Music Profile

Neil Young

Iconic Canadian singer/songwriter By T. Cole Rachel

Legendary both for his critical and commercial successes and for his willingness to fail interestingly

Other than Bob Dylan, no contemporary artist has had a more dramatic impact on rock and roll than Canadian-born singer/songwriter/iconoclast Neil Young. Since first reaching the public eye as a member of Buffalo Springfield in the late 1960s, Young has proved himself to be an unmistakable and singular voice. As a solo artist, his body of work, which includes over 40 proper albums, is legendary both for his critical and commercial successes (the hard-rocking Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, the mellow soft-rock classic Harvest) and for his willingness to fail interestingly (1982's notorious electronic experiment Trans). Known for his ungainly singing voice and often backed by the world's sloppiest backing band, Crazy Horse, Neil Young has nonetheless written some of the most beautiful music of the last several decades. While almost all of his contemporaries have either died, retired, or resigned themselves to the ranks of nostalgia acts, Young continues to produce some of his best (and most angrily political) work four decades into his career. His fan base, which seems to actually grow with each passing year, is as varied as Young's own back catalog of music, ranging from aging hippies to generations of punk and indie followers who see him as the original architect of the DIY aesthetic.

TAGS: Canada, Classic Rock, Country Rock, Folk, Folk-Rock, Icons, Laurel Canyon, Protest Music, Singer/Songwriter,

FACTS: Born/Formed: November 12, 1945; November 12 1945; Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Neil Young

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