UNUSUAL VERY BEST OF (Decade - Neil Young)

Member Name: DARRIN01

Product:	Decade - Neil Young
Date:	07/08/02 (337 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ohio, Cinnamon Girl, After The Gold Rush

Disadvantages: None

At the moment most people would have seen this advertised on the music channels, I'm not sure that this had been advertised on the terrestrial channels. However the title is correct, this covers a lot of ground for one artist and remains the only compilation that Neil Young has sanctioned of his career so far. (We're still waiting for Decade II and III plus Archives). I?ll try to type it as I?ve got it on triple vinyl, and its easier to say whatever side its on. I don?t have it on double CD, but I?ll guess that Ohio begins CD2. For non Neil Young fans this has not been recently released, this was released originally in October 1977.

Many aspects of his career gets covered here from his beginnings in the group Buffalo Springfield which covers songs like Burned, Mr Soul, Broken Arrow, Expecting To Fly, I Am A Child, which parades the influence of The Beatles, The Stones and Bob Dylan. Neil didn?t really write a lot of songs for the group, as Stephen Stills and Richie Furay were writing a lot of songs for the group, which meant that that Neil when ready for a solo career was ready for it more, with many songs in his catalogue, which meant that several of the tracks on Side One became newly available when first released.

This is where it gets really complicated, yet it wasn?t until after the release of his second solo album this becomes so, as Neil Young has moved between many different musical collaborators from the time he released his first self-titled solo album in early 1969, in which The Loner, and The Old Laughing Lady on Side Two is taken from. Its on this side that we first see his long-time garage rock band Crazy Horse (Billy Talbot on bass and Ralph Molina on drums) make their appearances with three tracks from the only studio album with original guitarist Danny Whitten on it, Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere (1969). Cinnamon Girl and the two longest tracks, Down By The River and Cowgirl In The Sand. Which begins Side Three. Wit
h Crazy Horse there are plenty and plenty of guitars, played by Neil Young and Danny Whitten and then, later on Frank Sampedro.

Sides three and four mostly concentrate on the years when Neil Young?s artistic reputation became known by the two albums that are the most well known. After The Goldrush released in 1970, and Harvest in 1972. Several tracks appears from both albums appears here, which are mellow, mostly acoustic in tone, which was a complete contrast with Crazy Horse. His biggest hit and Number One single in the US Heart Of Gold is on Side Four. But it wasn?t all that Neil Young was doing in those years.

Just after the release of Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere, Neil Young was invited to join Crosby, Stills and Nash (who had just released their first album), or as Graham Nash put it, Neil Young played Helpless (On Side Three, which is on CSNY?s 1970 album Déjà Vu), and they asked him if they could join his band. Yet the song that CSNY are most famous for is Ohio, written by Neil an hour after the National Guard shot dead four students, who were protesting at America?s involvement in Cambodia. Sadly, two or three of the students shot dead were not even part of the protest.

Soldier appears on the film and soundtrack album Journey Through The Past (1972), with just Piano accompaniment by Neil. There is some tracks deliberately out of sequence here. Star Of Bethlehem was recorded long after The Needle And Damage Done (from Harvest, begins Side Five) but are reversed as a reminder that Neil Young lost two people who worked with him in 1972/73. The Needle And The Damage Done was written as a reaction to Danny Whitten?s heroin addiction, which ultimately killed him in November 1972, and Bruce Berry a guitar roadie, who is the subject of Tonight?s The Night (Part 1). By now we are entering what has become known as The Doom trilogy, where Neil Young didn?t want to be bowed down by audience and record company expectations.
r>The 1975 released album Tonight?s The Night was actually recorded in August 1973 six months before the 1974 album On The Beach, which explains why Tonight?s The Night (Part 1) and Tired Eyes appear before Walk On and For The Turnstiles. The 1975 album deal with the losses in the previous paragraph, and is presented as an Irish wake, and is very roughly recorded, which gives the album its power. Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina from Crazy Horse return to give the album its emotional edge, plus Nils Lofgren plays on piano and guitar. The two tracks make very uncomfortable listening, but considering that friends of the musicians have died of heroin overdoses its not surprising.

By the time the cuts from On The Beach, Walk On and For The Turnstiles are more listenable, but deal with the reactions that took place from critics for not doing another Harvest, or After The Goldrush. Walk On has Talbot and Molina appear on it, and was a sign that Neil Young wanted to rock out more, but this is more of a mellow vibe across the song. For The Turnstiles is a gentle acoustic country vibe with another long-time collaborator Ben Keith appearing.

After that, we get tracks not found on any other Neil Young album. Winterlong, Deep Forbidden Lake, Love Is A Rose, and Campaigner all appear on Sides five and six for the first time on any Neil Young record. Winterlong is a country rocker, which I guess is a mid 1970s version, because the song is older than that, version apparently with the original Crazy Horse was done, not sure if Crazy Horse appear on this version. Deep Forbidden Lake, Love Is A Rose and Campaigner are gentle acoustic numbers, with some accompaniment on each, except the last number.

Like A Hurricane like Star of Bethlehem appear on American Stars and Bars (1977), which is more of a compilation of unreleased stuff from many different sessions. Hurricane is a Crazy Horse number, and marks the first appearance on the record of Frank Panch
o Sampedro on guitar. He also appears on Cortez The Killer a piece of revisionist history about the Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes, well worth listening to, and the only song taken from the 1975 album (and the second Neil Young and Crazy Horse album) Zuma.

The last track on Side Six is Long May You Run from the 1976 album of the same name by the Stills-Young band. Again its the only track from that album, and turns it full circle, as Stephen Stills was another long-time collaborator from the days in Buffalo Springfield and CSNY. Is a gentle mellow/folk song from these two, known for being great lead guitar players, but not surprising if you know the versatility of Stephen Stills and Neil Young.

There are not many views, but gives you a little potted history of the album. All in all, this is an unusual very best of, in the sense that it takes the well-known songs together with unreleased tracks up to that point on record, and mixes them into a coherent package of music that gives you an idea where he was going in ten years. There is not many best of the album tracks on here, more telling you to go out and buy the other albums if you want those songs. Just go out and buy this and enjoy the musical adventure provided by Neil Young through those years.