Photos: Neil Young in The Times

Young in concert with his reunited Crazy Horse at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago. Hilburn covered the event and wrote the following for the Times:

Signs of the rejuvenated Neil Young’s “garage rock” instincts are seen at every turn on his current U.S. concert tour. Before the start of each show, a vintage Rolling Stones album is played over the sound system. The snarling music is an enduring vinyl definition of the garage-rock style--the kind of raw, spirited rock ‘n’ roll blasted out by enthusiastic young bands in their makeshift rehearsal rooms.

The mural that hangs over the front of the stage as the audience files in adds to the spirit: a painting of a battered garage door, complete with nicks and broken windows. The mural is lifted to reveal oversized items associated with a run-down garage: discarded tires, old license plates, cockroaches.

The concert itself--reuniting Young with his fierce Crazy Horse band--takes the form of a rehearsal, complete with such interruptions as an exterminator spraying for bugs, a neighbor complaining about the godawful noise and, finally, a squad car arriving to call the whole thing to a close.

This is a risky concept for the 41-year-old musician, because it requires Young to perform with the intensity and desire of a young, hungry musician--or look ludicrous trying to be a garage-rocker.

But Young and Crazy Horse live up to the best garage-rock tradition. Their polish and craft certainly distinguish the band from a group of new, aspiring performers, yet they play new and old material with a passion that is frequently inspiring. Young bounces across the stage with the vitality of a cheerleader, then centers himself with a punishingly primal guitar solo.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Young, center, performs with bassist Billy Talbot, left, and guitarist Frank Sampedro while making a music video at the Cat N Fiddle bar in Hollywood. Hilburn covered the Hollywood moment:

The impression as Neil Young strolled onto the set of his video shoot in Hollywood wearing tattered jeans, an old baseball cap and a ragged leather jacket was that here was a man who was dressing down for the occasion.

Young, who refers to himself good-naturedly as “the oldest guy on MTV,” was collecting royalty checks for gold albums before many of today’s youthful rock mavericks were in grade school. But he’s competing with them for record sales and he wants to look like he fits in. Right?

In fact, Young was dressing up for the shoot.

Minutes before, as he surveyed the site, Young’s clothes were even funkier: the same tattered jeans, but an even older baseball cap worn unceremoniously backwards and a wrinkled shirt that looked as if it had been on a closet floor for months.

“Got to look good for TV,” Young responded later with a broad smile when a visitor on the set pointed out the change of clothes. “Those young bands dress pretty well these days.”

Even with the accompanying wink, the line sounded like yet another jab at the video emphasis on today’s pop world. The impression that Young, 45, is aligned with other veteran rock artists--and quite a few young ones--who hate promotional videos was reinforced a few moments later.

There wasn’t a trace of a breeze in the air as Young and the three members of Crazy Horse, the trio with which he has done some of his finest work over the years, moved in place behind the microphones on a small wooden stage in the courtyard of the Cat & Fiddle restaurant on Sunset Boulevard.

However, the script called for a balmy, tropical atmosphere, so a wind machine was switched on as soon as Young began playing. The gusts were so strong that they not only blew away Young’s baseball cap, but also almost knocked the musicians over.

As Young struggled to maintain his balance, he started laughing even though the song, a tale of obsessive love called “Over and Over,” was not meant to be funny.

To anyone who argues that videos ruin the integrity of a song by forcing a single interpretation on a viewer, the laughter was a commentary by Young on the ridiculousness of the whole situation.

But Young was laughing because he was having fun.

“All that wind felt great,” he said during a break in the shooting. “It kind of pushed us around and made us battle back, and added a spirit to the whole thing.

“That’s the secret of making a good video. You’ve got to tap some real emotions . . . the same way you have find real emotions when you are writing and recording a song.”  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Young at the Nokia Theatre in 2007. Randy Lewis reviewed:

His “Chrome Dreams II” tour is split into two not-so-discrete halves that combine for a wide-screen window onto the creative process. The first part of his 90-minute set was an utterly solo, utterly acoustic trip through a baker’s dozen songs that felt like a guided tour through a master craftsman’s workshop.

Young surrounded himself with the tools of his trade -- a semicircular cove of acoustic guitars flanked by an upright piano and a baby grand with a synthesizer keyboard on top, and that other piece of indispensable solo folkie equipment, harmonicas.

This, he tacitly informed the 7,000 or so fans who paid rapt attention, is where songs are created, out of a single inquisitive, disciplined and inspired mind.  (Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times)

Young was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year in 2010, an annual pre-Grammy charity event.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Young performed “Long May You Run” at the closing ceremony of the 2010 Olympic games.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Young with producer Lanois in September of 2010.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)