Shakey: Neil Young's Biography

Innaresting characters Who gave you the Nixon mask? I can't recall, as John Dean would say. I'll always tell ya if I remember, Jimmy. You talk about things and it comes back. Every question seems to stir up something in you. Not the answers you were looking for . . . but they're answers, heh heh. Hard to remember things. It's all there, though. Maybe we oughta go into hypnotherapy, fuckin' go right back. Take like, six months to get zoned in on the Tonight's the Night sessionsexactly what was happening? "Okay, we're gonna go back a little further today, Neil. . . ." I'm frustrated. Hey, well, you've been frustrated since the beginning, heh heh. You're not frustrated because of thiswe're doing it. You're asking questions and I'm answering them. What could be less frustrating than THAT? Maybe I should tell people in the intro you don't wanna do the book. You can tell 'em if you want. The bottom line is if it went against the grain so hard, I wouldn't be doin' it. The thing is, it's not necessarily my first love. I think that's a subtle way of puttin' it. Heh heh. The first time Jon McKeig really encountered Shakey he was under a car. Shakey's a nicknamefrom alter ego Bernard Shakey, sometime moviemaker. It's just one of many aliases: Joe Yankee, overdubber; Shakey Deal, blues singer; Phil Perspective, producer. The world knows him as Neil Young. McKeig had been toiling away on Nanoo, a blue and white '59 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible of Young's, for months without actually seeing him. The car was a mess, but McKeig would soon realize that this was Shakey's M.O., buying beyond-dead wrecks for peanuts, then sparing no expense to bring them back to life. "I can name five automobiles he has that the parts cars were in better shape than the cars that were restored." McKeig shook his head. "That's extreme. I don't believe anybody anywhere goes to that length. If the car smells wrong, you're screwed; if it squeaks, it's not cool . . . he's fanatical." One day Neil happened in for a personal inspection. "Neil came right over to the car, looked at it andI'll be damnedall of a sudden he went down to the concrete and slid right underneath. All you could see was his tennis shoes." McKeig asked Young how far he wanted to go with the thrashed Cadillac. "Neil looked me straight in the eye and said calmly, 'As long as it's museum quality.' " McKeig shuddered. "I never heard it said like that'museum quality.' Then he left. That's all that was said. I never saw himfor years after." Decades later, Nanoo still isn't finished. Cars are a major part of Shakey's world. He's written countless songs in them and they figure into more than a few of his lyrics: "Trans Am," "Long May You Run," "Motor City," "Like an Inca (Hitchhiker)," "Drifter," "Roll Another Number (For the Road)," "Sedan Delivery," "Get Gone"; the list goes on. Young would even advise me on touch-up paint and carburetor problemsuntil I flipped my '66 Falcon Futura twice off the side of a two-lane, nearly killing myself. Out on the road in his bus, Young called me a few daysMcDonough, James is the author of 'Shakey: Neil Young's Biography', published 2003 under ISBN 9780679311935 and ISBN 0679311939.