For most of his career, Neil Young has followed a fairly predictable path. He would alternate quiet, acoustic-based albums with noisy rock and roll albums with Crazy Horse [or a reasonable facsimile thereof]. The 1980s were an interesting time musically, with the advent of MTV. New Wave replaced disco as the next big thing. Michael Jackson became a huge star, as did Prince and Bruce Springsteen. If you’re a Neil Young fan, the 1980s were a very frustrating time. In 1979, NY came out with both Rust Never Sleeps and Live Rust. True to form, Neil put out the mostly acoustic Hawks & Doves in 1980, followed by Re•ac•tor 1981. But after Re•ac•tor, things got very strange. NY left Reprise, his long-time label, and signed with Geffen Records. In 1982, Trans appeared. With its vocoders, synthesizers, computerized drums and such, one could only wonder “what the hell is this?” I thought “ok, this is just Neil being Neil, he can do whatever he wants.” The following year came Everybody’s Rockin’. Instead of acoustic stuff or Crazy Horse, this was a rockabilly record [?!?]. Ok, first computers, then 1950s retro-rock – this only added to the “WTF factor.” Not only were his fans confused, so was his record company. They were so confused they sued NY for not making “Neil Young music.”
Did NY return to making “Neil Young music”? Well, sort of. His next release was Old Ways. This was a country record. But I could tolerate that because NY had been in this kind of territory before, with 1972’s Harvest and 1978’s Comes a Time. Geffen didn’t think much of it – it wasn’t pop enough. It’s more traditional country than anything he had done before. This was just more of Neil Young being “artistically uncharacteristic.” Such was the relationship between NY and Geffen that he once told them “quit telling me what to do or I’ll turn into George Jones.” And knowing Neil Young, he would have done it too. This brings me to the real subject of this blog – Neil Young’s newest CD, A Treasure. A live document of the Old Ways period, A Treasure mixed some of the Old Ways material and re-worked some of his older material to fit in the country music context. As one looks over the tracklist of A Treasure one will note there are several previously unreleased songs [noted below with *]. NY was more than capable of acting on his threat to turn into George Jones.
The tracklist
Amber Jean*/ Are You Ready For The Country / It Might Have Been*/ Bound For Glory*/ Let Your Fingers Do The Walking*/ Flying On The Ground Is Wrong / Motor City / Soul Of A Woman*/ Get Back To The Country / Southern Pacific / Nothing Is Perfect* / Grey Riders*
This CD got its title from Ben Keith [RIP], who remarked that the music contained therein was “a treasure” once he and Neil Young found it in the archives. The International Harvesters boasted some of the cream of Nashville musicians. Longtime co-hort Ben Keith on steel guitar, Rufus Thibodeaux [RIP] on fiddle, keyboard player extraordinaire Spooner Oldham, pianist Hargus "Pig" Robbins, bassist Tim Drummond and drummer Karl Himmel all played with the International Harvesters.
A Treasure contains several pleasant surprises. The first among these is the old Buffalo Springfield song Flying On The Ground Is Wrong. One review said this sounds more like the Flying Burrito Brothers than the Buffalo Springfield. I have to agree – after one listen I could picture Gram Parsons singing this tune. Are You Ready For the Country sounds a lot tougher than it originally did on Harvest. Other surprises include Motor City and Southern Pacific. These versions are much better here than what was done earlier with Crazy Horse on Re•ac•tor. The addition of Rufus Thibodeaux’s fiddle to Southern Pacific adds the spook that was missing from Re•ac•tor. The final song, Grey Riders, is unlike anything I’ve heard from Neil Young. There’s plenty of electric guitar courtesy of his “Old Black” Les Paul, but the tone is much cleaner without the over-amped distortion one is used to hearing from him. The high volume is there, just not the distortion. Country music doesn’t sound like Grey Riders, but Neil makes “Old Black” work well with Rufus’ fiddle. Neil hadn’t abandoned his rock roots altogether. During this “country” period I saw Neil Young and the International Harvesters perform on Austin City Limits. Back then all you saw on that program was country acts. The audience was just eating up all the music NY was feeding them, but at the very end you could see many looks of confusion on the faces in the audience when he strapped on “Old Black” and played Down by the River. Grey Riders would have left a similar look on their faces that day. If he put out more stuff like that I would have been ok with it – it’s that good. It was much better than Trans or Everybody’s Rockin’. But given the times when Neil Young was a musical chameleon, that prospect would have been highly unlikely.
A Treasure comes from a strange period in Neil Young’s history, but it is a very good listen. At the time of its recording, Old Ways stood out like the proverbial sore thumb. Had this live companion album been released during that time it too would have stuck out. That wouldn't be the case now. He would go back to that countrified sound on Harvest Moon, Prairie Wind and Silver & Gold, so twenty-five years later the live document A Treasure is not really out of place in NY’s catalog. It is a welcome addition.
Flying on the Ground is Wrong
Southern Pacific
Grey Riders
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