Growing up, I took it upon myself to absorb as much Neil Young as humanly possible. He was big medicine to me – his sound, his words, his politics. He found a place in me that I relied on to help me figure out who I was – and once I did, I kind of got burned out on the old guy.
Now, with the release of “Chevrolet” off of Neil and Crazy Horse’s new record World Record – I’m back in the saddle as Weird Neil rides again.
Somewhere around the age of 14, I picked up a copy of Live Rust and songs like “The Loner”, “Powderfinger”, and “I Am A Child” wrapped their arms around me, pushed me to places I never knew I needed to see. Smoke signals outside of my internal Tipi started forming and I wasn’t only listening to Neil Young, but I was hearing him.
Then somewhere after Prairie Wind, I let go and moved on.
It wasn’t so much Neil and his music as it was me and my life. I had done the same with Led Zeppelin, and Lynyrd Skynyrd previously. In fact, the only band that I have never walked away from is The Grateful Dead and that’s partly due to their endless catalog of live music.
Anyway. Neil Young is back with Crazy Horse and taking center stage in my heart of hearts – and this nearly twenty-minute long banger is the reason.
It’s got all the elements of anything from the Neil Young catalog – and then some. So much so that I think I owe it to myself to absorb this whole album. I just can’t do it on any streaming service, besides Neil’s own, because Neil called out Joe Rogan for being Joe Rogan and pulled his music from the bigger streams.
Oh well, I won’t be deterred.
In fact, kudos to for Neil bringing Rogan to task.
Someone had to say what everyone was thinking.
Cheers.
Tribe Of Flannel 