NEIL YOUNG Biography - Musicians

 
 

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NEIL YOUNG

Name: Neil Young                                                                       
Birth name: Neil Percival Young                                                         
Born: 12 November 1945 Toronto, Ontario, Canada                                         
                                                                                       
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945, Toronto, Ontario) is a                     
Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist, and film director.                     
                                                                                       
Young's work is characterized by deeply personal lyrics, distinctive guitar work,       
and signature nasal tenor (and frequently alto) singing voice. Although he             
accompanies himself on several different instruments including piano and               
harmonica his style of hammer-on acoustic guitar and often idiosyncratic soloing       
on electric guitar are the linchpins of a sometimes ragged, sometimes polished         
sound. Although Young has experimented widely with differing music styles,             
including swing, jazz, rockabilly, blues, and electronic music throughout a             
varied career, his best known work usually falls into either of two distinct           
styles: folk-esque acoustic rock (as heard in songs such as "Heart of Gold",           
"Harvest Moon" and "Old Man" and electric-charged hard rock (in                         
songs like "Cinnamon Girl", "Rockin' in the Free World" and "Hey Hey, My My (Into       
the Black)"). In more recent years, Young has started to adopt elements from           
newer styles of music, such as industrial, alternative country and grunge, the         
latter of which was profoundly influenced by his own style of playing, often           
bringing him the title of "the godfather of grunge".                                   
                                                                                       
Young has directed (or co-directed) a number of films using the pseudonym               
Bernard Shakey, including Journey Through the Past (1973), Rust Never Sleeps (1979),   
Human Highway (1982), and Greendale (2003).                                             
                                                                                       
He is also an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and small farmers,           
having co-founded the benefit concert Farm Aid, and in 1986 helped found The           
Bridge School, and its annual supporting Bridge School Benefit concerts,               
together with his wife Pegi.                                                           
                                                                                       
Young remains a Canadian citizen and has never wanted to relinquish his Canadian       
citizenship, even though he has lived in the U.S. for "so long" and has stated,         
about U.S. elections, that he has "got just as much right to vote in them as           
anybody else."