A Comment on 'Waging Heavy Peace' by Neil Young

I’ve always loved Neil Young’s music so I eagerly awaited and picked up this book by Neil Young himself.  As former military, I loved the title of the book ‘Waging Heavy Peace.’ It reminded me of the Strategic Air Command’s motto, ‘Peace is our profession.’  Anyway, I expected some kind of philosophic revelation or some grandiose poetical insight into the universe hitherto unknown to all or at least to me anyway.  There is none… Neil is a just regular guy, a bit self-absorbed and arrogant, which he admits, and which definitely comes across in the book.

On the positive side, I cannot help but like a guy who obviously loves his family and especially his quadriplegic son, Ben Young.  He refers to his kids by their first and last names which I find likable.  I also cannot help but to smile when 65-year-old Neil refers to his father as "Daddy."  That’s really nice.

On the negative side, he does not talk about his songs other than to say he wrote a bunch of them together when he was either stoned or drunk or both… and I expected some out-of-the-world vision from a guy who wrote and sings “Heart of Gold”, “Down by the River” , etc.   Nada...

While I still like Neil Young’s music after reading ‘Waging Heavy Peace’ it now has lost some of its… mystical qualities at least for me.  Except for the positive points that I noted above, for the most part I don’t like Neil Young the person.  Sad but True…

By:  Homeless with a Laptop, That is my Name