From Pitchfork: Book Review: Shakey: Neil Young's Biography:.I fought it coming out because I wanted it delayed until after my daughter turned 18, and I managed to delay it for a couple of years, so I did OK.' ' That was a mistake, but I'll live with it. But rather than let anything happen officially, I should have just let people do whatever they wanted to do. I didn't want some watered-down flowery version of who I am - that's nothing but a self-serving piece of shit. Young:'I think Jimmy McDonough is a great writer and that's why I asked him to do it. They divorced, and Young drifted into bands, but with his own interests at heart: He insisted that his first professional band, the Squires, rename itself 'Neil Young and the Squires' when they started gigging.'įrom Guardian Unlimited article by Adam Sweeting with Young commenting on the Shakey biography: His father was a popular journalist, his mother a tough-love matriarch. He started out as a frail, polio-stricken fan of Little Richard and the Shadows' Hank Marvin living in a rural Canadian outpost where American records were hard to come by. He's a ferociously ambitious artist who lives capriciously. As the book makes abundantly clear, Young has always been at war with his own impulses. 'Shakey is a curious hybrid: part hagiography, part laundry list of perfidy. In an article on Slate, Marc Weingarten writes on the 'Shakey' lawsuit: The lengthy publication delay and the surrounding controversy are just another chapter in the unpredictability of Neil.

The 'authorized' biography's publication resulted in a lawsuit filed by none other than Neil himself. Weighing in at 786 pages, it is considered to be the definitive account of Neil's life and music. Here are some book reviews of Jimmy McDonough's long awaited biography of Neil Young titled 'Shakey': Neil Young's Biography which was finally released in 2002. Book Review: Shakey - Neil Young Biography

Shakey jimmy mcdonough