What Will Neil Young Sing?

When the Winter Olympics kicked off two weeks ago with Canadian Joni Mitchell singing "Both Sides Now" my first thought was "Where's Neil Young?" Arguably -- okay, maybe not arguably -- Canada's most significant musical artist, Young was missing from the opening ceremonies and I hoped the Canadian Olympic brass would show enough mettle not to freeze him out.

Not to fear. Young (along with fellow Canadian Avril Levigne) will be the featured performer at the closing ceremonies tonight. But what will he sing? As is often the case, what he will sing and what he should sing are probably not going to be the same. Though he's equally at home with electric or acoustic guitars, the setting begs for some sort of solo acoustic performance -- so figure on a selection particularly suited to solo Young on his Martin. The obvious choice is "Heart of Gold" from the 1972 Harvest record that made him an international star. It's well known, it was written and performed for years as an acoustic song, and it hits appropriate Olympic "searching for a heart of gold" themes. So that's where I'm putting my money.



But what Young should do is tip his hat to two of his inspirations, early Canadian folk pioneer duo Ian & Sylvia who wrote and sang folk hit after folk hit including everlasting staples such as Sylvia's "You Were on My Mind" and Ian's "Some Day Soon." But the inspired choice, which Young has performed live and which he recorded on Comes a Time, is Ian's "Four Strong Winds," a gorgeous and bittersweet ballad that not only name-checks Alberta but which was written for the thousands of Canada's seasonal workers who move across the country every year from tobacco harvest to wheat harvest, to apple harvest -- often forced to leave loved ones behind.

That's the inspired choice.