by Neil Young
It’s very quiet out here, and I pull over at a place near a creek where I can just get a drink from the flowing water. Parking roadside, I get out and stretch my legs. I feel great! It’s a beautiful day, and this road is just the kind I like. Now, watching my step on the rocks, I edge my way down to the creek, cupping my hands and scooping up some of the crystal-clear water. I love to drink this way; it’s so refreshing. A couple of fish are visible in the pool in front of me, so I sit down on the shore to watch them for a while, remembering how I used to hang for hours near creeks in my boyhood, catching crawfish and chub and taking them back to my house in a little pail. Then I would store them in a little makeshift water scene I had created in one of my mother’s old roasting pans with some water, sand, and rocks placed carefully to give a natural look. I used to stick little green grass plants in the sand and make believe they were trees. I feel so good here, I decide to just take a little nap.
I get back in the Continental and continue down the road to the café. Then I pull in and there’s Larry Johnson’s ’57 Ford pickup in the parking lot. As I enter the little café, I see Larry and Briggs in the corner, drinking some coffee and having a late breakfast. I go right over and sit down with them. We don’t say much. David says something about Kirby getting a job at one of the studios. Kirby is very good with his hands and can fix anything, plus he has a very friendly personality. We are happy for him. Larry has to make a call and gets up, heading for the pay phone in the corner. He asks us to get him another coffee when the waitress comes back. Briggs looks at me and asks what I’ve been doing.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all the people in this book and my next book. There can never be enough pages for you.
Photography Credits
Frontispiece: Photo by Graham Nash
1: © Henry Diltz (Photo by Henry Diltz)
2: Photo by Harold Whyte
3: Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
4: © 1973 Joel Bernstein
5: © Jack Harper
6: Courtesy Ken Koblun
7: Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
8: Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
9: © 1971 Joel Bernstein
10: © Melissa Eagan/WNYC Radio
11: Photo by Hannah Johnson. Courtesy Hannah Johnson and Neil and Pegi Young
12: Photo by Ivan Nagy
13: Dennis Hopper, Buffalo Springfield, 1967. Courtesy and © The Dennis Hopper Trust
14: © 1973 Joel Bernstein
15: © 1973 Joel Bernstein
16: © 1970 Joel Bernstein
17: Photo by Dennis Buford
18: © 1980 Joel Bernstein
19: Photo by Jeanne Field
20: Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
21: © 1974 Joel Bernstein
22: Photo by John Filo/Getty Images
23: © 1978 Joel Bernstein
24: © Craig Abaya
25: © 1984 Joel Bernstein
26: © Henry Diltz (Photo by Henry Diltz)
27: Photo by Bob Seidemann. Art direction by Gary Burden for R. Twerk & Co. Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
28: Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
29: Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
30: © Murray Bray
31: © Henry Diltz (Photo by Henry Diltz)
32: Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
33: © 1978 Joel Bernstein
34: Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
35: © 1969 Broken Arrow Music Corporation (BMI). Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
36: © 1970 Joel Bernstein
37: © Danny Clinch
38: Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
39: © Gilbert Hanekroot, Amsterdam
40: © 1973 Joel Bernstein
41: Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
42: Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
43: Courtesy Owen Clark/Brighit Morrigan private collection
44: © Bettina Briggs
45: Courtesy Neil and Pegi Young
46: Courtesy Sal Trentino
