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- CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE
WEEK
- Neil Young & Crazy Horse "Rust Never Sleeps"
1979 (Canada/USA)
Happy
70th birthday Neil Young! The last sixties icon celebrated another year
in the music industry with his 36th studio album, a political-themed
country-rock record called The Monsanto Years - something much closer to the kind of music that made him famous than his output from the previous year (A Letter Home was a collection of solo acoustic covers recorded in a 19th century phone booth, and Storytone
featured orchestras and big bands!) But his fans learned to expect the
unexpected long ago. In 1979, Neil released one of his most
quintessential records, this week's classic album of the week. In the
few years previous to that, he had resurrected Crazy Horse in 1975,
but then switched gears for one of many failed CSNY reunions, which
instead became the short-lived Stills-Young Band for a few months in
1976, before 1977 saw him release a hodge-podge new album (though it is
a classic) and the "greatest hits" triple-elpee Decade. By then punk rock was the New Thing and critics wrote him off as a relic from the longhair years. His next 1978 album Comes A Time
was one of his best sellers, but it's also as mellow as he
ever got (think James Taylor and John Denver) - so by 1979 nobody was
expecting THIS, an album that recalls Neil's mopey troubadour origins
on it's first acoustic side, then has Crazy Horse turn in their
heaviest performance to date on the second side. Bookended by "Out of
the Blue / Into the Black" in solo and band arrangements, this song's
lyrics about the death of Elvis and the birth of Johnny Rotten suddenly
made old Young seem new again. The mildly Star Wars-inspired
movie that accompanied (basically a concert film but the road crew are
dressed like "jawas") is also probably Neil's finest accomplishment as
a filmmaker. |
