it off
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: and went back to a starting position wherever, you manually
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: screwed it into the post on a button on the
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: amp the volume control. I took the volume control off
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: my Deluxe, stuck this thing over the volume posts, screwed
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: it in. Once I'd gotten the volume where I wanted it,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: then I put the thing over and screwed it in,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: and then if I hit the switch, would vote turning
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: this thing until the spring was it was pushed all
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: the way and that would turn it all the way
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: up and then if I pushed the button again, it
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: would turn off and then would go back down. So
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: the advantage of that with a fendered lux or with
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: any old amplifill is that really the master volume is
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: the tone control. Yeah, these ancillary tone controls were based
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: in Trouble, but they don't really do what the volume
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: control does, which is overload the hella. So that was
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: the amount of overload that I had and was decided
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: by the position of that one button. So there was
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: a sober box that was, you know, with a cap
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: that looked like a mechano set holding it on top
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: of my amp. And then I had a Fender reverb
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: unit and those two things. That's what I used up
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: until nineteen including nineteen seventy six, and the last record
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: that I made playing that way was as a record
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: this is called Electric Duty presents Chaos and the course
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: that rode in on. I've never heard that one. Oh
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: it's not out. Oh that's why, it's just I just
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: found it. And it's the last one that I did.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: But the original rig then Rust Never Sleeps was the
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: next tour, and I developed a system that had four
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: levels for the potentialometer to go to four buttons to
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: select the tones that I wanted by the position of
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: the master volume. So it's only controlling the master volume.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: That's the only thing that the box does. That's what
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: that does. But the red box also has on the
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: bottom there's four buttons. That's that's low, medium, medium, high,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: and high and they all sound different, really radically different.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: Along the top there's a MXR analog delay in it,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: a neutron octive divider, some old kind of flange thing,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: and they on off bypass that took them all out
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: of the loop and echoplex, so they were all together,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: the neutron octive divider and the other things and the
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: echo plex which are the most critical ones. And every
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: once in a while I used the flanger and there
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: was another one that was a ridiculous digital thing that
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: it sounded like I was making popcornings, so i'd throw
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: that in for a couple of notes every once in
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: a while. But they were right on the edge of
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: my foot, all these things, and I had them all there,
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: and then one one button would take them all out.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: So then instead of going through all these switches the
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: signal only one for one, I bypassed all of the
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: electronics and everything into the other stuff. But if I
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: want to use the other stuff, you know, I could
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: preset it and then hit that one switch and everything
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: could come on at once, or I could play with
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: the switch on and add things one by one. I
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: could do anything I wanted. Plus I had the four
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: levels of volume, so it's pretty complex. Yeah. Do you
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: ever hit the wrong button by mistake? Always? Every show? Sometimes?
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: So yeah. The thing is rick that while it was
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: a great sound, it colored everything that I did from
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven and a half now. Yes, But right
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: before that is this album Chaos. Can't wait to hear it,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: which is just me playing the guitar with Crazy Horse
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: with one volume change and a reverb unit. No a
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: complex is, no flangers, none of the stuff. But also
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: nothing where the signal went away, nothing where the signal
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: had to go through a new place to get to
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: the effects. Yes, So consequently the actual sound of the
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: guitar was more pure, more direct, and I was playing
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: it and what that sound? That like? This this record?
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: I think this Chaos record is ridiculous. It's the best
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Crazy Horse record ever made. When do we get to
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: hear that one? Probably this year? It's coming out. It's
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: the first disc on volume three of my archives. Amazing. Yeah,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to hear it. Thanks right, I wait
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: to hear it too. We just today, we just had
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: a meeting and locked the running order completely. Thirteen CDs.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: There's thirteen discs. Each one has a cover, each one
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: as a story, and but they're all those thirteen discs.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Have found them ten blue ray discs, and the blue
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: rays each have the high res version of the CDs
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: and films. There's eight films. So of the ten Blu rays,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: eight of them have films and CD and you know
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: albums in high rese How did you know the archive
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: all this? Like, how did you notice, say, of every thing?
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: How did that happen? That's the question. Yes, yes it is.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: I'll call you if I can figure that out. I
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: have no idea, but I collect everything, I keep track
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: of everything. I can't help it. I write everything down,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: or I make some sort of note or cryptic message
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: to myself that says where this was from. So consequently
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: I have at the beginning of this disc, I have chaos,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: which is chaos and the horse that rode in on
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: presented by Electric Jude. That's a very interesting covered title.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: But anyway, Then at the other end, CD thirteen is
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: Summer Songs, which is a collection of original versions of
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: songs that came out three or four years later. So
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: it has the original versions of American Dream. Would you
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: call them demos or would you not call them demos?
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: I would call them sketches. I see, I don't think
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: they're a demo. What they are is versions of the song,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: the pure original version. They all have the original lyrics
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: which are different from the lyrics that that came out
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: on Freedom. And I had four albums that they came
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: out on, all in the late eighties early nineties, and
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: this album was made in the eighties seven, So the
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: album Summer Songs was done years before. Yeah, I did
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: all these songs and then I don't know why, but
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: I put them all together, called them Summer Songs and
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: put them on the shelf. And then later on what
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: I did American Dream with CSNY, I tried a couple
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: of these songs. There's two of the songs from that
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: are on that record. Then I did Freedom, and there's
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: songs on Freedom that are from that record, And there's
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: two other records that I made, but I can't that
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: from that Erio and they are American Dream from that album,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: The Last of His Kind, which was an unreleased song
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: about farmers, Someday, which was on Freedom for the Love
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: of Man, which was on Psychedelic Pill, which came out
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: in the nineties, One of These Days, which was on
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Harvest Moon, Wrecking Ball from Freedom, Hanging on a Limb
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: from Freedom, and Name of Love from American Dream. So
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: all of those songs in their original shape are on
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: this and I played them all on acoustic and then
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: very different from any acoustic Overdubblin's overdone. I did them all,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: perform them and sang and played them, and then right
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: away I did them again, listening to what I've done,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: playing exactly without moving, staying in the same position, not moving,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: did the song again and played everything along with it.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: It's uncanny, You cannot you think that it's an electronic
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: thing where I duplicated the guitar. Really, if you really
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: have to listen to tell it, it's two different versions. Really,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: they're close, and everything's the saying because nothing changed, everything
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: is doubled, everything's doubled. I sang harmony parts and played
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: the guitar parts at the same time. So when I
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: did the harmony parts, the guitar was added or elade
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: guitar was added, but whatever it was, I played it
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: and sang at the same time, just like I did
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: in the original. So that was amo that I used
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: to create summer songs. And I found it last week,
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: maybe two weeks ago. I kept looking at I kept saying,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: summer songs. There's summer songs. Yeah, that's a bunch of
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: things that I didn't want to put out or that
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: I didn't use. Then I listened to it. It's got
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: beautiful echoes. It's so beautiful. If it's not like a demo,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: because it's like the production. The first thing that anybody
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: heard them said it is wow, what a great production.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: Sounds amazing, And I'm going, well, it's uh. First of all,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: it's not even high res. It's CD quality as in
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: the dark ages that digital recorded sound, which was the
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: late nineties, late late eighties and early nineties. Yeah, where
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: things went downhill really badly before we started to pull
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: it back because we were all recording low resolution because
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: the technology companies were telling us how great it was.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: That's why we started doing We trusted again. It's pretty scap.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: But anyway, so we so I found these. They all
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: sound the same. They are like a record like no
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: other record I've ever made. They all are everything that's unified.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: It's altogether. It's like I wrote myself a letter and
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: mailed it to myself to get like three forty years later. Unbelievable. Yeah,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: so there they are. So that's what I'm doing right
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: now as I'm investigating all this stuff. Thanks to Neil
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: for taking the time to talk about the early days
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: of his career and telling us about his vast musical archives.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: Be sure to check out part two of Rick and
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: Neil's conversation next week. You can hear all of our
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: favorite Neil Young songs at broken Record podcast dot com.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: dot com slash broken Record Podcast. We can find all
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: of our new episodes. Broken Record is produced with help
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: from Lea Rose, Jason Gambrel, Martin Gonzalez, Eric Sandler, and
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: Jennifer Sanchez, with engineering help from Nick Chaffey. Our executive
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: producer is mil LaBelle. Broken Record is a production of
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: Pushkin Industries. If you love this show and others from Pushkin,
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: subscription that offers bonus content and uninterrupted ad free listening
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: for four ninety nine a month. Look for Pushkin Plus
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts subscriptions. You can follow us on Twitter
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: at Broken Record and please remember to share, rate, and
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: review us on your podcast at Our theme music is
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: by Kenni Beats. I'm justin Richmond.