Shakey: Neil Young's Biography

(Paperback)

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'One of the most penetrative studies of a rock icon ever written... Scary, bittersweet and strangely moving... One of the great tales of the rock 'n' roll era' Sunday Times Neil Young is one of rock and roll's most important, influential and enigmatic figures, an intensely reticent artist who has granted no writer access to his inner sanctum - until now. Shakey is the whole story of Young's incredible life and career- from his childhood in Canada to the founding of folk-rock pioneers Buffalo Springfield; the bleary conglomeration of Crazy Horse and the monstrous success of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; to the depths of the Tonight's the Night depravity and the Geffen years; and Young's unprecedented nineties 'comeback'. Shakey (the title refers to one of Young's many aliases) is also the compelling human story of a lonely kid for whom music was the only outlet, a driven yet tortured figure who controlled his epilepsy via 'mind over matter', an oddly passionate model train mogul who, inspired by his own son's struggle with cerebral palsy, became a major activist in the quest to help those with the condition. This long-awaited, unprecedented story of a rock 'n' roll legend is uniquely told through the interwoven voices of McDonough - biographer, critic, historian, obsessive fan - and the ever-cantankerous (but slyly funny) Young himself.

Reviews

The raw materials of the story are sensational: burning ambition, clashing egos, onstage epileptic seizures, deranged groupies, great albums, the birth and death of Sixties idealism, and, most of all, extremes of substance abuse * Scotland on Sunday *
Succeeds in stripping a star of his iconography - McDonough's book excels at anecdotes of music excess from a bygone era * Observer *
It's hard to imagine anyone trying to better this book - It has an abundance of what Young values above all else - passion * Evening Standard *
I've been reading this biography of Neil Young called Shakey and it's changed my life, man -- Liam Gallagher * NME *

Author Bio

Jimmy McDonough is a journalist who has contributed to such publications as Variety, Film Comment, Mojo, Spin and Juggs. But he is perhaps best know for his intense, definitive Village Voice profiles of such artists as Jimmy Scott, Neil Young and Hubert Selby, Jr. He is also the author of The Ghastly One- The Sex-Gore Netherworld of Filmmaker Andy Milligan. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.