Neil Young? He goes 'way back. He appeared once, unofficially, on the Merv Griffin Show, with the Mynah Birds. The band was sitting in the audience, with a live bird, and as Merv was doing his opening routine he saw this big black bird, and went out to interview the band. A handful of hippies in an auditorium full of middle aged ladies. Were they planted there? Don't think so. It was just a way to get themselves a bit of promotion. Then Rick James went funk, and Neil Young went west. Buffalo Springfield was formed, with Steve Stills, Bruce Palmer, Richie Furay and Dewey Martin...and the rest is history.

The best songs from the Springfield days were all included on the Retrospective album. And more recently on the Buffalo Springfield box set. Retrospective doesn't have a bad tune. "Mr. Soul," "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing," "Broken Arrow," "I Am a Child," did I mention "Mr. Soul?" They put the folk in rock, and the rock in folk. But the friction between Young and Stills was too much and Neil left to go solo. His first album, 1969's Neil Young, is a strange creation: his voice buried 'neath layers of production; his guitar playing augmented by session-men like Ry Cooder; the songs strange amalgams of this and that. The eponymous album is best forgotten, except for the brilliant single, "The Loner." Later the same year, though, the world was treated to the first glimpse of Young's solo genius.

Stephen Stills had joined with the Hollies' Graham Nash and Ex-Byrd David Crosby to form Crosby, Stills & Nash. They were seeking to put a little muscle into the light-weight pop of their first album, and Stills called on his nemesis Neil Young. They appeared on television right at the start. They played live and did a version of Young's "Down By The River" with Stills and Young facing each other down on electric guitars...it smouldered, and then burst into flames...it was powerful television, and powerful music. CSNY was never as effective on record as they were that evening in a TV studio.

Young's second album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, was the source for this song. Recorded with a young West Coast band called Crazy Horse [as the Rockets they had released one album on the Turtles' White Whale label] it was a complete turnaround from the first album. Raw, edgy, it was almost punk and set the tone for at least half of Young's future releases. Young classics "Cinnamon Girl" and "Cowgirl In the Sand" bookended the album which showcased his deeply personal approach to the electric guitar, an approach that is unique, powerful and sometimes maddening.

He can make the most beautiful instrument sound like a belt sander. But he's certainly not afraid to be his own man, and quite often his guitar playing is thrilling. His touch on the acoustic is gentle and sensitive, but can show the same aggressive attack he uses on electric. On both he displays his own unique style. Listen to the forceful acoustic attack on "Tell Me Why" (opening track to 1970's After the Goldrush). This album purported to be a soundtrack to a film (written by Dean Stockwell and Herb Berman). It was his best collection of songs so far. The sensitive balladeer ("Only Love Can Break Your Heart") was balanced by the rocking attack of "Southern Man." Nils Lofgren proved a perfect foil on guitars, Crazy Horse provided solid support. The movie was unmade.

In 1971, CSNY released a two-disc live set, 4-Way Street, recorded on tour in the summer of 1970, just one year after their "scared shitless"appearance, at Woodstock. This set is notable especially for the ravaging "Ohio," Neil's stirring comment on the deaths of four students at Kent State University in Ohio, shot by the National Guard during an anti-war protest. The event, and the way it was kept alive by Young's song, with its refrain of "four dead in O-hi-o," was among the points at which American public opinion finally turned against the Vietnam War. 4-Way Street was reissued on CD in 1992, and for Young fans, the inclusion of a nine-minute acoustic medley of "The Loner," "Cinnamon Girl" and "Down By the River" is worth the price of the two-disc set.

One year later Young released a two record soundtrack album to a real film. Journey Through The Past was a stroll through some old songs, a major disappointment; and the film was worse. That same year he also issued his most commercial and successful album. Harvest was a homey, acoustic collection of songs played by a new band, The Stray Gators, made up of session musicians like Ben Keith and Kenney Buttrey. The London Symphony Orchestra made an appearance on the overwrought "A Man Needs A Maid." The 'Gators rocked out on "Alabama." The most memorable song is the potent tribute to Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten's heroin addiction "The Needle and the Damage Done."

Young's tour with the Stray Gators set a precedent he would follow in the future. Rather than simply play the hits, they did new songs and recorded them live for Neil's next album. Time Fades Away was an interesting experiment, rough hewn and loose -- the songs just weren't that great. Was the work he was doing with CSNY wearing him out? Certainly "Helpless" (from CSNY's Deja Vu) is a better song than anything on Time Fades Away. It would take a tragedy to inspire his next great work.

Young settled into a California folk-rock groove for most of the rest of the '70s, with occasional forays into plugged-in rockers. It established a pattern that holds into the early years of the 21st Century. Included in Young's country-rock output of the decade are three discs that were reissued on CD for the first time in late 2003: On the Beach, American Stars 'n Bars and Hawks & Doves.

1974's On the Beach may have been ahead of its time. It's Young at his rootsiest, with mostly acoustic instruments, lots of dobro and pedal steel. At times, as with the title track, the nine-minute Ambulance Blues and Vampire Blues, it resembles Quicksilver Messenger Service's drifting psychedelic blues. Elsewhere, such as the opening "Walk On" and "See the Sky About to Rain," it's got a loose-limbed Memphis soul groove. And "Revolution Blues" has David Crosby contributing a riff that echoes "Southern Man," Rick Danko's jazzy bass lines, and Young's rap-like lyrics. No songs for the ages, but not a waste of time, either.

Tonight's the Night has rightly been judged a classic, and is the most critically acclaimed album of Young's career. It's a harrowing portrait of an artist devastated by the toll of fame, celebrity, and the lifestyle of the touring musician, recorded in the wake of the overdose deaths of Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten and a former CSNY roadie. The album opens and closes with different versions of the title song (whose title is another way of saying "The show must go on..."). In between, Young sounds exhausted and vulnerable on tracks like "World on a String," and "Albuquerque," in contrast with the exuberance of "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown," featuring the late Whitten on lead vocal.

Even though it features a reconstituted Crazy Horse, now with Frank "Pancho" Sampedro in rhythm guitar, 1975's Zuma is a laid-back affair. The high point is "Cortez The Killer," a dreamy and symbolic retelling of the arrival of Europeans in America. The album finishes with the mellow "Through My Sails," reuniting him with Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Long May You Run in 1976 was a one-off by what was billed as the Stills-Young Band. The catchy title track is an homage to the ancient hearse that Young drove cross-country to California in the mid-'60s; "Midnight on the Bay" is as mellow as California folk-rock gets; and "Let It Shine" is one of those brilliant honky-tonkers of Young's that skirt the edge of parody.

1977 saw Young meditating on his career with a self-compiled three record (double CD) set. Decade featured Young's own notes, and a collection of his greatest songs, reaching from Buffalo Springfield through the solo work, CSNY to the Stills-Young Band. It is perhaps the best anthology ever pieced together by anyone.

American Stars 'n Bars (also released in 1977) is another rootsy, loose-limbed affair. Backed by Crazy Horse on most tracks, with the addition of guest musicians on fiddle, pedal steel and such, and Ronstadt and Larson on harmonies. Opening with the shuffling "Old Country Waltz" and the unabashedly cowboy-like "Saddle Up the Palomino," it ends with "Homegrown," a paean to growin' and rollin' your own, complete with rough-hewn three-part harmonies with Crazy Horse, with Poncho Sampedro replacing Whitten. Nestled in the middle are two quintessential Neil Young songs: the poignant acoustic gem, "Star of Bethlehem" with Emmylou Harris on reverb-laden harmony; and the soaring, Dylanesque "Like a Hurricane," which has gone on to become a concert standard.

In 1978, with Comes a Time, Young seemed to be permanently slipping off into the sunset of soft rock. Something of a pastiche, with various tracks produced by Young in cahoots with Ben Keith, Tim Mulligan and David Briggs, it nonetheless produced some minor hits in the title track, "Look Out For My Love," and "Lotta Love." The funky blues of "Motorcycle Mama" and his popular cover of Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds" seem to show a Young looking more backward than forward -- Young and Tyson had rubbed elbows in the New York folk scene in the early '60s.

Thus it was that 1979's Rust Never Sleeps came as a shot heard round the rock world. Neil Young the rocker was back, and with a vengeance. It was recorded live, half with Crazy Horse, half solo acoustic. The title is a line in the song that opens and closes the album in two different versions: "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" and "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)", which is most famous for two other lines: "Hey hey, my my, rock 'n' roll can never die," and "It's better to burn out than to fade away," the latter of which became the rallying cry of many in the punk and grunge movements, both of which looked to Young as something of an elder statesman.

Rust also introduced one of Young's most powerful ballads, the apocalyptic "Powderfinger," and the bitingly satiric "Welfare Mothers" and "Pocahontas." The poignant "Thrasher" is a cogent statement of Young's artistic vision, with musicians likened to peasants and refugees, manipulated and sometimes co-opted by the music business. Live Rust is a less-coherent live set, documenting the Rust Never Sleeps tour.

1980's Hawks & Doves, a low-key effort, probably his mellowest until 1992's Harvest Moon. Together with On the Beach and American Stars 'n Bars this was recently reissued on CD. Instead of sounding like a visionary roots-influenced rocker as on the other two, though, Young sounds mostly aimless on this one. He drifts from the swamp pop of "Stayin' Power" to the New Orleans boogie of "Coastline," to the musicians union satire, "Union Man," and the Holy Modal Rounders-like "Comin' apart at Every Nail." One track, "Homestead," even has a saw-player. A reflection of a post-Vietnam, post-Watergate America drifting into the blindered Reagan years? In hindsight, possibly.

Trans was a real surprise. No matter where he had travelled, what he had done, Neil seemed dedicated to the very real sounds of people and the instruments they played; but in 1983 he introduced a new Neil Young to the world. A mechanized, robot, with computerized vocals and electronic beeps. Trans was an curiousity. Even the marvelous "Mr.Soul" was open for re-interpretation.

Young spent much of the 1980s flailing about, recording other decidedly un-Youngian albums for Geffen after spending his entire career through 1980 on Reprise. At one point near the end of the decade, Geffen even briefly pursued a lawsuit against Young for recording albums that didn't sound like himself.

Everybody's Rockin' (1983) is Young's stab at an oldies album. With a band billed as "The Shocking Pinks," it includes proto-rock songs like Jimmy Reed's "Bright Lights, Big City" and the seminal "Mystery Train," as well as Young's own comments and homages like "Payola Blues" and "Jellyroll Man."

Landing on Water (1986) is a synthesizer-laden affair filled with lackluster songs made even more boring by their arrangements. Typical was the bitter "Hippie Dream," in which he sings "...the wooden ships/were just a hippie dream...capsized in excess/if you know what I mean."

Although Young was reunited with Crazy Horse for 1987's Life, the resultant record was devoid of that quality. Ponderous production and lifeless presentation killed what few good songs there were, and an eight-minute "Inca Queen," an attempt to return to the mythology of "Cortez," fell flat. (Tellingly, both "Hippie Dream" and "Prisoners of Rock 'n' Roll" from Life were dusted off for his 1997 tour with Crazy Horse, and in that raw setting and that later date were both powerful statements.)

Young took another tangent with 1988's This Note's For You, a swinging, big-band blues album with yet another one-off group he dubbed The Bluenotes." It was chiefly known for the title track, a satiric comment on the increasingly common practice of musicians selling their songs as commercial jingles: "Ain't singin' for Pepsi/ain't singin' for Coke/don't sing for nobody/makes me look like a joke." The video that accompanied the song was initially and ironically banned from play on MTV.

In interviews at the time of This Note..., Young hinted that he was so happy singing the blues that he must might stick with it for a good long time. But once again, as another decade ended, Neil, now back on Reprise, engineered another return to form and another comeback. With Freedom, the old Neil was back, with yet another career-saving album. Tellingly, it also opens and closes with acoustic and electric versions of the centerpiece song, "Rockin' in the Free World." And though this song was adopted as some kind of patriotic anthem by those who couldn't be bothered to read the lyrics (much like Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A."), Freedom is one of the darkest albums of Young's career.

"Rockin'" details the emptiness of life in America under the first Bush, with a surface prosperity and "a thousand points of light" masking despair, poverty, homelessness and rampant addiction; but hey, "keep on rockin' in the free world!" "Crime In The City" is an extended portrait of urban blight and its effects on ordinary people; "Eldorado" is an updated "bread and circuses" picture of a decadent empire; "No More," "Too Far Gone" and a brilliant reworking of "On Broadway" depict once again the damage done by drugs and addiction. Even the love songs, "Hangin' on a Limb" and "Wrecking Ball" are tinged with despair.

If the lyrical mood is dark, the musical pallette is rich, swinging from tender acoustic to distortion-laden electric, sometimes within the same song. "Eldorado," with its bullfighter motif, has a Spanish flair; "Ways of Love," one of several songs that feature longtime collaborator Linda Ronstadt on harmony, has the feel of a habanera or tarantella; the wistful "Someday" features a delicate series of cascading piano notes; and "Too Far Gone" is another whiny honky-tonker. And of course "Wrecking Ball," which became the title track of one of Emmylou Harris's best albums. Never mind that, since the fall of the Iron Curtain that started the year of this album's release, the phrase "in the Free World" has less resonance. Freedom remains a classic and a high point in Neil Young's long and productive career.

He was back again in 1990 with a resurgent Neil and Crazy Horse album, the aptly titled Ragged Glory. Recorded mostly live at Young's home studio, it was a refreshing return to his early-'70s form, only longer, looser and louder. It includes a cover of the '50s chestnut, "Farmer John," a song he had written two decades earlier ("White Line"), an environmental anthem ("Mother Earth"), a couple of fond looks back at the '60s ("Mansion on the Hill" and "Days That Used to Be"), and two disparate views of married life, ("Fuckin' Up" and "Over and Over").

Neil and Crazy Horse went on the road in early 1990, and recorded a three-disc set of squalling feedback and amplified-to-the-max songs dubbed Arc-Weld, released in early 1991. Also released separately, Arc is mostly instrumental, a sort-of "In-a-gadda-da-vida" for the '90s, an experiment in what Young has referred to as "the healing power of noise." It's not for everyone. But the two discs of Weld are a stunning document of Young's act at this point in his career, including some of the better numbers from Ragged Glory and fresh looks at some of his older numbers. It opens with a take on "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" that's capable of loosening your dental work, and blasts out boisterous versions of such classics as "Cinnamon Girl," "Cortez," and "Rockin' in the Free World." The stretched-out versions of "Powderfinger" and "Like a Hurricane" are definitive. Oddities include a dirge-tempo cover of Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," complete with sound-effects from the Desert Storm bombardment of Baghdad; and a fairly unnecessary remake of "Tonight's the Night."

To rest his ears (and ours), Young put out a little acoustic gem in 1992. Harvest Moon once again reunited him with the Stray Gators (minus Jack Nitzsche), as well as Ronstadt, James Taylor, Nicolette Larson and other musicians. Like most Young albums, it has its high and low points. Among the highs are the title track, "Unknown Legend," "From Hank to Hendrix," "One of These Days" and an homage to a gone but not forgotten dog, "Old King." The low point, as is typical with Young, was his environmental anthem, "War of Man," which looks at the devastation of war from the viewpoint of animals.

Everybody and his dog was doing an "MTV Unplugged" album in the mid-'90s. Although in his case it was almost entirely redundant, Young jumped on the bandwagon with his 1993 Unplugged. Surprisingly, it turned out to be an enjoyable affair, with acoustic versions of songs we were accustomed to hearing amplified. Here's a delightful rendition of "Transformer Man," and a couple of real oldies, "The Old Laughing Lady" and "Mr. Soul."

The rest of Young's output in the 1990s was spotty at best. The 1995 Mirror Ball was recorded live in-studio with Pearl Jam as his backing band, although the band couldn't be acknowledged as such for legal reasons. It has a couple of fairly memorable tracks, particularly the driving "I'm the Ocean" and "Throw Your Hatred Down," but as loud and grungey as Pearl Jam were, they clearly demonstrated just how well-matched Neil and Crazy Horse are for this kind of music.

The 1996 soundtrack for the Johnny Depp movie Dead Man, a Jungian Western directed by Jim Jarmusch, has some delightful instrumental melodies on it. Neil and Crazy Horse's Broken Arrow from the same year had absolutely nothing memorable about it, save perhaps the anti-consumer rant, "Piece of Crap."

The two-disc live set Year of the Horse is too much of a thing that was once good. Starting with a ponderous version of "When You Dance, I Can Really Love," it goes downhill from there. This album is even a mess graphically -- you can't find a consecutive track list anywhere in the liner notes. Although it has the same title as a Jarmusch documentary released the same year, it's not nearly as good as the film, which features old and new concert footage and interviews with the band members about their long and sometimes difficult relationships. An audience member shouts "All the songs sound the same!" and Young replies tellingly, "It's all one song!!!"

True to form, Young once again went acoustic for his next major release, 2000's Silver & Gold. It's one of his most intimate and openly autobiographical records, with touching tracks such as "Daddy Went Walkin'" and "Buffalo Springfield Again." Also worthwhile are the title track and the opener, "Good to See You."

The newest Neil Young album was launched in much the same way Young's been launching new albums for years. He toured Europe and played it live. Greendale the CD is accompanied in early editions by a DVD of the Dublin live show. He sits on stage spinning the yarns which link the songs, and then plays the songs on one of a handful of Martin guitars which surround him on-stage. Did I mention...it's a concept album. Only this time Young tells the fictional story of a family of hippies living in the town of Greendale. Apparently, there will be a second DVD...a film of the action. Neil's Web site has been updated to include the lyrics to the songs, an art gallery, maps of the town, and lots more. And the music...well...it's a Neil Young album. Recorded with a stripped down Crazy Horse (only Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina) it is raw and primitive, with lots of energetic electric guitar from Young. The lyrics are strange since they're designed to propel the narrative. Is it time for the return of the rock-opera?

Listening to this album in the car maximizes the garage-band sound of it. Hollow, raunchy, even during the quiet parts. The acoustic version of the songs (on the DVD) give the melodies more space to breathe. But Neil's attack on the electric guitar, and his unlovely, but effective vocals make this an album to return to. Sure, some of the songs sound familiar, some of them are weak, but some of them rock out with the best of Neil's past work.

We have just scratched the surface of Young's repertoire. We barely mentioned his partnership with Crosby, Stills and Nash, or his early career in Buffalo Springfield. Some of his best known songs come from these groups. There are several books available for further study. Sylvie Simmons' brief Neil Young is an interesting overview. Jimmy McDonough's Shakey benefits from the author's early access to his subject, until Young changed his mind and withdrew his support. Because of this McDonough's portrait is balanced, and not a fawning look at an idol. For a look at the songs you could do worse than Journey Through the Past: the stories behind the classic songs of Neil Young by Nigel Williamson. While you might argue with Williamson over interpretations and motivations he has carefully compiled all the songs chronologically (according to album release date) and provided a synopsis of each lyric. He includes some specific quotes from Young explaining some of the songs, and he's not afraid to make value judgments. These off-hand comments combined with a wealth of pictures make for entertaining reading. One note...somehow the review copy of this book had the first 32 pages sliced cleaning off at the binding...a mystery that may never be solved.

Neil Young has crossed boundaries, from folk to rock, grunge, punk, and techno. He has never been afraid to take a new direction, down a deserted highway, just to see where it will lead. He has looked back, but usually just as a means of pushing the envelope a little further. He continues to be one of our most interesting troubadors. Not content with settling into a comfortable routine he consistently challenges our ears (with his music), and our eyes (with his films), and our minds (with all his art.) Not always successful...but always interesting.