Pop Music Reviews : Neil Young Rages On, Ageless and Anarchic

It’s hard to believe Neil Young is now well into his 40s. Cruising through the third decade of a prolific career, he rages on as one of the most aggressive, anarchic intelligences in pop, and there’s a streak of wild boyishness about him that makes him ageless. Earthy and wise as Georgia O’Keeffe, rowdy as Johnny Rotten, he’s a great American artist whose starkly beautiful songs are frequently as profound as pop music gets.

At the Greek Theatre on Saturday, Young turned in a solo acoustic set that was everything a long-time fan could want: great new songs, old favorites, and an encore featuring backup vocals from his old pals David Crosby and Graham Nash. Young charmed the audience from the git-go with his winning performing style--he was so damned casual that were it not for his ferocious intensity, you’d think you’d stumbled onto an impromptu rehearsal.

He’s an extremely funny man, very droll and understated, and his low-key persona is the perfect counterpoint to his music, which goes after all the big issues. Love, death, mother nature, history, time and betrayal--Young wrestles with them all in songs that never fail to shine a light of kindness and conscience on the subject at hand.