Neil Young

03-08-10 Neil Young

I heard the albums by Buffalo Springfield so long ago that all 3 of ‘em got in under my radar. “On The Way Home” has been known (to me) to make me cry. Nostalgia for the innocent young mind that I once had? My older sisters played me those records while I was being ‘watched’ (they were effectively my babysitters). The thought-provoking statement of “For What It’s Worth”, the hard rock of “Mr. Soul”, the lush arrangements on numerous recordings. It all sounded good to me.

I lived in America in 1969, 11 years old. You would’ve had to have been The Who’s “Tommy” – deaf, dumb & blind – to have missed Crosby, Stills & Nash…and, in rapid succession, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Seems a million years ago, but Warner / reprise records had to ‘promo’ Neil Young on their wonderful loss-leader sampler LP’s. I believe his first appearance there was the track “The Loner”, from his debut solo album.

“Cinnamon Girl” got played the FM radio…a lot. After “Déjà vu”, I guess I was really ready for the 3^rd Neil Young solo album, “After The Goldrush”. It was a good deal, too – on sale at the hippie record store for probably some oddball figure like $2.57; I had heard Side 1 of the album being played in a record store, so I knew it sounded good to me – and it came with a poster of lyrics. I might’ve been ready for the onslaught of German progressive rock / electronic music, but my west coast hippie roots were showing. Interesting to note that this is the album that is loved in Japan!

Never really made it all the way to “Harvest” (solo album #4). N.Y. was no longer an underground artist, “Heart Of Gold” was on the radio so much it was…cloying. Besides, we can never ‘control’ our musical path – I needed Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come, Faust, Amon Duul II, Can…not “Harvest” by Neil Young.

Fast forward through several decades. How successfully could I ignore Neil Young? A record (film?) with Devo. Videos on MTV / MuchMusic (“This Note’s For You”, most notably). I heard “Harvest Moon” being played in record stores in the 90’s. Those “Weld” albums, with all the feedback.

Last week, I found an inexpensive “used” copy of his “Archives Vol. 1” CD box (approx. $40 or so). The Squires material is amusing, to be sure. Pretty good sound on the Buffalo Springfield material. Interesting to see how the artist sees his solo work collide with his work within CSN&Y. OK. I could be tempted by the re-issue of his first four albums – I seem to recall re-buying Buffalo Springfield CD’s ostensibly to get “HDCD” versions. I know I have ’funky’ old CD’s of N.Y.’s first four albums – Heck, I even bought my CD of his debut solo album at Sam The Record Man on Yonge Street in Toronto for C$5.99!

I don’t think I’ll be buying the DVD version of “Archives Vol. 1” – or the almost $400 Blu-Ray version. I might consider Blu-Ray if there was a massive Frank Zappa box, but…