Young invited Fairey to create paintings to reflect each of the 11 songs on Americana, his new album with Crazy Horse that radically reinvigorates such vintage nuggets as Oh Susannah, Jesus' Chariot, This Land Is Your Land and Clementine. In keeping with Young's approach, Fairey's depictions entwine visual cues of bygone times with contemporary graphic forms and bold orange, red and brown hues.
The works will be on display through July 14 at L.A.'s Perry Rubenstein Gallery, where the pair recently attended a preview party celebrating the collaboration.
PHOTOS: See all of Fairey's paintings
Explaining the allure, Fairey, 42, says: "I appreciated a lot of the social commentary in Neil's music. I loved seeing how he adapted the lyrics and restored older lyrics. It was a great excuse to do something outside my stylistic comfort zone. It was a challenge, but a fun and exciting one."
Fairey, renowned for his 2008 Barack Obama Hope poster, first found fame with his Andre the Giant Has a Posse and OBEY street art.
"It's about taking art outside the elitist arenas, just the way music works," says Fairey, who did a portrait of the rock star for his 2010 May Day project. Young in turn enlisted the artist to design cover art for the 25th-anniversary releases of the Bridge School Benefit Concerts. "Music is a very democratic medium. Art as a visual corollary should function more the way popular music does. Neil has made the highest art that's also very accessible."
When Young embarked on Americana, he turned to the iconic compositions, digging up controversial verses that had been discarded over time.
"They're comrades, these songs," he says. "I found the original lyrics that you didn't hear in kindergarten or by the Kingston Trio or the New Christy Minstrels."
Young and Crazy Horse, not exactly the choir-boy types, unleashed their thunder.
"We brought back the dark words," says Young, 66. "Then we put minor keys on some of the songs to make them even darker. And then we just beat the hell out of them. That's what made them urgent.
"These songs have lived for centuries, and there's a reason for that. You can put your life into the song and relate. There's a lot of sympathy and protest and wonderment about the values of things. They're timeless and timely, and Shepard's art reflects that."
The duo disagreed only once: in the depiction of Gallows Pole, a dusty ballad popularized by Led Zeppelin.
"My ideas were frequently more cynical," Fairey says. "My spin on everything is, 'Look at how the working man has always suffered and conti nues to.' On Gallows Pole, what struck me is how your life can have a specific dollar amount, which is very depressing. Neil took a more romantic approach and liked the idea of this sweetheart motivated to ride and save the life of a lover."
Elements of both views are represented on the Pole canvas. The paintings can be seen in Young's 40-minute film, Americana, streaming at NPR.org, and will be among visuals for his tour starting Aug. 5.
Fairey plans to make affordable prints available. What about the originals?
"They'll probably go into the homes of the 1%," he says with a laugh.
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