Shelter From The Storm

It’s hard to believe this album is nearly 40 years old. But it will be next year. Forty years. It still sounds so fresh and vibrant. A hell of a lot better than most of the stuff being released these days, that’s for sure. That opening stomp of guitars, bass and drums on “Cinnamon Girl” is just classic. This was not my first Neil Young album, nor is it my favorite (although I do love it from start to finish). I first came to know of Neil on Déjà Vu. My older sister was a few years ahead of me and I took anything she said about music to heart. She turned me on to CSN right about the time Déjà Vu was being released. I went to the record store to get my 8-Track of Crosby, Stills and Nash and the guy tried to talk me into Déjà Vu instead. No, my sister, really liked the first one, so I got that one. Later I did get Déjà Vu. But it was After The Goldrush that really brought Neil home to me. I had read a review of it in my high school newspaper and when I bought it I fell in love immediately. I’d never heard a record so fragile and yet so hard. The voice, the songs, the lyrics. Everything about it amazed me. So I immediately went back and picked up the self-titled first album and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

For most people Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere means three things: “Down By The River,” “Cowgirl In The Sand” and the first album with Crazy Horse. This was the album that announced Neil Young as a real rocker. Sure he’d rocked some with Buffalo Springfield, but the self-titled album was almost a singer-songwriter/folkie effort. This was guitar rock through and through. And while those two previously mentioned songs are indeed all-time Neil Young classics, my favorites have always been “Cinnamon Girl,” “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” and “The Losing End (When You’re On),” a stone cold country song if there ever was one.

But, like I say, it’s not my favorite Neil Young album. My friend Bill recently took issue with my list of Top 10 All-Time Albums (“You didn’t even get one of them right!”). Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is in his Top 10. I’ve known Bill for over thirty years. We met in Syracuse in 1976. I remember listening to this album at his house back in those days. So, that got me thinking. What are my favorite Neil Young albums? Well, here are my top ten, in order:

1. Tonight’s The Night
2. After The Gold Rush
3. Harvest
4. Zuma
5. On The Beach
6. American Stars ‘N Bars
7. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
8. Time Fades Away
9. Rust Never Sleeps
10. Comes A Time 

OK, OK, I know. They’re all from 1969 through 1979. What can I say. Neil’s made some really good albums since then (Ragged Glory, Freedom, Silver & Gold), some really, really bad ones (Landing On Water, Life) and some stuff that just leaves me flat (Are You Passionate?, Mirror Ball, Harvest Moon). And a lot of other stuff that falls somewhere in between. But nothing can touch this run from 1969 to 1979. Nothing even comes close. Sorry.

I had the good fortune to go see Neil at The Ryman Auditorium here in Nashville when Jonathan Demme filmed the shows for what would become the Heart Of Gold movie. I actually got to go both nights and had fabulous seats thanks to a couple of great friends. What a disappointment. It was fantastic to see Neil up close in such a great setting. But the songs. He played all the songs from his forthcoming album, Prairie Wind. It hadn’t been released yet, so I hadn’t heard any of the songs. I was struck at their mediocracy. God, I wanted to like them, but they just weren’t that good. Of course, I bought the album and gave it several listens, but really, these are just not great songs. A lot of people seemed to really like the album and it was once again hailed as a “return to form” (how many times is that now?). Rubbish. Put it next to any of the ten albums above and the best song on Prairie Wind can’t hold a candle to the worst song on any of them.

Neil’s been saying for over 15 years, yes 15 years, that he’s going to release a box set of “archival material.” I read the first announcement in ICE Magazine (rip) over 15 years ago. It was supposed to come out sometime that year. Of course, it never did. Since then rumors pop up every few years. Last year someone even saw a catalog number assigned to it by the record label so the announced September 2007 release date was taken as gospel. It never happened. Recently Neil announced it would be coming out this fall on Blu-Ray discs. Whatever. I don’t believe a word of it anymore. I’ll believe it when I hold it in my hands. Until then, it’s just a rumor. He leaked out the Live At The Fillmore East and Live At Massey Hall in 2006 and 2007 which are both fantastic. Let’s hope the box set lives up to the promise of these two discs. Until then there’s always the fan based release Archives Be Damned, a wonderful 5 disc collection of rarities collected and issued by the fans years ago. And one of the most beautiful bootleg box sets of all time, Rock ‘N’ Roll Cowboy, a four disc collection of live tracks from 1966 to 1994 (issued by Great Dane in 1994) with amazing packaging that puts to shame many of the officially released boxed sets.  And, finally, the fan based release, A Perfect Echo, an eight disc collection of mostly soundboard live recordings form Neil’s entire career. Make no mistake. If the artists don’t put this stuff out the fans will. And quite often they even do a better job.

Other Listens on June 16th:
Diamonds & Rust by Joan Baez
Detours by Sheryl Crow
Exit 0 by Steve Earle
Comin’ Right At Ya by Asleep At The Wheel
Texas Gold by Asleep At The Wheel
The Desert Rose Band by The Desert Rose Band
Eat A Peach (Deluxe Edition) by The Allman Brothers Band 

First let me say that of the four artists in CSNY Neil Young is probably my favorite. I “collect” Neil Young. I’ve got all the albums. I’ve got a ton of bootlegs. But I sincerely believe he ruined Crosby, Stills & Nash. I think it was a mistake to add him to the group after the first album. He didn’t bring anything to the group as a “band.” It was always like Crosby, Stills & Nash AND Young. The three of them with Neil Young tacked on. They would have been better off without him. I think Déja Vu is a fine album, but it’s nowhere near as good as this album or the first Crosby, Stills & Nash album. Neil’s just not a “team” player. The great thing about CSN was/is the way they blend together so seamlessly. If you stop and think about each song it’s very clear which one is a Stills song, a Nash song or a Crosby song. But, if you just put the music on and listen to it, get lost in it, it’s all just Crosby, Stills and Nash. Hard to explain really, but if you know what I mean that makes sense to you.

By 1977 these guys had splintered, soloed, grouped, regrouped and splintered again. In the 8 years since the first self-titled album had been released they had recorded quite a bit of music in various incarnations. Stills had made several solo albums, and two albums with Manassas. Nash had made a couple of solo albums and a couple of albums with Crosby. Crosby had made one solo album and the aforementioned albums with Nash. Between the three of them they had made an astounding number of fine albums, some of them all-time masterpieces. They had become huge superstars. The stories of egos, drugs, money and fame are legendary and endless. We had no right to expect this good of an album when they regrouped for a “comeback.” It had been seven years since Déja Vu. But, wow, what a great album this is. Next to the first album, this is the highlight of the group for me. Never again would they come anywhere near to making this fine of an album.

There’s not a bad cut on the entire album and a handful are just plain classics. “Shadow Captain,” “See The Changes,” “Dark Star,” “Just A Song Before I Go” and my favorite, “Cathedral.” I never get tired of listening to these songs. In fact, I may be listening to the CD now more than I ever did before. It just seems to get better and better with age. Like I say, the first album is still my favorite, but there’s a certain “dated” feeling to it. It’s full of beautiful music and songs but, for me at least, it’s rooted in 1969. CSN feels timeless. I don’t know if they feel they had something to prove at this point or if the simple, pure joy of singing together again just pushed them on. This album is like reconnecting with an old lover and remembering how great it was before, finding that magic for the second time. 

Note that for some insane record label reasoning this album appears to be out of print in the US! It’s available on Amazon as an import for $30. Ridiculous. You can still buy greatly inferior CDs like Live It Up and After The Storm for $12 but not this one. Just ridiculous. No wonder the music business and the major labels are such a mess.

Other Listens on June 1st:
The Best Of The Girl Groups Volume 1 by Various Artists
The Essential Lee Clayton
Comin’ Right At Ya by Asleep At The Wheel 

It took a long time for this album to reveal itself to me. More than 30 years. I’ve always been a very big CSNY fan. And a big fan of all the various incarnations and solo careers. The first concert I ever saw was Stephen Stills at the LA Forum. I think it was 1971. Neil Young is one of my all time favorite artists. In addition to Crosby, Stills & Nash, Deja Vu and 4 Way Street, Graham Nash’s first album, Songs For Beginners, had a huge impact on me. I love the first collaboration between Graham and David, Graham Nash & David Crosby (which for some unknown reason is still not available on CD in the US, though import copies are easy to find and reasonably priced). I bought If I Could Only Remember My Name…. when it was first released, but I never listened to it very much. It was a difficult album for me to find my way into. This is a different kind of music, especially for someone like me who is anchored in typical “pop” music and song structure. These are not typical pop songs. They’re not even typical “David Crosby” songs. Crosby has always had a very distinctive, unconventional songwriting style, even back in his days with the Byrds. The songs on If I Could Only Remember My Name… really took everything to a new dimension for him. “Laughing” was probably the only song I could really remember after I’d played the album. Everything else just kind of blended together into one long piece of music.

I probably didn’t listen to this album for 25 years or so. Occasionally I’d read a review or article which referenced it as one of the great albums from the 70s. I never saw it that way. Finally, I started giving it another chance, throwing it on occasionally. Gradually (and slowly) it began to open up to me. Or I began to open up to it. A remastered, expanded version was released in 2006 which contains both a CD version and advanced resolution stereo and surround sound versions on DVD. I picked this up and began listening even to it even more. Now it’s one of my favorite albums to listen to. 

It’s funny how that works. There are some albums that hit me the first time I listen to them and become all time favorites. Darkness On The Edge Of Town was like that. Blood On The Tracks is my very favorite album of all time, and though I loved it from the beginning, it took several years before it really found its way to that place. Sometimes it really takes time and repeated listening for me to find my way into certain albums and pieces of music. Which is why reviews that appear as soon as an album is released always need to be taken with a grain of salt. Other times no amount of repeated listenings will bring an album into my favor. There are certain albums I’ve tried and tried to find the magic in that some others see so clearly and I just can’t. And sometimes it just takes 30 years.

Other Listens on May 26th:
Hurry Sundown by The Outlaws
Live In Europe by Otis Redding
Self Portrait by Bob Dylan
Gimme Back My Bullets by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Diamonds & Rust by Joan Baez
Young Brigham by Ramblin’ Rack Elliott