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The GodfatherReturnsNeil Young and Crazy HorseSleeps With Angels (Reprise)In the world of Rock and Roll, where idols come and go like Iralian and Japanese Prime Ministers, Neil Young Is one of « very select group of constants. Whilst most of his contemporaries have become appalling parodies {Mick Jagger, Crosby, Stills and Nash) or are simply woefully inconsistent {Boh Dylan, Lrtu Reed). Young has remained faithful to his musical vision and continues to fiisjire generations of listeners with his superb albums.Perhaps Young's greatest achievement has been his ability to maintain two completely distinct stylistic approaches. There's Ned the original hippie icon, tne musician who virtually invented folk-rock, formed Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills and who recorded albums like After The CuMrash, Harvest, and Comes A Time. Then there's Neil the Godfather of Grunge, the guy who used to hang our with Charlie Manson, who formed the rock band Crazy Horse, toured .America last year with the legendary Booker T. N. the MG's {featuring Blues Brothers Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck Dunn) as his back-up band, and who {with Pearl Jam) brought lhe house cfewn ir the MTV A wards with a blistering rendition of bis anthem Rockin' In The free World.Ai forry-eiwht. Young is a long way from hw days as a seventeen yenr old. cruising around his native Canada m an old hearse, and playing Louie Louie on his bright-orange Grctsch guitar. The nineties have so far been something of a peculiar renaissance for Young: beginning with tl ie release of Ragged Cilory, the tour and ihe lollow-up live set AiC'Weld, Harvest Moon {a return to the mellow coimiry-folk of Hmystand Comes A Time) and the very successful MTV Unplugged recording, and then the Btxijrer T / Pearl Jam tour, he has reached an entirely new generation of fans, who Seem Utterly unfazud by rhr fact that this man ilt; rhe same age a» their parents.Young’s status as the elder statesman of grunge is interesting in that it marks not the resurgence of a fading star, but rather another stage in what has been a constant rise from almost day one. The discovery of Young by the Generation X slackers simply reinforces the huge mass of fans that thts artist lias been building once trie midsixties.The path that Neil Young’s career has taken has consistently defied the “traditions and conventions of tile American corporate music world from the outset, refusing to be the slavish hit-maker. From his beginnings With Buffalo Springfield, rhe group who, like Cream, were simply too brilliant to remain together, through his work with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and throughout his long solo career. Young has constantly refined and redefined his approach, sometimes to the despair, hut ultimately to the delight of his audience. Unlike Dylan, Young has retained his credibility with whatever stylistic direction he has taken: from the folk-rock of Buffalo Springfield, to the country-folk of Harvest, the early techno of the Kraftwerk-iiispired Trans , die b(ue§ of Tfits Note's For You, and to rhe aural assault of his work with Crazy Hnrse.Young's association with Crazy Horse began in 1969.When he joined forcci with a New York three-piece previ-. -ush' called the Rockers (gmtarisr Danny Whitten, bassist Billy La I hot and drummer Frank Molina) and together they .ecoided ihe album Every NvN Knows Thrs l.s Nimhere, released only months after the singer's eponymous .solo debut, Not content to remain still for an not ant. Young went straight from the platmum success of Evenfody Knrxz'S This Is Nowhere to become a member of Crod.'Y, Stills, Nash tind Young, with whom he recorded 'ui fi masterpieces as I lelpless and “Ohio {inspired by the shooting of four student? by Naribnal (iuard troops at Kent State University in May 1970). However, ir wasn’t until 1975, after his solo success with After The Goklrush,I lanes: and To-ugfit’v The Night., and the he to in-related death of original guitanst Whitten. that Young got back together with Crazy Horse to record the landmark Zuma (with new guitarist Frank Sampedro). Featuring the classic track' Don’t Cry No Tears {recently covered live by Matthew Sweet). Danger Bird and “Cortez Tlw Killer. Zuma began a pat tern of recording and performing whereby Young would run almost two parallel careers: die country-folk of his solo work and the full-tilt rock of Crazy Horse Both sryles retained Young’s trademark intensity, with Songs such as Harvest’s “Heart Of Gold easily matching the heaviest Crazv I Iorse tracks in their emotional impactCrazy Horse continued to record and tour throughout the seventies, contributing to solo albums like Comes A Time, as well as producing the 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps, which featured such immortal songs as Powderfinger. Hev Hey, My My Unto The Black) and Out Of The Blue. Young’s substantial body of work earned him the accolade Artist of die Severities from both KuMing Slone and the Village Voice. Kail Never Sleeps and the album and film from rhe subsequent tour, Live Rusi, have been cited as key influences by artists of the calibre of Pearl Jam. Soundgarden. Blind Melon and Nirvana. In a tragic twist earlier this year. Nirvana's Kurt Cohain quoted the line It's better to hum out than to fade away from Out t If The Blue m his suicide note (Young has since said that he will no longer perform this song in concert). Young's mtd-'eighues collaboration with Crazy Horse, Life, was less well received, and tt would take the 1989 solo album Freedom (which featured two contrasting versions of “Rockin' In The Free World) to firmly re-establish him as a major artistic force in terms of his heavy rock output. The subsequent release in 1990 of Ragged Glory and 1991 's Arc-Weld were timed perfectly to catch the risingtide of new music that was emanating out of the American north-west: the so-called ‘Seattle Sound'. Just as an audience weened on punk tri die mid-seventies had embraced Rust Never Sleeps, Young and Crazy Horse wen discovered by the legions of young people hooked on the sound of records like Nirvana’s Nevermind.The new Crazy Horse album Sleeps With Angels. ts Young’s thirty-fifth and marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the formation of the band. Young is quoted ro have said of rhe release of Ragged Glory, “I’m just a part of Crazy Horse. Its never me and Grazy Horse no matter what i« says on rhe album sleeves it's Crazy Horse. When there's a guitar solo on a Crazy Horse record, it's not a guitar solo, it's an instrumental. It just doesn't happen without diem. You he3r me play with other people, my whole psychedelic side doesn’t luippcn because nobody bur Crazy I lorse can really bring it out of me. This idea of the unity of the Crazy Horse sound is not quite as binding on Sleeps With Angels as it was on Ragged 0jty, with the album being bookended with two delicate solo performances “My Heart and “A Dream Thai Can l^st. Indeed. Sleeps With Angels Is possibly the least abrasive Crazy Horse record to date, with the music at times owing as much to Harvest as tt does to Zuma or Rust Never Skein In truth the performances on this album arc probably closest in style to the two Crazy Horse contributions on Comes A Time: “Look Gut For My Love and Lotts Love.Young's keening tenor is in tine lorm on rhis recording, particularly on tracks such as 'Train Of Love: lino like I’ll always he a part of you drip with an emotion that if beautifully touching, yet avoids being melodramatic -t overly sentimental, This is a voice that is by no stretch r-f the imagination technically perfect, yet its sound ia entirely appropriate. On the heavier tracks “Prime Of I ife, “Sla ps With Angels and Piece Of Crap, YounO high vocal sits well over the muddy musw.il backing, where u lower voice would he lost in the grunge Pica Of Crap” is a Sublime Crazy Horse rant against throwaway consumerism Saw it on the tube f Bought it on rhe phone / Now you’re home alone / It - a piece of crap. Whilst these songs Jo demonstrate something of YOung* psychedelic persona, Sleeps With Angels is on the whole far more aimospherk dun previous efforts: at no stage dues Crazy Horse really cut Use as they did on Hey Hev. My My (Into The Black) or Ragged Glory's F«!in’LIp.The atmosphere of Young’s work on Freedom or I9v2’s HfltWir Motirt is far more in evidence, especially on the mnsrly-acciusnc Drivehy or the snund'cape BlueFdcnIn die etui, it is the raw sound of this record that sets • apart as a Crazy 1 lorse album. The SOftps show evidence of a gent Irr Crazy 1 lorse, yet the grit has not been abandoned: this is not another Harvest I Young has clearly opted for the ballad approach of early songs like Cortez The Killer over the power chords of Rockin Ip The Free World”: with songs like Trans Am”, he is approaching the epic poetry of Cotter”, but blendedIW with this i' the country-folk aesthetic of Heart Of Gold or ‘The Needle And The Damage Done. Sleeps With Angels is a magnificent album: both lyrically arid musically exciring it shows Neil Young once again .stretching the limits of his muse to achieve what is a true masterpiece.Julien KlettentwfS
Newspaper Details
Kensington Tharunka
Kensington, New South Wales, AU
Tue, Aug 30, 1994
Page 26
Full Page
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Olav S.
NO 30 Jul 2020
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