"People my age, they don’t do the things I do," Neil Young sang back in 1995. All these years later, he’s living by those words more than ever. While most of his classic rock peers are coasting comfortably towards obsolescence, the 69-year-old Young is busier, feistier and downright weirder than ever. Let’s take a look back at the Year in Young—12 months that proved they don’t call the dude "Shakey" for nothing.
The Hi-Fi
After railing against the degraded sound quality of mp3s for years, Neil finally unveiled his alternative this year: Pono. A Toblerone-shaped portable music player offering "the finest quality, highest-resolution digital music from both major labels and prominent independent labels," the platform launched with a Kickstarter campaign in April that raised more than $6 million in preorders. Clearly, consumers are curious and early reports suggest that Pono delivers an impressive upgrade over mp3s. But the steep price tag ($399), plus a user interface that seems stuck in the '90s, make it unlikely to overtake the iPod anytime soon.
The Lo-Fi
You might assume that following his constant Pono plugs, Young would put out an album that could show off the glories of the new technology. You would be wrong. In an act of almost breathtaking contrariness (even for him), Young released A Letter Home in March, primitively recorded in Jack White's 1947 Voice-o-Graph straight-to-vinyl recording booth. A collection of wobbly, scratchy acoustic covers, it's about as far from an audiophile experience as you can get in 2014—even Daniel Johnston's most blown-out boombox cassettes boast better sound than this. That said, it's still a pleasure to hear Young cruise through Bert Jansch's "Needle of Death" and duet with White on the Everly Brothers' "I Wonder If I Care As Much".
The Big Divorce
No one saw this one coming. Pegi Young, Neil's wife since the late 1970s, inspired some of the songwriter's most dedicated love ballads—"Harvest Moon" and "Unknown Legend", to name two. But the couple announced their divorce over the summer. Almost immediately Neil rebounded into the pages of People magazine arm-in-arm with actress/activist Daryl Hannah. The "Man Needs a Mermaid" jokes wrote themselves. Proving that the kids don’t have a monopoly on beef, Young sparred with his old pal David Crosby in the press after Croz called Hannah "a purely poisonous predator."
The Memoir: Part II
Not many readers were clamoring for a sequel to Neil's (occasionally revealing, but mostly rambling and repetitive) 2012 memoir, Waging Heavy Peace. But that's exactly what he delivered this fall. Special Deluxe is based around reminiscences of two things near and dear to the songwriter’s heart: dogs and cars. He also throws in a little music discussion, for those of us interested in that kind of thing. The book is actually an improvement over its predecessor, though it certainly could’ve used an editor. Young has caught the writing bug, though; he told Spin he’s currently writing a sci-fi novel.
The Ragged vs. the Slick
Neil saddled up Crazy Horse one more time for a summer tour of European arenas that was as raggedly glorious as ever. With the Horse blasting soulfully behind him, he delivered ferocious, extended versions of such songs as "Love and Only Love", "Down by the River" and "Cortez the Killer", all propped up by billowing solos and cacophonous feedback. In the past, these tours have often been previews of forthcoming Crazy Horse-backed albums. Not this time. Neil quickly ditched his longtime backing band and headed into the studio with a truly unexpected collaborator: Chris Walden, an arranger whose CV includes work with Michael Buble and "American Idol". The resulting Storytone, released in November, was a slick, fully orchestrated misfire. Neil hedged his bets, however, also releasing a more listenable solo Storytone.
The Activist
Young’s most performed song of 2014 was an environmentalist call-to-arms called "Who’s Gonna Stand Up and Save the Earth" that railed against Big Oil, fracking and apathy. The tune (released in orchestral, solo and Crazy Horse versions—where’s the dubstep remix, Neil?) served as the backdrop for Young’s activist activities throughout the year, including a Canadian tour in opposition to TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline and his ongoing quest to create the perfect electric car. But he grabbed the most headlines in November, when he called on his fans to boycott Starbucks, due to their alleged ties with GMO giant Monsanto. "I used to line up and get my latte everyday, but yesterday was my last one," Young wrote. No word on whether he will be opening his own chain of coffee joints anytime soon, but after his 2014, anything’s possible.