Neil Young

[GZA]

Neil Young: The RS Interview : Rolling Stone

Based on that interview (which is from 1975, by the way), he seems to feel misunderstodd, saying he wouldn't want to release a series of albums if he thought they would give people the impression that they knew what he was about. Ironic then, that we are tyring to type him He seems pretty focused on keeping integrity, and he said he felt responsible for his friends death (his friend and rythem guitarist OD'ed on heroin and died).

"I'd rather keep changing and lose a lot of people along the way. If that's the price, I'll pay it. I don't give a shit if my audience is a hundred or a hundred million. It doesn't make any difference to me. I'm convinced that what sells and what I do are two completely different things. If they meet, it's coincidence. I just appreciate the freedom to put out an album like Tonight's the Night if I want to."

He's definitely F. He has strong values, and seems very emotionally intense. He even describes everything with the word "feel", although I know that isn't neccasarily a sign of feeling

Definitely I, he always says he would go reclusive and get tired of people coming to his ranch to visit him all the time, he always talks about "getting away".

"In Young's grandfather's and great-grandfather's time there were still buffalo on the plains of Manitoba; on his father's farm the sun would be blocked out by migrating Canada geese overhead. "It was awesome. But now we don't have that."

The birds, he says, "are a messenger to mankind. When you see a horror movie and the birds leave it means something very bad is coming. In nature when the birds are depleted and they leave a whole area that means something very big. It's the kind of sign that's lost on politicians. In the old days, in the days of the Indians, the Indians would be freaking out, everybody would be freaking out..."

Based on that, he seems N to me. That comes from this:

Neil Young Interview

I'm guessing P just because he never ties himself down to anything. Its always "ok, I want to do this, this feels good right now" but then after a while, the energy in that goes out and he gets into the mood of another project. He... he just doesn't tie himself to anything, he never defines himself in any specific way so that he can keep things open to how he may want to do things in the future.

So... uh... looks like my guess is INFP.

 

[anii]

I would guess INFP.

I've wondered if he doesn't have a bit of Aspergers...

 

[GZA]

Asperger's? Maybe a bit when he was young, but I think that now he does not have that. I'm a little skeptical as to if he has/had that or if he just didn't have great social skills. I've heard him say that when he was young, he was never great at talking to people, especially girls, but then he started playing music and suddenly girls were throwing themselves at him. Its also important to remember that two of his good friends had died and he was down on that for a long time, too.

It fits the Asperger's thing when he says people take him out of context and that he has a hard time describing his thoughts. However, I think its important to remember that being a famous person, people are going to take his comments out of context no matter how clear he makes them. I also think that perhaps the inability to communicate ideas proporly (causing people to misinterpret) may be a thing that INFP's (or possible just I's or IN's or some specific combinations of functions) experience, and not neccasarily a sign of Asperger's. I know that I always have a very difficult time explaining exactly what I think of something or feel about something, and that I often have to correct people's interpretations or further clear up what I meant.

He doesn't fit the AS symptom of lacking empathy. He seems to be perfectly capable of relating to the feelings of others, and he has demonstrated that in his songs, like Ohio, and Southern Man

He has somewhat severe epilepsy, too, he says, and I think that also has alarge effect on him and his behaviour.

I'm a little skeptical about Asperger's, maybe he had it a little bit...

By the way, did you know that Neil Young was at one point signed to the Motown label with Rick James? I think he might have been the only white guy on Motown, but I'm not sure about that. This was before Buffalo Springfeild.

 

[anii]

By the way, did you know that Neil Young was at one point signed to the Motown label with Rick James?

Yes, in fact I think they were in the same band.

At one point IIRC RJ fled to Canada to dodge the draft but eventually went back to the US and did his time.

Now I want to go look it up to see if I can confirm this...

Okay, here it is (I highlighted the relevant bits):

Neil Young and Rick James

Funk legend Rick James, the flashy Motown Records artist best known for his 1981 hit 'Super Freak,' died on August 7, 2004 at age 56.

While much is known about James' "Super Freak" period, relatively little is known about the period during the 1960's when he formed a band known as the Mynah Birds with Neil Young, Goldie McJohn (later of Steppenwolf) and Bruce Palmer (later of Buffalo Springfield). The name of the band Mynah Birds was apparently a takeoff of the well known folk-rock band The Byrds.

In an interview with Neil Young in MOJO Magazine in 1995, Neil was asked about a 1965 Mynah Birds album being recorded which never was released.

YOUNG: "Yeah, there are tapes of me and The Mynah Birds also. After I arrived in Toronto I tried to keep my band going and then tried to work with several others. But it just never worked out for me there. I could never get anything going in Toronto, never even got one gig with a band. I just couldn't break into that scene. So I moved instead towards acoustic music and immediately became very introspective and musically-inward. That's the beginning of that whole side of my music."

The origin of the band name is somewhat disputed. Some have claimed that it was a takeoff of on The Byrds. Another story goes that Rick James partnered with a Yorkville (Toronto Canada area) pet store which sold Mynah birds. As a promotion, the Mynah Birds dressed in yellow boots, black leather jackets and yellow turtlenecks as an advertisment for the pet shop. (See Toronto Star.)

In Jimmy McDonough's definitive Neil Young biography "Shakey", "James, fancied himself the next Mick Jagger, a claim particularly ironic since he was black, although as Bruce Palmer told Scott Young, "as far as we knew he was white then."

"The Mynah Birds -- in black leather jackets, yellow turtlenecks and boots -- had quite a surreal scene going. The band was financed by John Craig Eaton of the Eaton's department-store dynasty. Legend has it he poured money into the band, establishing a bottomless account for the band's equipment needs.

Those lucky enough to see any of the band's few gigs say they were electrifying. 'Neil would stop playing lead, do a harp solo, throw the harmonica way up in the air and Ricky would catch it and continue the solo.'

Unfortunately, everything screeched to a halt when James was busted in the studio for being AWOL from the navy. "We thought he was Canadian," said Palmer. "Even though there are no Negroes in Canada." A single, "It's My Time," was allegedly pulled the day of release, and the album recordings were shelved and remain unreleased to this day."

When author McDonough asked Neil Young what it was like to work with Rick James, Young replied:

YOUNG: "Intense. Ricky was great. He was a little bit touchy, dominating -- but a good guy. Had a lot of talent. Really wanted to make it bad. Runnin' from the draft. I wasn't a driving force behind the Mynah Birds - I was the lead guitar player, Ricky was the front man. He's out there doin' all that shit and I was back there playin' a little rhythm, a little lead, groovin'along with my bro Bruce. We were havin'a good time.

Rick James was really into the Stones. "Get Off My Cloud," "Satisfaction," "Can I Get a Witness" - all these songs we used to do. We got more and more into how cool the Stones were. How simple they were and how cool it was.

We were the only white band at Motown."

From Ear Candy Magazine's Mynah Birds Part II- Rock 'N Roll Case Study:

"[The Mynah Birds] rescue came in the form of an unlikely figure - struggling folkie, Neil Young. As Bruce Palmer remembers the fortuitous meeting, he was walking down Yorkville Avenue when he ran into Young, carrying his acoustic guitar and balancing an amp on his head, coming in the opposite direction. After exchanging pleasantries, Palmer invited Young to join the band. It seemed a ridiculous decision introducing an acoustic player into a rhythm and blues outfit. But by combining Young's folk inflected guitar and Matthews' R&B vocals, the Mynah Birds, as noted rock historian John Einarson aptly put it, successfully bridged the two Toronto styles - Yorkville Village's folk and Yonge Street's R&B. Mason, who says he never got along with the band's new guitarist, remembers Young's first job with the band - the Inferno, a club on Toronto's east side. 'They put rubber gym mats out for us to play on! The first song we go to do, Neil goes up to do his lead and unplugs his guitar. He plays the whole lead without his guitar plugged in. Didn't even know what he was doing.'"

The brief period of the Mynah Birds is recalled in the song "Big Time" on the album Broken Arrow. From an analysis of the lyrics of Neil Young's 'Big Time' from The I Magazine:

"Autobiographical, "Big Time" calls upon the spirit of the past and twists it to now. In the first verse Young simply unwinds his own beginnings. 'Gonna leave the pain behind, Gonna leave the fools in line, Gonna take the magic potion. Gettin' in an old black car, Gonna take a ride so far, To the land of suntan lotion. Gonna take it state by state, Until I hit the golden gate, Get my feet wet in the ocean.'

The devout will recognise the setting and the story, but for those who don't ... In 1965, Young recorded an acoustic demo for Elektra Records featuring early versions of Sugar Mountain and Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing but wasn't offered a contract by the label. Returning to Toronto, Young played the same Yorkville district coffeehouse circuit as fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell before he joined The Mynah Birds, a Toronto-based band led by singer Ricky James Matthews (later to be known as Rick James who would go on to have several smash dance hits, in particular Super Freak, a song which would later heavily influence Prince).

The Mynah Birds recorded several songs for Motown Records (the first white band to ever be signed by the label)in Detroit that were never released. During one of these recording sessions, James was arrested and charged with deserting the U.S. Navy. The Mynah Birds flew apart when James was forced to complete his tour of duty. Only one song ever saw the light of day: Mynah Bird Hop on Columbia Canada."

The Mynah Birds recorded 16 songs and signed a seven-year contract with Motwon Records. From a book by John Einarson titled Neil Young`s Canadian Years there is a mention of the legendary Mynah Birds sessions: "A listen to the tapes years later reveals no trace of Neil's characteristic guitar or vocals."

Bummer. Rest in Peace, Ricky.

Also see Rick James links on biography and reviews and Rick James on Wikipedia.

rcmh2004_bow_cuFriends of Neil Young

Jammin' with Neil Young

A Neil Young Music Blog tracing His Influence from alt-country to Grunge

Thrasher's Wheat - A Neil Young Archives


Source: Rick James and Neil Young

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[kuranes]

Neil Young - INTP Central

He's an old favorite of mine. One of the top lyric writers as well as being a good songwriter from a purely musical perspective. Up there with Dylan, in that way.

"There you stood on the edge of a feather....expecting to fly-y-y-y...."

Anyone agree with me that the lyrics to "The Old Laughing Lady" are about alcoholism ? ( I assume some of the Neil Young fans have heard it. )

 

[Jack Flak]

IxFP? One of my favorites, sometimes it's harder to type someone I adore so.

 

[plastic ciel]

I know this thread is nearly a decade old, but I'm writing anyway because I love Neil Young. I have been listening to his music literally since I was in diapers, and find him to be a fascinating person.

I think he is an ISTP.

He is definitely very introspective and thoughtful. As was stated above, in his youth he did seem as if he almost had Asperger's. I have to agree with that. Asperger's clearly means T. For him it is Ti. He is not concerned with commanding people, rather, but making things comprehensible for his own sake.

I do see Se with him. A lot of his lyrics (most of them, IMO) use lots of Ni, but he is definitely not an Ni-dom (he is definitely a P, announcing "Monsanto Years" like two weeks before it was released). For example, "Down by the River" he uses Se by, as he bluntly puts it, "[shooting] my baby". I completely understand that song is obviously fictitious, but I imagine an Si user would focus more on the whirlwind of emotions (cheating, anger, turmoil, etc) leading up to the shooting, rather than the act of shooting itself.

I see really high amounts of Ni in his lyrics. In "Cowgirl in the Sand", he makes links between "cowgirl in the sand, ruby in the dust, and woman of my dreams". I get that following each line is the chorus itself, but he doesn't always make things have any real flow. Clearly, the chorus links the three women, which are most likely metaphorical rather than actual women.

In songs like "Running Dry" (one of my personal favorites) you can see he uses Fe when he apologizes to the subject of the song. "I'm sorry for the things I've done, I've shamed myself with lies" in my eyes, seems more Fe than Fi. I think an Fi-user would think they had legitimate reasons to lie, and do so knowing it fit into their morality code.

I also see Fe in his environmentalism. I know lots of environmentalists probably use Fi, but it seems more Fe with him. He's more "it will hurt us people if Monsanto refuses to label their products, and we deserve to know what we are consuming". I guess an Fi user could very well do that, but he seems more concerned with the general public's safety than just because he thinks it is wrong, disorderly, etc.

I am such a huge fan of Neil and really think he is an ISTP. I have read so much about him and am an avid listener.

(As for his enneagram, I am inclined to think 4w5 sx/sp. He is definitely an individual and, although he is influenced by artists like Dylan, he likes to clearly differentiate himself from those artists. I can't see him as an E3 at all, he doesn't seem to care about his awards or success much. More just about the music wholly).

 

[Jet Stream]

haha Neil Young is so clownish. I remember in 2009 my father, a better, less appreciated musician, mocked Young's nonsensical gimmick by adlibbing the lyrics "purple watermelons chewing gum" over one of Young's tracks' melodies in a effortlessly organic and spontaneous way that had me laughing for hours. I miss my father...