Song: Neil Young – Long May You Run (Live)
I admit that I’m not a Neil Young fan. He’s like Dylan to me. Respectable songwriter and musician, but I just can’t get over the performance (both have voices that are “acquired tastes”).
Having said that, I thought Young’s performance of his 1976 tune “Long May You Run” at the 2010 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony in Vancouver, Canada was phenomenal. In a closing ceremony that was silly and a little bizarre, Young’s performance easily stood as the best part of the night. It was a long and drawn out “ceremony” (more like an awards show without the awards …which, come to think of it, is what most awards shows are nowadays) with elaborate and colorful costumes on singers, a ton of children with snowboards, and Michael Bublé ripping off his Mounty clothes to reveal a suit and a Vegas style backdrop (did anyone not see this one coming?). William Shatner, Catherine O’Hara, and Michael J Fox hammed it up, awkwardly, too.
Oh and then Neil Young sang his tune accompanied by just his acoustic guitar and harmonica as the Olympic torches burned out. I good-naturedly ribbed Elise about getting swept up with the emotional stories of the Olympic athletes, but here I was getting swept up with an emotional performance by a legend. And a legend I’m not very fond of for that matter – that’s how powerful the performance was. Young didn’t get too nasally, as he does in most of his tunes, and the excellent song was one I’d never heard before. Apparently he did a version very similar on Conan O’Brien’s last show (you can see it here. Hurry, it’s probably the only place left on the internet to experience it as NBC is taking EVERYTHING down!) that was just as good (although I prefer the Olympics one by a smidge.) His shaky, old-man voice actually added to the performance. I’ve read everywhere that many bloggers agree that it was the highlight of the night.
Oh, and by the way, the song is about his first car. Nice!
Bravo, Neil Young.
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