Neil Young was born Neil Percival Kenneth Robert Ragland
Young on 12th November 1945.
Neil Young is a singer and song-writer whose work is
characterized by deeply personal lyrics, distinctive
guitar work, and an almost instantly recognizable nasal
tenor voice. Although he accompanies himself on several
different instruments including piano, banjo, and harmonica
His style of hammer-on acoustic guitar and often idiosyncratic
soloing on electric guitar are the lynchpins of a sometimes
ragged, sometimes polished, yet consistently evocative
sonic ambience.
Neil Young has experimented widely with differing music
styles, swing, jazz, rockabilly, and electronica throughout
a varied career, his most accessible and best known
work generally falls into either of two distinct styles:
an acoustic, country-tinged folk rock, as heard in songs
such as "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man," or a grinding,
lumbering form of hard-rock,as in songs like "Cinnamon
Girl" and "Southern Man."
He first came to prominence as a member of the folk-rock
band Buffalo Springfield in the mid-1960s and then as
a solo performer backed by the band Crazy Horse. He
reached his commercial peak during the singer-songwriter
boom of the early 1970s with the albums After the Gold
Rush and Harvest as well as with Crosby, Stills, Nash
and Young. He has long been distrustful of commercial
management in the music business, and has at times created
highly accessible and durable popular music while at
other times has indulged in outlandish and uncompromising
experiments that have left audiences, critics, and his
record label baffled.
Neil Young was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall
of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Former groups
Buffalo Springfield
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY)
Neil Young and Crazy Horse
