Emulating Young
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As I write this post, I am listening to a music track randomly chosen by my iPad. It’s a track called “Driftin’ Back” by Neil Young and Crazy Horse from the album “Psychedelic Pill”. It’s a glorious twenty-seven minutes plus in length. A long jam of a song. And yet at no point in the song does it occur to me that this is too long. It’s full of imagination. I love it!
As the years go by, Neil Young seems to show a tireless interest in musical technique, working with different backing bands, chasing a range of different styles. One album will be low-fi and looking back, another will be a political rant, then he will produce a love album. He seems to have found a way to be prolific and pour out ideas. Somehow he has stilled and quietened the inner critic.
These qualities are some of the reasons I love listening to his work. I am always interested in the work of artists who create their own distinctive approach, then find ways to tap into rich supplies of inspiration. It’s amazing to experience. I don’t have problems finding ideas, and am awash with potential projects – for me the challenge comes with application of time to deliver and complete. That’s the skill I need to work out, and model from those I admire. Perhaps this needs collaboration. Neil Young rarely works alone – he sparks off of the various bands he works with.
Modelling the practises of others is a great way to install new habits, new ways of working. Find someone to emulate, work out how they do it, study everything I can about them – and then implement practical approaches that will improve my habits.
The lyrics to “Driftin’ Back” are full of nostalgia:
‘Don’t want my mp3, don’t want my mp3
I’m driftin’ back
When you hear my song now
You only get five percent’
This is Neil Young remembering what the music industry used to be like before the big tech giants took music and compressed it, before they turned Picasso into wallpaper. He finds ways to turn rage, tenderness, fury and many other emotions into inspiration. It’s something to study. The artists we admire can teach us so much, not just through their work, but also through the ways that they work.
Also published on Medium.