For wisdom, education and entertainment, there is no bigger bang for your 30 bucks this summer than the DVD release of “Neil Young: Heart of Gold.”
Set aside the film disc for a moment – a dreamy, poetic marriage of Young’s music and Jonathan Demme’s moviemaking talent. The extras DVD, jammed with thoughtful interviews, Demme’s self-deprecating and insightful commentary and awe-inspiring rehearsal footage, should be a textbook for how to enhance a film.
Any of the 30,000-odd fans planning to catch Young with Crosby, Stills & Nash at Red Rocks next month would deepen their experience with this DVD set (listed at $29.99, available for $20).
“Heart of Gold’s” movie disc is a straightforward concert film, preceded by a few minutes of backup performers like Emmylou Harris and Grant Boatwright commenting on Young and music history, as they arrive at Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium.
The first half of the concert stages songs from Young’s 2005 album, “Prairie Wind,” drawing on the pathos of the brain aneurysm and surgery that threatened Young in the spring of 2005. The second half is an all-star, all-friends affair featuring quiet jams of classics like “Old Man” and “One of These Days.”
The first extra adheres to Demme’s love of simplicity. Demme and Young sit separately for interviews, explaining how they found each other for the movie. Young’s old-man wisdom, increasingly evident in songs about being an empty-nester or caring for a dying father, abounds.
“A year off is an opportunity to do a lot of things,” he says, with a thin smile. “Which of course makes it not a year off anymore.”
Demme, who made the greatest concert movie with Talking Heads in “Stop Making Sense,” describes how he wanted the show to be a “literal” dream of Young’s, with all his friends arriving and playing flawlessly for a perfect concert.
Demme also knows how to feed Young’s legion of music fans.
The shortest feature is one of the best, watching Young’s guitar technician Larry Cragg pull axes out of cases and describing their past. Young’s main acoustic guitar used to belong to Hank Williams, and Young notes onstage that it was an honor to return “Hank” to the spot where Hank once played it. Cragg plunks Young’s “garbage can” banjo, and mentions offhandedly that James Taylor used it for the distinctive banjo part on the original “Old Man” recording for “Harvest.”
Raw video diaries of rehearsals for the big show spotlight Young’s absolute command of his songs. The concert’s relaxed feel could lull you to into believing these old friends didn’t bother to practice. The diaries show Young huddling with guitar masters like Boatwright and Cragg to discuss the fingering on every chord, as if none of them had ever picked up a guitar before.
In a voice-over, Demme describes Young as an exacting yet compassionate master. “I hope I learned something about leadership,” Demme says.
Staff writer Michael Booth can be reached at 303-820-1686 or at mbooth@denverpost.com; try the “Screen Team” blog at denverpostbloghouse.com.
