RSS
Home
Neil Young's first solo album reviewed
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
As his 60s counterculture peers sit fermenting on shelves, generally neglected in the digital world, Neil Young remains relevant and exciting today. Having begun his career with Buffalo Springfield in the late 60s, Young pursued a tumultuous solo career in the 70s that led to rough times and great albums. The 80s saw him experimenting, constantly changing and trying to stay fresh, which garnered him not just a little criticism. Since then he has continued to do what he’s always done: put out records that he wants to put out, regardless of commercial demands. “Some of them sell a lot, some of them don’t sell any,” says Neil in an interview on CNN that followed the release of his anti-war/Bush album Living With War (link). It’s not a concern of his.
Though Neil Young has defined artistic freedom and integrity throughout his career, his eponymous solo debut is often overlooked and underappreciated. This record is in fact a great one, and nothing less than essential for Neil Young fans, despite its admitted flaws.
The thing about Neil Young is that its Neil’s first album after his split from Buffalo Springfield. Influential in their time, the Springfield can seem somewhat dated now, and Young’s first solo venture sees him using their same approach: overdubs, overdubs, overdubs! This means that orchestral arrangements (courtesy of Jack Nitzsche) serve as elaborate décor, mixes are often dense, and self-indulgent forays into psychedelia clutter the songs. Neil’s guitar feels separate from the arrangements, sounding at its worst like a cheap imitation of the signature guitar he would later use, called “Old Black.”
This is the exact opposite of Neil’s later career and bare-bones work with Crazy Horse, so approaching this record out of context can be somewhat of a shock. But as always, the songwriting is still there. No matter what Neil’s ever done or will do for music, his songwriting will always be the reason for his success; he has an uncanny gift for weaving simple words and melodies that appeal to our deeper sensibilities. His records have songs that cut deep, and Neil Young is no exception.
His lyrics are more cryptic on this album than on his later releases because he has not yet shed his adolescent pretentiousness or his more silly idiosyncrasies, which diehard Neil fans love anyway. “The Old Laughing Lady” is a great example; it’s a beautiful song despite the absurd lyrics. Following is an unnecessary “String Quartet” interlude, and then the album continues with consistently great songs. To this day he hasn’t written anything that sounds quite like “Here We Are In The Years.”
It is an early sign of his anti-commercial tendencies that Neil opens the record with a short instrumental country song that has no bearing over the rest of the album. It’s almost as if he’s weeding out the superficial fans, the ones looking only for the radio hit or instant gratification. And yet he inevitably delivers on this end with the rocking second tune “The Loner.” “The Loner” is so good that it remains a staple of Neil’s live shows today, over 40 years later.
The most interesting track is probably the last track, “The Last Trip To Tulsa,” a stream-of-consciousness rant likely inspired by “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream.” At almost ten minutes long, I was inclined to deem it a pretentious and scatterbrained stoner exercise. Upon listening, I decided I was right—and yet I was continually drawn to it. Despite the meticulous overdubbing that precedes it, “Tulsa” is just Young with an acoustic guitar. It’s an acidic weirdo-rant where coroners claim his body, men eat pennies in a dream, and Indians try on his clothes. What a way to end a record.
For more info, visit Neil's Garage at www.neilyoung.com
Neil Young, plus Neil's next three albums, remastered: link
Neil Young Archives Volume 1 available! link
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
