If everything goes according to plan — note that I said "if" here — Neil Young's ten plus years in the making Archives boxed set will finally see the light of day this upcoming Tuesday. I qualify this only because over the course of a decade's long wait, Neil's fans have had to endure tease after tease about this release, only to have the mercurial artist pull it back for more of his seemingly endless tweaking.
It can be frustrating being a Neil Young fan sometimes, but we'll get to more about that soon enough.
This is not a review of the Archives box. Other than the parts that have been already released — including the Live At Massey Hall and Live At Fillmore East sets, I've not heard a note of it, and probably won't anytime soon due to the prohibitively high cost of getting the DVD or Blu-ray versions of the ten-disc set. That is, unless any of Neil's PR people are feeling generous and would like to send one of these my way (hint, hint).
Instead, the impending release of Archives has provided your Rockologist a perfect opportunity to continue to vent about his public love/hate relationship with Mr. Young. To put things in proper perspective here, I'll first state upfront and without hesitation that Neil Young, along with Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, makes up one third of my "holy trinity" of favorite artists. When he's firing on all four cylinders, I love Neil Young's music like that of few other artists out there.
Conversely, Neil Young's rather mercurial nature (and yes, I'll probably be using that word a lot here) as a bit of a musical maverick can mean years, and sometimes decades of waiting for him to "come back home" from what often seems like an endless string of those odd "experimental" albums.
The most notorious stretch where fans had to endure a decade of "weird Neil" was the eighties, but it wasn't the first. Following the breakthrough success of Harvest in the early seventies, Neil chose to make an abrupt artistic turn with the albums Time Fades Away, Tonight's The Night, and On The Beach. Those albums — particularly the latter two — have grown in the decades since to become essential pieces of his catalog. But at the time they first came out, they more or less left everyone from fans to the record company collectively scratching their heads in bewilderment.
Article comments
1 - Donald Gibson
I really believe that any perceived run of classic Neil Young albums has come predominantly by his own artistic muse and intuition rather an any concerted effort to create a masterwork. He's never been one to do what record execs or managers (or bandmates) have preferred; rather, he's followed his own intuition to wherever it has led him. He likely felt as inspired and believed as much in Prairie Wind as he did in Zuma or After the Goldrush.
I don't think the kind of genius, the kind of creativity that's within him, ever extinguishes until he does.
2 - Glen Boyd
Absolutely correct Gibson, and it's a very great part of why his genius continues to endure.
Neil has always followed his artistic muse to a fault (of which there have been many), for better of for worse, and in the case of such brilliant work as On The Beach for example, it's taken decades for the record buying public to catch up to it.
That said, Neil's artistic stubbornness has meant that we've had to endure shit like "Everybody's Rocking" in between masterpieces like "Freedom."
Thats the hardest part of being a Neil Young fan. It requires the patience of Job. Fortunately, it's usually worth it. But just lately my own patience has been admittedly tested. All I'm saying...
-Glen
3 - Shelley Woods
Personally, I'd be happier if Neil would just release the "Time Fades Away" album, far too long out of print. It's not just the $300 to purchase the Blu-ray version of Archives -- but I'm sure there are countless Neil fans like me who would have to shell out for an actual Blu-ray machine first. I love Neil Young, but I love The Beatles even more ... and they're releasing two boxed sets in September. That's where my $$$ has to go. Priorites.
4 - Craig Leavitt
Agree with many of your comments, although I liked Greendale more than you seem to have (better idea than actual record. But "Carmichael" is priceless and most of the songs work for me).
I basically gave up on Neil over his decision to have his wife sing back-up for him. I'm sure she's a nice person but she's a horrible singer and it really hurts his music. I can't forget or forgive what she did to "Cowgirl" at Red Rocks 2000.
I won't ever spend a dime to see Neil play again, unless he brings back Crazy Horse sans Pegi. I don't buy his records anymore either.