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1-Page Summary of Heavy
Neil Young wrote a book about his life. He loved playing music, working on model trains, and collecting cars. However, he also had health issues: polio as a child and epilepsy later in life. His doctor suggested that he stop drinking alcohol and smoking weed to help with those problems. Neil’s wife was Pegi Young; they had three children together. He wanted to live so that he didn’t become a burden to anyone else
Neil Young’s musical career began when he joined the band called The Squires. He was inspired and impressed by other bands, such as Company and Silvertones. Neil met Stephen Stills who later became like a brother to him. The Squires were successful but also fell upon hard times. After the band broke up, Neil was part of Mynah Birds until the lead singer Rick James Matthews got arrested for drugs and their manager spent all their money on drugs too.
Crazy Horse is a rock band that was formed in the 60’s. It originally consisted of Danny Whitten, Ralph Molinia, Billy Talbott and Neil Young. Poncho Sampedro joined the band after Danny died in 1974. In 2011, they still played together as Crazy Horse. In 1969, Neil joined Crosby Stills Nash & Young (CSNY) with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash because he wanted to be part of a group again since Buffalo Springfield broke up earlier that year.
The author loved cars and collected many of them. He stored them in Mr. Feelgood’s Garage, where he also held many meetings with his staff. His favorite car was a 1953 Buick Skylark, which he called the Big Kahuna because it reminded him of Hawaii (he had once been there on vacation). When Neil was 18 years old, his mother bought him a 1948 hearse; this became his first vehicle to transport musical equipment around town.
Neil has been working on his Lincvolt for the past four years. He wanted to make a large car more energy-efficient, so he decided to rebuild it after an accident destroyed it.
Neil Young, who is a famous singer-songwriter, wanted to create an invention that would make music sound better. He believed the new product had superior sound quality over iTunes and CDs. Neil was trying to get financing for his idea. The title of the book came from a question about this invention by one of his son’s caregivers. The question asked whether Neil was creating war on Apple with Puretone (the name of the invention). His response was that he wasn’t waging war; rather, he aimed at pursuing peace through making great sounding music available in an easy manner without compromising its quality.
Neil’s health has been poor since he was a child. He contracted polio at the age of 6, which caused him to have trouble walking and back pain. In addition, Neil had epileptic seizures that were hard to diagnose because many doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. In 1971, Neil underwent surgery for his back pain; however, complications arose during the operation and he started bleeding from an artery in his leg.
The book, “Waging Heavy Peace”, by Neil Young is a memoir about his life and his journey from the past to the present. Throughout the book, he maintains an optimistic attitude toward making life better for others. He has wanted to make a better environmentally friendly car with Lincvolt and create music that sounds better than MP3s with PureTone. His personality shines throughout as he shares feelings, regrets, and mistakes with his audience.
