#99Neil Young
After the Gold Rush (1970)
After Live Rust, this is my favorite Neil Young album. (Which isn't a fair comparison because Live Rust has most of the essential songs from After the Gold Rush on it.) If you enjoy popular music, you are probably familiar with this album already, whether you are a fan of it or not.
The thing is, I can't write about this fully iconic album, and, really, I can't write about not being able to write about it, since both angles -- the iconic album write up and the I-can't-write an-iconic-album-write-up write up -- have become so trite they have mutated into a kind of super-competitive trite organism that will soon become the dominant predator in the region, forcing the indigenous predators to adapt or die.
So:
1. This is the last meta-comment I will make on the difficulty about writing about that which is overly familiar, so when, say, Thriller shows up, it will probably be a short analysis, and
2. If you are unfamiliar with this album and are interested in a full understanding of what pop music is, congratulations, you have a new assignment.
Short version: This is a famous album whose merits are well-known and documented.
I was just going to list the tracks that I don't care for, as that would be shorter list, but then remembered that I have hours and hours to kill at school today.
Mix Singles:
A song that describes perfectly how it feels to be young with no direction and lots of ambition. Perfect music for looking out the window of public transportation as rain falls on the city. (emoticon representing a single, genuine tear)
I saw Radiohead cover this in St. Louis. Hell yeah. Fuck yeah.
There is a playful happiness to the arrangement that contrasts the content of the lyrics like the taste of cream cheese with frosted animal crackers. In theory, a questionable judgment call; in reality, delicious.
I mention this song because the guitar still shreds so vicious, but don't put it on a mix, Captain Classic Rock Radio.
This song always feels to me like the soundtrack to a montage late in a film, just before the last act when every plot line gets resolved. "Here are all our characters, and boy they are really, really sad and isolated from one another because of all the shitty but emotionally resonant things that have happened to them so far. I hope their lives all get redeemed!"
In the film that uses this song, some of them will be redeemed, but most of them will probably die.
Next:
#98
Robert Wyatt
Rock Bottom (1974)
2 comments:
I don't know, I might be a bit wierd when it comes to music, but I usually have to have a 'moment' with many of the greats.
For the longest time I wouldn't listen to Pink Floyd, now they are my favorite thanks to one night at a friends place when he simply started playing music without mentioning who they were. I'm like, wow, this is good, who is this? Floyd. OH. I've been hooked ever since.
Zeppelin's moment came on a long road trip with a friend who brought along a mixed tape.
Dylan's moment came as I was studying at a coffee shop.
Neil's still hasn't come for me. I can recognize his skills but I just can't make a point of listening to him.
Perhaps a sad thing for a Canadian to say.
I can understand that, I also have an aversion to liking things that other people say I should like. I like to make the discovery myself, otherwise the recommending source is forever attached to it. However, if something comes highly recommended, I'm inclined to give a listen and decide whether to continue pursuing it. I would definitely recommend Live Rust as a starting place, because if you don't like that, there is almost no chance you would like most of his stuff. But, eye of the beholder, eye of the beholder. Some people can't get past his voice and mien.
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