Neil Young and the Poetics of Energy

Neil Young and the Poetics of Energy William Echard. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2005. In November 1977, the New York Times ran a major profile of Canadian-born singer-song writer Neil Young, stating that, along with Bob Dylan, "Young is probably the most important rock composer and performer North America has produced" (32). Nearly 30 years later, Young continues to evolve, exploring diverse styles and generating new material at a time when many of his 1970s rock contemporaries have long left the business or are doing nostalgia tours with old material. Given this, Young warrants critical attention, and William Echard, a professor in the Department of Music and the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art, and Culture at Carleton University, Ottawa, provides a comprehensive analysis of his music, lyrics, and celebrity persona. Echard establishes two threads that run through his study: "First, there is the idea that Young is one of the most unpredictable songwriters and performers of the 1960s rock generation, working within an exceptionally wide range of styles and at times defying expectations so forcefully as to endanger his career. second, there is the fact that many listeners attribute unique expressive intensity to much of Young's work" (8). Approaching Young's work from the diverse perspectives of semiotics, ethnomusicology, music theory, and cultural studies, Echard attempts to make sense of a performer who has, at once, occupied opposing roles as a classic rock icon and as an outsider to and critic of the prevailing rock culture. Echard bases much of his analysis on conceptualizations of energy and related metaphors: emotional energy, iconic energy, aggressive energy, and artistic energy. Adopting the phrase "poetics of energy," he writes that his purpose "is to highlight feelings and aesthetic responses which listeners have reported, both in order to illuminate particular textual details and to view these details as specific fragments of more general cultural practices" (6). His research consists of reviews from the rock press, observations of diehard Neil Young fans -dubbed "Rustics" after the Rust Never Sleeps album -and their Internet activity, close reading of Young's music and lyrics, and works of cultural and critical theory. Regarding himself as both "a fan of Neil Young and a critical scholar" (3), Echard recounts Young's career since the early days of Buffalo Springfield and interprets the meaning and appeal of his ongoing image and eclectic musical styles. As a rock and roll artist, Young exhibits change, surprise, emotional commitment, and intensity as he moves fluidly among various music genres: folk revival, progressive rock, garage rock, soft rock, and country rock. Along the way, he has alienated both fans and music industry executives who felt he was being inconsistent or not commercial enough. In one instance, Echard writes, Young snapped at a fan who chided him at a concert to play his old material, "If you can get back to where you were two years ago ... I'll get back to where I was" (25). Young's image as a loner and an independent artist prevails. In a chapter titled simply "Words," Echard explores the lyrics of Young's songs, along with his distinctive voice. …