Being Astrid Young

Between tours and Archives madness, we finally had a chance to read Being Young by Astrid Young. Astrid, Neil Young's half-sister, has written an insightful portrait of Neil that gets behind the persona and in many ways is more revealing than their father, Scott Young’s Neil and Me or Jimmy McDonough's biography Shakey.

Astrid explores the events which shaped their family, drove it apart, and eventually brought all the Youngs back together. One comes away with a much different impression of Neil than the one left by Shakey . In Being Young, we intimately see Neil as a loving husband and father, along with his many other interests such as an environmentalist and anti-war activist.

An excerpt:

The fire crackled. Neil sat down with the Martin across his knee and pulled some strings into chords that became the song "War of Man."

He asked me:
"What would you sing on this part? As a harmony, I mean," and then he went on to sing the chorus, and I'll be damned if I can remember what I did. I know I sang something, but I also know that at that time I was still very shy at the axis of music between us. We were so different, I thought. I didn't think he'd ever relate to me as a musician at all.

"Can you stay a few extra days and do some singing with Nicolette?"

"Sure," I said. "I don't think I have anything going on." At that moment, there was nothing else. Not even the moment itself had sunk in far enough for me to understand the invitation I had just accepted.

So the next day, it happened. And you know, it didn't end up being the scariest moment of my life.

And we should add that Astrid has had a pretty interesting life moving about as a musician, writer and wine expert.

Being Young is available on Amazon.com (you'll be supporting Thrasher's Wheat. Thanks!)

More on Neil's family and friends.