Gary Lucero Writer

It was 1972. I was 11 years old. I was happy listening to The Beatle's "Hey Jude" on AM radio, and I loved my cassette tapes of Cat Stevens and Elton John. My older brothers and cousin were into a different scene, though, which at that moment was Neil Young's new album, Harvest.

 

 

It seemed all right to me, but I preferred my music.

 

A couple of years later, Neil Young's album On the Beach was released, and by then I was a convert. I became a fan of everything Neil recorded and am a fan to this day.

 

Immediately after Neil released Harvest, which is his most popular and best-selling album, he was quoted as saying that the album "put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there."

 

He next released Journey Through the Past, a non-commercial soundtrack to a non-commercial movie, then Time Fades Away, which was an album no one really wanted to listen to because it was rough and raw. Then On the Beach and Tonight's The Night, depressing albums that only appealed to his most committed fans.

 

I liked all of it. I was already into depressing music and the rough edges didn't bother me. There was something about this guy that grabbed me, and I couldn't get enough of him. I had to have more.

 

By the end of the 70's, Neil saw the writing on the wall, knew that punk and new wave were in, and that rock'n'roll was dead, or at least on hiatus. He embraced Devo, an American new wave band, and together they penned the anthems "My, My, Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue)" and "Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black)."

 

 

With these songs and more he released Rust Never Sleeps, an album that wasn't commercial, but it at least spoke to a generation that many had thought had stopped listening. And more importantly, it questioned the rock'n'roll of the past and present, and posited that Elvis was no longer the king. He asked, could it now Johnny Rotten, the singer and songwriter of the Sex Pistols?

Neil was sure that punk and new wave were important, but he had never been a clairvoyant, so he couldn't have known the 80's would bring a sea change to the music industry. Rockers were no longer free to create whatever they wanted, and record companies found all sorts of ways to make money off new acts. It became difficult for those who were popular in the 60's and 70's to find a place in this brave new decade.

 

He struggled. He moved from Warner/Reprise to Geffen Records and found a hostile working environment. They didn't like his new techno album, Trans, so he tried to release a country flavored album, but they wanted rock'n'roll, so he produced and old-fashioned rockabilly album, Everybody's Rockin', was sued, and that set the tone for most of the 80's.

 

By the time he was able to free himself from Geffen, the 80's were mostly over, and while he hadn't made a whole lot of progress, he still had a fire in his belly. That was about the same time the grunge scene came into full effect, with bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam selling lots of albums and filling arenas.

 

It turns out that these bands had been inspired by Young's seminal album, Rust Never Sleeps, and Kirk Cobain even used lyrics from "My, My, Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue)" in his suicide note in 1994.

Neil was dubbed the Godfather of Grunge, and all the problems he'd had in the 1980s were forgotten. He was seen by many as the guy who refused to compromise, and who kept on rocking regardless of what was going on.

 

Interestingly, although he'd spent the 1980s flitting between genres, including hard rock, techno, rockabilly, country-western, blues, and more, once he got that out of his system, he returned to releasing folk-rock, country-rock, and rock'n'roll albums.

 

I won't bore you with the rest of his discography, but suffice it to say, Neil Young is the guy who has always released whatever he's wanted to. It doesn't matter if the music was considered good, or if people wrote it off, because there's only one person Neil Young has ever aimed to please, and that's himself.

I'm excited to announce I will be at Coronado Mall in Albuquerque, NM, this Sunday, October 6th, 2024, from 12pm - 4pm, to sign my new book, In Letting Go.

 

 

Please visit and introduce yourself. I would love to meet you!

 

Gary

Music has been important to me since I was a child, but in the early 1970s, as I transitioned from being a kid to a teen, Neil Young entered my life. I was captivated by the melancholy of albums such as Time Fades Away, On The Beach, and Tonight's the Night. There was something about this guy, with his honest, heart-felt lyrics, and high-pitched voice, which spoke to me, and I couldn't get enough of him.

 

Neil Young: On The Beach

That was middle school, but by the time I reached high school, I found life much less easy to deal with. I was no longer interested in getting good grades. I just wanted to hang out with friends and get high. I was lost and directionless.

 

Then, in the 11th grade, I took a Creative Writing class that changed my life. My teacher, Mrs. Barnes, introduced the section on poetry, and I suddenly found an outlet for all the stuff swimming around in my head. I was 17 years-old, shy, and had a terrible stutter, but I was excited to discover poetry.

 

Now I could create lyrical landscapes just like my idols. Or at least I could try.

 

Neil Young was a major inspiration for my poetry. His music and as well as that of others, such as The Who, Jethro Tull, Yes, and Rush, have always helped me to see lyrics as the most important aspect of a song. They enabled me to see that music could not only speak to what is going on in the world, but also speak to my heart.

 

 

Jethro Tull: Aqualung

I wrote constantly, and brought my poems to school to show Mrs. Barnes. She was always supportive, but I imagine to this day she cringes thinking about how terrible they were.

I wrote about 5,000 poems in the first five years and they were dreadful. All but one, which was called The Dock. That was the only decent poem I wrote during that period. But I kept writing and after 10+ years, started to see a real improvement.

 

Finally, I could pen more than one decent poem.

 

I continued to write but didn't know a way to publish, and it wasn't until around 2014 that I discovered Amazon's KDP self-publishing service. I decided to take the leap.

Since then, I've tried self-publishing many times. My Goodreads account is littered with failed attempts. Then about a year ago, I finally got serious. I found every poem I'd written, pulled them all together, sorted through them, and began determining which were worth publishing and which were rubbish.

 

Yes: Tales From Topographic Oceans

 

With this process complete, I began revising them.

 

A few months ago, I realized I needed a professional editor to help me and was fortunate to find Lisa McCoy through the Southwest Writers website. She not only edited the poems in In Letting Go, but she also helped me sort through them. And she helped me understand things about writing I never knew. She encouraged me, and she's been a great help in navigating the world of self-publishing.

 

Lisa turned me onto Kate Russell from Westley Enterprises, the talented graphics artist who created the cover and illustrations for In Letting Go. Kate also formatted the book and has been an invaluable resource.

Without these two women and the support of my therapist, I could never have completed In Letting Go. More than once during the process I wanted to ditch the project and go back to being a closet poet. But I persisted with their help.

 

I'm also thankful for my parents, who were always supportive even when I was a troubled teen and young adult and caused them nothing but problems. They never gave up on me while they were alive, and I appreciate that.

 

Lastly, I want to thank my friend James who used to ask me to recite The Dock to him back when we were both in our late teens and early twenties. It's the only poem I ever memorized, and it sticks with me to this very day.

 

I always say that In Letting Go is a book focused on the travails of life and the inevitability of death, and it is, but it's that way because loss, failure, and regret are the pillars of my life. And while I find myself a success professionally, I never think of my personal life as anything but a mess.

 

The Who: Quadrophenia

 

That doesn't make me a bad person, but it colors everything I do, and it also makes me appreciate all the good things I encounter in this life. I'm grateful for growing up in a good home, and for every other positive thing, but I always remember those things that hurt and writing them down helps me to deal with them.

 

All that said, today is the day that In Letting Go is finally available from all major booksellers. If you have an interest in it but don't want to buy it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or Google Play, you can visit most local bookstores and ask them to order a copy for you. They'll be glad to do so.

 

I appreciate your support on this journey and hope you find In Letting Go to be a worthwhile read. I've poured my heart and soul into it, have worked tirelessly on it, and I'm proud of it. I think it's a book of poetry that can help people deal with loss, failure, and regret, the same way creating these poems has helped me.

 

You can find me online at garylucerowriter.com, on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at @garylucerowriter, and can e-mail me at contact@garylucerowriter.com.