Good god, the man just doesn't stop creating. If I were a Neil Young completist, I could have spent my whole life tracking down vinyl, films, videos, cassettes, CDs, DVDs .....
Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post, Neil claims to be clean and sober, and has just released a double CD entitled 'Psychedelic Pill'. Well, that didn't give me much confidence (although his titles have never been less than obscure), but tonight I have just come across 'Ramada Inn'. It's a long track - is a 16 minute tune ever going to get play on Radio One or XFM? I think not - but it's fully justified. As is the video, below.
Try and watch some before you flit away. The found footage is wonderful, and appropriate. The song itself seems so simple, but if you are of a certain age and experience it is hard to listen to. Thankfully he spaces the verses with some classic guitar solos - toning down the aggression he obviously loves into something more expressive and elegaic. And how can his voice still sound as it did?
Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Yes, there are many musicians with more technical mastery, and more bands that are pushing at the envelope .... but few have made more people happier, for longer, than this little crew.
[Later - 27/12/12:]
The man is a 24 carat, first water, primo quality, appelation controlee genius. I have just come across his other recent album 'Americana', which contains the most unpromising list of traditional folk song and other well-known titles I have ever seen. He just waves his hand over them, and they become magic. You have never heard the phrase; "And I come from Alabama with my B-A-N-J-O on my knee!" in quite the same way as Neil phrases it ....
And this illustrates how he puts his music together. Basically, it is mostly recorded live, which is why his live shows are so wildly successful. If you stick with it to the end, you will hear the banter as Crazy Horse discuss the tune.
[Later and even later - 27/12/12:]
No, I can't let it go at that. The video to 'Oh Susannah' is a rare find. Look at the careworn faces of the parents - and I bet they are not even into their late forties. Look at the pudding bowl haircut of the tap dancing boy. Look at the smudges on the little girl's face. Look at the older child slumped against the timber wall. These are real people - I would love to know where and how it was made, and what the father is playing on his banjo. We don't know we're born.
[More later - 30/12/12:]
I have been trying to research the video that goes with 'Oh Susannah', without much success. But on the way I did find this - someone posted it up as a song that sounds similar, and the video is equally of its time (1970s). I can remember this tune; isn't that frightening?
OK, they're miming, and I think a session musician was brought in to do the guitar break .... but why in god's name are they doing this in front of an animal cage in some kind of menagerie?! It took me a couple of views to confirm this .... that's a chimpanzee hanging on the wire, isn't it?
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