Cruise Control: Neil Young's Lonesome Drive

 

EVEN IN Los Angeles, where cool cars are as common as Taco Bells, you can't help but ogle the elegant black and chrome Caddy limo parked hard by the entrance to Barney's Beanery. Collecting antique autos seems a likely avocation for a troubadour as well-traveled as Neil Young, and in fact the Caddy is but one jewel in a pendant that includes a '34 Bentley and a convertible Buick, a LaSalle, even a Rolls Royce station wagon. Experienced roadsters provide a comfortably rolling environment for writing songs, or for transporting a modest entourage that on this evening includes Neil's wife of 10 years, Pegi, his engineer Niko Bolas, and his veteran driver, identified only as Wog. It certainly boasts more legroom than the booths at Barney's, where this quartet is currently scrunched.