Neil Young began playing concerts and recording music before the Beatles even stepped foot in America, and he’s never stopped. The depth and breadth of his output — including work with Buffalo Springfield, CSNY, and Crazy Horse — is simply staggering, even if classic-rock radio has reduced him to “Heart of Gold,” “Old Man,” “Cinnamon Girl,” “Rockin’ in the Free World,” and a handful of other played-out hits. True aficionados know practically every single thing he did between 1966 and 1978 is near perfect, and there have been many stunning comeback periods in more recent years. If you think you’re a true Rustie (or even know what that term means), we have a quiz for you. But be warned: If you just know Harvest, After the Gold Rush, Déjà Vu, and Harvest Moon, you might not want to bother with this one.
Zero to 30% correct: Don’t let this bring you down. You just need a crash course in Neil 101. The obvious place to start is Jimmy McDonough’s 2002 book Shakey. It’s the definitive Neil Young biography, and nothing else comes remotely close. Follow it up with Young’s 2012 memoir, Waging Heavy Peace, and the 2014 follow-up, Special Deluxe: A Memoir of Life & Cars. Then absorb all three Archives box sets. When you’re done with all of that, you’ll be a Rustie in training.
31 to 60% correct: Nice work. Your next course of action is buying a subscription to the Neil Young Archives. It’s an incredibly valuable resource containing his entire recorded output in extreme high-quality sound, a detailed timeline of his career, session logs, bootlegs, lyric manuscripts, and near-daily news updates. There’s nothing you won’t know about Neil if you take about 25 hours and scroll through the entire thing.
61 to 100% correct: Congrats. You’re an official Rustie. But don’t rest on your laurels. There’s still much to learn. We recommend Neil and Me, by Scott Young; it’s the rare book about a rock star from the perspective of a parent. And since Scott Young was an acclaimed Canadian journalist, the writing is stellar. David Browne’s Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock’s Greatest Supergroup will teach you everything you need to know about CSNY. More importantly, buy a concert ticket and see Young in concert. He’s somehow still in near-peak form at age 79.
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