In my latest visit to the neighborhood record shop, I came across a large batch of 2nd hand Neil Young CDs, one of each title. Most of them I already had; of the rest, I chose a compilation of tracks from his most maligned period on Geffen Records (mid 80's) and one of the live "archive" recordings, Songs for Judy. One reason for choosing the latter was the expansive tracklist (22 songs, 80 minutes). Another was the positive reviews (85 on metacritic, an unusually high rating). For once, I'll put the cart before the horse, and say right away that I don't completely agree with the critics: these solo acoustic numbers don't impress me that much. They're not bad or anything; Young has certainly proved he's as adept in solo acoustic mode as he is in leading a rock-'n'-roll band, and never sounds bored or uninvested in the proceedings. And the immediacy and looseness one expects from this kind of one-man-show affair is present here. The singer is also in a talkative mood, sharing with his audience some stories, including the one about Judy Garland that gave this album its cover and title. All the above are valid reasons to acquire this CD, but the recording quality, and often the performances, lag behind those contained in other acoustic live LP's of his (e.g. Unplugged, the acoustic part of Live Rust). And now, here comes the horse, i.e. a few words about the provenance of these recordings: they come from Neil Young's fall 1976 tour with Crazy Horse. Before each night's band performance, he would act as his own support act and play a short solo set. These were recorded by guitar tech Joel Bernstein and journalist Cameron Crowe. As the songs Neil chose for this acoustic treatment changed every time, they were able to find a total of 22 different tracks. Bernstein and Crowe chose the best available performance of each song, and compiled them into a bootleg which became known as The Bernstein Tapes. Songs For Judy is the official, chronologically re-sequenced, version of that bootleg. It contains the exact same performances; only, wherever possible, superior mixes were used. The main reason that caused the critic's excitement for this release is probably that a lot of these songs were unreleased at the time: “Campaigner” was released in 1977 (on the Decade compilation), "Pocahontas" in '79 (on Rust Never Sleeps), "Too Far Gone" in '89 (Freedom), "White Line" in 1990 (Ragged Glory) etc. A beautiful piano ballad called "No One Seems To Know" had remained officially unreleased for 40+ years, until its inclusion here. It's interesting to note how Young presents those as-yet-unknown tracks, and how the audience reacts to them. Other than that, there are some of his best-loved songs (e.g. "After the Gold Rush", a surprising acoustic take on Buffalo Springfield's "Mr. Soul", "Heart Of Gold" and a few more tracks from his best selling Harvest LP), as well as some lesser known tracks not included in a live album ever before. My personal favorite is "A Man Needs a Maid”; here without the orchestral arrangements of the studio version but incorporating the melody of -then still unreleased- “Like a Hurricane”. One of those moments only significant in retrospect, of which this album has quite a few. To summarize, this is a decent enough collection of -admittedly mostly great- tunes, featuring Young accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and occasional harmonica and keyboards. It captures an important time in the artist's evolution, it gives fans a peak at the early form of songs that were still officially unreleased, and even contains some great moments of acoustic balladry. But most of the songs are available in better performances elsewhere, and the lone troubadour thing starts to grate after a while. If you listen to the entire CD and aren't bored in the least by the time 6-minute closer "Sugar Mountain" finishes, you' must be a much bigger Neil Young fan than I am - and I've bought more than 30 of his albums.
**** for No One Seems to Know, Heart of Gold, After the Gold Rush, Mr. Soul, A Man Needs a Maid, Pocahontas
*** for Too Far Gone, White Line, Love Is a Rose, Human Highway, Tell Me Why, Mellow My Mind, Give Me Strength, Roll Another Number (for the Road), Journey Through the Past, Harvest, Campaigner, Old Laughing Lady/Guilty Train, The Losing End (When You're on), Here We Are in the Years, The Needle and the Damage Done
** for Songs for Judy Intro (spoken word), Sugar Mountain
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