I was listening to a DJ today and could tell by her voice that she was in her twenties. At one point she said that she had "missed the blog era". I'd known for some time that blogging wasn't the craze it once was, but it hadn't occurred to me to think of it as a bygone era, one that youngsters don't recall. Welcome to my fossil collection.
That's as good a setup as any to a music post. I've been thinking about the late 60s emergence of Neil Young as a solo artist, something of a classic reversal. Just a couple of years earlier, he had been a guitarist and secondary vocalist in Buffalo Springfield. And in that time, at least as I see it, he was in Stephen Stills's shadow. Stills, who'd turned down the chance to be a Monkee*, had a great husky voice and a precocious collection of songs. Young was clearly talented, but seemed destined to be in the background.
Once the band broke up, things changed. Stills didn't stop being a good singer or songwriter. But it started to become apparent that the gawky Canadian was just on another level. Which might be why Young didn't have a consistent interest in being the fourth side of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. He was already flying.
*The guitarist job in the Monkees went to Stills's fellow Texan Mike Nesmith, although Stills sounds a lot more Texan than Nesmith when he talks.
2 comments:
Missed the blog era, eh? It looks like a hot one but blogging as diarizing did only last until the smartphone era with x and tiktok etc., none of which have the personal qualities of what we think of when the term arises. Did you know that the word 'blog' or 'web log' comes from a navy captain's record keeping book? I didn't know that. One very good thing about blogs though was that they were the first to bring truth and open discussion to an already failing news cycle.
I remember all the songs but I can't say I remember what band either Stills or Young were part of at the time. Things moved very fast in those years and apparently the two of them were frequently at loggerheads. Steven Stills said of Neil Young that he wanted to play folk in a rock band. Nevertheless, they've been close friends too - likely pushing one another creatively which is a very good thing in any band.
Neil is a brilliant songwriter and his guitar playing has inspired
a lot of young musicians.
Wonderin' - Neil Young and Crazy Horse
https://youtu.be/2hE5w-2sz-w?si=OQ9hWSQqTCuCTQxi
and I still love his live version of Sample and Hold
https://youtu.be/DIYvsaxtOQc?si=mUxrAjoc0Aj-JcPx
You're right he was already flying.
Blogging is an imperfect medium to begin with. Certainly not bad, but imperfect. But it seems to have been too good for this sinful earth, at least as a popular medium. When you consider, that is, how little actually gets said on the mediums that are popular now. In the early days I did hear them referred to as "web logs: as in "captain's log", but I'd forgotten about that connection through the years.
Things did tend to move very fast then, which is actually a constant throughout time. The Byrds had a lot of different lineups just within the space of five years or so. Young left Buffalo Springfield and then came back and then they broke up. But while they were at odds, I'm glad he and Stills have maintained a friendship and personal respect.
Those were both great songs, and he was taking a real chance going off and doing things as different as that.
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