When I was a kid in elementary school and in love for the first time with a girl named Tammy Gray, I discovered pop music on my local radio station that let me know the aching in my heart was real. "Without You" by Nillsson, "Everything I Own" by Bread, and "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young must have been fairly recent hits at the time. It seems like I heard them every night on the radio for weeks and weeks. They were great songs and they made the secret crush in my heart explode with love. And yet, in each song there is a tinge of melancholy and sadness. My love for Neil Young began in childhood. And while I never became a huge fan, never saw him in concert, and only owned a handful of his records, I still consider him one of the most influential musicians to help mold my psyche, right in there with the same importance as Elton and Bowie and The Beegees and Laurie Anderson.

This concert film named after Young's most well known song, "Heart of Gold," is sectioned into two pieces both shot last year at the Ryman Auditorium (home of the Grand Ol' Opry). The first part is a performance of Young's latest album, "Prairie Wind," a mellow set of songs in the vein of Young's "Harvest" and "Harvest Moon" records, that find the songwriter and performer considering his life in the wake of a brain aneurism he had two years ago. Young had surgery that successfully dealt with the medical problem. But the importance of the situation was not lost on the songwriter. "Prairie Wind" is perhaps his most thoughtful, reflective and beautiful album ever.

The second section of the film is a reflection of Young's more mellow songbook where tunes like "Heart of Gold," "Old Man," "The Needle and the Damage Done," "Harvest Moon," and "I am a Child" are performed. While the old favorites are certainly wonderful to hear and are performed perfectly, it is in fact the moments in the film's first section which truly grab us by the heart and don't let go. Not having heard Young's new album, I was unprepared for the emotional depths with which the performance would take me. I sobbed during a beautiful song called "Like a Dream" which looked at the changes in the world in the last half century not with anger or vitriol but with melancholy and sorrow. Young isn't a preacher; he's a poet, and his beautiful thoughts brought forth by his amazing voice seep into our consciousness like water seeping into the sand of the shore. With each wave, Young brings us closer and closer to the honesty and beauty in his songs, to their heart.

Another fine song from his new record is "Old Guitar" which reflects on the past again in a poetic and dreamlike way. Young only speaks for a few seconds before a few of the songs in the film but each little story brings us much deeper into the song that follows. Before "Old Guitar," he tells us that the guitar he is playing was once owned by Hank Williams. He isn't bragging but instead dropping us into his thoughts and helping us to understand his poetry and music even more deeply.

Directed by Jonathan Demme, "Heart of Gold" is visually beautiful without ever overpowering the stunning performance of Young and his band mates. Demme, who shot the classic concert film for the Talking Heads called "Stop Making Sense" creates a sense of intimacy while still providing shots that seems to come from every angle towards the stage. The classic tableau of the proscenium which allows us to see the entire stage is used quite effectively, just as it was in the Heads film. And while there are times where Demme's cameras get a little to close (Young looks pretty old here and, like all vocalists, often spits a little while he sings) the overwhelming intimacy of the performance cannot be denied. It is more than "You are there," it is "You are there in every seat and seeing the stage from every conceivable angel."

Young has always been a visionary. He has had his concerts performances filmed several times by directors as diverse as Jim Jarmusch and Martin Scorsese. He's worked with Devo and Dean Stockwell and Dennis Hopper and Pearl Jam and he has created several videos himself, including 2004's ambitious "Greendale." Young seems to see the link between music and the visual arts and "Heart of Gold" is no exception. In fact, this may very well be the greatest visual document of Young's work ever. And while I love his crazy, outrageous, punky moments in films like "Human Highway" and on albums like "Trans" and "Reactor," the elder statesman of my parent's generation that Demme presents here is a guise which suits the artist equally well. Young becomes a sober, somber, intelligent, spiritual poet who has seen it all, lived it all and still hopes to live another day and see another change for the better. He is a harbinger of hope and hopefulness. He is father and grandfather to a generation lost in the changes of the world and stunned by their own inability to enact change and create real change. And yet his voice is not angered or defeated. It is, in fact, the opposite.

With the mind of an artist, the face of a grandfather and the voice of God's wisest cherub, Neil Young is a national treasure. "Heart of Gold" is a testament not just to his talent, but his overwhelming power as a performer, a storyteller and a poet.

Children, listen.

Note:

With many of Young's long time band members performing on stage with him. Emmylou Harris, who sings on the new album, performs with Young on several songs. Many of the band members have brief interview segments at the start of the film.

Young worked with Demme in 1993 when he provided the song for the end credits of "Philadelphia."

Viewed at a press sneak at the Dobie in February of 2006. The film premiered in Austin at the SXSW Film Festival a month later before opening at arthouses.

Report Card

Music: A+

Sound: A+

Performance: A+

Non-Concert Segments: C

Cinematography/Lighting: A+

Final Grade: A+