Shakey: Neil Young's Biography

This book is well-researched and well-written, containing everyt

This book is well-researched and well-written, containing everything a Neil Young fan could possibly want to know. It is crammed full of entertaining anecdotes and interesting insights into the mind of one of rock's great characters. It was a very enjoyable read. A glaring weakness, though, kept me from giving the book five stars. The author is a lifelong, obsessive Neil Young fan, which colors a lot of his writing. The author's adoration is pervasive and might get tiresome for a reader who hasn't already made up his mind about Young. Also, the author seems to think his fandom entitles him to judge the artistic validity of all of Young's work, something I'd rather biographers not do. All in all, though, a good book and required reading for Neil Young fans.

Rambling, ragtag, and confusing - like Young himself

It's impossible to ever assemble a clear picture of the notoriously reclusive and contrarian Neil Young, Canadian rock superstar and writer of some of the most evocative songs in modern history. Jimmy McDonough interviews hundreds of people to paint the most comprehensive picture he possibly can, but you'll still find yourself frustrated by gaps that frankly can NEVER be filled. It's so crammed with amazing stories, anecdotes, and a sprawling interview with Young itself that you won't mind too terribly, though.

A roller coaster ride with the Picasso of rock!

Neil Young is the Picasso of rock music. What does being a Neil Young fan really mean?? One can be a fan of Neil Young's work from the 'Gold Rush' 'Harvest' period and hate his stuff from the 80's. You can love his acoustical work and despise his thrash rock. You can love him with Buffalo Springfield or CSNY and not get into his collaboration with Pearl Jam at all. Just like Picasso had his blue period and his rose period and his cubist period, Neil has gone through a dozen different stages and being a Young fan probably doesn't mean you like his entire body of work. Reading 'Shakey' you not only begin to understand that the scope of his musical career is a roller coaster ride, but that his life in general is up and down and all over the map. Published in 2002, the author wasn't able to describe Young's later health problems and his more recent work. Still, if you listen to 'Prairie Wind', once again you get a completely different perspective on Neil Young than you will from hearing 'Living With War' ... Since I am about the same age as Young, the events in the book and the time period they describe are particularly vivid for me. It's a good book, and Neil Young appears to be a good person ... driven, ultra focused on his career for most of his life, but in the end, a good husband, loving father. All rock stars who began when Young did should be so lucky as to turn out as well.

Fawning and sycophantic fan-biog.

Having always loved Neil Young's music and been fascinated by his life I was looking forward to this biog. However I did not enjoy Mcdonough's work at all. The problem is that Mcdonough clearly believes Young is God and can do no wrong. Every one of Young's pronouncements is greeted with something approaching the awe worthy of a deity. Young, in fact, according to Mcdonough, can do no wrong. By about chapter 3 it had ceased to be a biography and become a sustained love letter to someone the author obviously worships to the point of distraction. I guess this is the problem with 'authorised' biographies and it doesn't make for good reading. Everyone around Young (apart from his manager) is made out to be shallow, incompetent amd idiotic (or all three). This is particularly the case with regard to Crosby, Stills and Nash. The author obviously despises all three of them and does his best to denigrate them at every opportunity. However he never fully explains why, if they're such assinine and talentless buffoons, Young consistently returned to write, tour and record with them for 20 years and more. The fact that this may say more about Young's integrity than it does about CSN is never even addressed. Such is Mcdonough' level of bile to all things 'non-neil' the effect is comical. Mcdonough sneers at CSN for their drug excesses and overblown lifestyles, careful to distance Young from this behaviour. Laughably, and without a trace of irony, in the very next chapter sounding not unlike an infatated schoolgirl, he gleefully and breathlessly celebrates Young's own drug and lifestyle excesses. The overall effect of the author's tiresome fawning was to make me positively come to despise Young (or at least Mcdonough's 'God-like' version of the man). In sum, if you're looking for a genuine critical analysis of Young's life and work you wont find it here.

The Greatest Neil Young Biography to ever hit the Market

Shakey is an incredible biography on Neil Young. I personally read the book all the way from star to finish in about a years time and I can't remember ever reading such a powerful book in my life before. It teaches so much about the songs of Neil Young and Crazy Horse and there're billions of interviews with Neil Young. I read Shakey and I laughed about the same things he laughed about, I cried about the same things Young cried about, and I wanted the same things Neil wanted and hopefully Jimmy McDonough can continue writing such masterpieces and Neil Young can continue writing his songs to the best of his ability.

Thoroughly enjoyable

Great read. I was confused by the reviewer who said that author injected himself on every other page. Did he read the book? At the end, you got the author telling how hard it was to get close to Neil, of the difficulties in getting information, etc. I think that part was essential to the book, knowing how the information was obtained and gave more detail to Neil's complex character, etc. I can't imagine anyone who'se not a really big Neil Young fan to truly love the book, though. I talked about it with friends who just gave me a blank look when I said how I was enjoying the book. Oh well....for Neil fans, the book was phenomenol and quite absorbing. Like many biographies, also a great history book about the times. When thumbing through the book, it doesn't look like it will be an easy, read, but it is. Very well written and truly enjoyable. The injected interviews with Neil written in italics made the book, of course. I did find myself craving even more detail about his personal life, his second marriage, his daughter, etc. but that is what you get with Neil Young. You're truly not going to know everything, and the fact that this author has does this painstaking work to let you get this close to him is amazing for that fact alone. One of my favorite passages about the book is at the train convention when Neil is giving a talk and the old man is amazed at all the train technology information Neil is dispensing, having no clue he is talking to a rock icon/legend/god. The author says something like 'some people would sell their soul to get this close to him.' That blew me away, because it's true. If you love Neil Young or even just classic rock and roll, DO NOT miss this book. I played my Neil Young music the whole time while reading the book and was just taken away. Thanks to the author!!!

What you Feel from Neils music is now in abook form.

I read the book while listening to Bernard's cd's, dvd's. The MOST amazing person I ever knew.Ever since Buffalo Springfield, I KNEW.

whose biography is it anyway?

Let's see....McDonough spends years interviewing friends,colleagues,and partners of Young's. Yet whose name is on every even-numbered page? It ain't Neil Young's. McDonough breaks the first rule of biographies: the author isn't the subject of the book. While the book is fascinating reading (and re-reading) for one who has listened to Young since 1970, McDonough's constant intrusion and interjections of himself are annoying and diminish the book's overall enjoyment.

Fascinating Look At Details behind The scenes In Neil's 'Life As Circus'!

revealed in this new biography, Neil Young is a twentieth century original, a man who rose from obscurity based on nothing less than serendipitous happenstance, a remarkable talent as a musician, singer, and songwriter, and his enduring will to be true to his own inner voice. His story is nothing less than remarkable, given the quicksilver nature of fame and fortune in the rock and roll music business, for Young has truly done it all his way. He has a fabled lack of concern for consequences, for example, and has changed course in the midst of tours, recording sessions, and life a number of times, and allowed terrific carnage to concur in the wake of his leaving. As fellow Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young group member commented, "Neil is not what one would call a 'team player'". No, indeed he isn't. And the wreckage he sometimes leaves behind him has been the stuff of legend. Yet in the midst of all of this carnage and destruction, he has been fabulously successful, and in this penetrating and somewhat discursive biography written by a veteran rock and roll journalist allowed unique access to Young, the artist is revealed to be an iconoclastic, idealistic, and impetuous soul, one in constant search for unique opportunities for his own personal artistic expression. He tends to deal in extremes, not only in his music, but in his wider personal life as well, and has, for example, bought old wrecked 1950 something Cadillacs for $400, only to spend tens of thousands of dollars to have them scrupulously, painfully, and quite expensively restored to pristine condition. And he brings this aspect of doing things to the ultimate degree to almost every aspect of his life. Yet where it shows most clearly and most fatefully is in his recording output, which is both prodigious and varied. He has jettisoned friends and colleagues in search of something creatively different, has dared to off on obscure tangents, and has returned to writing, playing and singing that is artistically fresh, honest, and approachable. Young's life reflects this devotion to introspective aloofness, and although he is happily married with children, he has left a lot of emotional detritus on the floor in the area of his life as well. Colleagues and peers such as Paul Simon and James Taylor speak of him in glowing and affectionate terms, and even Bob Dylan is an outspoken admirer of Neil's creative abilities. Yet all of his friends, band members, and associates recognize that the singular degree to which Neil Young has lived his life is in many ways cruelly and unnecessarily selfish, as though all that mattered to Young was his pursuit of his artistic expression and his idiosyncratic interests. In fact, Young admits as much, and yet is unapologetic. So while one can easily admire the singular creative force he embodies, one is leery of anyone so inner-directed and so single-mindedly devoted to his pursuit of art that he sometimes seems to carelessly disregard all those humans who so meaningfully contribute to his ability to do what he does. Yet he is also sometimes described as generous, thoughtful, and exteremely loyal to friends and aquaintenances. Thus, there is no question but that Neil Young is an enigmatic, complicated, and often tortured individual, and he certainly is a uniquely talented and gifted artist, musician, and singer. His life has been neither easy nor uncomplicated, and one has to admire the energy and determination he brings to his craft, his continued work, and to his life. He is a searcher, someone who, after all this success and recognition, seems still devoted to the pursuit of what Mark Twain referred to as 'the territory ahead', out where few other humans have tread, and where Neil may get to breathe in the intoxicating aromas of original art. This is a fascinating, absorbing, and very informative book written with Young's cooperation and blessing, and one that incorporates interviews with hundreds of Young's friends, family, and coll

At Last, Canada Doesn't Get Second-Class Treatment

Without knowing squat about JImmy McDonough or having read many current books on music, I have to say this is a pull-no-punches, exhaustively researched, unsparing book. I give him full credit for all the years of hard work, interviewing so many people, travelliing to so many distant corners of Canada (and, I guess, the US). I like the way he sometimes offers his subjective opinion of a recording, weaving it into the chronological narrative and "objective" account of the process. I haven't yet finished the book, it's really weighty, but I can't stop reading it. I should add that I was raised in Pickering, and when I was in senior public school in Grade 7, "Heart of Gold" was the sound that defined that year for me. When it came on the radio at home and my mother said that Neil Young's family had lived in Pickering back before I was born, he'd had polio, she'd seen him at the doctor's office with his mom when he was a kid - it was a little unreal. I knew that he'd been the biggest star and the most talented member of CSNY. And I knew of his father,Scott Young, because my sister and I were big fans of his column in the Globe and Mail. It didn't seem that one man could have anything to do with the other. Reading the biography, I can see that when Scott Young departed leaving Neil with his forceful mother, it created a big rift. I don't have a lot of his albums, but I love Neil Young's uncompromising stance, his integrity, his heartbreaking voice, his brilliance with a guitar and harmonica (and a lot of other things I know nothing about). But again, a big hand for Jimmy McDonough for giving Canada and all the great Canadian musicians who inspired Neil in his early years the credit they deserve. As for his remarkable achievement in overcoming epilepsy, and the dedication shown by Neil and his wife in raising a severely handicapped child - and helping so many others -bravo! This is a great book about a great artist, and I would have to say it's a very skillful writer who can keep the reader engaged so well. I want to finish it now, and then eventually stock up on the Neil Young albums. Oh, and I also have relatives still living in Omemee. Nice little town, but I always chuckled at the artistic licence of calling it "north Ontario" - it's southern Ontario or, at very best, central Ontario. Ah well, an artist can be forgiven a lot of things. I ought to know,my dad was one too!

Stars and Bars-PLUS!!!!

You don't just read this thing. You become absorbed into it. It's much more than one dudes life. If you've read where The Beatles came unglued in 'The Love You Make' or The Beach Boys family in 'The Nearest FarAway Place', then pick this one up and read about Rock and Roll. Read about one artist and get to really understand his music. Read about the music and really understand the 'way we were' and what happened through the 60's into the 70's. I gotta' warn ya'- you're not going to be able to put it down so get ready to take a vacation from life!

Not Only Played Rock but Lived It Too

WoW this is a must read even for the casual Neil fan!!Now that I have read this I feel that I've know him all my life.I couldn't put it down it is riveting and like a great movie-- it keeps your interest-.This was not told from the authors veiwpoint but from the freiends and family of Neil most being around him for years from the beginning and of chous Neil chimes in.WHAT A GREAT BOOK--PRICE IS WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!

I just finished the book

Brilliant! Exposes the true underbelly of crazed hippie rocker Neil Young. More than I ever wanted to know, but couldn't put the book down for a second!

Author forgets who is the creative genius here

This book starts as an informative, in-depth look at one of music's true greats. The problem, however, is that when it gets to the final years that the book covers, the author is actually there experiencing many moments with Neil. You would think this would be the best part, first hand accounts of life with Neil. It degenerates however, into the author telling us how he was constantly telling Neil Young how he should carry out his music. You get the feeling, that at this point, Young just keeps the author around for his own amusement. I sure he didn't take any serious advice from this second-rate hack.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.