Neil Young

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><script type="text/javascript" src="http://hb.lycos.com/hb.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ratings.lycos.com/ratings/lycosRating.js.php"></script> <script type="text/javascript"><![CDATA[//><!]]></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://scripts.lycos.com/catman/init.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-start.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-middle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-end.js"></script> <noscript> <img src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/img/common/ot_noscript.gif?rand=714056" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  <iframe frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" width="728" height="90" src="http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=728x90&section=209094"></iframe>  </noscript> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=180 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03164643.jpg"> <div> <B>The Fyfeopedia has been superseded by the NEW AND IMPROVED FYFEOPEDIA!!!</b></div> <div> <B>Please visit the new site at http://</b><A HREF="http://fyfe.fusion.net.nz/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://fyfe.fusion.net.nz/"><U><B>fyfe.fusion.net.nz/</b></U></A></div> <div> <B>This site will no longer be updated.</b></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=300 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="03164643.jpg"> <div> <B>Neil Young</b></div> <div> <A HREF="directory.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Directory"><U>Directory</U></A>    <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fyfeopedia Music Reviews "><U>Home</U></A>    <A HREF="feedback.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Feedback Page"><U>Feedback</U></A>    <A HREF="recent.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Recent Reviews"><U>Recent Reviews</U></A>    <A HREF="aplus.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The A List"><U>The A+ List</U></A>    <A HREF="links.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U>Links</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>Neil Young</b></div> <div> <I>After The Goldrush </I>(1970, Reprise)</div> <div> Presumably Young established popular recognition with <A HREF="csny.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young"><U>Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young</U></A>'s <I>Deja Vu</I>, but the early signs on <I>After the Goldrush</I> are that he seems intent on sabotaging it. Kick off track <I>Tell Me Why </I>begins abruptly with Young ignoring the pleasantries of an introduction and whining the first line without accompaniment. In the title track, Young sings a long away above his natural voice range, rendering his not particularly attractive voice even more unattractive. But if the rough and ready nature of <I>After the Goldrush </I>can be endured there is plenty to be admired; although <I>Tell Me Why </I>would benefit enormously from a good solid introduction, the effect is generally liberating as the album gains life. </div> <div> <I>After the Goldrush </I>is an extension of the live in the studio tracks <I>Almost Cut My Hair </I>and <I>Helpless </I>from <I>Deja Vu</I>. It shares the rich diversity of <I>Deja Vu</I>; beautiful ballads <I>I Believe in You </I>and the title track share album space with rockers <I>Southern Man </I>and <I>When You Dance</I>. <I>After the Gold Rush </I>is a great piece of work, but not strong enough to score full marks. The title track is the standout; Young's vulnerable vocals bring life to the astounding lyrics, while the french horn player brings a splash of colour. Other highlights are the anti-racist rocker <I>Southern Man</I>, the sweet acoustic ballads <I>I Believe In You </I>and <I>Only Love Can Break Your Heart</I>, and the haunting and enigmatic <I>Don't Let It Bring You Down</I>. <I>Birds </I>is only hippy musings, but hippy musings with beauty and grace. The rest of <I>After the Gold Rush </I>doesn't have quite enough substance to bring the album full classic status. </div> <div> While not flawless <I>After the Goldrush</I> demonstrates a full breadth of Young's capabilities and, along with <I>Decade </I>and <I>Rust Never Sleeps</I>, is a good place to start an exploration into his catalogue. <I>After the Goldrush</I> was originally a soundtrack for an unreleased movie of the same name. </div> <div> <B>A</b></div> <div> Apart from the line "I felt like getting high" in the title track <I>After the Goldrush</I> is generally inoffensive.</div> <div> <B>7</b></div> <bR> <div> <I>Decade </I>(1977, Reprise)</div> <div> I was watching a music documentary one Saturday afternoon, featuring footage of Neil Young at Woodstock. He sung four words - "down by the river"- and I was instantly enchanted. If I'd known that the next four words were "I shot my baby" I mightn't have been so keen, but I rushed out and bought his 2CD retrospective <I>Decade </I>at full price. A large handful of Young albums later <I>Decade </I>is still my favourite, containing 144 minutes of music crammed onto 2CDs. Neil Young was incredibly prolific during his first ten years; the songs on <I>Decade </I>draw from fourteen studio albums, as well as previously unreleased tracks. Virtually every track is significant, and virtually every kind of Neil is on <I>Decade</I>: Hippie Neil, country Neil, rock-epic Neil, and singer-songwriter Neil are all encapsulated for your convenience.</div> <div> The first disc begins with tracks from Buffalo Springfield, the group that Neil started his career with. Their most famous song was <I>For What It's Worth</I>, written by Stephen Stills and featured in <I>Forrest Gump </I>and every documentary about social upheaval in the 1960s. Neil's contributions to the group are more distinctive and obscure, notably the epic multi-part <I>Broken Arrow</I> and the beautiful strings and acoustic guitar of <I>Expecting to Fly</I>. His solo career begins with <I>Sugar Mountain</I>, a folk song he recorded on his home stereo on his 19th birthday, and which inspired <A HREF="joni.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Joni Mitchell"><U>Joni Mitchell</U></A>'s <I>The Circle Game</I>. <I>Decade</I> really kicks in at the time of Young's second solo album, <I>Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere</I>. Young wrote the guitar epics <I>Down by the River</I> (with a memorable one note guitar solo) and <I>Cowgirl in the Sand</I> on the same day, and recorded them with two weeks after enlisting his backing group Crazy Horse. Only two of <I>Cowgirl in the Sand</I>'s ten minutes feature vocals, while the concise riff-rocker <I>Cinnamon Girl </I>is over in less than three. The selections from <I>After the Goldrush </I>and <A HREF="csny.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young"><U>Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young</U></A> are wonderful, especially the non-album single <I>Ohio</I> which is about the Kent State University killings and is featured in every documentary about social upheaval resulting from the Vietnam war. </div> <div> On the second disc the five selections from <I>Harvest</I>, Neil Young's favourite Neil Young album, are splendid, including Young's number one single <I>Heart of Gold</I>, the dramatic <I>A Man Needs a Maid </I>with the London Symphony Orchestra and the more stripped down <I>The Needle and the Damage Done </I>and <I>Old Man</I>. In the self-written liner notes, Young famously comments that "this song [<I>Heart of Gold</I>] put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there." <I>Decade </I>loses momentum towards the end of the second disc, as though Young hadn't gained enough distance from his material to judge it objectively. The scratchy <I>For The Turnstiles </I>is the last song that I'd choose from <I>On The Beach</I>. While the last few songs are the patchiest, they still include the beautiful <I>Deep, Forbidden</I> <I>Lake</I> and the soaring epic rockers <I>Like A Hurricane </I>and <I>Cortez the Killer</I>. As a history major I especially appreciate <I>Cortez the Killer</I>, about Hernan Cortes' conquest of the Inca. The song has a three minute introduction, because Young apparently was so entranced in his guitar playing that he forgot to sing. </div> <div> <I>Decade </I>is so large and diverse that it is difficult to get a grasp on, but once hooked it's a fully rewarding experience. My advice is to first accustom yourself with the middle portion of the album, from track ten on disc one to track eight on disc two. These tracks form the most accessible and consistent part of <I>Decade</I>, and serve as an introduction to the more difficult material on the rest of the discs. </div> <div> <B>A+</b></div> <div> Over the course of two discs Young questions Christianity a couple of times ("maybe your star of Bethlehem/wasn't a star at all") and shoots his lover <I>Down by the River</I>.</div> <div> <B>2</b></div> <bR> <div> <I>Rust Never Sleeps </I>(1979, Reprise)</div> <div> <I>Rust Never Sleeps </I>was Young's successful attempt to show that he had not become outdated by the changes in music wrought by punk. His determination to keep producing decent music is encapsulated by "It's better to burn out than it is to rust," from <I>My, My, </I><I>Hey, Hey</I>. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain took the lyrics more literally in 1994, when he included them in his suicide note. As part of maintaining his own reputation, Young takes some cheap shots at <A HREF="cpage_crosby_stills_and_nash__and_young_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The C Page"><U>Crosby, Stills and Nash</U></A> in <I>Thrasher</I>: ("I got bored and left them there, they were just deadweight to me.") He also takes some cheap musical shots at punk as <I>Welfare Mothers </I>combines banal lyrics and formulaic chords with guitar crunch.</div> <div> Where <I>Rust Never Sleeps </I>excels is songwriting, especially the story telling lyrics. The LP was segregated into an acoustic side and an electric side. The acoustic songs feature thoughtful abstract lyrics, catchy choruses and nice melodies. <I>Ride My Llama</I> is as good as the title sounds, while environmental concerns are voiced in <I>Pocahontas </I>and <I>Sail Away</I>. The centrepiece of <I>Rust Never Sleeps </I>is <I>Powderfinger</I>, which has a particularly interesting story about a redneck getting shot. <I>Sedan Delivery </I>and <I>Welfare Mothers </I>are relatively lightweight, but fully entertaining. A feature of several Young's albums is the use of an acoustic and electric version of the same song as bookends. On <I>Rust Never Sleeps</I> the title of <I>My, My, Hey, Hey </I>is reversed to the <I>Hey, Hey, My, My</I>, where Young creates one of the grungiest guitar tones ever.</div> <div> You may enjoy <I>Rust Never Sleeps </I>more if you use a random button to merge the acoustic and electric sides. </div> <div> <B>A</b></div> <div> When Young asserts that "Welfare mothers make better lovers," he is exercising irony, and is not to be taken seriously. Same with his reference to his multiple wives in <I>Sedan Delivery</I>.</div> <div> <B>6</b></div> <bR> <div> <I>Freedom </I>(1989, Reprise)</div> <div> Neil Young was largely absent from the musical mainstream of the 1980s, experimenting with guise albums that were largely unsuccessful. So much so that Geffen, his record label throughout the period, sued him for making uncommercial albums. <I>Lucky Thirteen</I>,<I> </I>a<I> </I>compilation of his best material from the period, is a disappointment; the Kraftwerkesque <I>Trans </I>material sounds the most interesting. 1989's <I>Freedom </I>signalled a return to more conventional style for Young, and heralded a reasonably successful artistic comeback. However his best music from the 1990s is still a level below his best music of the 1960s and 1970s.</div> <div> <I>Freedom</I>, Young's first and strongest album of the period, originally began as a hard rock album to be named <I>Times Square</I>. The project was never completed and <I>Times Square</I> was reduced to the <I>Eldorado</I> EP, of which only 5000 copies were released in Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Three of the five songs from <I>Eldorado </I>resurface on <I>Freedom</I>. All three are great, but the highlight is the hard rock reinvention of <I>On Broadway</I>. Characteristically, the hard rock is mixed with tender ballads <I>Wrecking Ball </I>(which became the title track of <A HREF="hpage.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The H Page"><U>Emmylou Harris</U></A>' impressive 1995 album), and the lovely <I>Hangin' on the Limb </I>with harmony vocals from Linda Ronstadt. The noisy and subdued aspects of Young's spectrum are also expressed by the two alternate versions of <I>Rockin' in the Free World </I>which bookend <I>Freedom</I>: a conventional rocker and the acoustic live version with a crowd that is too busy cheering along to the ironic chorus to listen to the social commentary of the verses.</div> <div> Unfortunately not all of <I>Freedom </I>is as memorable as there are a few songs that are relatively straightforward and lightweight. The worst moment is indisputably <I>The Ways of Love</I>, a previously unreleased seventies song that should still be gathering dust in the archives. The awfully long <I>Crime in the City </I>gets monotonous, but has intriguing lyrics.  </div> <div> <I>Freedom </I>seems to be a difficult album to track down; I've only ever seen a couple of copies. </div> <div> <B>B+</b></div> <div> A few mildly offensive bits: the hypocritical tele-evangelist in <I>Someday</I>, and slight sexual content in <I>The Ways of Love </I>and <I>Too Far Gone</I>.</div> <div> <B>5</b></div> <bR> <div> <I>Harvest Moon </I>(1992, Reprise)</div> <div> An equally appropriate title for <I>Harvest Moon</I> would be <I>Neil Young Calms Down and Makes Bland Music for His Mellow Fans Who Don't Like His More Raucous Music</I>. Which is fair enough, once in a while. Apparently Young had hearing difficulties after <I>Ragged Glory</I>, and was forced to record something quieter. But what is unfair is that <I>Harvest Moon</I> became Young's highest selling release since the original <I>Harvest </I>in 1972. Maybe the man deserves a medal for not selling out and becoming a country-pop lounge king. After <I>Harvest </I>Young noted that he made a concious decision to escape from the middle of the road. "A rougher ride but I met more interesting people there."</div> <div> <I>Harvest Moon </I>is pleasant but that doesn't compensate for the dull songs. <I>Old King</I>,<I> </I>a tribute to Neil's dead dog, is arguably the most tacky moment of his entire catalogue although it is catchier than most of the other crap here. The only songs that I enjoy are <I>Such a Woman</I>, which is strangely affecting, <I>From Hank to Hendrix</I>,<I> </I>and <I>Natural Beauty</I>. At over ten minutes long, unplugged and using the same four chord sequence that Young used for <I>Cortez the Killer</I>, <I>Natural Beauty </I>is slightly monotonous, but the lyrics are more interesting than the rest of <I>Harvest Moon</I> put together: "I heard a perfect echo die behind an anonymous wall of digital sound." </div> <div> Otherwise <I>Harvest Moon</I> is too bland to be interesting, although you might like it if you are ageing and/or very mellow. Young is capable of more demanding music.</div> <div> <B>C</b></div> <div> <I>Harvest Moon </I>contains nice themes about commitment, abut there is also the occasional inappropriate moment.</div> <div> <B>6</b></div> <div> See also <A HREF="csny.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young"><U>Crosby, Stills and Nash (and Young)</U></A></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Fyfeopedia Music Reviews</div> </td> </tr></table></body>