Neil Young on Letterman Tonight

Tough decision, but Letterman is just too big a jerk.

Phil

Talking about Lionel?  I'll be recording it.  Thanks for posting.

DITTO.

Me too .. thanks

I think complete jerk is more like it.

Both are unbearable to watch. Love Neil Young for what he did for Lionel but that's about it.

Ditto on Letterman being a big jerk. He's no Johnny Carson. Haven't watched it in several years.

 

John Knapp

Erie, not Eerie

just fast forward until Neil shows up.  That is what I did when Kaley Cuoco was on.

If God was on Lettermen I would not watch that freak! The dud is weird!

John

You got it right, he is a dud.

I don't care about Letterman, but I want to see NY!

 

John

Nice NY segment. Talked about developing tmcc, Also letterman said he and his on were big into Lionel trains.

Say what you want about Lettermen... the Neil Young segment kicked off with a nice conversation devoted to Lionel trains and Neil's role in developing the remote control systems and digital sound systems used in today's Lionel trains.  Then went on to discuss another device Neil has developed for capturing high-resolution sounds and playing back all types of digital sound formats.  Finished with a short plug about a current book along with mentioning an upcoming concert to benefit world hunger.  And then the cut-away to commercial showed some Lionel trains running!  

 

Nice segment overall.

 

David

Oh, just great.  I am a Letterman fan and would love to watch that interview, however some jerk with a back pack that he says holds a bomb is sitting outside of Ch. 2 Studios in Salt Lake City right now.  Of course, thats a bigger news story thain Daves show so no Late Show for me tonight.

You should be able to watch it on the CBS.com web site.

 

Andrew

Just saw the segment...great and interesting exposure for Lionel.  I believe that Letterman has about 3 million viewers every night.  Hope that quick shot of the smoking steam engine and the diesel generates interest in some of those folks!  It is cool that Letterman and his son are also Lionel fans. 

 

OK, It's comming on now, the cops shot the guy and a robot grabbed th "bomb", won't find out until tomarrow what was in the backpack.  The guys still alive, he is being flown by lifeflight to the hospital.

David Letterman might keep from showing Lionel Trains more often on his show because he wants to keep his personal enjoyment of the Lionel Locomotives & trains out of the spotlight of the television show. His show is one type of situation that is a stark contrast to the mood created by the O Scale and O Gauge trains.

 

Andrew

Just finished watching it. Short but interesting.  Dave mentions what his son is up to now and then but he likes to keep his home life seperat from the show.  Bet he has one heck of a layout.  Oh, and thanks DaveP for the heads up on this.

Letterman and Neil Young had a great conversation promoting the hobby.  Much more than many of the comments above which miss the whole point and turn the thread to their own interest to bash Letterman.  Dave said he and his son are really into it and Young explained how he was motivated to develop the technology with Lionel because his son is handicapped and shared his enthusiasm when they bought a Lionel set.  There was even a clip after the segment of O gauge.

 

If Letterman is a jerk, the above comments from some of the small-minded people above are missing the whole point and demonstrating that he doesn't have a monopoly on that characterization.

 

There is an incredible amount of hate voiced on this forum sometimes over topics as relevant as angels dancing on the head of pin. For God's sake it is a frickin hobby.  Are the grumpy old men on OGR becoming older and hence more grumpy?  Seems like it.

Well said Larry. I've noticed the same thing lately.

Nice job by Neil, who is always a great ambassador for Lionel whenever the opportunity presents itself.  He has contributed much to this hobby over a good many years and in a good many ways.

Letterman is a Lionel fan. Great to hear. I hope in future segments his guests that saw this show or heard about it will bring up Lionel. If Dave is a fan I am sure there are many more famous people that are Lionel fans that we don't know about. I'm guessing for them money for trains is not a problem. 

Show is here, skip forward to 30 minutes

 

http://www.cbs.com/shows/late_...-late-show-9-27-2012

While I haven't been a fan of Letterman for a long time, I do occasionally record a show if there is a particular guest (like NY) or musical act (like The Clarks) that I want to see, and just fast forward to the segment I want to see.

 

This NY segment was well worth watching.  I wonder if there is a way for NY to put his Pono system into O gauge trains...  

 

Andy

I really enjoyed watching this segment. I don't normally watch this show but with Neil Young I thought it was worth staying up to see what might happen. First thing mentioned was LIONEL.....was good listening to them about trains.

Does anyone know about the PONO that they were talking about? I learned what it did, but not how to get any info into this item.

Great show!  Great interview!  Anything like that is very good for the hobby.

 

On a side note:  Everybody on the show, from David and Paul down to the stage hands who load gear into the studio, are great people!  Very professional, kind and courteous.

 

Dave

 

Me too!

 

There are a few articles mentioning it out there (you can find most of them with a Google search).  I think that this tech is still pretty much in its infancy and I don't think it is anywhere near commercial availability yet, but from what I have read about it, it has incredible promise for the world of music.

 

Andy

Dave

 

Although it was many moons ago while Dave was still at NBC, we did the JFK Airport show and I would concur with your impressions.  Although Dave did come across as being a little bit demanding in respects of wanting a very clean show.

 

On a side note:  Everybody on the show, from David and Paul down to the stage hands who load gear into the studio, are great people!  Very professional, kind and courteous.

 

Dave

Thanks for posting the link, Chris!

 

I just watched the segment again.  Excellent, and a fine promo for the hobby (and especially for Lionel).

Letterman's been on for thirty years I believe.  That's not an accident.  I didn't care for him a few years back but gave him a chance when Conan took over the Tonight Show.

I've come to realize he's an excellent interviewer.  Makes guests comfortable, gets content out that I think most viewers want to hear.   I guess if you're a Sarah Palin fan you probably aren't DVR'ing his monologs. 

I would love to see more about his interest in Lionel.

 

Larry3,

  Excellent points.  I grow very tired of the negative grumpy responses to threads on this forum.   Threads that are very positive topics involving our hobby of toy trains.   This thread turns into a David Letterman bashing.   Those of us who truely enjoy all aspects of the hobby and hope for its future should be happy to see the David Letterman show featuring Neil Young and trains. If I owned a magazine covering toy train products, I would be glad to see the topic on mainstream national television, not bash the guy.

  Lighten up guys.  Its a comedy show on tv.  Its toy trains.  Its Neil Young with some really good conversation about our hobby. 

 

I said before that I appreciate what Neil has done for Lionel but I don't have to watch him or listen to letterman boot lick his guests. Being grumpy has nothing to do with it but respecting my opinion for not liking either one of them is what I expect and demand.

Thank you so much for posting the link, I really enjoyed watching it.

BTW, I first learned of Letterman and figured that he would sometime be a major success when I found my 10 year old son was sneaking staying up late and watching Letterman on the Late Late Show. This son is 42 now and is not hurt at all from the experience.

Well said, david1.  A simple opinion about a national TV personality becomes a target for personal attack.  I guess we're not grumpy or hateful as long as we agree with the responders who like him.  BTW, how does Sarah Palin get into the mix? 

I merely reflected that in weighing my dislike for Letterman against viewing an interview with NY came up short in terms of staying up or viewing other choices.  Is this not a forum for the voicing of opinions, or do we have to fall in line with a chosen few?

Phil

It looks to me to be a high end development aimed either at the production industry or the ultra audiophile. We hear sound at a digital level and it sounds great and this appears to be something to find all of the missing stuff in sound that gets lost in digital conversion and bring it out. According to what I read about it, a large percentage of sound gets lost in the conversion to digital.

 

With the backing of Sony, Warner Brothers and someone else (I think), he'll be launching an I tunes type competitive music download service exclusive to the Pono player, claiming the sound is closer to recording studio quality levels.

 

Most folks have audio devices. I was out in the garage going through some old boxes recently and found - a cassette deck, a walkman cassette player, and eight track tape, hundreds of audio cassettes, several walkman cd players, hundreds of cds. My home entertainment system has a cd player, my computer has a cd player, I have an MP3 player on my desk, all of my cds have been ripped into my computer and doled out to devices. My new whiz bang Samsung Galaxy phone plays music.

 

Point being, with everyone toting a SmartPhone with music built in, I would ask the first marketing question - "Why would I buy this when I already have it?" A PONO player would play any sound file, but who needs another player? A PONO player would have the capability to also play PONO files. Would you want to repurchase all of the music you enjoy in a new format? I've got some Rolling Stones Music on vinyl, cassette tape, CD and ripped in my computer. Not sure I want to buy "Gimme Shelter" for the fourth time in another new format. 

 

 

There's nothing wrong with expressing diverse opinions, although I can't imagine how anyone who viewed the segment could not regard it as good exposure for the hobby.  It's more a matter of the words chosen to express an opinion.  Words like "jerk" or "freak" say more about the poster than they do about the topic being discussed, especially since most here (but certainly not all) have never even met either man.