Attribution: Fernando de Sousa from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Golden Years: Film Review of Neil Young: Heart of Gold
By Geoff Carter
The Ryman Auditorium: Nashville, Tennessee
Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The concert film is a genre that is as idiosyncratic as the artists it documents. From the frenetic energy of Stop Making Sense to the sheer spectacle of Woodstock or Summer of Soul, to social commentaries like Gimme Shelter, No Nukes, Concert for Bangladesh, or Wattstax to films that capture the spirit of the times like Monterey Pop, Summer of Soul, or Festival Express to biographical portraits like The Kids are Alright, Let it Be, or Rolling Thunder Revue, the genre has something for everyone.
Early concert films like The Song Remains the Same or Yessongs simply sought to capture a band performance, to convey the live arena experience to fans, but because rock and roll and soul—the main focus of most of these movies—had intertwined itself into the fabric of society, the concert film expanded into explorations of the social and cultural forces reflected by the music. The genre has further evolved into performance crossovers like David Byrne’s American Utopia or Bruce Springsteen’s Springsteen Broadway.
The genre has also attracted the cream of Hollywood directors. Martin Scorsese gave us The Last Waltz, Rolling Thunder Review: A Bob Dylan Story, and George Harrison: Living in the Material World, among others. Jonathan Demme directed the incomparably exuberant Stop Making Sense and the poignantly fatalistic Neil Young: Heart of Gold. The legendary documentary filmmakers David and Albert Maysles made Gimme Shelter, probably the most harrowing of the concert films. Spike Lee directed American Utopia.
So, from its humble beginnings as a visual recording of a rock and roll concert, the concert film has grown up. And this is no more evident than in Jonathan Demme’s 2005 documentary, Neil Young: Heart of Gold, which recorded the live debut of Young’s Prairie Wind album at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. In order to augment the length of the documentary, Mr. Young agreed to record a set of his older songs, also recorded in Nashville.
The opening shots show an automobile approaching Nashville on one of the main highways and then cuts to interviews with the passengers inside which take place as the cars drive through Nashville streets. While the viewer is focused on the faces and words of the players, the familiar neighborhoods outside moves past them, much as the past days they describe have also flown by, creating a wistful, nostalgic, and somewhat insulated mood.
In separate interviews, Neil Young and members of his band talk about their experiences working with each other in Nashville. Young speaks about working with friends he knows and trusts rather than studio musicians brought in by the record companies, adding that he likes to tour with the same people he records with.
Steel guitar player Ben Keith describes recording the album Harvest with Young in Nashville nearly fifty years before, specifically how his friend bass player Tim Drummond was pulled in to one of Young’s recording sessions, and how Drummond asked him to join in the session. Keith describes coming to the studio, setting up his guitar and joining in, playing through three or four songs before the players even introduced each other. Guitarist Grant Boatwright shares stories of his family traveling hours to attend the Grand Old Opry at the Ryman. Keyboardist Spooner Oldham and bass player Rick Rosas also talk about the great acoustics and memories of the former site of the Grand Old Opry.
Guitarist and singer Emmylou Harris talks about a high rise going up that will block the light from coming in through the beautiful stained-glass windows of the Ryman and how “the artistic police” should swoop in and stop it. Drummer Karl Himmel and singers Pegi Young, Gary W. Pigg and Diana DeWitt talk about sort of a weird vibe before they recorded the Prairie Wind album.
Percussionist Chad Cromwell then reveals that Young told him—during the recording session—that he had a brain aneurysm which was going to be operated on the week after the project, which in all likelihood colored Mr. Young’s approach to the ablum.
These interviews, set in cars moving through the community so important to the heritage of country music—and to their own personal past, sets the tone for the concert portion of the film. The past informs this album with a connection to the past and a looming awareness of mortality. Facing brain surgery, Mr. Young had to have been pondering his own life and the legacy he might be leaving behind, issues which seemed to have informed the songs on the Prairie Wind album.
The concert itself opens on a small unassuming stage. There are no laser lights, pyrotechnics, or choreographed dance productions—which would be unthinkable and very nearly blasphemous intrusions at a Neil Young show. A simple canvas backdrop of a dusty gold prairie skyline plainly emblazoned with the title Prairie Wind is the only stage decoration. The musicians are plainly dressed in earth colors, blue jeans, and cowboy boots. The Ryman Auditorium (the former home of the Grand Old Opry) only holds about two thousand people, so it is an intimate setting, and, even for a concert, seems rather quiet and subdued. It is a very intimate setting.
Young starts the show with material from his recent release (at the time) Prairie Wind. Songs like “The Painter”, “Falling Off the Face of the Earth”, and “Prairie Wind” have a somber and introspective tone—even more so than the usual Neil Young fare. The songs address the feelings of being an empty-nester, memories of his father, and the vagaries of time. The final song of this section of the film, “When God Made Me”, directly addresses existential questions of the human condition. Mr. Young’s music has always been very personal and introspective, but Prairie Wind seems to address deeper insights into the very nature of being and a new awareness of our own mortality. This is an album—and film—not only about getting old, but about accepting it, which Neil Young does with his usual easygoing grace. In that sense, for all the aging boomers in his fan base, this is an invaluable lesson.
Mr. Young peppers the songs with stories, some funny and some touching. He talks about his father getting him a plastic ukulele as a boy, his grown daughter at college, the passing of his father, and the origin of his beloved tune “Old Man”, which echoes the recurring motif of age and aging. He also points out that the guitar he is playing once belonged to Hank Williams.
The film is split into two sections, per director Jonathan Demme’s request. Not having enough material from the Prairie Wind concert to make a feature-length film, he asked Mr. Young and his band to perform a number of his older songs including “Harvest Moon”, “Needle and the Damage Done”, “Old Man”, and “The Old Laughing Lady”.
The second section of the film is marked by a set and costume change. The back-up singers are dressed in uniform deep blue while the background is a painted array of stained-glass windows.
Demme’s direction, like the content of the film, is understated and elegant. His camera shots mostly focus on the faces of the performers, who seem to share a sort of low-key contentment. Yet their work is far from workmanlike. They display the chops of seasoned professionals, making it look all so easy. The rapport and camaraderie they share oozes from the screen like maple syrup.
The final scene of the film, a back shot of Young playing a song to the empty auditorium, is a crystallized metaphor of the movie. Neil Young, the artist, is coming face-to-face with his mortality and insignificance in the universe, and yet, even in his solitude, he plays on—even to an empty house.
This is a quiet, meditative sort of film which should probably be watched more than once. There is much here going on beneath the surface—even under the messages of Young’s music, and like him, it is humble, understated, and elegant.
Neil Young: Heart of God is not only about generosity and giving, it is also about a heart that realizes the golden years are here—and going fast.