Neil Young: Dreams of Future’s Past?

Neil Young

Neil Young’s 40th album, Chrome Dreams II, comes out today. Now, even for a serious fan, a new Neil Young album is not generally a landmark event. He’s been steadily releasing albums throughout his career and, in recent years, he’s been working at a young man’s pace churning out seven albums since 2000’s Are You Passionate? This one doubles the standard expectations by positioning itself as a sort of sequel to the famously unreleased and, according to some, utterly nonexistent 1977 album, Chrome Dreams.

Wait. Now even I’m confused. Does that say that this new album is a sequel to an album that possibly never existed? Why, yes it does. To keep the story short, I’ll quote the wikipedia:

Chrome Dreams is the name of a 1977 unreleased album by Neil Young, and also of an acetate from that period which claimed to be of that album.

Chrome Dreams Acetate

Jimmy McDonough’s Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography supports the claim that Chrome Dreams is indeed a bootlegged acetate with said title. A document that accompanied the acetate (which Young’s archivist Joel Bernstein has denounced as a fake) gave the impression that Young had officially given Chrome Dreams as the title, inspired by rumors in the press of a new album with the same title. Young is quoted as saying “What Chrome Dreams really was, was a sketch that [David] Briggs drew of a grille and front of a ’55 Chrysler, and if you turned it on its end, it was this beautiful chick…I called it Chrome Dreams.” (McDonough)

Scrapped or imaginary, Chrome Dreams circulates among fans as a well complied masterpiece. Most of the songs resurfaced on later releases in some form or another. Neil’s stirring ode to composer/arranger Jack Nitzsche did not officially resurface until Unplugged in 1993. Other tracks include, “Pocahontas”, “Like A Hurricane”, “Will To Love”, and “Powderfinger.” One of the strengths of the compilation is it’s movement through a variety of sounds and tones while maintaining a connective thead, a theme of moving on in the face of loss, separation, and change.

This is something that Neil Young has cited about the new record:

“It’s an album with a form based on some of my original recordings, with a large variety of songs, rather than one specific type of song. Where Living with War and Everybody’s Rockin’ were albums focused on one subject or style, Chrome Dreams II is more like After the Gold Rush or Freedom, with different types of songs working together to form a feeling.”

Additionally, Neil has reached back into his vault to find a few older songs that suit his message. The record opens with a trio of tunes that each date back to a different segment of Neil’s 1980s output. “Beautiful Bluebird” a graceful opener with crisp dobro lines dates back to the original lineup of the Old Ways album. “Boxcar” goes back to Times Square, an album that was shelved in 1989. “Ordinary People,” the first single from this album, is an eighteen minute sprawling mural of life in the United States recorded back in 1988 with the Bluenotes. For those of you who don’t know your Neil Young backup bands, that means horns. At first listen, I wasn’t feeling the horns but, honestly, they work well.

The rest of the record moves through meditations on how we live, cope, and fail to cope. “Shining Light” touches on spirituality or at least a yearning for guidance from the revered. I could imagine this sung as a hymnal in 80 years. “Spirit Road” speaks about finding ones own spiritual path as a common rite of life where, in a strong contrast, “Dirty Old Man” tells of life from the perspective of an alcoholic, billiards hustling, lost, soul. It’s also a pretty straight-ahead rocker of a song remeniscient of “Piece Of Crap” (from Sleeps With Angels.)

Electric Neil

The searching continues on “No Hidden Path” but is complemented by a guitar workout that stretches the track to more than fourteen minutes. If you like Young’s electric work, you’ll likely enjoy this. It stands as my initial favorite on the album. But let’s not forget, “The Way” in which Neil Young, with the assistance of The Young People’s Chorus of New York City, channels The Polyphonic Spree. Neil’s vocals ring like a sweet old bell as he offers to lead the listener home. It’s a beautiful closer with a fairly infectious melody.

So what hath Neil Young wrought? At the very least, another solid volume in his collected works. At best? I wouldn’t like to say so soon. Neil has looked death in the face and is now look at his life and the lessons learned. Fans who have followed Neil through many of his phases (you need not love Trans to qualify, here) are likely to be pleased with this record. I know that I am.

  • For a professional POV on this record, as well as the new Radiohead album, In Rainbows, checkout the podcast of Sound Opinions. | itunes
    More on Radiohead tomorrow.

For reading this far… Here are some YouTube clips posted by Neil’s people to promote the album (tip o’ the mouse to Hidden Track):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICNOtD14-h8[/youtube]

Spirit Dreams

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFW3F23YtY0[/youtube]

The Believer

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnqE0L-lkKA[/youtube]

Dirty Old Man

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiEZU_UuTwo[/youtube]

The Way