Neil Young Lashes Out At YouTube & Announces New Album Tracklist
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Neil Young is on rock n roll fire: touring, various archive projects (Sugar Mountain), starting a YouTube royalties debate (see below) and a new album (Fork In The Road), which comes on the heels of 2007's Chrome Dreams II. Fork in the Road, Young's 33rd studio album, is out April 6th. A couple months back Young entertained with a no frills video for the title track. The next single "Johnny Magic" will be released on March 23rd. Hopefully Young has some good card tricks for that video, or maybe he'll pull a Les Paul out of a hat.
But before you get to excited, seeing Neil Young's next music video might get a little tricky. Last week Young lashed out at You Tube and his label Warner Brothers for failing to come to a more fruitful agreement that would compensate Warner artists for their posted video streams on the site. Warner, one of the first to make a deal with YouTube, a Google company, does not have it as cushy as other labels.
"So You Tube is the new radio...but not quite." Young wrote on his Web site. "Radio used to introduce music to the masses and was crucial to every new release, with identical compensation for every artist and label. Since You Tube has given some labels better deals than others, the Media Giant is treating artists unequally, depending on which label they are on."
While Warner Brothers took down all of Young's videos without his consent while still negotiating a deal, the site is not short of "Fork in the Road" uploads submitted by fans.
Fork in the Road tracklist:
'When Worlds Collide'
'Fuel Line'
'Just Singing A Song'
'Johnny Magic'
'Cough Up The Bucks'
'Get Behind The Wheel'
'Off The Road'
'Hit The Road'
'Light A Candle'
'Fork In The Road'
Comments (9)
>>>>>>Poor Neil. Stumblin' around lookin' for his audience. You know, the folks he's built a career around converting & then alienating? His foray into bitter churlish politics & direct social commentary turned off many fans. But he's always done that, no? I used to complain about hearing Old Man & Like A Hurricane & Heart Of Gold & Powderfinger at every Neil Show........In my mind he hasn't added substantialy to his canon since what? The mid nineties?
Wow- I hadn't heard about him lashing out at YouTube- but he certainly has a point.
Of course he could also lash out at Warner Bros., since they obviously didn't cut a good deal with YouTube and he has to suffer for it.
But I am still of the mindset that the digital download is a vastly inferior way of obtaining music compared to the CD. How many people know listen to an entire "album" straigh through? Remember when that was how they were supposed to be listened to? So each song was not just a song but part of a bigger concept? From Tommy to Quafdrophenia and Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall...where is an album like that these days?
This kinda thing points out yet another reason we will look at the 70's and 80's and refer to them as the good ole' days. (And I am not even talking about the economy and the stock market!)
I disagree. He's a genuine Canadian crank. The same complaints about him were made about Dylan in his "Christian period'' - he wrote good songs then, too - who cares about his religious beliefs, whatever they might be. A friend of mine went to see Neil in L.A. during his country-anti-Geffen period. He got booed and my friend's date turned to him and said: "The hippies are angry.'' As far as I'm concerned, the dude can do what he wants. No David Crosby, he.
Neils welcome to his opinion and wether I agree with it or not his music (even some after the mid nineties is great. Maybe you tube treating everybody evenly isnt such a bad idea.And what actually does lashing out consist of?
I'm glad to get the free stuff on YouTube (hey, I'm not the artist), but if Neil wants to go wild about it, that's cool by me, he's prolly got a point. (like I say, he's no David Crosby - and he's a lot more talented than, say, Lars Ulrich). I'll let it lie there.
I'm watching the road from the ditch. If we wanted consistency from artists we'd settle for a lot less. Oh, that's right, we do.
Neil has done well and must be pretty savy to have reached the level he has, I dont think he's in the same league as Bob Dylan, but close
there are many musicician's as taleneted that havent had the breaks. He should be thankful that he's had things go so well for him
well, bob and neil have name-checked each other in separate songs, a rarity at that level of achievement. i think zimmy was quoted at one point as saying he was driving around listening to after the gold rush and wondering how come there was someone on the air who was him, more or less. not a "new'' dylan, but an authentic soul-stealer. typically cryptic, but you get the point. the whole ranking game gets old...each has done terrific, and lousy work, like most musicians. but it's hard to think of what our world would be like without them. imaginable, but hard. most artists at that level have too much ego to be "thankful'' - it's more interesting to find things to be pissed off, and passionate about if you want to continue doing interesting work. them's the breaks.
I find it hard to feel bad for someone that has been making money doing what he loves since the early 1800's because he gets a few less dollars than Arcade Fire does from YouTube...without which, he might well be as relevant as David Crosby these days...boo hoo...sorry Neil, this is the free America you dreamed of in your youth...sorry you don't get a bigger cut of the profits.
But, then again, I am an evil fuck.
-Dusk