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Neil Young (birth name: Neil Percival Young; Nov. 12, 1945), was born in Toronto, Canada (aka: 'Bernard Shakey', 'Phil Perspective', 'Joe Yankee', 'Joe Canuck', 'Shakey Deal', 'Clyde Coil', 'Shakey', 'Dr. Shakes'). He is a Canadian folk rock singer / songwriter. His musical career started with The Jades (1960-61), The Squires (1963-65), around 1965 he joined the Mynah Birds, and as the band was facing difficulties and officially was split in '66, he (and the bass player) drove from Toronto to Los Angeles, and took part in forming what would become Buffalo Springfield (1966-68), a band that gained a lot of critical success but also had internal problems with drugs and alcohol, and an ever changing line-up. In 1968 Buffalo Springfield disbanded and Young began a career as a solo musician. The only band formations and collaborations from here on is working either with Stephen Stills in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (originally only Crosby, Stills and Nash but occasionally featuring Neil Young), and with Crazy Horse, a band that has collaborated with Young on his most electrifying solo albums but also participate on most of his solo albums as studio personnel (releases Neil Young With Crazy Horse differs in the sense that only these do not use additional recording artists).In retrospect today he is among only a handful of songwriters of modern pop music of whom one may speak of god-like status. The genres of folk, folk rock, country, country rock, and the broad term of singer / songwriter will always be connected with Neil Young, although he has experimented like few with various musical styles. Especially in the 1980s he produced a number of albums with all kinds of stylistic influences such as rockabilly, blues, new wave, electronic, synth pop, and a harder and much more electrified combination of blues rock, pop / rock, folk rock (mostly featuring his backing band Crazy Horse) that eventually put him at the top of all sources when 1990s grunge rock (notably with American artists like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Soundgarden) erupted and only emphasized his status in modern popular music. As a curiosity, he was also a secondary source to grunge rock in the sense that he inspired artists who also are among sources to the foundation of grunge rock. This includes performers of musical styles like indie rock noise pop / noise rock (Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth) that came about in the late 80s and early 90s, and even before this Neil Young and Crazy Horse inspired many punk rock, post-punk, power pop, and alternative rock bands / artists who drew more on an American melodic rock tradition i.e. Hüsker Dü, Sugar, which basically is to say: Bob Mould, who is himself another, 'father' of and obvious source to the grunge rock-movement...
[ Further on Neil Young: wikipedia , Official homepage , allmusic.com ]
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