Like An Inca

From the late 90s through to the mid 2000s I listened to a lot of Neil Young. I'd got Harvest and After The Goldrush around 1987/88 and then went through most of his albums a few years later. I still love some of them but don't play him that often anymore. Trans, from 1982, is one of his more bizarre records (from a man who it is fair to say, had a bad 80s). Trans was mainly recorded using synthesizers and keyboards and most of the album uses a vocoder on the vocals too. Young was exploring electronic music at the time, especially Kraftwerk. The thing is, many of the songs sound like guitar songs but played on synths- rather than songs written specifically on and for synths. Young later said he was putting into place a therapy programme with his son Ben (born with cerebral palsy and unable to speak). The vocoder was an attempt to find a new way to communicate with him. Apparently Crazy Horse had recorded some of the album using their usual guitar, bass and drums and turned up for a session to find Neil had stripped all their parts off and replaced them with the new electronic sounds. Crazy Horse scratched their long haired heads. Critics and fans couldn't get their heads around it and neither could Geffen who later sued him for making work that was 'deliberately uncommercial and unrepresentative work'. This isn't my favourite Neil Young song, it isn't even in my top 50 Neil Young songs, but it' probably the best off Trans.

Like An Inca

Yes, Like A Hurricane is a million times better and should be here instead- I saw him and Crazy Horse do it at Sheffield Arena and the amps may still be feeding back for all I know- but I thought it was a tad too predictable to post.