Tag Archives: BookExpo America

A Conversation with Neil Young and Patti Smith

Posted on by Musicofourheart

Waging Heavy Peace is the title of the Neil Young autobiography due later this year (October 2, 2012)

Neil Young is scheduled to appear at BookExpo America in New York City on June 6th at the Special Events Hall at the Javits Center. He will be interviewed at lunch time that day by poetess, author, singer/songwriter Patti Smith. Many people don’t know that Patti Smith first got her start in the music industry as a music journalist for CBS Records. Her deep affection for Neil Young and his music should make this an insightful discussion.

I find this public appearance to be sympatico in that both artists have a new recording coming out the day before June 5th. Patti Smith does a Neil Young recording on her next album Banga. I wrote about the synergy between Patti Smith and Neil Young last month on this blog, click the link in Related articles to review that post.

“A Conversation with Neil Young and Patti Smith” is free to all convention attendees.  Seating will be provided on a first come, first served basis.  Lunch will not be provided but guests are free to bring their own lunch. For more information about BEA, please visit www.bookexpoamerica.com and connect with BEA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Best Brown Bag Luch Ever!

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Neil Young and Patti Smith, Prolific Writers

Posted on by Musicofourheart

I have discovered a music, social activism and journalism synergy  between Patti Smith and Neil Young.  Each is a respected cultural icon with a distinct style  and loyal fan bases. Its magical when their artistic muses intersect.

Copyright Kate Simon 1979

Both have new studio albums coming out on the same day this year, June 5th, 2012. Patti Smith will release Banga on Columbia Records on June 5th.  The last song on Banga is Neil Young’s “After The Gold Rush” which sews the Patti Smith and Neil Young tapestry closer together.

On June 5th, Neil Young & Crazy Horse will release a very special album titled AMERICANA, which is the first Neil Young & Crazy Horse recording in nearly nine years.

AMERICANA is a collection of classic, American folk songs. In their day, some of these may have been referred to as “protest songs”, “murder ballads”, or campfire-type songs passed down with universal, relatable tales for everyman!

  1.       Oh Susannah
  2.       Clementine
  3.       Tom Dula
  4.       Gallows Pole
  5.       Get A Job
  6.       Travel On
  7.       High Flyin’ Bird
  8.       Jesus’ Chariot
  9.       This Land Is Your Land
  10.       Wayfarin’ Stranger
  11.       God Save The Queen

Patti Smith performed at the Music of Neil Young  at Carnegie Hall in New York City to pay tribute to the legendary 50-year, 34-album career of Neil Young.

Patti Smith, with her daughter Jesse on grand piano, stood at the mic, hands behind her back, and recited “It’s a Dream,” a spare tune of simple emotion from Young’s 2005 album Prairie Wind, which he wrote after his father’s death, with a nod to his own brush with mortality from a brain aneurysm. It’s a song of retrospection and appreciation, with Young revisiting his boyhood in Ontario and celebrating life’s little beauties, like the sound of the birds in the morning, and holding his wife in bed at night. Smith choked up, missing a verse. When she continued, the crowd carried her on their cheers. Now that’s a tribute.

Patti Smith has established herself as an award-winning author with the book, Just Kids which won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2010.

BookExpo America announced that Neil Young will speak June 6 (the day after Americana is released…) about his upcoming memoir on Blue Rider Press, “Waging Heavy Peace”. Young will speak on stage at the Jacob Javits Center with an interviewer to be named later. One interviewer possibility: Stephen Colbert, who has interviewed Young on his Comedy Central show and is already a featured speaker at BookExpo

“I felt like writing books fit me like a glove; I started and I just kept going,” Young said.

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