Neil Young "Mystery Train" 1982-1988(rec) 2001(comp)***

As a general rule, any Neil Young LP should be a solid purchase. There are at least 50 of them, and they mostly fall in one of two categories: folk rock balladry or guitar-heavy psychedelic rock, the latter usually featuring Crazy Horse as a backing band. He is an expert on both styles, and remarkably consistent - the sole exception being his time on Geffen Records (1982-1987). Indeed during this period his work was so inconsistent and unpredictable that the record company sued him for making "unrepresentative" and "uncharacteristic" albums. Those records get such a bad rep that I too avoided buying any of them: I have all 13 LP's that preceded the Geffen contract, as well as the first 8 that followed. Post-2000 my Neil Young collection gets patchy - like I said, most of them are solid but samey. So Mystery Train marks my first approach to the maligned Geffen period. It's the second attempt to anthologize it, after Lucky Thirteen which contained mostly alternate/live mixes. As expected, it doesn't gel that well as an album; besides Neil's voice, each album of the period has a wildly different character: First off, we have Trans (1982), his electronic/synth album which baffled everyone when released. On most of the tracks he used a vocoder device to scramble his vocals, rendering the words incomprehensible. Ηe later provided an explanation, connecting this creative decision with what was happening in his personal life, raising a quadriplegic child lacking the capacity to speak. That inspired the main theme behind Trans, which is communication, or difficulty thereof, hence the vocal distortion. Only one of these vocoder songs is included here: "Transformer Man" which, despite the alien feel you get by the electronic effects, is a rather sweet ballad. "Little Thing Called Love" and "Like an Inca" are two great guitar rockers; especially the latter which, with its 10-minute duration, sounds like "Like A Hurricane" given a typical 80's production. Recorded in 1983, but shelved by Geffen until 1985, Old Ways is the polar opposite of the futuristic Trans; an album of straight up traditional country, complete with fiddles, mandolines, steel guitars, and cameos by country legends. Half of it is included here: upbeat country "California Sunset", blues-influenced "Old Ways", and sappy ballads "My Boy" and "Once an Angel". Willie Nelson adds more authenticity on the Hank Williams-like "Bound For Glory". Old Ways is a passably good country record, but when Young presented it to the company, they initially told him to stick it where the sun don't shine and give them a rock album. Which is what he did, as a fuck-you: Everybody's Rockin' (1983) is rock alright, just not the 80's kind: it's 50's rockabilly, half of it original songs and the other half covers. It's the only one I was familiar with, as a former girlfriend had it on cassette tape and I had listened to it with her a few times; my opinion then and now is that it's pleasant enough but nothing special. The covers are better than the originals, which is why we get 4 of the former and only one new composition, retro rocker "Everybody's Rockin'". Neil's voice doesn't suit these oldies a lot (with the possible exception of Jimmy Reed's "Bright Lights, Big City") but there's otherwise nothing wrong with these covers. The compilers bypass Young's next album for Geffen (Landing On Water, 1986), and only include one track from Life (1988). Featuring Crazy Horse, "Around the World" is an all-out hard rock basher that sounds to me like a predecessor to "Keep On Rockin' In The Free World" - except for the weird synth-dominated chorus, that is. Despite the infamy surrounding the albums anthologized here, they evidently contained some good songs. Certainly there's nothing in this compilation that might be considered embarrassing for the artist. I might even go ahead and buy some of the original LP's, if I find them cheap enough. Until then, this CD will suffice.

**** for Around the World, Like an Inca, Transformer Man

*** for Everybody's Rockin', Little Thing Called Love, Mystery Train, California Sunset, Bright Lights  Big City, Bound for Glory, Betty Lou's Got a New Pair of Shoes

** for My Boy, Old Ways, Once an Angel, Rainin' in My Heart

 

Neil Young "Songs For Judy" 1976(rec) 2018 (released)***

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

Neil Young "Time Fades Away" 1973****

A few years ago, UNCUT Magazine published a list called 50 Greatest Lost Albums, and this is the album that topped it on No.1. It remains the only Neil Young LP never to have seen a CD release (Journey Through The Past was a soundtrack/compilation), only a recent limited vinyl reissue. The reason why was never apparent to me: while not on a par with  his classic albums of that era, it did contain some good songs and performances. Reading the relevant  article on Uncut helps understand his frame of mind and partly explains the reasons behind his dissatisfaction with it. Most of the songs started life during rehearsals for the follow-up to his hugely successful Harvest LP. Today Young is an established artist who can release anything he fancies, but at 27 years old the record company pressure to deliver a Harvest clone must have felt overwhelming. Adding to the stress, he had just signed on to undertake the biggest tour of the time, in terms of length as well as venue sizes. He was working with the Stray Gators, a bunch of studio, mostly country-oriented, musicians who had accompanied him in Harvest but were never actually a real band. Maybe it was the wish to have a friend with him on the tour, or possibly he was worried because of his bad physical condition (he was still recovering from spinal surgery) and wanted to have another electric guitarist along as a backup. Anyway, he contacted Danny Whitten, his pal from Crazy Horse, and asked him to join his band. Whitten was Crazy Horse's main singer, guitarist and songwriter, but was fired by them due to his heroin addiction. He assured Young that he was finally clean, so the latter decided to give him another chance and flew him over to Broken Arrow ranch to join the rehearsals. Unfortunately, though, Whitten proved to be far from clean, was unable to learn his guitar parts and generally a complete mess. So Young gave him $50 and sent him back to L.A. Only a few hours later, Whitten was dead from a pills-and-alcohol overdose. That left Young devastated by sorrow and guilt for his friend's death, suffering from back pain, under pressure to deliver the follow-up to a masterpiece, and about to embark on the biggest tour ever attempted until then. On top of that, the musicians made constant demands for more money, exhibiting their discontent at every opportunity. Audiences were indifferent to his new songs, and during the last leg of the tour he even caught a throat infection that affected his singing ability, causing him to appeal to former bandmates David Crosby and Graham Nash to help on the vocal department. He also had to draft in CSN&Y's John Barbata on drums, because the original drummer couldn't cut it live. None of that helped his mood, or his performance. At the end of it, he was completely drained and utterly miserable. Returning to the ranch to finish the album with the now estranged Stray Gators was impossible, but he owed record company an LP. A number of shows were recorded with the intention of releasing a live album to commemorate what was expected to be a triumphant tour. There was now no way that would happen, so at the end they chose some of the new songs road-tested during the concerts, and released them as the Time Fades Away LP. The eponymous opener is highly reminiscent of Dylan circa 1965-66, a raucous folk rocker with whiny vocals, harmonica and clunky piano by Jack Nietzche. Young accompanies himself on piano and occasional harmonica on "Journey Through The Past", "The Bridge" and "Love In Mind" (the latter being the only track not recorded during this tour, but from a previous live date). Here he does remind us of The Harvest troubadour, specifically his naked and emotional performance on the Whitten-inspired "The Needle And The Damage Done". "Don't Be Denied" is another acoustic number, this time with a fuller sound. Ben Keith's pedal steel, Nietzsche's piano, and the whole band on backing vocals remind us of Harvest's mellow country sound, although Young's lead vocal is rawer. On the sarcastic "L.A.", ominous "Yonder Stands the Sinner" and long-winding "Last Dance", The Stray Gators seem to function like a substitute Crazy Horse, approaching that band's elemental hard rock. One wonders if a healthy Whitten really was the missing ingredient that could have transformed these songs. David Crosby and Graham Nash join in on guitar and harmonies on the latter two tunes. As you can imagine, the album didn't go down well with fans of the artists' mellow country rock sound. It stalled around the 20th position in the charts, a far cry from Harvest's No.1 but still respectable. Young hated it. He's called it "the worst record I ever made" but also added that "as a documentary of what was happening to me, it was a great record" - an ambivalent sentiment that explains his odd choices: on the one hand he refused to correct the sound using overdubs and other post production tricks. On the other he keeps it out of print, and has been quoted saying that he deliberately chose the "shittiest material possible" for the cover, hoping it'd disintegrate fast and people would throw it away. Apparently, post production is still an impossibility: the album was mastered down from 16-track directly to stereo with a console called compumix, there are no original master tapes to go back to. Seeing as it has been repeatedly bypassed during recent reworkings of Young's catalogue, chances are there will never be a wide re-release. Which is a pity, because -despite the artist's own opinion- the album's rugged, dark, uncompromising, sound has gradually acquired many fans. Critics consider it the first installment of his "ditch trilogy", followed by On the Beach (1974) and culminating on Tonight's the Night (1975)- a trio of haunted albums from a period of despair, loss and inner turmoil. Interestingly, as of last year, Time Fades Away isn't the only document from that fraught tour. Young retrospectively released another live album called Tuscaloosa, featuring more or less the same band (minus the CS&N contingent). The tracklisting mixes some of his new "difficult" songs with hits from Harvest and After The Goldrush. The fact that original recordings from that tour apparently still exist makes one wonder whether Time Fades Away really can't be recreated/improved upon or whether Neil Young's denial to revisit it is another of the man's peculiarities.

**** for Time Fades Away, Journey Through The Past, Yonder Stands The Sinner, L.A., Don't Be Denied, 

*** for Love In Mind, The Bridge, Last Dance

Neil Young "Chrome Dreams" 1974-1978(rec), 1992(reissue)****

I jumped at the chance to get this one, as it's probably rock's most famous bootleg (at least since the official release of Bob Dylan's "Royal Albert Hall" tapes and The Beach Boys' "Smile"). It contains studio demos in various stages of completion, mostly featuring his long time associates Crazy Horse. They were intended for inclusion in an aborted album called "Chrome Dreams" for which Young already had a cover (not this one) and whose release was announced for 1976. In the end, the demos were shelved and Young released another album called "American Stars 'n Bars". Few of these songs were included in this album but, just like "Smile",  most of them resurfaced in different form in future LP's "Comes a Time", "Rust Never Sleeps", "Hawks and Doves" and "Freedom". Various bootleg versions of Chrome Dreams have been around since 1977, this particular one surfacing in Italy around 1992. It's not the original bootleg (if that's not a contradiction in terms) as it contains a different track order, adds a few live recordings and replaces "Homegrown" with a '92 live recording of "Homefires". This unreleased song has been part of Young's repertory since the mid-70's, but for some reason (sound quality?) they chose a version that's separated by the rest by at least 15 years. It's often said that, had "Chrome Dreams" been released at its intended time, it would have constituted one of Young's best. This may very well be the case, although many of the songs here are presented in acoustic demo form. Which does not subtract any of the magic from masterpieces like "Powderfinger" and "Pocahontas", eventually included in the Rust Never Sleeps album. There's also a hard rockin' version of "Sedan Delivery" featuring Crazy Horse, as well as a rough live recording of "Ride My Llama".  "Will To Love" is an emotive ballad and "Captain Kennedy" an old-timey folk/country tune. They both resemble the final versions in American Stars 'n Bars and Hawks and Doves, respectively. "River Of Pride" is a typical Neil Young and Crazy Horse tune, with its country heart and sprawling hard rock guitar. "Too Far Gone" is a nice tune featuring Crazy Horse's Frank "Poncho" Sampedro on a vintage mandolin. "Star Of Bethlehem" and "Hold Back the Tears" are country ballads, the former featuring nice harmonica and backing vocals by Emmylou Harris and the latter an unidentified female vocalist. They were eventually re-recorded for American Stars 'n Bars, along with the ultimate Neil Young and Crazy Horse powerhouse "Like A Hurricane", presented here in an extensive live version: 11-and-a-half minutes of electric guitar heaven. "Look Out For My Love" and "Piece Of Mind" are two mid-tempo songs also featuring the Crazy Horse. "Homefires", the odd track out, is a solo acoustic song recorded live in 1992 in front of a quietly respectful audience. "Stringman" is a beautiful piano ballad. Amazingly, it had to wait for an official release until 1993 when it was revived for Young's "Unplugged" album. There's a reason that bootlegged "rare and unreleased" albums are usually not as good as they're supposed to be: If they really were that good, the artists would want us to hear them. But Neil Young is a bit strange that way, so he kept a perfectly good (even great) album on the shelf. Knowing him, he's probably got plans for it at some point but he's taking his time until he feels he can present these songs in the best manner. When he does, it'll really be something!

***** for Captain Kennedy, Pocahontas, Like A Hurricane, Look Out For My Love

**** for Powderfinger, Will To Love, Sedan Delivery, River Of Pride, Too Far Gone, Star Of Bethlehem, Stringman

*** for Hold Back The Tears, Homefires, Ride My Llama, Peace Of Mind

Neil Young with Crazy Horse "Psychedelic Pill" 2012***

Tonight I decided to present another album which I've had the pleasure to listen to live, Neil Young's "Psychedelic Pill". Wonder whatever happened to random selection? Me, too. It'll be back, I guess... Seeing Neil Young live (and with Crazy Horse, no less!) had been a dream of mine for quite some time. So when he played Amsterdam's huge Ziggo Dome, I rushed to buy a ticket for the cheap seats. I'll have to admit that, although the aural part of the concert was very rewarding, his stage act verged on the ridiculous: huuuuge speaker-towers and some kind of pantomime with the road crew and band members dressed as mad scientists, for chrisshakes! This is my advise to you, if you ever go to a Neil Young concert, take one of those sleeping masks with you, put it on and immerse yourself in the music! You don't believe me? Listen to his classic "Live Rust" album, isn't it one of the best live albums ever? Now watch an excerpt from the live dvd, have you ever seen anything sillier? Spinal Tap, you say? OK, maybe yes, but still a close match... Back to the album: I don't know what to make of the title. Does it suggest the album was made under the influence of hallucinogenics? Or that music is itself a hallucinogenic? I'm inclined to think the second. Well, if music is a trip then this album is a transatlantic one: New York-London with return. Am I exaggerating? Take the first song "Drifting Back" as an example. Its duration is over 27 minutes. Just like during a flight, you have time enough to take a nap and when you wake up you feel like you're passing through the same clouds as before. If you loved those long songs like "Cortez the Killer" and "Like A Hurricane", this is more (way, way more) of the same. Sonically, it's the best Neil Young and Crazy Horse album for 20 years and many songs could become future classics. Yes, they do sound like you've heard them before, but what do you expect from a dude that's been around for 50 years? I, for one, am content when he can echo his old self, which is what he does here - with the novelty of the absolutely epic duration of some songs. "Psychedelic Pill" is a short song that sounds like an effect-laden "Cinnamon Girl", while "Ramada Inn" is a 16-minute epic of dueling guitars. "Born in Ontario" and "Twisted Road" are rather short and nostalgic country. "She's Always Dancing" is another long song with sprawling guitars and "For the Love of Man" a ballad that provides a change of pace before the album's highlight, 16-minute "Walk Like a Giant", a song with a great melody, good backing vocals, whistling, lots and lots of guitars and romantic lyrics about the end of hippy dream: "I used to walk like a giant on the land/Now I feel like a leaf floating in a stream...Me and some of my friends/We were going to save the world/We were trying to make it better/We were ready to save the world/But then the weather changed/And the white got stained/And it fell apart/And it breaks my heart/To think about how close we came/I wanna walk/Like a giant on the land...". Great song, but it overstays its welcome by adding 4 minutes of pure noise. And, as further anti-climax the second cd (yes, it's a double album) closes with a useless "alternate mix" of "Psychedelic Pill". An extra torment is the lyrics booklet. Quite nice of them to include one, but did it have to be so small? (it's about the size of an old cassette tape). I'm near-, not far-sighted, but I still have to really strain my eyes to make out the words. I'd like to see Neil try to read it! Had this album been a single cd of about 50 minutes, it would definitively go to the top of my list. But whoever said that "you can't have too much of a good thing" obviously hasn't taken up that offer for unlimited spare ribs for €15,99. If you have, then you know what I'm talking about: sometimes less is more. So, despite all my praises, I'll give the guys just *** stars...

**** for Ramada Inn, She's Always Dancing, Walk Like a Giant

*** for Driftin' Back, Psychedelic Pill, Born in Ontario, Twisted Road, For the Love of Man

** for Psychedelic Pill" (Alternate Mix)

Neil Young & Crazy Horse in Amsterdam: The view from the cheap seats

Buffalo Springfield "Last Time Around"1968***

Though chosen randomly, "Last Time Around" is a fitting title for my last record presentation of the year. It was the last and probably weakest album released by Buffalo Springfield but that doesn't make it a bad one. It contains two of their greatest songs, Neil Young's "I Am a Child" and Richie Furey's wonderful country rock ballad "Kind Woman". By the time it was released the band had drifted apart with Bruce Palmer deported to Canada and Neil Young often disappearing from view. It was recorded sporadically with everyone bringing his own songs to the mix and singing lead in them while there isn't a single track featuring the whole band together. Neil Young contributed only two songs ("I Am a Child" and "On the Way Home") and bassist/producer Jim Messina one ("Carefree Country Day", the title of which is also descriptive of its content). Richie Furay contributed "Kind Woman","So Hard to Wait","Merry-Go-Round" and the psychedelic"Hour Of Not Quite Rain" while Stills wrote 5 songs of which the best were the Latin inflected "Uno Mundo" and Beatlesque "Pretty Girl Why". He was to join forces with Young again at the supergroup CSN&Y (with the Byrds' David Crosby and Hollies' Graham Nash), unveiled for the first time at the Woodstock festival. Furrey & Messina also resumed their colaboration in the country-rock band Poco.

**** for I Am a Child, Kind Woman

**** for Uno Mundo, Pretty Girl Why, On the Way Home

*** for Carefree Country Day, Special Care, The Hour Of Not Quite Rain, Merry-go-round

** for Four Days Gone, It's So Hard To Wait, Questions

So, the year closes to its end and I'd like to thank everyone who's visited these pages and wish them a very fine 2015 with good health, happiness, peace on earth and hopefully great music. I'll keep on posting presentations of random albums from my collection but on a more leisurely pace. I'm glad I managed to keep my initial goal of 1 album daily until the end of the year but timewise it's impossible to keep up for long, even if that means that it'll take a few decades to finish my task. STAY WELL!

Crazy Horse "Crazy Moon" 1978****

Crazy Horse are best known as Neil Young's backing band - for his harder rocking albums, a least. But they do have a history of their own. They started off as The Rockets in 1968 and in between albums and tours with Neil Young they released the highly acclaimed eponymous "Crazy Horse" album in 1971 containing, among others, the often covered (Rod Stewart, Everything But The Girl) hit "I don't want to talk about it". Then tragedy stroke in the form of band leader Danny Whitten's accidental overdose. This album, their 4th, is also the one where everything falls into place again. New recruit Frank "Poncho" Sampedro proved a worthy successor to Whitten and together with original members Billy Talbot, (bass) and Ralph Molina (drums) formed the definitive -and longest running- incarnation of the band. This album was recorded between Neil Young's "Zuma" and "Rust Never Sleeps" with more or less the same personnel (Neil Young also guests here on guitar and vocals). Not surprisingly, it's like a page from the same book and a great record that probably even beats the first Crazy Horse album, as it is more consistently good. The band is recognizably Crazy Horse as known from Neil Young albums, with scorching guitars and pleasant vocals. The 3 core members share songwriting and vocal duties, which allows for more variation, with forays into R&B and country and some tasty instrumentation including brass and fiddle. A couple of songs ("Too Late Now" and "Lost and Lonely Feelin'") even sound uncannily like The Band. Best tracks are the rockers "She's hot", "Downhill" and "Thunder and lighting" and ballads "Love don't come easy" and "End of the Line". I bought this album on a whim, never having heard of it and not knowing what to expect, and I felt vindicated at first listen. My only objection is that the songs are much too short. Neil Young and Crazy Horse have great chemistry and their long guitar jams are always exciting but here the songs fade out just when the band seems to be warming up...

**** for She's Hot, Love Don't Come Easy, Downhill, Thunder and Lightning

*** for Going Down Again, Lost And Lonely Feelin', End Of The Line, New Orleans, Too Late Now

** for Dancin' Lady, That Day