Dubbel Mono

zaterdag, juni 07, 2003

 
Hail Neil!
Releasedata NL: 20 juni (CD), 27 juni (vinyl)
WSM/Warner Brothers is pleased to announce that these four much sought after Neil Young LPs are scheduled for release in the UK on Jun 23rd. All have been re-astered but are otherwise released in their original form and using the original artwork.
None of these LPs have been released on CD before and have long since been unavailable on vinyl. Without doubt, 'On The Beach' is the Holy Grail of 'missing' Neil Young LPs. It includes such classic songs as 'Revolution Blues', 'Vampire Blues', 'Ambulance Blues' and 'For The Turnstiles' and was released in 1974 instead of the then ejected 'Tonight's The Night'. By turns harrowing, barbed, humourous and soul-bearing, it's riveting, stripped down sound features the surviving members of Crazy Horse, the Band, Ben Keith, Rusty Kershaw and messrs Crosby and Nash. It's Neil Young at his most incisive and compelling. Quite simply, the most uplifting 'downer' record of all time fuelled by some of Young's most striking imagery.
'American Stars 'N' Bars' is best remembered for the first appearance of one of the bona fide Neil Young & Crazy Horse classics, 'Like A Hurricane', that has been a ornerstone of his 'electric' live shows ever since. There is another haunting classic in the epic ballad 'Will to Love', drawn from a series of songs from the previous three years of his recording career. Half the LP comprises gentler more country rock songs recorded in 1977 that feature, among others, Linda Rondstadt and, making her debut, harmony singer Nicolette Larson.
'Hawks & Doves' followed the much acclaimed 'Rust Never Sleeps' and 'Live Rust' and, as so often in Young's career, saw him follow hard rockin' more crowd-pleasing material with a set of more reflective acoustic songs. In this case, the lyrics also confused critics with the patriotic slant of songs like 'Union Man' and 'Comin' Apart At Every Nail'. Meanwhile, the oblique 'The Old Homestead' written in 1974 was seen as an allegory for the shenanigans of CSNY.
'Re*Ac*Tor' was Young's final album for Reprise before signing to Geffen Records. Minimal and hard rocking and ripe for re-evaluation, it features Crazy Horse at full belt. While the nine minute thrash of 'T-Bone' was seen as Young at his most uncompromising, the album has moments to cherish in 'Southern Pacific' and, particularly, 'Shots', plus a perverse condemnation of the Japanese motor industry and Datsun cars on 'Motor City'.
These four LPs encompass everything that is fascinating about the sometimes wayward but undoubted genius of Neil Young. They represent an important and integral part of his body of work and exemplify his refusal conform to any one style. To this day, he continues to confuse and confound critics and fans alike. Only this month Neil Young threw down the artistic gauntlet once again by performing 'Greendale', a set of brand new, themed, complex songs to audiences hoping to hear a selection of familiar material.
LPs like 'On The Beach' and 'Tonight's The Night' were seen as commercial suicide in their day but are now hailed as masterpieces. These reissues are four missing pieces in the jigsaw and go a long way to help our understanding of Neil Young, one of the greatest, bravest, most challenging and inventive artists of the past forty years. The rest are just pissing in the wind.
[via ST]
|| 4:28 p.m.