Heart Of Gold

I first saw Heart Of Gold a few weeks ago with two great friends of mine. I went back and saw it again just last week. It’s the only feature I’ve ever sat down and watched twice in a cinema – and loved equally on both occasions. For those who haven’t seen it, it was shot over two nights at the gorgeous Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee in 2005. Neil Young was premiering songs from his album, Prairie Wind, as well as a number of his best-loved and well-known tunes from various periods of his long career. As it’s alluded to at the start of the doco, in a series of brief conversations with several of the musicians involved in this project, this record was particularly special, since it was written around the time that Young was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm and facing surgery. Hence, Prairie Wind is composed of a reflective, country-tinged bunch of songs that largely centres on the themes of friends, family and mortality. The documentary is beautifully filmed and the camera never seems as though it’s getting too invasive for the performers on stage. I don’t know if director Jonathan Demme is a big Neil Young fan, but through this film he presents us with a picture of a sincere, nostalgic and gentle man, who is so grateful to be sharing the stage again with his friends and loved ones.

The first two-thirds of the film are dedicated to Prairie Wind. Young starts off with the reflective “The Painter” and works his way through most of the album, quietly dropping in anecdotes on how certain songs came about. Particularly moving is the way he talks about his late father, and it’s obvious that Young’s grief is still quite fresh. He deftly moves on to “Prairie Wind”, a rollicking number about his dad, aided beautifully by the brass section on stage with him. After some dry musings on becoming an ‘empty nester’, Young segues into the gentle and honest “Here For You”. Equally beautiful is “This Old Guitar” where Young is joined on stage by Emmylou Harris.
But the really emotional king-hits come in the latter part of the film. Alone, Young starts off with “I Am A Child” and moves on to perform some of his best-known material such as the gorgeous “Heart Of Gold”, “The Needle And The Damage Done” and “Old Man”. I don’t know how many musicians out there can get away with sitting alone on a stage with a harmonica and acoustic guitar, and hold the attention of an auditorium full of people. But while watching this doco, you can see (and hear) exactly why Neil Young is so revered and why people like Gaz Coombes and Emmylou Harris nominate him as their hero. Among the most enjoyable and moving moments of this film are the numbers that involve all of Young’s large band, including his wife Pegi, Emmylou Harris and long-time friends Ben Keith and Grant Boatwright. These include tunes like “Comes A Time”, “Harvest Moon”, “One Of These Days” (particularly pertinent) and the sublime “Four Strong Winds”.

It’s really difficult to adequately sum up Heart Of Gold and say anything that can remotely do justice to this stunning film and the extraordinary man that it features. Just like after having watched that Nick Cave doco that was on last year, I walked out of this film feeling like I’d learnt a lot about the man and his music. The only frustrating thing about it is realising that there’s a wealth of great music he’s produced that I haven’t experienced. Guess I’ll just have to try and catch up on that now.