EARTH , Neil Young ’ s new album with his band Promise of the Real , doesn ’ t fit in with any other music being produced today . In fact , its single-track , ninety-eight-minute format quite literally doesn ’ t fit on most standard playback devices , which is why I ’ m sitting on a couch in Young ’ s manager ’ s office in Santa Monica , listening to EARTH on Pono , a high definition audio player of Young ’ s own conception .
Among the impressive collection of original art and framed prints casually dotting Elliot Roberts ’ s walls — including sketches by M . C . Escher and René Magritte , paintings by Shepard Fairey , and watercolors by Joni Mitchell — is a personalized message tacked to a piece of foam board that is most revealing of the artist whose career Roberts has managed for nearly half a century . In large type , inscribed by hand to “ Elliot ” and signed with a simple “ Neil ,” the note reads :
Just do what you want to do Don ’ t listen to anyone else _____
Since bursting onto the scene in the ’ 60s , Young has become many things : folk pioneer , protest singer , rock innovator , godfather of grunge , book author , toy train – company executive , benefit concert ringmaster , electric-car tinkerer , environmental activist , soundquality advocate , auteur filmmaker . But no matter what he ’ s been and what he ’ s presently doing , it ’ s undeniable that every second of it has been strictly on Young ’ s own terms .
EARTH is a live performance epic , a collage recorded on a recent tour spliced together with environmental sounds from field recordings of animals , nature , and humans . The setlist was selected by Young himself from the depths of his own songbook , “ songs I have written about living here on our planet together ,” he said in a press release , with each track updated and reborn . Classics like “ Vampire Blues ,” “ Human Highway ,” and “ After the Gold Rush ” are here , as are several selections from Ragged Glory , a grip from 2015 ’ s The Monsanto Years , and the previously unreleased “ Seed Justice .” “ Big Box ” rails against big business , name checking Dow Chemical , Exxon , Pfizer , and others as Young blasts lines like “ Corporations have feelings , corporations have soul / That ’ s why they ’ re like people , just harder to control .” The record ends on a nearly thirty-minute version of “ Love and Only Love ,” which , naturally , is the album ’ s first single .
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The night after my trip to Roberts ’ s office , there ’ s an official listening party for EARTH in the outdoor courtyard of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County . The audience is bathed in sound by a Pono loudspeaker system after a brief introduction from the singer himself , who appears on a small stage with no fanfare other than a quick sage-burning purification of the space . “ Pono ” is the Hawaiian word for “ righteous ,” and as he speaks , it occurs to me that Young , despite the message written to his manager , does in fact listen to not just anyone but everyone else — he hears the Earth through a righteous ear and sees it through an equally righteous lens . He ’ s simply learned to filter what he absorbs to create a life that doesn ’ t fit into any container .
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A week later , I ’ m invited to Roberts ’ s home in a canyon near Malibu to interview Young . It ’ s a beautiful day , and I settle in on the ranchstyle porch . Each classical element of nature — earth , water , fire , air — is present in all its glory . A stream babbles , stacks of firewood sit in the sun , tall grass blows in a light breeze .
At last , Young joins me in a sitting room under a painting he tells me was made by his daughter . He wears what we ’ ve come to know as his uniform — a black ball cap , plaid flannel over a t-shirt , baggy pants , walking boots — and speaks comfortably and fluidly about his passions : nature , his new album , Pono , his films and books , political action . Snacking from a bowl of cherries , he laughs loudly and often , seeming ultimately at ease despite the war raging outside .
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