Neil Young: Words and Music - 8 video lectures

Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young has had a long and legendary career. His classic songs include "Heart of Gold", "Helpless", and "Rockin' in the Free World." In this series, Dr. Mike Daley covers Young's life and music in detail from his beginnings in Winnipeg with the Squires, his Yorkville sojourn with the Mynah Birds, his breakthrough with Buffalo Springfield, superstardom with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and his long-standing collaboration with Crazy Horse. Neil continues to release new albums and become more active in a variety of causes, from antiwar protest to environmentalism to a broadside against digital music streaming. This wide-ranging video lecture series incorporates numerous music and video examples of the work of a Canadian icon.

Lecture 1: Early years. In this first lecture, we cover Neil Young's beginnings in Ontario and Manitoba. Shortly after moving back to Toronto, Neil joins the Mynah Birds, a Yorkville-based band, and then heads to California.

Lecture 2: Buffalo Springfield and early solo years. In Los Angeles, Neil helped to form Buffalo Springfield, a short-lived but influential band. After recording a first solo album, he recruited the band that would accompany him on and off to the present, Crazy Horse.

Lecture 3: CSNY and After The Gold Rush. Neil joined the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and achieved wide acclaim. This helped to make his solo album After The Goldrush a hit and established Neil as a major talent.

Lecture 4: Harvest and "the ditch". Making a move into country-rock, Neil recorded Harvest in 1972. "Heart Of Gold" became a massive hit single. In reaction, Neil headed for "the ditch" as he termed it, releasing three shambolic and uncommercial albums known by fans as "the ditch trilogy."

Lecture 5: Reunions and Rust Never Sleeps. In the mid-1970s, Neil reformed Crazy Horse and reunited with CSNY for a major tour. He concluded the decade with two popular albums, Rust Never Sleeps and Comes A Time.

Lecture 6: Experimentation. Neil flitted between a number of disparate styles of music in the 1980s, bewildering his fans. Trans was an electronic pop album, Everybody's Rockin' was rockabilly, and This Note's For You was rhythm and blues.

Lecture 7: Godfather of Grunge. With his 1989 hit "Rockin' In The Free World," Neil had a comeback of sorts, and would come to be seen in the 1990s as a senior figure of "grunge," a style of rock music reminiscent of Young's work with Crazy Horse. He would also reprise his Harvest sound with the hit album Harvest Moon in this decade.

Lecture 8: Recent Years. In the new millennium, Neil Young has continued to release new albums and has become more active in a variety of causes, from antiwar protest to environmentalism to a battle against low-quality digital music streaming.

When you purchase, you will be prompted to download a PDF document containing links to the streaming videos. These links will never expire, but you need to download the PDF within two weeks of purchase, or the download link expires. If this happens, just email me at mikedaley@gmail.com and I'll send you the PDF.