I've got lots of Neil Young albums, the majority the studio albums he released on his run of work from his self titled debut in 1969 through to Ragged Glory in 1990 and a handful from after that point- but clearly at some point in the early- to- mid 2000s I began to wonder if I really needed the new Neil Young album and decided I didn't. Apart from Homegrown (2020's long awaited release of the album Neil shelved in 1974) I think the last one I bought was Living With War in 2006. I can't say I've kept up with his Archive releases either but I have got the first two in that series- Crazy Horse Live At The Fillmore 1970 and Neil Young Live At The Massey Hall 1971, both pretty essential (I've got a few other live albums but all predate the Archive series). Looking at a list of the Archive live albums I'mo not sure why I didn't get Live At Canturbury House 1968 or Roxy: Tonight's The Night Live but it's difficult to keep up and as I said before- how much Neil Young do I need?
The new album Barn, recorded with Crazy Horse last year, has had good reviews and I've heard two songs on a freebie CD that I enjoyed so maybe the answer is one more. In fact I suspect Neil Young albums is the same as the old adage about bicycles for cyclists- the correct number you need is n +1 (with n being the number you currently own). Neil Young is clearly one of the 20th century's great artists and to keep it going for over two decades of the subsequent century is impressive. The live album with Crazy Horse from 1971 at Fillmore East is the stuff of legend, Neil and the original Crazy Horse line up on stage and in the groove, their particular and unique brand of crunching, chugging, heads down acid rock with extended moments- minutes- of explosive guitar playing shown off at its best. This set includes one of Neil's greatest songs, Winterlong, a song in typical Neil fashion he chose not to release until his first career compilation Decade came out in 1977. Much of the rest of the gig is built around the first Crazy Horse album Everybody Know's This Is Nowhere. It concludes with a very long song, a sixteen minute take of Cowgirl In The Sand, Neil and Danny Whitten duelling on guitar while Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot keep it straight and simple at the back.
Cowgirl In The Sand (Live at Fillmore East 1970)
In contrast, the Live At Massey Hall 1971 album is just Neil, an acoustic guitar or piano and a microphone and what his long term producer David Briggs said should have been the album he put out instead of Harvest (although many of the songs he plays would eventually turn up on Harvest). Just to show Neil can do brevity as well as expansion here's a superb version of Don't Let It Bring You Down, originally from 1970s's After The Goldrush, complete with the guitar being retuned into the double drop D tuning at the start. Don't let it bring you down/ It's only castles burning
Don't Let It Bring You Down (Live At Massey Hall 1971)
Writing this I began wonder what my ten Neil Young songs for an ICA would be and I came up with this list for starters- The Loner, Cinnamon Girl, Winterlong, Powderfinger, Down By The River, Don't Let It Bring You Down, Cowgirl In The Sand, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Sugar Mountain, Heart Of Gold, Old Man, Mansion On The Hill, Tonight's The Night, Like A Hurricane, Cortez The Killer, Pocahontas, For The Turnstiles, Ambulance Blues, Barstool Blues, Fuckin' Up, Revolution Blues, Hey Hey My My, Crime In The City, Love And Only Love...
8 comments:
Much like you, for some reason somewhere along the way I felt that I had enough Neil Young records in my life and stopped even checking out his new releases, as a result I'm way out of touch with his later catalogue. Perhaps I should give Barn a listen though.
A Neil Young ICA? That's a challenge. As challenging as my occasional attempts to whittle down a similar 10 song Bob Dylan sampler.
That's a pretty good list. 10 would be difficult.
I've heard good things about Barn. I should check it out. His productivity is hard to keep up with.
For every After The Gold Rush and Comes A Time there are 20 more albums released in the past 40 years that no one needs to hear. Perfect example of "I liked his old stuff much more." I was done with Neil years before he was peddling his snake oil MP3 player.
A Neil Young ICA? Tune in soon.........
I also stopped buying his records at the end of the last century after Mirror Ball because I thought he's not relevant any more and I also heard good words about Barn. So I have to investigate for this album and give him another chance. And I agree that it is difficult to make an ICA with ten songs. Maybe I should do it as well.
JTFL- I know what you mean. Never quite got his obsession with his mp3 player either.
JC- looking forward to it. I have an ICA I've bene thinking about too (not Neil Young)
Got Live Rust on vinyl for the first time a few weeks ago.Tremendous stuff particularly side 3
I think I'll take the leap with Barn as well as I haven't really paid a great deal of attention since Mirrorball kind of put me off. No idea how you'd whittle an ICA to ten though. Can I just list the tracklist for Decade for starters?
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