"Oh Canada...you're beautiful when you're drunk" -EV 8/14/93
0
goldrush
everybody knows this is nowhere Posts: 7,580
“A raw and extremely unfiltered look at the process of Neil Young with Crazy Horse making their 1st album in 7 years. Witness the laughter, tensions, crusty attitudes & love of a rock & roll band that’s been together for 50 years as they share their passion, first and foremost... for the music“
Watch Liam Gallagher’s recent 73 Questions interview for Vogue and you’ll see him reach a moment of absolute clarity when asked which rockstar got old but managed to still stay cool. “Neil Young,” he nods after a split second’s thought, pausing as he stomps across a sunny Hampstead Heath. He is, of course, 100% correct.
About every five years or so I'm reminded of this little NY tidbit: About, oh I don't know, maybe 15 years ago, PBS public television was putting out (I think it was called) the American Master series- a series of music biopics on various musicians and groups. One night, an edition of that series came on with Neil young as the subject of the documentary. I popped in a tape into the VCR and hit "record". About half way through the video, PBS went to a break. Now that was unusual, because they had normally played the whole show through. Even more oddly, after the break, they cut to another program. They had run a deal that night where if you subscribed to PBS, they would send you a DVD of that night's Masters program. So I sent the money and received... a different program on DVD. They never explained why the switch, they never explained why the program had but cut off in the middle, I've never seen that show on tape or video anywhere including YouTube.
The only thing close to that show I know of is the BBC "Don't Be Denied" hour long documentary. I think some of the footage from the PBS show is in that BBC production.
This whole thing remains a mystery to me. My guess is, Neil or some of his people had the PBC documentary pulled. He says some rather harsh things in that video. My guess is it wasn't all meant to be aired.
Does this sound familiar to any of you? Has anybody seen this?
@brianlux Someone sent a similar question to Letters To The Editor recently
“Do not postpone happiness”
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,335
About every five years or so I'm reminded of this little NY tidbit: About, oh I don't know, maybe 15 years ago, PBS public television was putting out (I think it was called) the American Master series- a series of music biopics on various musicians and groups. One night, an edition of that series came on with Neil young as the subject of the documentary. I popped in a tape into the VCR and hit "record". About half way through the video, PBS went to a break. Now that was unusual, because they had normally played the whole show through. Even more oddly, after the break, they cut to another program. They had run a deal that night where if you subscribed to PBS, they would send you a DVD of that night's Masters program. So I sent the money and received... a different program on DVD. They never explained why the switch, they never explained why the program had but cut off in the middle, I've never seen that show on tape or video anywhere including YouTube.
The only thing close to that show I know of is the BBC "Don't Be Denied" hour long documentary. I think some of the footage from the PBS show is in that BBC production.
This whole thing remains a mystery to me. My guess is, Neil or some of his people had the PBC documentary pulled. He says some rather harsh things in that video. My guess is it wasn't all meant to be aired.
Does this sound familiar to any of you? Has anybody seen this?
@brianlux Someone sent a similar question to Letters To The Editor recently
Interesting! I wonder if this will ever see the light of day? I think I taped it on my VCR up to the point they cut it off. I'll have to dig around and see if I can find that.
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
About every five years or so I'm reminded of this little NY tidbit: About, oh I don't know, maybe 15 years ago, PBS public television was putting out (I think it was called) the American Master series- a series of music biopics on various musicians and groups. One night, an edition of that series came on with Neil young as the subject of the documentary. I popped in a tape into the VCR and hit "record". About half way through the video, PBS went to a break. Now that was unusual, because they had normally played the whole show through. Even more oddly, after the break, they cut to another program. They had run a deal that night where if you subscribed to PBS, they would send you a DVD of that night's Masters program. So I sent the money and received... a different program on DVD. They never explained why the switch, they never explained why the program had but cut off in the middle, I've never seen that show on tape or video anywhere including YouTube.
The only thing close to that show I know of is the BBC "Don't Be Denied" hour long documentary. I think some of the footage from the PBS show is in that BBC production.
This whole thing remains a mystery to me. My guess is, Neil or some of his people had the PBC documentary pulled. He says some rather harsh things in that video. My guess is it wasn't all meant to be aired.
Does this sound familiar to any of you? Has anybody seen this?
@brianlux Someone sent a similar question to Letters To The Editor recently
neil answers letters personally?
"Oh Canada...you're beautiful when you're drunk" -EV 8/14/93
0
goldrush
everybody knows this is nowhere Posts: 7,580
About every five years or so I'm reminded of this little NY tidbit: About, oh I don't know, maybe 15 years ago, PBS public television was putting out (I think it was called) the American Master series- a series of music biopics on various musicians and groups. One night, an edition of that series came on with Neil young as the subject of the documentary. I popped in a tape into the VCR and hit "record". About half way through the video, PBS went to a break. Now that was unusual, because they had normally played the whole show through. Even more oddly, after the break, they cut to another program. They had run a deal that night where if you subscribed to PBS, they would send you a DVD of that night's Masters program. So I sent the money and received... a different program on DVD. They never explained why the switch, they never explained why the program had but cut off in the middle, I've never seen that show on tape or video anywhere including YouTube.
The only thing close to that show I know of is the BBC "Don't Be Denied" hour long documentary. I think some of the footage from the PBS show is in that BBC production.
This whole thing remains a mystery to me. My guess is, Neil or some of his people had the PBC documentary pulled. He says some rather harsh things in that video. My guess is it wasn't all meant to be aired.
Does this sound familiar to any of you? Has anybody seen this?
@brianlux Someone sent a similar question to Letters To The Editor recently
neil answers letters personally?
Yes he does. Sometimes John Hanlon or someone from the NYA team will answer a technical question, but it’s mostly Neil. He has spoken of how much he enjoys writing in his ‘newspaper’, as his dad was a journalist
“Do not postpone happiness”
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
Neil Young has come up with a canny way to disarm those who have periodically criticized the veteran Canadian singer and songwriter’s most pointedly political songs or public statements about life in the USA on the grounds that “he’s not even an American.”
As of next month, that argument will no longer hold water.
“I’ve passed all the tests; I’ve got my appointment, and if everything goes as planned, I’ll be taking the oath of citizenship” shortly after turning 74 on Nov. 12. The salient point being, “I’ll be able to vote,” said Young, who has lived roughly two-thirds of his life in the U.S. since arriving in Los Angeles in the mid-’60s and first making his mark on the rock ’n’ roll landscape with Buffalo Springfield.
“I’m still a Canadian; there’s nothing that can take that away from me,” he said. Young was at a studio in Santa Monica where he and his wife, activist-actress Daryl Hannah, assembled their new film, “Mountaintop,” documenting the recording of Young’s latest album, “Colorado,” which arrives Oct. 25.
“But I live down here; I pay taxes down here; my beautiful family is all down here — they’re all Americans, so I want to register my opinion” about this country. He means doing so at the ballot box; he’s often registered his opinion musically, in songs such as “Ohio,” about the killing by National Guardsmen of four students at Kent State University during campus Vietnam War protests in 1970, or “Rockin’ in the Free World,” a 1980s commentary on the inequities of Reaganomics.
More recently, that compartment of his songbook has expanded with “Shut It Down” from “Colorado,” the project for which the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee has reunited his long-running band Crazy Horse for the first time in seven years. In that song, Young takes a jab at the many ways he thinks the country has veered off course, his remedy being “shut the whole thing down” and start again.
Why become a citizen now, after living in the States for more than half a century?
“We’ve got a climate emergency, and governments are not acting,” he said, between bites of the omelet and sautéed spinach that constituted his lunch, part of a healthier diet and lifestyle he’s embraced in recent years.
Climate change surfaces as a theme in another song from “Colorado,” “She Showed Me Love,” in which he owns up to his station in life at this point in life, singing, “You might say I’m an old white guy … You might say that,” adding that “I’ve seen old white guys trying to kill Mother Nature.”
The song spontaneously stretched out into a signature Crazy Horse jam that extends for more than 13 minutes on the album during the recording session high in the mountains of Colorado earlier this year, for which he reunited with longtime Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina. This time out, Crazy Horse also includes guitarist Nils Lofgren, who first played in Crazy Horse back in 1970 and has periodically collaborated with Young over the years when he hasn’t been occupied with his duties as a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. Lofgren has stepped in for guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, who has retired to his home in Hawaii, according to Young.
When Young talks about Crazy Horse, he sounds less like he’s simply discussing a group of musicians and more like he’s alluding to another form of life, one that somehow exists beyond the limitations of human musicians.
“The Horse is not on a schedule,” he said when asked what moves him to reactivate the group time and time again. “It’s really the feeling: certain songs, locations, places, times. It’s the way our instrumentals are: How do we know where we’re going? How did we end up jamming and having it be really melodic when I’ve never played this before? So that’s where we want to be. It’s almost like jazz — but it’s not that.”
“Do not postpone happiness”
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
Enjoyed the new album on first listen. Will give it another few spins before forming an opinion. Definitely preferred it to Neil's recent albums with POTR.
"...though my problems are meaningless....that don't make them go away...."
"Mostly I think that people react sensitively because they know you’ve got a point"
0
goldrush
everybody knows this is nowhere Posts: 7,580
The Hearse Theater listings for the Mountaintop movie have been pushed back until after the European cinema screenings
“Do not postpone happiness”
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,335
edited November 2019
Having finally acquired the power (electricity) again need to play records, here's my brief review of Colorado:
Side 1: Good to very good. The long jam song "She Showed Me Love" is great but would have made a much better 6 or 7 minute song. Much as I had looked forward to yet another classic 12 to 13 minute Crazy Horse jam, this one doesn't hold the groove the way "Down By the River", "Cowgirl in the Sand" or "Change Your Mind" do, or infuse the hypnotic, nearly narcotic trance that "Loose Change" or "Slips Away" do. A good effort, but not a great one. Side A: "B-"
Side 2: Pure bliss. I love this side and for me, this is worthy of the high price of admission. Classic Crazy Horse. "Green and Blue" reduced me to tears and "Shut it Down" had me nearly pounding the floor. Marvelous! Side 2: "A+"
Side 3: Four more very good songs but nothing to write home about. Rainbow of colors actually washes out a little for me but certainly not white washed. "I Do" is a classic, intensely introspective Neil Young ballad. Side 3: "B+"
Side 4: Yes, I know, there is no side four and for this, I have to submit a grade of "F" because side 4 should have been the two songs on the single. Better a short side than a blank one, PLUS did we really need more plastic and cardboard? This whole matter is sad and full of irony. The man sings about how we fucked up the planet... and then presses unnecessary plastic and card stock. WTF, Neil? I love you anyway man but, really?
Over-all, a solid effort and based on the strength of side two, I would call this one a 4 out of 5 star essential Neil Young and Crazy Horse album".
Post edited by brianlux on
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
I've enjoyed the album. It's definitely a different beast with Poncho there, but its definitely a worthy addition to the NYCH cannon. Hoping for some European gigs next year, although Nils will probably be touring with the E-Street band so not sure how that'll work out.
"...though my problems are meaningless....that don't make them go away...."
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,335
I've enjoyed the album. It's definitely a different beast with Poncho there, but its definitely a worthy addition to the NYCH cannon. Hoping for some European gigs next year, although Nils will probably be touring with the E-Street band so not sure how that'll work out.
I miss them having Poncho in the band big time! But how cool that he retired in Hawaii and became a Master Gardener!
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
"Try to not spook the horse."
-Neil Young
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,335
Not sure if this has been posted, but here's a good Pitchfork review of Colorado:
Young’s fourth album of the century with his most famous band is simple and heartfelt, gritty and tender.
Many
have tried, but no one plays guitar quite like Neil Young. He solos
like something’s buried under the fretboard that he’s trying to dig out.
When he transposes to acoustic settings, the inertia of his playing can
cause his legs to cycle up and down wildly, a source of energy
traveling through his entire body, dissipating in the lonesome exhaust
of his fragile singing voice and harmonica playing. Even when he was a
young man, this sound expressed a world-weariness that complemented his
lyrics. But his music always seemed engineered to age with him—to rust
and burn and keep on going.
No group better suits this sensibility than Crazy Horse, the
pared-down accompanists he first recruited for his sophomore album,
1969’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The band—which then
featured the late guitarist Danny Whitten, bassist Billy Talbot, and
drummer Ralph Molina—were built to tear things up. They kept it simple.
Young’s guitar solos sometimes consisted of just one note, looped and
clipping until the whole band seemed to lock in place with him. And
while Young explored a wide variety of genres in the following decades,
from pastoral country to arena rock to instrumental guitar, this primal
sound will always be the one most closely associated with him.
So when Young reassembles Crazy Horse for new music, there are always heightened expectations. Colorado marks their fourth studio album of the 21st century, following a dense concept album (2003’s Greendale), an unremarkable set of royalty-free cover songs (2012’s Americana), and a brilliantly meandering double album (2012’s Psychedelic Pill).
Situated around those releases have been a spotty run of albums (even
by Young’s standards), building toward his most inscrutable era since
the ’80s. Young himself seems to acknowledge his current standards in
the accompanying documentary Mountaintop, as he instructs his reunited bandmates to work quickly but meaningfully during its 11-day sessions. “It doesn’t have to be good,” he instructs. “Just feel good.”
Despite his empowering mantra, a dark cloud hangs over Colorado.
Its songs are furious (“Help Me Lose My Mind”), haunted (“Milky Way”),
and remorseful (“Green Is Blue”). In “She Showed Me Love,” the closest
thing this album has to a characteristic Crazy Horse epic, Young sings
about a new generation carrying the torch for climate change and
imagines how they might view him. “You might say I’m an old white guy,”
he speak-sings. “I saw old white guys trying to kill mother nature.” It
goes without saying that the “she” in the song title refers to our
planet, and the past tense refers to the shortening timelines of both
the narrator and subject. The long jam eventually slows to a trudge and
makes sure you feel every passing minute.
The rest of the record is shaded with subdued tones. In addition to
Young’s old bandmates Talbot and Molina, he’s accompanied by Nils
Lofgren—the E Street Band guitarist who also played with Young on career
highlights After the Gold Rush and Tonight’s the Night.
While Lofgren is best known for a near-athletic virtuosity, here he
mostly colors in the lines. (His tap-dancing percussion in the sweet, Sleeps With Angels-referencing
“Eternity” is the clearest showcase for his gifts.) Even for Crazy
Horse, the music is simple but heartfelt. On tracks like “Olden Days”
and “Rainbow of Colors,” Young’s basic folk melodies are rendered
grittier and heavier by the band, if no less tender.
“When you see those geese in the sky, think of me,” go the album’s
opening lines, and Young often sings from this distance, watching over a
world without him. Outside a few words of gratitude in the gorgeous
closing track “I Do,” his lyrics rarely seem autobiographical, but they
do seem newly focused and reflective. And while the documentary is
certainly not the most riveting film Young’s put his name to (highlights
include a story about producer John Hanlon getting poison oak), it does
occasionally offer a pure snapshot of his creative process. Seeing how
ecstatic Young gets over a subtle tambourine part in “Olden Days” may
permanently alter how you hear that song. It offers a reminder of his
passion, how the studio remains a source of excitement and joy after all
these years.
And yet, if it were up to him, none of us would be listening to this
album in its final form. “I get to hear it the way we made it. Too bad
about most of you,” he wrote on his website, bemoaning the current state
of sound quality via streaming. The concern speaks to a lifelong battle
with the industry, also discussed in his new 240-page book,
but it also speaks to the struggle he’s faced as a solo recording
artist this decade. Whether food justice or the destruction of the
planet, his muses have often seemed muffled or misconstrued when they
finally reach the market. Colorado surpasses those recent works
by speaking directly to that ephemeral nature of life, our tragedies
and joys and disappointments. “There’s so much we didn’t do,” Young and
his bandmates sing together, their ages averaging around 73, in a ballad
called “Green Is Blue.” And if one thing has remained unwavering about
them, it’s that you know they mean every word.
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Neil is indeed a genius, I've never been in any doubt of that. And it's all his own journey - he genuinely doesn't care what anyone thinks about what he's doing at any particular time. An example to any young musician out there. Keep doing what you believe in.
"...though my problems are meaningless....that don't make them go away...."
Comments
What do you think it will land on in the states?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-lv44VEv6M
-EV 8/14/93
“A raw and extremely unfiltered look at the process of Neil Young with Crazy Horse making their 1st album in 7 years. Witness the laughter, tensions, crusty attitudes & love of a rock & roll band that’s been together for 50 years as they share their passion, first and foremost... for the music“
The full list of screenings can be found here https://mountaintopthemovie.com/
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
Mirrorball Live - October 29th on the hearse theatre NYA ☺️
https://neilyoungarchives.com/news/undefined/article?id=Hearse-Theater-Schedule-page-1
2009:Manchester,London 2010:Dublin,Belfast,London,Berlin 2012: Manchester 1 +2,Stockholm,copenhagen 2013: New York ,Philadelphia
2014: Milan, Leeds, Milton Keynes 2018: London 1, Lisbon 2022: London 1+ 2, Krakow 2023: Austin 1 + 2
Thanks for the heads-up, though.
2009:Manchester,London 2010:Dublin,Belfast,London,Berlin 2012: Manchester 1 +2,Stockholm,copenhagen 2013: New York ,Philadelphia
2014: Milan, Leeds, Milton Keynes 2018: London 1, Lisbon 2022: London 1+ 2, Krakow 2023: Austin 1 + 2
Again, thanks for the heads-up.(Now i just have to remember to watch on the 29th)
Greendale... Weld... Rusted Out Garage... MIRRORBALL!... Unplugged...
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
(4 stars)
https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/neil-young-and-crazy-horse-colorado-review?fbclid=IwAR0KeHauZQ27zp8CqQhJoCcQNh0wU31rHWEALyCx6ovhvrz_Zb4oGYWn_hU
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
-EV 8/14/93
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
Should I bite?
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2019-10-24/neil-young-crazy-horse-colorado-american-citizen
Neil Young has come up with a canny way to disarm those who have periodically criticized the veteran Canadian singer and songwriter’s most pointedly political songs or public statements about life in the USA on the grounds that “he’s not even an American.”
As of next month, that argument will no longer hold water.
“I’ve passed all the tests; I’ve got my appointment, and if everything goes as planned, I’ll be taking the oath of citizenship” shortly after turning 74 on Nov. 12. The salient point being, “I’ll be able to vote,” said Young, who has lived roughly two-thirds of his life in the U.S. since arriving in Los Angeles in the mid-’60s and first making his mark on the rock ’n’ roll landscape with Buffalo Springfield.
“I’m still a Canadian; there’s nothing that can take that away from me,” he said. Young was at a studio in Santa Monica where he and his wife, activist-actress Daryl Hannah, assembled their new film, “Mountaintop,” documenting the recording of Young’s latest album, “Colorado,” which arrives Oct. 25.
“But I live down here; I pay taxes down here; my beautiful family is all down here — they’re all Americans, so I want to register my opinion” about this country. He means doing so at the ballot box; he’s often registered his opinion musically, in songs such as “Ohio,” about the killing by National Guardsmen of four students at Kent State University during campus Vietnam War protests in 1970, or “Rockin’ in the Free World,” a 1980s commentary on the inequities of Reaganomics.
More recently, that compartment of his songbook has expanded with “Shut It Down” from “Colorado,” the project for which the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee has reunited his long-running band Crazy Horse for the first time in seven years. In that song, Young takes a jab at the many ways he thinks the country has veered off course, his remedy being “shut the whole thing down” and start again.
Why become a citizen now, after living in the States for more than half a century?
“We’ve got a climate emergency, and governments are not acting,” he said, between bites of the omelet and sautéed spinach that constituted his lunch, part of a healthier diet and lifestyle he’s embraced in recent years.
Climate change surfaces as a theme in another song from “Colorado,” “She Showed Me Love,” in which he owns up to his station in life at this point in life, singing, “You might say I’m an old white guy … You might say that,” adding that “I’ve seen old white guys trying to kill Mother Nature.”
The song spontaneously stretched out into a signature Crazy Horse jam that extends for more than 13 minutes on the album during the recording session high in the mountains of Colorado earlier this year, for which he reunited with longtime Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina. This time out, Crazy Horse also includes guitarist Nils Lofgren, who first played in Crazy Horse back in 1970 and has periodically collaborated with Young over the years when he hasn’t been occupied with his duties as a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. Lofgren has stepped in for guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, who has retired to his home in Hawaii, according to Young.
When Young talks about Crazy Horse, he sounds less like he’s simply discussing a group of musicians and more like he’s alluding to another form of life, one that somehow exists beyond the limitations of human musicians.
“The Horse is not on a schedule,” he said when asked what moves him to reactivate the group time and time again. “It’s really the feeling: certain songs, locations, places, times. It’s the way our instrumentals are: How do we know where we’re going? How did we end up jamming and having it be really melodic when I’ve never played this before? So that’s where we want to be. It’s almost like jazz — but it’s not that.”
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Young’s fourth album of the century with his most famous band is simple and heartfelt, gritty and tender.
Many have tried, but no one plays guitar quite like Neil Young. He solos like something’s buried under the fretboard that he’s trying to dig out. When he transposes to acoustic settings, the inertia of his playing can cause his legs to cycle up and down wildly, a source of energy traveling through his entire body, dissipating in the lonesome exhaust of his fragile singing voice and harmonica playing. Even when he was a young man, this sound expressed a world-weariness that complemented his lyrics. But his music always seemed engineered to age with him—to rust and burn and keep on going.
No group better suits this sensibility than Crazy Horse, the pared-down accompanists he first recruited for his sophomore album, 1969’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The band—which then featured the late guitarist Danny Whitten, bassist Billy Talbot, and drummer Ralph Molina—were built to tear things up. They kept it simple. Young’s guitar solos sometimes consisted of just one note, looped and clipping until the whole band seemed to lock in place with him. And while Young explored a wide variety of genres in the following decades, from pastoral country to arena rock to instrumental guitar, this primal sound will always be the one most closely associated with him.
So when Young reassembles Crazy Horse for new music, there are always heightened expectations. Colorado marks their fourth studio album of the 21st century, following a dense concept album (2003’s Greendale), an unremarkable set of royalty-free cover songs (2012’s Americana), and a brilliantly meandering double album (2012’s Psychedelic Pill). Situated around those releases have been a spotty run of albums (even by Young’s standards), building toward his most inscrutable era since the ’80s. Young himself seems to acknowledge his current standards in the accompanying documentary Mountaintop, as he instructs his reunited bandmates to work quickly but meaningfully during its 11-day sessions. “It doesn’t have to be good,” he instructs. “Just feel good.”
Despite his empowering mantra, a dark cloud hangs over Colorado. Its songs are furious (“Help Me Lose My Mind”), haunted (“Milky Way”), and remorseful (“Green Is Blue”). In “She Showed Me Love,” the closest thing this album has to a characteristic Crazy Horse epic, Young sings about a new generation carrying the torch for climate change and imagines how they might view him. “You might say I’m an old white guy,” he speak-sings. “I saw old white guys trying to kill mother nature.” It goes without saying that the “she” in the song title refers to our planet, and the past tense refers to the shortening timelines of both the narrator and subject. The long jam eventually slows to a trudge and makes sure you feel every passing minute.
The rest of the record is shaded with subdued tones. In addition to Young’s old bandmates Talbot and Molina, he’s accompanied by Nils Lofgren—the E Street Band guitarist who also played with Young on career highlights After the Gold Rush and Tonight’s the Night. While Lofgren is best known for a near-athletic virtuosity, here he mostly colors in the lines. (His tap-dancing percussion in the sweet, Sleeps With Angels-referencing “Eternity” is the clearest showcase for his gifts.) Even for Crazy Horse, the music is simple but heartfelt. On tracks like “Olden Days” and “Rainbow of Colors,” Young’s basic folk melodies are rendered grittier and heavier by the band, if no less tender.
“When you see those geese in the sky, think of me,” go the album’s opening lines, and Young often sings from this distance, watching over a world without him. Outside a few words of gratitude in the gorgeous closing track “I Do,” his lyrics rarely seem autobiographical, but they do seem newly focused and reflective. And while the documentary is certainly not the most riveting film Young’s put his name to (highlights include a story about producer John Hanlon getting poison oak), it does occasionally offer a pure snapshot of his creative process. Seeing how ecstatic Young gets over a subtle tambourine part in “Olden Days” may permanently alter how you hear that song. It offers a reminder of his passion, how the studio remains a source of excitement and joy after all these years.
And yet, if it were up to him, none of us would be listening to this album in its final form. “I get to hear it the way we made it. Too bad about most of you,” he wrote on his website, bemoaning the current state of sound quality via streaming. The concern speaks to a lifelong battle with the industry, also discussed in his new 240-page book, but it also speaks to the struggle he’s faced as a solo recording artist this decade. Whether food justice or the destruction of the planet, his muses have often seemed muffled or misconstrued when they finally reach the market. Colorado surpasses those recent works by speaking directly to that ephemeral nature of life, our tragedies and joys and disappointments. “There’s so much we didn’t do,” Young and his bandmates sing together, their ages averaging around 73, in a ballad called “Green Is Blue.” And if one thing has remained unwavering about them, it’s that you know they mean every word.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"