Neil Young "Ramada Inn"

I'm filling in for Barbara Dacey on Friday night, for her show "Uncharted Waters."

Usually, it's a plum gig.  Barbara spends a full hour playing new releases, and when I fill in, it's my chance to champion some of the great new music out there.

But this is perhaps the worst week of the year to have to host the program.

Record labels basically take the month of December off.  The last new releases of the year hit around mid-November, and little to nothing comes into the station until the 2nd week of January.  The few that come in do get played on Uncharted Waters over the course of the month.  But by the first Friday night of the new year, every new song has been played.

So I have an hour to fill, and literally not enough new songs to fill it.

Unless . . .

One of the independent promoters I talk to, JB Brenner, has mentioned this Neil Young cut to me a couple of times.  Not because he's promoting it---he's not.  Just because he's a Neil Young fan.

He thinks it's one of Neil's best songs in a long, long time.  He even put in a call to Neil's record label rep, to suggest they put it out as a single.

But to do that, the label would have to make an edit.  Because no station is going to play a single that is nearly 17 minutes long.

No station, except . . .

Yes, the final third of tonight's "Uncharted Waters on mvyradio" will be one very, very long Neil Young tune.

And if you are at work and you have a lot of time to kill, you can enjoy it now in the video below!


Hear the song on Youtube.

Neil Young "Walk Like A Giant"

Here's another "I Looked At The Internet Today So You Don't Have To" feature.

There's something oddly appropriate about this new Neil Young & Crazy Horse video.

Like the song, the video has an elusive nature (like Bigfoot), is psychedelic (like the patterns), feels home-made a little half-assed, yet charming, and has parts that seem too go on for too long (like the patterns).

Though I think I like it better than some recent past Neil Young singles, it still merits the standard issue Neil Young conversation.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Neil Young "Jesus' Chariot"

Sometimes, in the modern age of too much information, I feel like learning too much about an album/artist really takes away from making a fair and proper judgement of the work.

I mean, when I was in the Sistine Chapel, I wasn't looking at the ceiling thinking, "I wonder if Michaelangelo's recent breakup had a major effect on the tone of this work?"  Or even, "I wonder what kind of research Michaelangelo did when plotting out this piece?"

No, I was more thinking, "Holy smokes this work of art is incredible!"

So there is a part of me that wants to shut out all the extraneous noise about a record, and just hear the record as the artist's statement, rather than hear the artist in an interview making a statement explaining his statement.

On the other hand, sometimes hearing from the artist can improve your view of the art's intentions. 

I heard an interview that cause me to reconsider Neil Young's "Americana" and to disabuse myself of a previously-conceived notion.

Yes, Young has a reputation for being a provocateur---whether that means writing an anti-War album in the middle of a War, or excoriating Pop-Sacred-Cows on songs like "This Note's For You."

And when I heard "Americana" my first impression was that the Neil was messing with us.  Why record an album of Folk songs, using his most rocking, loud backing band, Crazy Horse?  Why plunk away at some of the most childish, rudimentary tunes around, for anything other than a lark?

My initial feeling was that this was not unlike Bob Dylan's "Christmas In The Heart" album, which seemed to have been created to deliberately defy expectations of what and who the artist is supposed to be.

Then I heard Young on Fresh Air, and I thought that I should reconsider my position.

Here's where the light-bulb went on:  Neil Young might be a provocateur, he might be occasionally cantankerous, he might willfully defy expectations . . .

But if there is one thing he is not, it's insincere.

I don't think he's messing around with us.  I don't think he did these songs on a lark.  I don't think he finds these songs rudimentary (in a bad way).

I think he's sincerely interested in the melodies, and the lyrics, and the origins of these songs.  And I think he's sincerely interested in sharing what he's discovered through playing them.

So I'll listen again.  Will I like the album?  I don't know.  Not necessarily.

But at least I now feel like I'll hear the album, in a manner closer to how Young intended.


"Jesus' Chariot" is "She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain" closer to its original form.  Where I remember it as kind of a dumb tune about a woman on a wagon, Young peels back the lyrics to reveal that this is actually an old spiritual, about full of symbolism relating to the return of Jesus . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

neil young

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Neil Young & Crazy Horse "Oh Susannah"

Barbara and I were having our usual conversation about the arrival of a new Neil Young track.

But this time, adding a layer of bizarreness/hiliarity, is the fact that it is/purports-to-be a cover song.

Young's forthcoming "Americana" album is a collection of traditional roots and public domain songs, with the sonic-attack of a traditional Crazy Horse album.

That's the information I had going into my first listen of the song.

I know the song "Oh Susannah" from my childhood.  And I have to say, on my first listen, I wondered if my understanding of what this record was, was wrong.

The second time I listened to it, I could hear some lyrics that I recognized, but it still seemed like he was only grazing the original.

Maybe if I keep listening to it, it will sound like the same song that they used to sing in grammar school.

Anyway, what do you think?


Hear the song on Youtube.

Pete does it like I remember it.

Hear the Seeger version on Youtube.

James does it like James and Johnny does it like Johnny, but they're closer to Pete than they are to Neil.

Hear James and Johnny on Youtube.

PS.  Does this song seem like a future candidate for "Let Me Ruin This Song For You?"  If you'd like to have it ruined, so that you'll never hear this song without thinking of a completely different one, then by all means, click here.