Just finished Jimmy McDonough's biography of Neil Young, Shakey. It's an encyclopedic look at Young's entire life, from his schoolboy days and his coffeeshop years in Canada, through the Buffalo Springfield days, the CSNY days, his 70's high points, his 80's low points, his return in the early 90's as the "godfather of grunge", up to the late 90's. McDonough hung out with Young and his associates for years, building up the interviews for the book - its depth is pretty amazing.

Now, I'm not a huge Neil Young fan. I own a few albums of his which I can listen to from time to time, and Live Rust made #69 on my all-time list, this year. But I don't think he's essential, like The Beatles, or Pavement. A lot of that has to do with his temperament: he's one of those artists who isn't afraid to release an album full of stuff he knows people, even his die hard fans, and his record company, aren't going to like - he makes the music that he wants to, in the way he wants to. And even his better albums have a lot of stuff I can't stand. But, he's also capable of greatness, so sometimes it's worth wading through the crap. And as the subject of a book, he's great. Young's been involved in so many things over the years that the book is almost of a history of rock: before he moved to LA, he was in Canada playing the coffee shop circuit with people like Joni Mitchell and Steven Stills, he even did a bit with Rick James before his Super Freak days; then he goes to LA and starts Buffalo Springfield, joins Crosby, Stills and Nash (whose music the author despises, and never misses a chance to tell us), plays gigs and makes a movie with Devo, records with Nicolette Larson and Linda Ronstadt, hangs out with Willie Nelson, starts Farm Aid, brings Sonic Youth on tour (I saw that show in Buffalo), records with Pearl Jam, all while doing his own stuff, which ranges from the folky acoustic stuff everyone knows (Heart Of Gold, etc) to the two-fisted rock stuff everyone knows (Cinnamon Girl, Rockin in the Free World, etc) to straight-up country, to experimental electronic stuff, to rockabilly, doo-wop, to collages of noise. Whew. The guy's a machine.

And even without the music, the guy's a character: single-minded, but prone to changing his mind abruptly, without warning or concern for the effect his decisions have on other people; he's perfectly comfortable walking away from large undertakings: ex. leaving a CSNY tour by just driving away one day without telling anyone. He's almost fanatical about doing the things he wants to do exactly the way he wants, when he wants - and any deviation is likely to bring a cyclone of rage onto whichever poor guy he decides is to blame. He's like the world's worst boss: capricious, controlling, short-tempered and a micro-manager - or, at least that's the way the author describes him.

McDonough often makes Young sound like a monster, but at the same time he also obviously respects the hell out of him. So, I sometimes felt the author must have forgotten to tell us about the things that people find endearing about Young (besides his talent, fame and money). Nonetheless, it's a fascinating book.