Agony Shorthand
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Tuesday, August 17, 2004
LET'S TALK ABOUT NEIL......
Well, I finally did it. I completed my pre-1983 NEIL YOUNG back catalog accumulation two weeks ago by purchasing that very first one from 1968, "Neil Young" -- the one you never hear anyone talk about; the one with the bizarre cover that has Neil looking like he's been carved into Mt. Rushmore by a drunk 10th grader; the one that sits forlornly in the priced-to-move budget racks in every record store I've seen it. Never knew if it was any good, but there it is. My take on it after a handful of listens is that it's mediocre in all regards -- for Neil -- when stacked next to the titanic releases that followed it the next six years, legend-making records like "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" , "On The Beach", "Zuma" and the rest. The tracks that bring it home the hardest are the ones I already knew from "Decade" ("The Loner", "The Old Laughing Lady") plus a top-notch closer in the winding and forlorn acoustic "Last Trip To Tulsa", which is 9 minutes of the Neil we came to know and love -- weird, mysterious and rocking hard even when flying 100% solo. The record suffers a bit from toss-away tracks, like an opening instrumental called "The Emperor of Wyoming" that's pleasant enough but a bit odd in placement, as well as the ultra-produced classical interlude "String Quartet From Whiskey Boot Hill" which is just one producer's (Jack Nitzsche's) flat-out bad idea. Almost makes you want to check out "Greendale" -- it couldn't be any more self-indulgent than this, right? Neil bounces well between folksinging-troubadour mode and hard-driving, guitarslinging outlaw mode but apparently was only months away from honing his craft to a sharpened T. He found rock and roll valhalla on the next record, the incredible "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere", and was off & sprinting for a impressive run that continues off and on to this day. This one, I'm glad to have it bookending the collection, but I'd hardly want to start any Neil fixation here.
Well, I finally did it. I completed my pre-1983 NEIL YOUNG back catalog accumulation two weeks ago by purchasing that very first one from 1968, "Neil Young" -- the one you never hear anyone talk about; the one with the bizarre cover that has Neil looking like he's been carved into Mt. Rushmore by a drunk 10th grader; the one that sits forlornly in the priced-to-move budget racks in every record store I've seen it. Never knew if it was any good, but there it is. My take on it after a handful of listens is that it's mediocre in all regards -- for Neil -- when stacked next to the titanic releases that followed it the next six years, legend-making records like "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" , "On The Beach", "Zuma" and the rest. The tracks that bring it home the hardest are the ones I already knew from "Decade" ("The Loner", "The Old Laughing Lady") plus a top-notch closer in the winding and forlorn acoustic "Last Trip To Tulsa", which is 9 minutes of the Neil we came to know and love -- weird, mysterious and rocking hard even when flying 100% solo. The record suffers a bit from toss-away tracks, like an opening instrumental called "The Emperor of Wyoming" that's pleasant enough but a bit odd in placement, as well as the ultra-produced classical interlude "String Quartet From Whiskey Boot Hill" which is just one producer's (Jack Nitzsche's) flat-out bad idea. Almost makes you want to check out "Greendale" -- it couldn't be any more self-indulgent than this, right? Neil bounces well between folksinging-troubadour mode and hard-driving, guitarslinging outlaw mode but apparently was only months away from honing his craft to a sharpened T. He found rock and roll valhalla on the next record, the incredible "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere", and was off & sprinting for a impressive run that continues off and on to this day. This one, I'm glad to have it bookending the collection, but I'd hardly want to start any Neil fixation here.
