NEIL YOUNG

Reviewed on this page:

How does one sum up Neil Young's long and distinguished career in a single opening paragraph? Not easily. Young's career now spans more than 30 years and dozens of albums. He began as a member of Buffalo Springfield before beginning his solo career in 1968. He soon became a sometime member of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, whose records brought him into the limelight. In the 1970's, Young generally was commercially and critically successful (although his mid-'70's records were a turn-off for many). But the 1980's were a bad decade for Young; his albums became erratic and annoying. But at the end of that decade, Neil finally returned to form. Unlike many other aging veteran rockers, Young has remained relevant. He fit in well in the 1990's, when he became recognized as a major influence on modern rock; he toured and performed with such bands as Pearl Jam and Sonic Youth. Most of Young's solo records are in a folk and country vein, while the records he makes with his sometime backing band Crazy Horse usually consist of hard rock. When this page was first created, all of the albums reviewed below were out of print in the U.S. As of this writing, only the first two remain out of print. (The album Trans is currently not available domestically, but is easily obtainable as an import).

In 1972, Young made a film called Journey Through The Past, a self-indulgent pseudo-documentary of his career up to that point. Directed by Bernard Shakey (a pseudonym for Mr. Young), it consisted mainly of concert footage, fantasy sequences, and other silliness. The two-record soundtrack album is recommended for completists only. Side One is the most interesting, containing vintage live performances from Buffalo Springfield ("Mr. Soul", "Rock & Roll Woman"), and CSN&Y ("Find The Cost Of Freedom", "Ohio"). Side Two leads off with a decent live performance of "Southern Man". But after that, the album goes awry. The rest of Side Two contains studio outtakes of songs from the Harvest album, punctuated by noisy distractions (including an obnoxious recording of a crowd singing the oldie "Let Me Call You Sweetheart"). A repetitive 15-minute version of "Words (Between The Lines Of Age)" takes up all of Side Three. Side Four contains the only new song that Young recorded for the album, an unmemorable piano ballad called "Soldier". That song is surrounded by odds and ends: a short conversation between Young and a Christian Fundamentalist ("Relativity Invitation"); a gospel choir's rendering of "Handel's Messiah"; Miklos Rozsa's theme music from the 1961 film King of Kings ; and the Beach Boys instrumental "Let's Go Away For Awhile". If this side was intended as some sort of thematic collage, it's hard to make sense of it.

Track Listing:

SIDE ONE:

1. For What It's Worth/Mr. Soul
2. Rock & Roll Woman
3. Find The Cost Of Freedom
4. Ohio

SIDE TWO

1. Southern Man
2. Are You Ready For The Country
3. Let Me Call You Sweetheart
4. Alabama

SIDE THREE

1. Words (Between The Lines Of Age)

SIDE FOUR

1. Relativity Invitation
2. Handel's Messiah
3. The King of Kings Theme
4. Soldier
5. Let's Go Away For Awhile

The 1973 release of Time Fades Away marked the beginning of Neil's downbeat period. It was a live album of all-new material that sounded amazingly consistent despite the fact that the songs were recorded during various performances. The songs have an effectively raw and ragged (not to mention downbeat) sound that confused and alienated many of Young's Harvest-era fans. The album is riveting from start to finish, and is arguably one of Neil's best works.

The same can be said for Young's next studio release. On The Beach continues the downbeat spiral, suggesting that Neil was not happy with the trappings of success. Not for no reason do three of the songs contain the word "blues" in their titles. The record sounds accessible at first; "Walk On" and "See The Sky About To Rain" are easy on the ears, if not exactly uplifting. But darkness descends with "Revolution Blues", a disturbingly believable song about alienation and paranoia. It gets grimmer: Side Two contains three lengthy downers in which Neil sounds genuinely tired and lonely. On The Beach is a strong album, not recommended for manic depressives. (1975's Tonight's The Night, recorded before but released after On The Beach, is even more depressing!). Note: "Walk On" and "For The Turnstiles" are included on the Decade compilation.

Track Listings:

TIME FADES AWAY

1. Time Fades Away
2. Journey Through The Past
3. Yonder Stands The Sinner
4. L.A.
5. Love In Mind
6. Don't Be Denied
7. The Bridge
8. Last Dance

ON THE BEACH

1. Walk On
2. See The Sky About To Rain
3. Revolution Blues
4. For The Turnstiles
5. Vampire Blues
6. On The Beach
7. Motion Pictures
8. Ambulance Blues

American Stars 'N Bars, released in 1977, consists of songs recorded between 1974 and 1977, and is as inconsistent as you would expect such an album to be. Still, American Stars 'N Bars isn't half bad. It contains one classic, "Like A Hurricane", which was recorded in 1975 with Crazy Horse. "Homegrown" is from the same sessions; it was reportedly intended to be the title track for an unreleased 1975 album. (Presumably to fill space, that two-minute track is found at the end of both sides of the cassette version). "Star Of Bethlehem" was recorded in November 1974, at the tail end of the aforementioned downbeat period; Emmylou Harris provides backing vocals on that track. Neil performs all vocals and instrumentation on "Will To Love", recorded in May 1976, in which he compares himself to a fish swimming upstream. The first five tracks were all recorded in April of 1977 with Crazy Horse and background vocals by Linda Ronstadt and Nicolette Larson. Those tracks have a country sound, and are likable if unremarkable. American Stars 'N Bars is a lesser Young album, but a decent one.

Track Listing:

1. The Old Country Waltz
2. Saddle Up The Palomino
3. Hey Babe
4. Hold Back The Tears
5. Bite The Bullet
6. Star Of Bethlehem
7. Will To Love
8. Like A Hurricane
9. Homegrown

Hawks & Doves, Young's 1980 album, was a return to folk music after the louder and harder Rust Never Sleeps album. Side One contains some of the gentlest music Young has ever recorded; Side Two is a bit livelier, with the volume turned up a notch or two. The subject matter is surprising. Neil portrays himself as a patriotic American (although he is Canadian) on the title track and "Captain Kennedy", and he warns about impending trouble in the U.S. in "Comin' Apart At Every Nail". "Stayin' Power" is an ode to familial stability (at the time, Neil was caring for his ill and disabled son). But the record has its throwaways ("Union Man" in particular), making it an overall uneven affair. Still, some devoted fans think highly of it. Note: "Little Wing" is not the Jimi Hendrix tune; all of the songs are Young compositions.

Track Listing:

1. Little Wing
2. The Old Homestead
3. Lost In Space
4. Captain Kennedy
5. Stayin' Power
6. Coastline
7. Union Man
8. Comin' Apart At Every Nail
9. Hawks & Doves

For his next album, Young reunited with Crazy Horse and returned to grungy electric loudness. But Re-ac-tor found Mr. Young running low on inspiration. The reason for the dense wall of electric noise on the record is obvious: most of the songs are paper-thin, and needed all the instrumentation they could get. Case in point: the tiresome "T-Bone" repeats the same lyrics and riffs for nine minutes . The record does have a few standout tracks, including "Opera Star" and "Southern Pacific". Crazy Horse does work up an impressive electric firestorm on the closing track "Shots". Otherwise, Re-ac-tor is a trivial record.

Track Listing:

1. Opera Star
2. Surfer Joe And Moe The Sleaze
3. T-Bone
4. Get Back On It
5. Southern Pacific
6. Motor City
7. Rapid Transit
8. Shots

After Re-ac-tor came and went, Young left Reprise Records and signed on with the then-new Geffen label for what would prove to be a stormy alliance. For his debut on that label, Neil took a bizarre sidestep with Trans, a high-tech concept album about technology taking over everything. Neil sang most of the songs through a vocoder, which enabled him to sing in various computerized voices. (It also renders many of the lyrics unintelligible, so have the lyric sheet handy!). The record is mostly annoying; the new electronic version of his Buffalo Springfield classic "Mr. Soul" is terrible. The opening and closing songs are more typical of Young, but they sound out of place on this album (they were originally intended to be included on another album). Only one song remains relevant: "Computer Cowboy (aka Syscrusher)" apparently refers to a computer-hacking antihero. Otherwise, Trans now sounds as quaint and silly as a campy old sci-fi movie. Note: a song called "If You Got Love" is listed on the back cover and even the lyric sheet of the LP, but the song is not on the album. A slightly longer version of "Sample And Hold" was released on the now-deleted Geffen compilation Lucky Thirteen.

Track Listing:

1. Little Thing Called Love
2. Computer Age
3. We R In Control
4. Transformer Man
5. Computer Cowboy (aka Syscrusher)
6. Hold On To Your Love
7. Sample And Hold
8. Mr. Soul
9. Like An Inca

Young's next album was another genre exercise. Clocking in at barely 25 minutes, Everybody's Rockin' explored the terrain of 1950's-style rockabilly, containing both covers ("Mystery Train", "Bright Lights, Big City") and originals. The Shocking Pinks are made up of frequent Young session musicians, including Ben Keith and Tim Drummond. Although hardly essential, Everybody's Rockin' is a likable and good-natured record, and is actually one of Neil's better '80's efforts. "Payola Blues" would be a good track on any of Young's albums. Note: this album was reissued on CD in 2000.

Track Listing:

1. Betty Lou's Got A New Pair Of Shoes (Bobby Freeman)
2. Rainin' In My Heart (James Moore/Jerry West)
3. Payola Blues (Neil Young/Ben Keith)
4. Wonderin' (Young)
5. Kinda Fonda Wanda (Neil Young/Tim Drummond)
6. Jellyroll Man (Young)
7. Bright Lights, Big City (Jimmy Reed)
8. Cry, Cry, Cry (Young)
9. Mystery Train (Sam Phillips/Herman Parker, Jr.)
10. Everybody's Rockin' (Young)

Young reunited with Crazy Horse for 1987's Life, his final album for Geffen Records. Life is marred by the type of overblown production that was typical in the mid-'80's, with distracting sound effects ("Mideast Vacation"), keyboard flourishes ("Around The World"), and emotion-laden balladry ("Long Walk Home", "When Your Lonely Heart Breaks"). But the material is good. The songs on the first side speak of international politics, while the songs on Side Two deal with more personal matters. "Mideast Vacation" is a standout; "Prisoners Of Rock 'N' Roll" is an amusing swipe at studio head David Geffen. Although not great, Life was an improvement over Young's last half-dozen albums, and paved the way for his return to form that was only an album or two away. Life was reissued on CD in 2000.

Track Listing:

1. Mideast Vacation
2. Long Walk Home
3. Around The World
4. Inca Queen
5. Too Lonely
6. Prisoners Of Rock 'N' Roll
7. Cryin' Eyes
8. When Your Lonely Heart Breaks
9. We Never Danced

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