Still of My Heart

Neil has been in the news recently, some controversy with a podcast celebrity. The details of that mean very little to me. Music, however, is a balm to me.

I do not recall the exact year, sometime between 1979 and 1981; I remember being introduced to Neil Young’s music in a tiny two-room basement apartment where I was continually trying to invite the light in because dusk was its only setting.

A group of us were playing Dungeons & Dragons, and Joe brought some albums to introduce to me because even then, I avoided radio. He had Live Rust, and when he lowered my Capehart Stereo’s needle to the vinyl on the album, I knew I would be listening from then on. When Neil sang, “I Am Child,” I knew he understood. “Sugar Mountain” could have been the anthem of my emancipation; getting married at sixteen took fortitude and a will to escape.

I went to Turtle’s the next day and bought Live Rust and Decade. Every iteration of recordings I purchased, those two above, Harvest, and After The Gold Rush, were members of my collection.

Neil will never keep silent; the music is strong in him.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan