Neil Young Hits the Studio With Producer Daniel Lanois

Neil Young recently announced a solo acoustic tour, and his buddy David Crosby tells Rolling Stone his old bandmate is back in the studio, too. Crosby says Young is recording a new album with producer Daniel Lanois, best known for his work with U2 and Bob Dylan. "Neil told me last week that he was having a great time talking music with him and just relating to him," David Crosby says, adding that he volunteered his services for any upcoming sessions. "I said to him, 'If you want a harmony, I'm volunteering.' He said, 'You know, if I need one you'll be the first guy I call.' "

Young has rarely worked with big-name producers throughout his four-decade career. "I think that Neil's been a little lonely for someone to interact that way because his best buddy [L.A. Johnson] died and that just really left a hole there," says Crosby. "The guy's paid an awful lot of dues, man. I suspect this will be a very heartfelt record. I expect it will be a very special record." Fans will likely hear a preview of songs destined for the in-progress LP when Young hits the road May 18th for his three-week American theater tour.

"He does that [solo acoustic] thing probably better than anybody," adds Crosby. "One of my most favorite concerts of his was him at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. He had a circle of his guitars around him and a chair, and he walked out there and sang. It was mesmerizing. He's a fantastic musician, but also a great storyteller. I was standing there in the wings with Bob Dylan. He and I are huge Neil fans, and we didn't move. We stood there the entire concert and just watched. We were as mesmerized as much as the audience was."

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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