Okay, I confess. I’ve never had to review as massive a project as massive as Neil Young Archives, Volume 1. I was fortunate enough to get a Blu-ray set, which is all of 10 discs long. What I didn’t get was the fancy box and anything that might be in it, so I can’t speak about that stuff. What I did get was the ten discs in an ordinary folder, and a somewhat inaccurate document of the track list, especially as it pertains to the hidden tracks.
I will also say that unlike many other would-be reviewers, I listened to and watched every minute of every disc, both the main elements, and the bonus features. I searched every menu for Easter eggs, I clicked on every hidden track that I could find. I wasn’t satisfied until I was sure that I’d seen and heard everything on each disc. Talk about a journey through the past!
Just think, Archives only covers Young’s career up until 1972. There are more than 35 years worth of archives still to be released. (If the future sets take as long to reach the public as this one did, I probably won’t be around to review the next one.) A number of video clips throughout the set show Young reviewing his archives with photographer/archivist Joel Bernstein and art director Gary Burden. These clips are from February, 1997. So why is it that it took 12 years from that point to assemble the first volume? There’s no doubt that a lot of work went into this, and I’m sure that there were clearances to be worked out, but 12 years’ worth? After immersing myself in this work, I’m prepared to give Young the benefit of the doubt and believe that he waited for the technology to catch up so that he could release this material in the highest quality format. Apparently the advent of Blu-ray marked that point for him. (more…)
I love the new Bob Dylan album. I do. Because the older Bob Dylan gets, the more he sounds like Tom Waits. Seriously, though, Together Through Lifeis another solid, rich album. You can check out the zydeco vibe on “It’s All Good” in the mix down below. Also you’ll find some new Neil Young, some old George Harrison and a couple artists covering the Grateful Dead, including Jane’s Addiction.
Rhino has just released A Cabinet of Curiosities, the ultimate Jane’s Addiction “live, rare, and unreleased” package. A little wooden curio cabinet filled with voodoo dolls, lyrics, reproductions of old fliers, along with the discs (a regular edition in a plain ol’ cardboard slipcase will be released next month). You’ll have to supply your own eyeliner and Nag Champa incense, though.
I got into Jane’s Addiction during the heady summer of 1991 (or was it 1990?) A friend had taped Ritual de lo Habitualfor me and while at first I didn’t like “that weird LA shit,” I had to admit it was growing on me. I was having a cigarette (it may even have been a clove cigarette) and listening to side two’s centerpiece, “Three Days,” unfolding like the warm summer evening outside.
Two girls heard the music and came to my window — they crawled into my dorm room and we all sat down on my futon and got acquainted. We instantly became friends. We shared all our stories and some grass. Staying up all night talking, laughing, and playing that tape over and over endlessly. In the morning the three of us watched the sun come up and we ate waffles together. (more…)
Happy Friday, everyone, and welcome back to CHART ATTACK! This is a pretty solid, diverse week on the charts: six out of our ten artists are black, and the other four are, like, the whitest artists in the world. They’re all a part of April 22, 1972!
10. Doctor My Eyes — Jackson BrowneAmazoniTunes 9. A Cowboy’s Work is Never Done — Sonny & CherAmazoniTunes 8. Heart of Gold — Neil YoungAmazoniTunes 7. Day Dreaming — Aretha FranklinAmazoniTunes 6. Betcha By Golly, Wow — The StylisticsAmazoniTunes 5. In the Rain — The DramaticsAmazoniTunes 4. A Horse With No Name — AmericaAmazoniTunes 3. I Gotcha — Joe TexAmazoniTunes 2. Rockin’ Robin — Michael JacksonAmazoniTunes 1. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face — Roberta FlackAmazoniTunes
10. Doctor My Eyes — Jackson Browne
I’ve never really paid much attention to Jackson Browne, but I really, really like this song. I love the piano with the stuck key at the beginning. I love David Crosby’s backing vocals (and I didn’t know until now that Nash was on there as well). I love the percussion, and I love the guitar work. And of course I love the bass playing — it’s frickin’ Lee Sklar! Who doesn’t love Lee Sklar?
This was Browne’s debut single from his debut album, and his only entry in the Top 10 until 1982’s “Somebody’s Baby” (which was his last). The song was covered — and this totally baffles me — by the Jackson 5 almost instantly, appearing on their 1972 album Lookin’ Through the Windows. The “baby, baby” opening kind of sucks, but Michael sounds great.
Let me just play you something. Here’s the opening of “A Cowboy’s Work is Never Done.”
Got it? Okay, now listen to this.
Am I crazy?
Peaking at #8, this incredibly stupid song was (thankfully) the last Top 10 hit for Sonny & Cher. And you know what sucks more than this song? This song’s video. Watch Sonny Bono play air guitar. It’s terrible.
8. Heart of Gold — Neil Young
Neil Young has only had one #1 single in his career. This is it. And it’s his only song to crack the Top 30 as well. I think it’s safe to say that Neil Young is a failure. I’m sure he’d agree.
Like most listeners, the first time I heard the song “Farmer John” was on the Neil Young & Crazy Horse return-to-form album Ragged Glory in 1987. It seemed almost tailor-made for the proto-punk, garage rock stylings of the sometimes barely-competent but always glorious guitar skronk of Crazy Horse.
The song’s got a history all it’s own, however. It’s one of those chestnuts that gets unearthed every decade or so. That’s a sign of either staying power or novelty, usually…in this case, perhaps a little of both.
The definitive version, and the one that Young & Crazy Horse and any other act to cover it since the ‘60s is referencing, is from 1964, by The Premiers. Featured on the Nuggets box set, it has one of the strangest openings you’re likely to hear on record.
“Has anybody seen Kosher Pickle Harry?,” asks an unidentified emcee. “Noooo,” a group of revelers drunkenly (?) bawl. “If you see him, tell him that Herbert is looking for him.” More crowd noise ensues (including a shouted “Who’s Herbert?”). Then the band is introduced to screams of delight before it kicks into the simultaneous drum-guitar-sax opening stomp. Party noise threatens to overwhelm the song throughout the roughly two minute duration, with drunken, pitchy harmonizing (“Oh WAY Ohhhhh”) adding to the general sense of mayhem. Crazy, man, crazy. Dig it. Most of the “audience” noise was courtesy of the all-girl Chevelles Car Club, on hand at the Hollywood studio where the cut was recorded.
The song became an unexpected breakout hit, moving from local to regional to national fame within weeks, ultimately reaching #19 on the charts in that summer of ’64.
”Farmer John,” like so many other hits of that era, was a rocked-up (read: “Louie Louie”’ed) remake of an earlier, more basic ‘50s R&B song. Don & Dewey were a Los Angeles-based vocal duo. “Don” is none other than Don “Sugarcane” Harris, best known as the electric violinist on Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats, Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh albums, as well as his appearances as a sideman with John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers.
The Searchers (of “Needles and Pins” and “Love Potion No. 9” fame) also covered the song, in 1963, a version of which I could not track down. But, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals have been playing this gem in concert for a few years now, a version of which is below.
It’s the curse of the debut album: the artist, unsure of who he/she is or what he/she ought to sound like strikes out in all directions — a power ballad here, a blues grinder there, a piano pop-tune way over yonder. The artist can be forgiven for their somewhat schizoid aim since the label has put all the weight of the company, as well as one’s own career path, down on their freshman shoulders. With that in mind, W. Axl Rose is the oldest freshman in the history of music, as his magnum opus Chinese Democracy has finally seen the light of day. The good news is that it isn’t the unmitigated failure we expected, yet it is far from the triumphant return from exodus his handlers would like you to believe.
It is the equivalent of time travel wrapped in aluminum, or vinyl if you so desire, as songs that gestated through the 15-year span in between it and the previous covers album The Spaghetti Incident? (1993) have not been updated to any semblance of modernity. Rose’s flirtation with industrial rock in the early nineties, plainly NIN-fluenced, are left intact and instantly dated as are the tracks that are NU-fluenced. Korn should be proud to hear the presence of down-tuning, hip-hop loop beats and scream chants on a GNR album, but even Linkin Park jumped that train and caught a taxi to emo-town. I suppose we dodged a Rose-colored, mascaraed bullet on that.
But there are a couple songs that I didn’t mind listening to. In fact, if “Better” came on the radio, I might not turn the dial. It has a semblance of the old attitude the band once had, and not too much of the stylistic shout-outs that bog down the rest of the album. “Shackler’s Revenge” survives a disheartening opening to reveal itself as one of the stronger tracks, and because I do have a soft spot for proggish bombast and consider “November Rain” my favorite GNR tune, “There Was A Time” survives the time trials. But where I finished Metallica’s Death Magnetic and thought, “I’ll still listen to Justice and the black album more, but I’ll revisit this occasionally too,” I can only bring myself to clicking off my favorites in Chinese Democracy’s jumble and dumping them into a hard-rock mixtape. The rest of the album is skip-fodder and, considering the majority of my music listening happens in my car, I’d rather play a different CD and keep my eyes on the road. (more…)
…It is also the story of a book, a book called The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – not an Earth book, never published on Earth, and until the terrible catastrophe occurred, never seen or heard of by any Earthman.
Nevertheless, a wholly remarkable book.
In fact it was probably the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing houses of Ursa Minor – of which no Earthman had ever heard either.
Not only is it a wholly remarkable book, it is also a highly successful one – more popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty More Things to do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid’s trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway?
In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch Hiker’s Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects.
First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words Don’t Panic inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.
Which of Douglas Adams’ words do you choose to live by?
—
Last week, Zack pulled off a surprise upset against DwDunphy, as Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom” took home 55% of the vote against David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” Next week, we’ll do a recap of how the various matchups have turned out, as well as taking a look at what’s in store for the future.
Howdy, everybody! It’s CHART ATTACK! time once again!, What can I tell you about this week? Well, at least three of our artists owe their chart success to MTV. Four of our artists are from Europe, and strangely enough, three are from Michigan. And I’d say that just over 50% of today’s songs still hold up today, but I’ll leave you to make that decision for yourself. Let’s jump into October 5, 1985!
I am slowly working my way through the entirety of Stevie’s discography. I’m extremely familiar with everything he released from 1971 through 1976, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you remember that Stevie Wonder’s a prolific, musical genius and released six albums (including a double album) within that period. Anyway, so far, I’ve made it as far as 1980’s Hotter Than July, which is actually a phenomenal record. This means I have another record or two until I get to In Square Circle, which is where you’ll find “Part-Time Lover.” Any thoughts on the album, readers? If it’s no good, let me know; I ignored all the people who said Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants was a piece o’ crap and boy, do I regret it now.
But I digress. I like this song. No, it’s not going to hold a candle to anything Stevie released in the ’70s, but to hold any of these songs to that standard is completely pointless, and besides, this is a catchy pop song. “Undercover passion on the run” is a great phrase. Also, I love the story: he’s cheating on her, but (gasp!) she’s cheating on him too! SNAP! “Part-Time Lover” reached #1 on the Pop, R&B, Dance and Adult Contemporary charts, making Stevie the first artist to accomplish such a feat.
Here’s the music video, featuring Stevie groovin’ in a club meant for people who can’t really dance. Also, for the first part of the video, he’s in a triangle for some reason.
I saw Stevie live three times this past year. He played “I Just Called to Say I Love You” at two of the shows, and at all three, he let “Ribbon in the Sky” drag on for 20 minutes. Not once did he play “Part-Time Lover.” I feel slightly jilted, but still, if Stevie comes to your town, run, don’t walk.
9. Dancing in the Street — Mick Jagger and David Bowie
Remember in early 1990, when Angela Bowie made the rounds on the talk show circuit and dished details about finding Mick and David in bed together, naked? And remember how it was this big, salacious bombshell? Anybody who found that news shocking obviously never saw the “Dancing in the Street” video.
On the bonus DVD included with the new reissue of Graham Nash’s Songs for Beginners, there is a gallery of the artist’s photography. One of the photos is of an old car, trundling down a rural one-lane road towards foggy pines in the distance. The caption reads, “Neil (Young) going home to Broken Arrow Ranch, Northern California.”
I know the landscape where the photo was taken, in the rolling Santa Cruz Mountains, somewhere off of Skyline Boulevard, along the Pacific Ocean. Neil Young lives in Woodside, California, an affluent mountain town with Skyline as its main thoroughfare. A two-lane mountain road that I drove back and forth from the San Lorenzo Valley to work in San Francisco — and where I rolled my car in an icy morning frost. I was upside down and crawled out the passenger side door. I still have the ambulance bill hanging over my head. It’s an interesting personal footnote to what originally seemed a trivial bonus. The rest of the photo gallery features portraits of the likes of a jolly David Crosby, a pensive Stephen Stills, and a glowering Neil Young. But to the music: This album, Graham Nash’s first and, arguably, finest, sounds brilliant in its Rhino two-disc reissued form. The DVD features the album in 5.1 stereo, but the main disc sounds just as good. (more…)
I’ve never been a big fan of Neil Young — I’ll just say it, it’s that pinched voice of his — but I will admit to liking several of his songs once they were covered by other artists whose voices I found slightly less irritating. I love the Pixies’ take on “I’ve Been Waiting for You,” and I even find Duran Duran’s version of “The Needle and the Damage Done” preferable to the original. Let me guess: you just said something snarky about Duran’s 1995 covers album, Thank You. You’re right, it sucks. Perhaps that’s why they left this off the album; it was too good to make the cut. (It appeared on one of the CD singles of their cover of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.” Lou allegedly loved Duran’s version of his song, for what it’s worth.)
However, Nicolette Larson’s version of “Lotta Love,” 30-some years after she recorded it, has forever changed the way I feel about Neil Young and his approach to songwriting.
The Web has not been very forthcoming when it comes to confirming this, but I recently stumbled upon an awesome quote associated to Neil Young about how songs should be treated like houses that anyone can live in. If only the songwriter can relate to a song, then how can anyone else enjoy the experience of listening to it? Songs are for everyone, and the more universal the theme, the more relatable, and homey, it is. Larson, the Jim Keltner of session singers in the ‘70s and runner-up in the Crystal Gayle Hair-Off, allegedly found “Lotta Love” on a cassette while riding in Young’s car. He said, “You want it?” He apparently didn’t have much use for it, but Larson thought it would be perfect for her 1978 debut solo album, the succinctly titled Nicolette. She was right; the song climbed to #8 on the Top 40 and #1 on the AC chart. “Lotta Love,” as sung by Larson, is one of the coziest houses you’ll ever set foot in.
It’s easy enough to point to nearly any Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and say that — “Judy: Blue Eyes,” certainly. “Guinnevere,” absolutely. “Our House,” you bet.
But “Helplessly Hoping” is it, the most Spring of any of their songs. This is it.
The opening guitar could be anything, it could be Spring showers, blossoms sprouting, skipping down the street, a gentle breeze, sunshine peeking through clouds.
It’s hope, the kind that comes from feeling warm air on your skin, packing away heavy clothes, letting your body relax after bracing against cold, being out among people again, being free from the doldrums of Winter.
“…gasping at glimpses of gentle true spirit he runs / wishing he could fly…”
It’s meeting people for the first time and seeing old friends in a new light. It’s the excitement, confusion and frustration that comes from new beginnings. It’s the senseless equations that form chemistry.
“…they are one person / they are two alone / they are three together / they are for each other…”
It’s taking chances, letting things go, daring to live.
“…love isn’t lying it’s loose in a lady who lingers / saying she is lost / and choking on hello…”
And it’s far too short, requiring your attention almost immediately before it threatens to slip into yesterday.
Okay, I confess. I’ve never had to review as massive a project as massive as Neil Young Archives, Volume 1. I was fortunate enough to get a Blu-ray set, which is all of 10 discs long. What I didn’t get was the fancy box and anything that might be in it, so I can’t speak about that stuff. What I did get was the ten discs in an ordinary folder, and a somewhat inaccurate document of the track list, especially as it pertains to the hidden tracks.
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It’s the curse of the debut album: the artist, unsure of who he/she is or what he/she ought to sound like strikes out in all directions — a power ballad here, a blues grinder there, a piano pop-tune way over yonder. The artist can be forgiven for their somewhat schizoid aim since the label has put all the weight of the company, as well as one’s own career path, down on their freshman shoulders. With that in mind, W. Axl Rose is the oldest freshman in the history of music, as his magnum opus Chinese Democracy has finally seen the light of day. The good news is that it isn’t the unmitigated failure we expected, yet it is far from the triumphant return from exodus his handlers would like you to believe.
However, Nicolette Larson’s version of “Lotta Love,” 30-some years after she recorded it, has forever changed the way I feel about Neil Young and his approach to songwriting.
