Neil Young

Performer: Neil Young
Artist: Jim Messina
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel includes: Neil Young (vocals, guitar); Jim Messina (bass); George Grantham (drums); Merry Clayton, Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Gloria Richetta Jones, Sherlie Matthews, Gracia Nitzsche (background vocals). Producers: Dave Briggs, Neil Young, Jack Nitzsche, Ryland Cooder. Engineers include: Mark Richardson, Donn Landee, Dale Batchelor. Neil Young's first solo record is quite a bit different from the sound he would later develop--not that anyone could ever know what to expect from this mercurial visionary. This album, though, is a bit artier and less spontaneous-sounding than most of Young's catalog. That's not to say that he hadn't already developed a gift for writing unique, captivating material. He'd already shown that ability with Buffalo Springfield, and NEIL YOUNG is full of great, idiosyncratic tunes. The most well-known cut here is the most traditional rock-sounding tune, "The Loner," but even here Young sings of disaffection and isolation, over an arrangement that shifts between distorted guitar and elegant string section. "The Old Laughing Lady" is probably the most Springfieldish song here, and along with the country flavor of some of the other tunes, provides a link to Young's past. The piece de resistance is the closing acoustic epic, "The Last Trip To Tulsa," a surreal, Dylanesque number that showed Young already blazing his own trail in the world of rock poets.

Q (4/02, p.142) - "...It's definitely the sound of an artist struggling to find his way..."

Like the Band, Neil Young eschewed his Canadian roots to create a sound rooted in American folk and country, which he mixed with visionary, poetic rock in Buffalo Springfield and on his solo albums. He played the crucial fourth wheel role in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but ultimately proved too individualistic to participate in a democracy. The gritty, electric assault of his work with Crazy Horse is the alter ego of Young's more folk/country-based work, and also proved a key influence on the grunge sound of Seattle (Young even recorded a live album with Pearl Jam as his backing band). Over the years, he's followed his mercurial muse through everything from rockabilly to synth-pop to big-band blues, always remaining uniquely Neil.

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