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Can't melt this critic's heart of ice
Review: Neil Young: Heart of Gold
By Steve Warren
Staff Reviewer
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| So, if his heart is really made of gold, I wonder how much he could get for it at the pawn shop? |
When he recorded "Heart of Gold" 34 years ago Neil Young sang, "...and I'm getting old." When he sang it last summer, shortly before his sixtieth birthday, in Nashville's Ryman Auditorium he should have changed the lyric to, "...and I've gotten old."
Director Jonathan Demme and cinematographer Ellen Kuras captured two of those concerts on film and had them edited together in Neil Young: Heart of Gold. It's a great souvenir for his fans but I can only present a non-fan's viewpoint. (My 2½ rating splits the difference.) When it comes to geezer rock I prefer Santana, the Who, the Rolling Stones—even the Allman Brothers Band.
The other two films Young made in the last decade, the documentary Year of the Horse: Neil Young and Crazy Horse and the longform music video Greendaleblew up so badly on the big screen I deemed them unwatchable.
Be careful what you wish for. The Canadian folk-rocker doesn't look so great in sharp focus with his face spread across a 20- or 30-foot screen. He looks like he might play a Southern sheriff or a pedophile uncle—not that the roles are mutually exclusive—in a narrative film.
He still sounds the same, for better or worse; and with a voice higher and whinier than most country singers he's right at home in Old Ryman. Accompanying himself on guitar and occasionally piano, banjo and harmonica, Young is backed by Emmylou Harris (looking and sounding like an Emmylou Harris wannabe), several pickers and sometimes brass, a string section and a gospel choir.
Old Young and his band perform in front of different backdrops, one emblazoned with the name of the album, "Prairie Wind," they were promoting. After a brief introduction the film is pure concert for about an hour and a half, the lion's share devoted to songs from the new album, an aging boomer's take on family, mortality, 9/11 and such.
Introducing the album's title song Young talks about the dementia suffered by his recently deceased father. He describes "I'm Here for You" as an "empty-nester song" for his 21-year-old daughter. Later he tells of buying the ranch where he still lives when he "was a rich hippie for the first time." It would be perfect for an episode of VH-1 Storytellers.
Most of Young's songs are as conversational as his conversation, as if boring isn't boring when it's set to music. You either love him or you don't. I'm not going to change your mind and neither is Neil Young: Heart of Gold.
Steve Warren is a local actor and film reviewer. His reviews can also be seen weekly in the Sunday Paper.
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(2½ out of 4)