NEIL YOUNG

Neil Young celebrated his 66th birthday on November 12. So, for this episode of our trivia quiz, our questions are all about Neil. For the record, Neil Young was born in Toronto, Ontario, (Canada for those reading out of the country). When his parents split up, he moved to Winnipeg with his mother, which is where he began his music career in earnest. He later returned to Toronto, then to Los Angeles and world wide stardom. Hey, even if you're not a died-in-the-wool Neil Young fan, this quiz will be fun and if you know your music, relatively easy.

Here we go.

QUESTIONS:

1. Neil Young first came to international fame as a member of Buffalo Springfield, but before that, he was in a Toronto group with Rick James (Yes, the Motown "Superfreak" himself). What was the name of this Canadian band?

2. Buffalo Springfield's first Top 10 hit on the charts was 1967's "For What It's Worth (Hey What's That Sound)". The original members of Buffalo Springfield were Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Richie Furay, Dewey Martin and Bruce Palmer. Palmer was replaced by Jim Messina after 2 albums. When the band broke up in 1968, Stills and Young became part of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Richie Furay and Jim Messina co-founded a folk/rock group that charted 13 hits between 1970 and 1989, although they only ever had 2 Top 20 hits. "Crazy", huh? Two of this groups' members later left to join The Eagles. Can you name this folk rock band?

3. Which southern U.S. rockers recorded a Top 10 hit in response to several of Neil's songs about the south?

4. Neil never really forgot his roots in Canada and has written several songs that mention his home and native land. We're looking for two specific songs. Can you name either one?

5. Neil's father was also famous, although he didn't write songs. What did he do for a living?

ANSWERS

1. The Mynah Birds was the groups' name. RIck James went on to success at Motown; Neil Young drove down to Los Angeles in a hearse, which is where he connected with Stephen Stills on the Sunset strip. The rest is music history.

2. Poco was the name of the group. Their biggest hit was 1979's "Crazy Love" which made it to # 17 on Billboards' Hot 100 chart. Two Poco members, Randy Meisner and Timothy B. Schmidt, who were in the band at different times, both ended up as members of The Eagles.

3. Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote and recorded "Sweet Home Alabama" in answer to Neil's "Alabama" and "Southern Man". In "Sweet Home Alabama", the lyrics say, "Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her. Well, I heard ole Neil put her down. Well, I hope Neil Young will remember. A southern man don't need him around nyhow." "Sweet Home Alabama" hit its peak spot, # 8 in the fall of 1974.

4. "Helpless" is one. Those lyrics are: "There's a town in north Ontario..." The town Neil's refering to is Omemee, near Peterborough. The second song we were looking for is "Journey Through The Past". Those lyrics are: "Now I'm going back to Canada. On a journey through the past. And I won't be back until February comes."

5. Scott Young was a Canadian journalist, sports writer and novelist. Scott moved to Toronto in 1941, where he worked for the Canadian Press. After World War II, Scott joined Macleans Magazine, but left in 1948 to write fiction. He later worked for the Globe and Mail newspaper as well as The Toronto Telegram, where he was Sports Editor. Scott Young is inseveral Halls of Fame and in 1993, the Scott Young Public School was named in his honour in Omemee. Scott Young passed
away at 87 in 2004.