Zuma Review

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Zuma ReviewWithout any possible question, this is one of Neil Young's greatest albums, and given the extraordinary length of his career and the amazing number of albums that he has made, that is saying something. This is also one of his most influential albums, producing a pattern for a host of guitar oriented garage and alternative bands in the 1980s and 1990s. It is impossible to listen to a band like Thin White Rope or Eleventh Dream Day or Nirvana and escape the conclusion that the members of the bands all grew up listening to the cuts on this disc.
Although this is widely known as one of the seminal guitar albums in the history of rock, there are two paradoxes in that claim. First, a couple of the songs are entirely acoustic and feature none of the grungy guitar found throughout the rest of the disc. "Pardon My Heart" is not merely acoustic, but soft and gentle as well. "Through My Sails" is a Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song. For me, it is the weakest cut on the album, and a potent reminder to me of why I prefer Neil Young on his own. The second paradox is that in many ways Neil Young really isn't a very good guitarist. Technically, there are probably a host of high school guitarists that surpass him. His solos are some of the most elementary in the history of rock. Nonetheless, Young seems to get more musical mileage out of relatively meager chops of any guitarist in history. He might not be a virtuoso, but in this album he virtually reinvents grunge guitar, and paved the way for a host of imitators.
Guitar aside, what drives this amazing album is the great, great songs that line up one after another. "Don't Cry No Tears" gives way for the even more stunning "Danger Bird." A couple of songs later we get one of my favorite Young songs, "Barstool Blues." "Stupid Girl" is not a work of misogyny like the Stones' "Under My Thumb," but yet another excellent guitar driven song. "Drive Back" is another great song that then gives away to the song that seems to define the entire album, the epic, majestic "Cortez the Killer," in which Neil gets to sing about his recurring subject of the European exploitation of the New World.
Neil Young has other albums nearly as good as this, and possibly a couple of others that are even better, like AFTER THE GOLD RUSH and TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT, but there isn't a single one of his discs that I have listened to as often or with as much pleasure. This truly is a disc that ought to be in the library of every serious rock fan.Zuma OverviewSeven of the nine songs on this album were recorded with a reunited Crazy Horse, and nearly all of them deal with the subject of romantic conflict and lost love: Don't Cry No Tears; Barstool Blues; Pardon My Heart; Lookin' for a Love; Through My Sails ; the seven-and-a-half minute epic Cortez the Killer , and more!

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Live Rust Review

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Live Rust ReviewImagine, if you will, that Capitol Records chose years ago to put out the Beatles' "White Album" on compact disk when the format was in its infancy, and for whatever reason decided not to invest the funds to put out a double CD, instead choosing to cram the entire thing onto one CD, and advertising it as a "specially low-priced single disk." But in doing so, they found that the whole thing wouldn't fit onto a standard disk, so they hacked about a minute or so out of "Revolution #9" (thinking nobody would notice), eliminated or shortened the silence between songs (if any), and nickel-and-diming the album until it fit just under the time limitations of a single disk. Then pretend that Beatles fans were too blinded by their fanaticism for the album to objectively criticize, let alone realize, the absolute horror of this corporate hatchet job. If this fictitious story sounds too weird for you, then now you know how I feel seeing five-star review after review here, when Warner-Reprise has performed the ultimate sin right under all our noses.
I only recently started amassing a CD collection of Neil, preferring to stick to the vinyl. I figured there will eventually be a remaster job of these albums, although with Neil you never know, and I could wait until then. But I broke down and went ahead and bought "Live Rust" on CD, which is one of my absolute top 10 favorite albums of all time. Knowing the guitar majesty of "Cortez the Killer" on this album better than I know my own date of birth, and having heard it countless times note-for-note, I immediately fast-forwarded to that track and waited for my world to be sonically blown to bits by the digital clarity of the CD, which happened indeed. For about four minutes.
And then I stopped cold. I stared out the window. I was frozen, playing air guitar to notes that were no longer coming out of the speaker, singing guitar parts in my head that weren't happening. "Am I getting that progressed into Alzheimer's already?" I thought, or is this some sort of a defective joke? Well, my Neil fan faithful, I'm here to tell you: the actual track of "Cortez" is approximately a minute and a half shorter than not only the vinyl version, but a minute and a half shorter than THE TIME GUARANTEED TO ME ON THE CD INSERT by good ol' Warner-Reprise. And where did this extra 90 seconds come from? well, it was right there in the LEAD GUITAR parts of the song, right prior to the "hate was just a legend" lyric. They have AXED a huge section of Neil's guitar lead, digitized it out to save space, and done God-knows-what to the rest of the album to give us a low, low price.
I frantically fast-forwarded the track to the end and compared the ending times on my CD player to the one on the CD cover. I was right. And I was disgusted. Then I started REALLY losing it: who was responsible for this? And why in the living name of God could any self-respecting Neil fan put up with the absolute desecration of one of the greatest recorded versions of one of his most jaw-droppingly gnarly songs?
I for one took the CD back. It took me a while to explain to the clerk why, but he chalked it up to a bad mistake on WB's part. Personally, I think their strange urgency in reissuing four of his least-selling albums "remastered with the original cover art" on CD is unusually nice, but I would much rather have a full-blown remastered version of "Live Rust" than anything else in his catalog. Especially now that I know about this hatchet job that sits on the shelf indefinitely, with no plans to improve on it. And Reprise, while you're at the task of putting that 90 seconds of guitar bliss back into "Cortez" that you so thoughtfully took out, go ahead and put out some other songs from that tour that weren't on the original CD to restore my faith in corporate America, because this is more of a disgrace than Watergate, "read my lips", and Monica's dress put together. Get the President on the horn.Live Rust OverviewJapanese reissue pressing features 16 tracks. Reprise. 2005.--This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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Live at Massey Hall (CD/DVD) Review

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Live at Massey Hall (CD/DVD) ReviewThis is a tremendous CD which I whole-heartedly recommend. Neil Young announces before the fourth song that he will be playing "mostly new songs tonight." Five of the new songs would appear on the following year's "Harvest" album, which for my money, is Neil Young's finest. Did the audience realize just how extraordinary was this batch of new songs? Did Neil himself have any inkling of the phenomenal acclaim and acceptance "Harvest" would receive?
The songs are all performed solo by Neil, twelve on guitar, six (counting track 7 as two) on piano. (Unplugged, if you will, decades before that term was coined and turned into a marketing tool.)
One of the most interesting piano tracks is "A Man Needs a Maid/Heart of Gold." Neil introduces the song by saying "some people look at their life and say, well, my life is like a movie," then jokes that "this is like a showtune from my movie," perhaps foreshadowing the heavy production "A Man Needs a Maid" would receive on the studio album. However, the spare rendering here is superior, in my opinion. Then midway through the track, Neil segues into a stark version of "Heart of Gold," previewing what can arguably be called his definitive song.
Standout tracks with acoustic guitar include "Old Man," "Needle and the Damage Done," "Cowgirl In The Sand," and "Ohio." But one could as easily point out highlights by repeating the entire track list. Guitarists especially will appreciate how the songs are played in this solo acoustic format. The sound quality of the recording is superb.
There are several new (at the time) songs that didn't wind up on Harvest or any other album. Of particular note is "Dance, Dance, Dance." In the verse you will recognize the seeds of a later more well-known song.
That Neil has remained relevant all these years -- from CSN&Y to Harvest to Rust Never Sleeps to the Pearl Jam collaborations to last year's "Living With War" -- makes this CD much more than a nostalgic look at the past. I highly recommend it.
Live at Massey Hall (CD/DVD) OverviewFrom the Neil Young performance series archives Available for the first time The acclaimed 1971 solo acoustic Massey Hall performance Featuring 17 tracks-over one hour of music Special edition CD + DVD combo-pak DVD includes 17 live songs from the Massey Hall concert; hi-res stereo audio BECAUSE SOUND MATTERS 'This is the album that should have come out between After the Gold Rush and Harvest'. David Briggs, my producer, was adamant that this should be the record, but I was very excited about the takes we got on Harvest and wanted Harvest out. David disagreed. As I listen to this today, I can see why. Love you, David.' - Neil Young

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Prairie Wind Review

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Prairie Wind ReviewNeil Young has always been a musical chameleon. Shifting from hard rock to rockabilly to grunge to futuristic synth music, he's tried every music genre. But the style he keeps returning to is country-rock. Prairie Wind is yet another superb album in this vein. The past few years haven't been kind to Mr. Young with the death of his father and the mother of his first child or finding out that he has a brain aneurysm. With the sense of loss and mortality, Prairie Wind reflects on life and family. "The Painter" brilliantly sets the tone for the album as it a brooding, moody piece that shows music gives eternal life to its artists. "Far From Home" is a lovely ode to his parents and "Here For You" is a sweet song for his kids that has a great harmonica solo. "Falling From The Face Of The Earth" is a gentle lament and "He Was The King" is a goofy salute to Elvis Presley, but one done with spirit. "When God Made Me" has a full gospel chorus and "This Old Guitar" is the best track on the album with its simple story and laid-back charm. Country-rock is the skin Mr. Young feels most comfortable in and Prairie Wind is his best album in a decade.Prairie Wind OverviewAn artist for all musical seasons, Neil Young returns to autumnal harvest mode on Prairie Wind, with homespun material and sing-song melodies that renew the spirit of some of his most popular releases. Yet the mood here is darker in its maturity than on Harvest and Harvest Moon--the previous releases in what now sounds like a trilogy--and the arrangements have greater range and aural depth, with Wayne Jackson of the soulful Memphis Horns, the Fisk University Jubilee Singers gospel choir, and a string section employed to striking effect. This is a song cycle of dreams, memories, family ties, and the passage of time--what is lost and what endures. The elliptical, epic 'No Wonder', with its evocation of 9/11, ranks with the most ambitious songs of Young's career, while 'Falling Off the Face of the Earth', 'It's a Dream', and the bluesy title cut combine childlike innocence with unsettling experience. Spooner Oldham's church keyboards and co-producer Ben Keith's steel guitar reinforce the sound's sturdy simplicity. Young has released a lot of albums in different musical styles, but Prairie Wind feels like a homecoming, and ranks with his very best. Reprise. 2005.

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