Neil Young – Long May You Run: The Illustrated History

Neil Young – Long May You Run: The Illustrated History
By Daniel Durchholz and Gary Graff
Voyaguer Press
[Rating 3.5 stars]

A new coffee table tome on one of music’s most iconic figures — what else is new? When Neil Young recently posted a comment on Facebook, 15,000 people instantly replied back. Maybe that’s an indicator that people will care to see a button from a 1983 University of Georgia concert, or a “Comes A Time” guitar pick, images of which are both on display in Long May You Run. The book is heavy on period ephemera and, if that’s your thing, you’ll have a field day with all the foreign import album covers, show posters and concert tickets. The book is light, however, on never-before-seen photographs, and the page layout favors a ’60s-ish collage style with a billion typefaces, instead of a cleaner, more modern design. The writing is top notch though, and industriously put together by two notable scribes. It’s a Neil Young-through-the-years journey, and while it sometimes feels like a Shakey redux, you can tell the authors had a blast doing it. The book’s best moments are the editorial sidebars, such as “Into The Black: Neil Young’s Favorite Guitar,” which are beautiful little stand-alone pieces within the rest of the Neil minutiae.