Neil Young is many things: godfather of grunge; massively influential singer-songwriter; inimitable electric guitarist; world-class oddball. For every After the Gold Rush or Ragged Glory there’s an album that makes even his most ardent admirers scratch their heads. A concept work about fuel-efficient cars? Check. Meandering improvised soundtracks? Coupla those. Kraftwerk-inspired new wave? Oh, definitely. On June 5, when Young’s new Americana comes out, you can add lumbering distorto versions of traditional folk songs to the list, too. It’s just the latest unpredictable left turn in a career full of them. So saddle up and steel yourself for the untamed wilderness of Neil Young’s strangest albums.
Why it’s strange: Young’s music has always been rooted in traditional folk. So in true Youngian fashion he paid off-beat tribute by recording gonzo electric rock versions of songs like “Oh Susannah” and “This Is Land Is Your Land,” sometimes sprinkling in his own politically aggrieved lyrics. Abetted by his long-time on-again off-again backing band Crazy Horse and a chorus of angelic singers, the album plays like sing-a-along time at the world’s kookiest lefty summer camp.
For more on some of his albums and why they’re strange, goto SPIN.com.
Tags: Americana Posted in News / Article | Comments Off on Old Weird Americana: Neil Young’s Strangest Albums
Shakey Pictures with Americana footage. Neil as actor. Then onto “Oh Susanna” with Crazy Horse. A man with a banjo and a smoking kid. Then it continues to walk along the Americana album stream…
Credits:
“A Day At The Gallery”
Directed By Bernard Shakey
Original Music by Neil Young and Crazy Horse – from the album “Americana”
Recorded and engineered at Audio Casa Blanca by John Hanlon with John Hausmann and Jeff Pinn
Mixed by John Hanlon at Redwood Digital’s Analog Mixing Room
Additional Music from the motion picture “The General” (1927)
Art by Shepard Fairey
“What ties these songs together is the fact that while they may represent an America that may no longer exist, the emotions and scenarios behind these songs still resonate with what’s going on in the country today with equal, if not greater impact nearly 200 years later. The lyrics reflect the same concerns and are still remarkably meaningful to a society going through economic and cultural upheaval, especially during an election year. They are just as poignant and powerful today as the day they were written.”
If you’re expecting a Sex Pistols cover here, you haven’t seen Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s (excellent) “Oh Susannah” video, or heard much of anything about the conceit behind the outfit’s first album together in almost a decade: Called Americana, this LP sees Neil and Horses taking on standards from the great American folk songbook.
So this “God Save The Queen” is the original “God Save The Queen,” the one that served as the American national anthem before Francis Scott Key watched canons blaring across a harbor and set it to tune. (Also, the politics of this rendition are wonderfully scattershot, in that we have a Canadian singing a British tune for an album called Americana.)
The footage here is of Queen Elizabeth, promenading presumably on her Silver Jubilee, which is nice timing because next month the UK will party it up for her Diamond Jubilee, celebrating 60 years on the throne. (This makes her the second-longest running monarch, following only her great-grandmother Victoria who hung out on the chair for 63 years.
“Everybody in that group was a fucking genius at what they did. There\'ll never be another Buffalo Springfield” by -- Neil Young, from the Cameron Crowe Rolling Stone interview, Aug 14, 1975.Interview
Neil Young on Tour
Sugar Mountain setlists
Tom Hambleton provides BNB with setlists, thankfully. His website is the most comprehensive searchable archives on the Internets about anything Neil Young related setlists. Goto Sugar Mountain.
memphish on 
Albert Stromann on 
liza on 
Baz on 
