Singer/Songwriter Neil Young was born November 12, 1945, in Toronto, Ontario Canada, to Scott and "Rassy" Young. Neil Young moved to Winnipeg with his mother when she and his father got a divorce (Erlewin N.Pag.). Upset with failed attempts to become successful Young left his former band The Mynah Birds and moved to Los Angeles. (N.Pag.). Young's movement to America was illegal and was an illegal immigrant all thought playing with Buffalo Springfield as well as some of his time with Crosby Stills Nash and Young (Crowe 193). He has been many things throughout his life; he has been a singer, guitarist, film director an activist and much more. However, Neil Young has had many struggles throughout his life. He has seen The Needle and the Damage Done, has needed a unit to Sample and Hold, made This Note for You, and Lived with War. However, through it all, he has been able to make original music for more than 40 years.
The Needle and the Damage Done first appears of Neil's 1972 solo release of Harvest. The song mainly is dedicated to Young's late band mate Danny Whitten (McDonough 329). Whitten was the guitarist for Crazy Horse and appeared on several albums. The events leading up Danny's death were extremely traumatizing for Young. Young had fired Danny one night as he had become a heroine junkie and was not performing well during recording sessions. Later that night, Young had received a called from the Los Angeles coroner, the coroner had the grim news that Whitten had been found and he had died of a heroin overdose (Crowe 193). Young had commented in a Rolling Stone interview in 1975 that "I Felt Responsible." (193). Wh...
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...t recently Young took on a very daunting task, to release an album solely dedicated to questioning the conflict in Iraq on his album Living With War. This album is filled with protest songs such as Let's Impeach the President, Shock and Awe, and Looking for a Leader (Erlweine N. Pag).
Neil Young has been faced with many difficulties thought his life. He has seen the horror of drugs and what they can do to peoples lives. He has lost his band mate, and his roadie to heroin. He was then plunged into depression and able to recover though making music. Neil Young has had two children with the condition of cerebral palsy, but was able to look at this as a calling rather than a punishment by God as if he and his wife were chose to make life better for people with disabilities, and they did (Tyrangiel 71).
Hank Williams Jr as we know him was born Hank Randall Williams, born in small town Shreveport, Louisiana, on May 26, 1949. Hank Jr was only three when his father Hank died, but that did not stop his music dream. At just the age of 8 Hank Jr began singing his dad songs on stage. “Williams made his stage debut at the age of 8 and his first appearance at Nashville's famed Grand Ole Opry at age 11. At age 15, Williams had his first Top 5 hit on the country charts. " (http://www.biography.com/) Even though his father was gone, Hank Jr helped carry on his legacy through music. His mother being his biggest supporter, helped him along the way.
Billy Joel was born on May 9, 1949 in Bronx, New York. He moved at the age of four to a small town on Long Island. This is where at the ripe age of four he discovered the art of music. Originally a classical music fan, Billy Joel honed his skills with classical piano training. This undoubtedly has had a major influence on his life and certainly his music. Growing up Joel was a big fan of such greats as Ray Charles, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Otis Reading. He was greatly persuaded into a career of music when he saw the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. Amusingly Joel's first band was inspired by the uncanny opportunity to meet girls. The band was called The Echoes, but this was not the best of times for Joel because his parents were involved in a messy divorce, which included serious financial shortcomings. Joel even began working professional music gigs at night to help support his mother. Joel's schoolwork suffered a little and he began missing school way too often. He was subsequently not allowed to graduate with his high school class due to the number of absences. After high school Joel immediately joined a very popular band called The Hassels for which he recorded two albums with. Within two years Joel was on to a new band which he named Attila, and featured heavy metal drummer Jon Small who he played with during his time with The Hassels. Despite the previous release of two albums Joel still needed to bring in more money so he worked many music related jobs and gigs. He even wrote a rock and roll criticism piece in a weekly column for a magazine.
Neil Young, who grew up in Ontario, Canada, was drawn into music at a very early age, and throughout his teens he played in several bands and was a mainstay at local folk clubs (Macnie, 2001). He started to build a respectable enough reputation, but didn’t hit upon any commercial recognition until he joined Buffalo Springfield, a band that also featured Stephen Stills, who would become a well-known singer-songwriter in his own right. While perhaps not attaining the success they deserved in term...
Kurt Cobain was born February 20, 1967 in a small town near Seattle, Washington. His family soon-after moved to Aberdeen, Washington. This period of his life was a difficult one because his parents divorced and he didn’t have much ambition to do much more than hanging out with his friends. Struggles with his parents caused him to move back and forth between them and to eventually move in with relatives. (The Cobain Memorial)
Louis Armstrong was born in one of the poorest sections in New Orleans, August 4, 1901. Louis a hard-working kid who helped his mother and sister by working every type of job there was, including going out on street corners at night to singing for coins. Slowly making money, Louis bought his first horn, a cornet. At age eleven Armstrong was sent to juvenile Jones Home for the colored waifs for firing a pistol on New Year’s Eve. While in jail Armstrong received his first formal music lesson from one of the friends he met their, he later played in Home’s brass band that was located in the same facility. Armstrong gained experience from the band. After a year and six month he was released. After being released he considered himself as a musician.
Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas the fourth child of five children he was born on February 26,1932. He took after his father because he was in World War One. Johnny Cash went in the army around the post World War Two. His family worked in a cotton mill around The Great Depression. A new way of cotton farming in Mississippi came around in nineteen thirty seven. A flood came around the same time so they had to move temporarily. He died on September 12,2003, he was a complex man he was unforgettable with his bass-baritone voice. Cash was a religious man. In nineteen fifty Johnny Cash graduated high school. After high school he went to work in a auto plant in Michigan. He bought his first
Some people are born to become legends, Bruce Springsteen is one of them. From the second he was born and through his younger years everyone knew he was destined for something bigger than a regular nine to five life, they just didn’t realize the magnitude of what was to come. Born into a all around food middle-class family, no on in that house hold even Bruce, didn’t realize that within fifty years he would reach living legend status. Also have a title of one of the best musicians to every live. After working hard at what he loves, Bruce has become known as a musical hero and inspiration to his fans and fellow musicians. With his deep lyrics, amazing stage presence, incredible guitar skills, and his passion, he is an untouchable force in the music industry. Using his lyrics to vent his emotions and past, but to also add awareness to social issues around the world. Bruce and his love for music affected him his whole life, and has shaped into what he is today. His music now affects the world. His music has truly changed the world (musically and socially) forever.
To begin, Louis Armstrong was born in 1901 in the worst part of New Orleans, the “Battlefield” in black Storyville (Harker, 2005, p. 68). Right from the get-go, life wasn’t easy for Armstrong. His father left shortly after he was born, and his mother worked
Bob Dylan is an important icon whose music continues to influence rock music even six decades later, despite after several top forty hits, not one being a number one hit. His music has inspired many iconic musicians like Johnny Cash and The Grateful Dead (nj101.com) . What Bob Dylan brought to rock music back in the sixties can be heard in today’s music.
Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana to William Armstrong and Mary Albert (“Who is”). His father abandoned him shortly after his mother and him separated when Louis was five, and his mother would turn to prostitution so he mostly lived with his maternal grandmother and uncle (Biography). In 1913,
In the midst of the Vietnam war, songs arose about much more threatening subjects. These songs reflect this generation’s increasingly likelihood of being critical of both the war and the government as compared to past generations. The first sign of...
Political issues such as the war on terrorism is evoked as an issue throughout the song. American was divided “All across the alien nation” when troops were sent to Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction. Metaphorical language was used to explore the issue. Audience positioning from techniques indorse concerns with a country divided and positions them to feel the need to cooperate and sort things out other than civil unrest and debate.
William Martin "Billy" Joel was born May 9th, 1949 in the Bronx of New york. Howard Joel his father was an accomplished pianist, but it was his mother Rosalinda that had Billy start playing the piano at age 4, he immediately excelled, and was an expert by the time he was 16. With his capability Joel decided to drop out of high school to pursue a life a music and success. He released his first album Cold Spring Harbor with Family Productions, but it was arduous and poor quality, he was not happy with the final product. Joel moved to Los Angeles to stay low, hoping for a better shot at a big breakthrough. While in Los Angeles he was a pianist at a couple different bars and was secretly working on song called Captain Jack, that was released
At the young age of thirteen, he experienced several tragedies that would affect his life forever and would greatly impact his music later in life. Within a year, his father, his uncle, and his minister all died. He lost every important male influence in his life. After graduating from high school in High Point, he moved to Philadelphia in 1943, where he lived in a small one-room apartment and worked as a laborer in a s...
Springsteen wrote “Devils & Dust” during the Iraq War. He has been openly against the war and has been quoted saying to Rolling Stone, “As the saying goes, "The first casualty of war is truth." I felt that the Bush doctrine of pre-emption was dangerous foreign policy. I don't think it has made America safer.” The song itself could be interpreted as a soldier’s point of view about the war but overall it stands as a critique on our society betraying its own principles. The first couple of verses in the song already evoke the image of a soldier stuck in a war. “I got my finger on the trigger / But I don’t know who to trust” could be understood as a soldier’s experience in war but it could also have a deeper meaning. It could also signify that our society has to make these important choices that will end up affecting people’s lives but it is all too ambiguous, there just isn’t any certainty. We are left with the desperate feeling of not knowing what to do, not knowing wh...