Neil Young’s Buried Treasures

/August 11, 2018/inArtists, Records
Neil Young is one of the greatest musical legends of modern times. Who else has released high-quality new albums in each of the past six decades? One of his greatest strengths is his appeal to music lovers of all sizes, shapes, and tastes. Like a soft acoustic sound? You’ll love Harvest or After the Gold Rush. Prefer grunge or hard rock? There’s lots on Rust Never Sleeps and Ragged Glory that’s right up your alley. Neil even has a defense against haters who think his music all sounds the same: he likes to say “it’s all one long song.”

Neil has a plethora of lesser-known deep grooves that are ripe for discovery. Many are no less rewarding than On The Beach or Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, they just take a little more time and investment to appreciate. Some of Neil’s best songs are buried within albums that sold poorly. Here are four of my favorite of Neil’s buried treasures.

TRANS (1982)

With two sons severely handicapped by cerebral palsy, Neil has put a lot of his philanthropic attention toward benefits for the disabled. Trans was created in an effort to communicate with his oldest son Ben. Deploying the Vocoder extensively throughout to metallic, machine-like effect (long before Auto-Tune), the album contains a number of songs that sound more like Kraftwerk than Crazy Horse. If you can make it past the bizarre vocal effects, Trans is one of Neil’s most unique, personal releases. He even reworks his Buffalo Springfield classic “Mr. Soul.” And Trans finishes with “Like an Inca,” one of Neil’s all-time greats, a song that would be as well-known as “Like a Hurricane” if it had been released on a bigger-selling record.

GREENDALE (2003)

Neil has written some great stories within songs over the years—“Powderfinger” leaps to mind—but Greendale is the only album he ever did with a single narrative throughout. The LP (and live show and film) told of the events in the fictional eponymous American town and featured old hippies, restless youth and a cop-killing steered from the sidelines by the Devil. But the most resonant theme (and one that is no less timely today) was that of Earth Green, an old hippie’s granddaughter, who makes it her personal mission to take on the evil “Power Co” in its attempts to poison the planet. Like many (if not all) of Neil’s films, Greendale meanders at times, but its compelling theme is still highly relevant and “Bandit” is one of Neil’s most beautiful acoustic ballads.

SILVER AND GOLD (2000)

When most people think of soft Neil, Harvest and Harvest Moon come to mind. Silver and Gold is almost as good, a collection of quieter, acoustic tunes. Whether greeting old friends (“Good to See You”), lamenting former bandmates (“Buffalo Springfield Again”) or describing a favorite hike (“Daddy Went Walkin’”), Silver and Gold perfectly captures Neil’s universal language and sounds just as good on a Sunday morning as Comes a Time, his other almost-entirely-acoustic classic. The hidden gems here are the title track and “Razor Love.” The latter track had been collecting dust in Neil’s archives for decades, and may just be my favorite Neil song. Silver and Gold deserves to be on any list of the finest Neil acoustic releases.

LE NOISE (2010)

The title of Le Noise is a play on words related to Daniel Lanois, the master producer who helped Neil create this album. Le Noise is the only record in which all of the music is solely created by Neil and a single guitar (except for 2014’s cover album A Letter Home). Lanois set up Neil in an old mansion and, thanks to the extensive use of pedals, reverb, and echo created a sound that often sounds like an entire band. Neil has been digging deep into Le Noise on this 2018 live dates, playing a number of songs from it for the first time since its release. “Hitchhiker” is a powerful autobiographical tale that languished in the vaults for decades before finally seeing the light of day here. The hidden gem is “Walk With Me,” the hardest rocking song I know of that only features a single voice and guitar.

Still to come: Mirror Ball, Prairie Wind, Landing on Water, Journey Through The Past