In my experience blazing, stand-up geniuses don’t necessarily softball it when offering opinions or criticizing the work of colleagues or what-have-you. And they do tend to eff-bomb with impugnity for the most part. Which is a roundabout way of saying you probably don’t want to get on Neil Young‘s bad side while creating or rehearsing because he won’t bite your head off — he’ll tear it off with his bare hands and then vomit down your neck.

“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”…right? Except Young isn’t kitchen heat — he’s a blast furnace.

Boilerplate: Mountaintop (Aboramarama, 10.26, 86 minutes) is an unfiltered look at the process of Neil Young with Crazy Horse making their first album in seven years. Witness the laughter, tensions, crusty attitudes and love of a rock and roll band that’s been together for 50 years. Directed by Young under the name Bernard Shakey“…as in “shakey cam”?

YouTube Guy #1: “Like a grizzled Captain Bligh leading a loyal crew of ragamuffins through a sonic ocean of electric current.”

YouTube Guy #w2: “All these people complaining that he’s an ass to work with….LMAO. It’s how he makes the records. Look how they sound in this trailer. It fuels the sound of the music. It’s rough, and it’s brilliant.

YouTube Guy #w2: “Hey Neil…my dad and I connect over your music. Thanks for making it. Would really love to see you in concert but the tickets are too darn expensive.”

Wiki excerpt: “After the break-up of Buffalo Springfield, Young signed a solo deal with Reprise Records, home of his colleague and friend Joni Mitchell, with whom he shared a manager, Elliot Roberts, who managed Young until his death in 2019. Young and Roberts immediately began work on Young’s first solo record, Neil Young (January 22, 1969),[44] which received mixed reviews. In a 1970 interview,Young deprecated the album as being ‘overdubbed rather than played.’ The album contains songs that remain a staple of his live shows including ‘The Loner.’

“For his next album, Young recruited three musicians from a band called The Rockets: Danny Whitten on guitar, Billy Talbot on bass guitar, and Ralph Molina on drums. These three took the name Crazy Horse (after the historical figure of the same name), and ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (May 1969) is credited to “Neil Young with Crazy Horse.” Recorded in just two weeks, the album includes ‘Cinnamon Girl’, ‘Cowgirl in the Sand’ and ‘Down by the River.’ Young reportedly wrote all three songs in bed on the same day while nursing a fever of 103 fahrenheit.”