Björn recenserade Special Deluxe: A Memoir of Life & Cars av Neil Young
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Neil's second memoir in just a few years. Do we really need two books on the life of an aging - if occasionally still brilliant - rocker, both written within months of each other? Especially when Waging Heavy Peace was quite good, but also a bit unfocused?
Well, sort of. Special Deluxe is a much more straight-forward autobiography than the predecessor, in that Neil uses cars that he or his family have owned through the years as signposts for changes in his life, from a small town in Canada to superstardom (somewhat ironically, given his praise for his wife, ending just before his recent divorce). And Neil loves his cars. He may not remember exactly when he played a certain gig, but he'll remember every detail of the car he bought on a whim on the way home, and the technical problems that led to him getting rid of it. …
Neil's second memoir in just a few years. Do we really need two books on the life of an aging - if occasionally still brilliant - rocker, both written within months of each other? Especially when Waging Heavy Peace was quite good, but also a bit unfocused?
Well, sort of. Special Deluxe is a much more straight-forward autobiography than the predecessor, in that Neil uses cars that he or his family have owned through the years as signposts for changes in his life, from a small town in Canada to superstardom (somewhat ironically, given his praise for his wife, ending just before his recent divorce). And Neil loves his cars. He may not remember exactly when he played a certain gig, but he'll remember every detail of the car he bought on a whim on the way home, and the technical problems that led to him getting rid of it. And ultimately, the big question: How can he be a socially conscious old save-the-Earth hippie and still drive around in huge 1950s gas-guzzlers? Well, he wouldn't be Neil Young if he didn't on a whim decide to do something about that...
Full disclaimer: You had better have at least a passing interest in cars, and preferably alternative fuels, if you want to get through this. As much as Neil often uses the car as an entry point to a story he wants to tell about life, fame, drugs, music or family, there are also long stretches where he seems to impatiently brush all that stuff aside just so he can gush about the design of the grill of a 1959 Continental for a while.
But you take the good with the bad; even if the book occasionally drags, it has that charm that comes from listening to an enthusiast being indulged to nerd out about something he loves, and I can't not like how unassuming it comes across. Neil Young's music has always been a work in progress, and judging by both his books, he himself is as well - there are no sure answers, no big lessons learned that don't come with a shrug that you can't always be perfect. It's not a book I need, but you can't live by need alone.