Neil Young: The choice to bring down the Olympic curtain

The lips of VANOC are sealed here, but this looks and sounds like more than just heavy speculation: Neil Young will feature very heavily in Sunday's closing ceremony.

A source close to the scene says Young has been tabbed for a headline role, and an acoustic “Heart of Gold” from the 64-year-old Toronto-born rock legend figures to be the see-ya song of this Vancouver Games, for completely obvious reasons.

Ceremonies producer David Atkins is not doing interviews this week – a request through VANOC was politely turned down – so there's no official confirmation. But it makes sense. Young's classic 1972 album Harvest, including the Heart of Gold at the centre of it, was named the No. 1 Canadian album in a poll of 600 musicians, critics and Djs for Bob Mersereau's 2007 book, The Top 100 Canadian Albums (Goose Line Press).

Other clues: Young didn't figure in the opening ceremony, and wasn't a part of a sold-out tribute concert last week at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre here, a show that included Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Toronto's Broken Social Scene and Ron Sexsmith. It'd be just like these kind of closing-night shows to bring in some of the more notable absentees from the opening, and Young is the most notable, his career into its sixth decade. His involvement in causes like Farm-Aid and the environment have taken him beyond the music world. In short, Young is a great Canadian.

As for speculation on who might well be joining him on the Sunday night bill, I'll float a few names from the broadest spectrum that come to mind (and keep in mind, these are pure floats): Joni Mitchell, Arcade Fire, Leonard Cohen (sure, k.d. Lang stood in for Cohen with a Hallelujah that was a highlight of the opening, and Cohen's son said that was good enough, but I dunno), Diana Krall.

If you're looking for a wild card, Vancouver supergroup the New Pornographers, led by tunesmith Carl Newman and the powerful pipes of Neko Case, have been making wonderful music for years. They're a wild-card, yes, but wouldn't this make a hell of an anthem to sing along to:

The New Pornographers: Your Hands (Together) (from prettymuchamazing.com)

Let's throw it open in the comments – who would you like to see and hear?

Comments

[AD]

USA Today: We heard Joni Mitchell during Friday night's sparkling opening ceremonies, crooning Both Sides Now. But where was the Canadian folk songstress?

Absent, it turned out. "She just wasn't available for us," said Vancouver Organizing Committee official Suzanne Reedes, who insisted she didn't know why.

But Mitchell, 66, had cast doubt on her attendance in an interview with the The Vancouver Sun last month. "I'm trying to get well enough to make that," she told the newspaper, detailing a debilitating illness.

"What I have is accumulated from … a lot of diseases in my life — polio, chicken pox, scarlet fever, dengue fever, three kind of measles," Mitchell said. "All these things are viral and they stay in your system so my body is like Afghanistan. It's full of syndromes. It all pools into a disease called morgellons, for which there is no cure. It's a complex infection. I can't afford to get a flu on top of it or anything. I'm pretty fragile, and it's pretty uncomfortable."

[Peter Wloch]

Neil Young...sure why not? The games were opened by a Canadian that can't be bothered living here so why not keep the meme alive.

[Harry Oesterreicher]

I hope Neil does perform, of course. Leonard Cohen is more than unlikely -- he has postponed his current European tour dates due to an injury. What about Rush? Weren't they heavily rumored to be in the opening ceremonies as well? YYZ in YVR 2010!

[Simon S-G]

I would love to see my cousin Leonard take part

[sm]

What's more Canadian than Gordon Lightfoot or Blue Rodeo?

[Bud]

Diana Krall definitely will not be there. She's on tour in Australia.

[Fred]

Neil Young's management has said there is no truth any of this. You need to correct your fable.

[design8tedrallykiller]

Neil Young makes complete sense and if you've followed his career you'll know his own, personal favourite song is FOUR STRONG WINDS. It would be great to see him perform with IAN TYSON.

(Surprised that the opening ceremonies didn't have a place for Vancouverites TROOPER and 'Raise a Little Hell'.

[Kyle]

Neil Young would be cool.

Love to see you mention Arcade Fire and New Pornographers (something a little more original than the usual Lightfoot, Blue Rodeo, Rush, etc). If you're going to play "safe", with someone well-known to all Cdns, at least make it the Hip. I mean, come on .....

[joeray skrha]

Sure would be nice having Neil sing at the participants leave... How about Rockin In The Free World or with Ian and Sylvia Tyson doin Four Strong Winds... What will be watching world wide, maybe 300 Million people? That should sell a few records...
I can see it now, 2010 Olympics, 2011 SuperBowl... Neil and The Horse 12 minutes, hummm... This Notes For You... ??? Peace, Joe Ray

[Chad]

How about some Tragically Hip?

[jac]

AGAIN, Neil Young's management has denied this is factual. Any response, Chris Young?

[Jerome Turner]

How about Pearl Jam? They're better than everyone (don't get me wrong, NY is very solid) and Seattle is close to Vancouver!

[Ogus]

How about Randy Bachman and elements of BTO and the Guess Who. He's also made a record with Neil Young and lives in BC I think.

A re-united Bare Naked Ladies would be cool. And Nickelback.

[doubt it]

i think neil young is unlikely, just because the kind of corporate atmosphere that surrounds the olympic games is something he has usually shunned. while i'd be happy to hear a neil young song be represented in the closing ceremonies, i'd almost be a little disappointed if he showed up or if he allowed 'heart of gold' to become corporatized as some kind of canadian olympic anthem. so my bet is on NO neil. the closing ceremonies will more likely include some big cheesy fromage like celine.

[Doug]

Just one thing to say, Neil and the Shocking Pinks or Nothing!

[paul]

Call up a true Canadian - Dan Aykroyd! Throw him up on stage with a band and let him do his Blues Brothers thang.

[Wayne]

What's I've heard is that Neil Young is a big hockey fan. He'll only go to watch the games if he goes at all.

[Bud]

As I said earlier, Diana Krall is on tour in Australia. However, strangely enough, she has a break in her schedule that would allow her to get to BC, do the Ceremony, and return to Australia in time for her next gig in Brisbane.

Seems extremely unlikely, but it could be done.