This disc is surprisingly important to me.
The friend who I attended Neil’s gig at the Music Hall in Cleveland back in ‘92 is sick. It’s kind of like Neil timed some positive thoughts to come out when this shit went down.
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 Neil is 64 today and still kicking ass. Sure, he hasn’t hit the mark for me on everything he’s done recently but next to Bob and Lou he’s the only old time rocker still doing the work. Here’s a clip from earlier this year proving the man has still got it.  Finally something released by Neil this year I can fully support. After the abysmal “Fork in the Road” and the way-too-much-repackaged-bullshit-for-my-tastes Archives set comes “Dreamin’ Man”. The songs from Harvest Moon as they were originally presented, live in concert and solo. These tracks are from the 92′ tour which was my favorite solo Neil show. There’s nothing on this set that will surprise me but if you’ve never heard the songs like this it’s well worth picking up. The disc will be out in early November. The only drawback is that he didn’t include an entire show from the tour. It was a very laid back gig and Neil brought a huge songbook with him that he flipped through and occasionally pulled requests from. Oh well, this set will be good regardless.  After 20 or so years and a handful of supposed incarnations….Neil Young’s Archives Volume One finally arrives tomorrow. 9 CDs and 1 DVD or all Blu-Ray the set can be bought at once or individually. There are free downloads for the Blu-Ray people and who knows what else. The CD version is priced semi-reasonably at 99 bucks. Then it goes up to 199 and 299 for DVD and Blu-Ray respectively. It’s all too confusing for me so I’m going to see how it all shakes down. Hopefully I’ll run across it for a cheaper price too. Old Black burning in the hands of it’s master.  I found one of my most prized possessions this morning. My burn of Neil Young & Crazy Horse Park City, UT 7/15/97. I’d been looking for this one for a few years. I saw this show at the peak of one of the craziest summers in my life. Living at Old Faithful and having a blast. My whole crew and I took a couple set of wheels from Yellowstone to Utah. Stopping in Wyoming’s Star Valley to camp on the way there and the Gros Ventre mountains on the way back. Got to the venue and just missed the solo set Neil did on the small stage. No worries, I was there to juice up on the Horse. I did see the equivalent of a unicorn later that day on the small stage but that is a tale for another time. Watched Morphine (boring), Primus (good) and Leftover Salmon (no thanks) in the buildup to the Horse. Started psychedelic preparations while they were setting up Neil’s gear. Enter the Horse. This was the last great tour of Neil Young & Crazy Horse. They were winging the set list every night. And they were smoking. “Hippie Dream” from Landing on Water was completely redeemed, “I’m the Ocean cemented it’s status as legend and “Don’t Spook the Horse” came out of nowhere. During the short solo set Neil played an early version of “Slowpoke” which I took as a sign to buy a new guitar. “Cortez the Killer” was a flat out annihilator. My mind was blown after the show and being too wrecked to go anywhere we parked behind a church on the main drag and slept under the cross on the lawn. Protected from bad weather and Johnny Law by Neil, a church and psychedelic intervention. You can only get away with that shit when you are young and dumb. Early set: Late set: Special Pick of the Week offer. I will burn you a copy of this bad boy and send it to you free of charge. With homemade packaging and all! Contents: Shoot your mailing address to SSS and get one. Offer expires June 7th.  Scored this bad boy on wax a few days ago for 2 bones. One of two of Neil’s major works to remain unreleased on CD (Journey Through the Past is the other one). It was set to come out with On the Beach, Re*ac*tor, American Stars and Bars, Hawks and Doves but was cancelled. Supposedly the remaster leaked out and was circulated. I have a copy of that but I’m not sure if it’s really what it’s claimed to be. It sounds damn good though. I had the vinyl years ago and sold it with my entire collection to a dealer near Seattle in 1997. It’s good to have it again. Here’s Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. from the remaster. I recently had Thrasher over at his Neil Young blog Thrasher’s Wheat ask this question… It’s pretty obvious to me but maybe not so much to some others. It’s what separates Neil Young from annoying “singer-songwriters” like James Taylor and Jimmy Buffett. He made this:  as well as this:  He made this:  as well as this:  He made this:  as well as this: 
From playing with Devo to booking Sonic Youth to open the show and piss off his dinosaur fans Neil has never shied away from experimentation. Neither will I. If it sounds good and Satan is involved that’s fine by me. Same with Jesus. I’ll rock out to Glass Harp or Johnny Cash singing about Jesus or Bob Dylan preaching hellfire and damnation. If it’s good, I’m there. Now….back to Satan.
Before it’s release Pitchfork called Fork in the Road “potentially bat shit”. Consider it—potential fulfilled. Not since Re*ac*tor has Neil put out an album largely made up of cro-magnon rockers. After listening to it twice I felt like my IQ dropped a couple dozen points. Not that the subject matter is stupid. The Linc-volt, Neil’s eco-car is actually a pretty cool concept. It’s just that the simple bar room riffs and mindless lyrics of most of the songs can get brain numbing. The album as a whole reminds me of a cross between Re*ac*tor and This Note’s For You but sonically in the style of Greendale and Living With War. Whereas Greendale is a cornerstone release in Neil’s catalog and Living With War finds a way to override it’s dumbness with passion, FITR is mostly just plain dumb. The wilder side of Old Black makes a very brief appearance on “Just Singing a Song” and the gem of the many clunky rockers is the title track. The best song on the album, “Light a Candle” is one that can stand with other great songs from throughout Neil’s career. Lyrically it evokes “Thrasher”, and the arrangement avoids simplistic riffing. Amazingly, Neil manages to crap out a “T-Bone”-esque song with the very repetitive tune “Cough Up the Bucks”. Sorry Neil, didn’t really need the first “T-Bone”. “Off the Road” is a weird ballad written to his eco-car–and not in the endearing “Long May You Run” way but in a way where I wouldn’t be surprised to see Pegi take a sledgehammer to his precious ride. If I was a teacher I’d give this album a D+. It’s not a total failure and the eco-car concept isn’t a bad idea. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that his car makes for very good music. Try again Neil.  Sometimes I’m in the mood to hear some killer electric guitar tone. Neil’s “Dead Man” fulfills the requirement. Old Black, the Whizzer and his Fender amp jam out and sometimes accompany Nobody and William Blake talking from parts of the movie. Great stuff. Here’s the acoustic version of the theme song that was left off the soundtrack. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Next month, two SSS cornerstone artists are releasing new albums. On April 7th Neil Young releases “Fork in the Road”.
Then, on April 28th Bob Dylan gives us “Together Through Life”.
Why are they SSS cornerstones you might ask? Because they are two guys who have done what they wanted their entire careers. That’s what makes a legend in my mind. |
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