Neil Young

Compiled from a series of gigs in September 1973, Roxy: Tonight's the Night Live captures Neil Young & the Santa Monica Flyers just after they recorded the epochal Tonight's the Night. It would be another two years before Tonight's the Night hit the stores, the label sitting on the record because it was too dark and murky. On-stage, these same songs straighten themselves out and, in the process, get a touch lighter. On Tonight's the Night, it often appeared as if Young and his crew learned the songs as they recorded them, but on Roxy, the Santa Monica Flyers have the changes under their belts and are really in the mood to have a good time…

Any project in the works for two decades is bound to generate its fair share of myths and so it is with Neil Young's Archives, a series of a multi-disc box sets chronicling Young's history. Originally envisioned in the late '80s as a Decade II, the project quickly mutated into a monster covering every little corner of Neil's career…

In late 1970, Neil Young was coming down from a bustling stretch of touring with the immensely popular Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and had just released his third solo album, After the Goldrush. That album, lodged between the jammy country rock of 1969's Crazy Horse-aided Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and the hushed, hermetic folk of 1972's Harvest, found an ethereal and otherworldly middle ground for Young's rapidly developing songwriting voice. Live at the Cellar Door finds a solo Young just a few months after the release of After the Goldrush, playing a six-show stint at the tiny Washington D.C. club, running through a set heavy on the relatively new material from Gold Rush, but also getting into songs that wouldn't see album release for a few more records yet…

Neil Young has long been one of rock’s great romantics, mourning the utopian ideals of the “hippie” ‘60s and his vision of what America was…or at least should have been. In some ways, Greendale–which could be described as a “rock novel”–adds a mourning for humanity itself to the mix, as Young presents his vision of America 2003 via the story of a fictional family in a small California town. There’s drama galore–a cop is killed by a drug dealer; Grandpa has a fatal heart attack while pointing a gun at a TV reporter–but most of these songs also work individually as terrific rock tunes. It’s a more subdued Crazy Horse this time out, with only Neil on lead guitar and little of the distorted rage found on albums like Ragged Glory. But “Grandpa’s Interview” has a gorgeous riff that recalls Zuma’s “Don’t Cry No Tears”; “Be the Rain” is a genuine Neil Young anthem about love, peace, saving the planet, and doing the right thing. A few pieces sound a tad meandering at first, which could lead one to conclude that Greendale is only a good Neil Young album. Repeated listening, however, should confirm that Greendale is a great Neil Young album.

Bill Holdship - Amazon.com