Neil Young: Neil Young/Everybody Knows This is Nowhere/After the Gold Rush/Harvest (reissues)

Neil Young

Label: Reprise

2009 will always be a monumental year for Neil Young fans, not because the legendary singer produced any exciting new music but the long-awaited Archives set became a reality. Though beautiful in many respects, Archives Vol. 1 seemed a little misguided in its intent. It contained too much previously released material for the diehard fan and cost way too much for the curious. What the set did offer was amazing remastered sound on songs that only existed digitally on first generation CDs. But, my biggest gripe was the albums weren’t presented in their entirety. This first wave of reissues, featuring Young’s first four albums, remedies that problem.

The sonic difference between these new versions and the discs I’ve been spinning since high school in the early ’90s is vastly different. Though the old ones never sounded murky, the new aural separation now allows for the music to open up and fill the room. Young’s quaver has been mixed front and center and his guitar sounds much more muscular, as it should. If you are a longtime fan, you should bid farewell to your old CDs and buy these immediately. But it’s not the sound quality that’s the most remarkable part. It’s the songs themselves.

After three albums with Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young released his first, self-titled record in late 1968. Though Young had been responsible for scorching rockers like “Mr. Soul,” his debut album sounds almost tentative when compared to his best Buffalo Springfield work. The album begins with the instrumental “Emperor of Wyoming,” a gentle pastoral ramble that recalled the alt-country vibe of his prior group. If Neil Young is the sound of an artist attempting to find his footing, there are plenty of classic, indelible tracks that make it more than a mere curiosity. Young cuts loose on “The Loner,” a nascent portrait of the sound he would soon achieve with Crazy Horse. “I’ve Been Waiting for You” is a compelling plea that would later be covered by David Bowie while “The Old Laughing Lady” and “Here We Are in the Years” are sonic templates for songs that would see better incarnations when resurrected live many years later.

Unfortunately, Neil Young smacks of an artist trying too hard to do too much. Many of the songs repeat a similar theme of longing for a missing lover and final track “The Last Trip to Tulsa” overstays its nearly 10 minute run time as Young goes into folksinger mode with an acoustic guitar. Still, there are many promising moments on the record that make it a worthwhile, but not essential, listen.

Released just a handful of months later in 1969, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere is Young’s first masterpiece. Perhaps all it took was a crack back-up band, but EKTIN introduced the world to Crazy Horse in all its ragged glory. Young and his guitar go completely unhinged on classic song after classic song while Danny Whitten, Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot, musicians Young plucked from struggling band the Rockets, helped him explode the confines of the record. While the album does have a share of rambling country-tinged tunes, the hallowed trio of “Cinnamon Girl,” “Down by the River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand” can gave any other trinity a run for its money as best three songs on an album. It is also the first album to feature Young’s Gibson Les Paul, “Old Black,” which he uses to shred apart solos on the epic “River” and “Cowgirl.”

Young not only jumped light years ahead with his music, sounding more sure-footed than anything on his debut, his lyrics also crystallized into full maturity on this record. While the first record featured somewhat angsty poetics to missing lovers, Young’s signature cryptic words such as “Hello ruby in the dust/ Has your band begun to rust” and the ominous undertone of “This much madness is too much sorrow/ It’s impossible to make it today” present an artist in full control of his talent. Influential and still powerful today, EKTIN is something that should be in your collection if it isn’t already.

Though Young worked with Crosby, Still and Nash to put out Déjà vu in early 1970, it didn’t stop him from releasing his second masterpiece, After the Gold Rush, in September of that same year. Young’s work with CSN allowed him to look back at his folkie roots and produced “Helpless,” one of the musician’s most gentle and beautiful songs. When it was time for Young to begin work on his own album, Whitten’s drug addiction had spiraled to the point where he could only play on a handful of tracks on the record. Instead, Young brought in 17-year-old Nils Lofgren (who would later become part of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band) to replace Whitten. Working with longtime collaborator Jack Nitzsche, Young produced an album that combined powerful rockers (“Southern Man”) with gentle ballads (title track). While the record is best remembered for those two songs, the bulk of the other tracks- country-esque love songs – are understated gems as well. “When You Dance, I Can Really Love” is a barnstormer featuring beefy guitars and precise harmonies while “I Believe You” is a haunting ballad that asks, “Now that you made yourself love me/ Do you think I can change it in a day?” It is a touching reverie that would point to the next muse Young would follow.

It would take 18 months to release his next album Harvest. Sidetracked by debilitating back pain, Young used the extra time to hone his song craft and emerged with what would be his most popular album. Of course, most popular doesn’t mean best. Though Harvest features the timeless “Heart of Gold,” not all of its songs are equally as fine.

Backed by new band the Stray Gators, some of the tracks sound redundant (“Are You Ready for the Country?”) and others completely overblown by the use of the London Symphony Orchestra (“There’s a World”). Songs that could have been haunting, such as “A Man Needs a Maid” sound laughably overproduced. Once again most of the songs here feature Young yearning for love and despite its reputation, Harvest is a very melancholy album. However, the tracks that do work, kick some major ass. “Harvest,” “Old Man” and “The Needle and the Damage Done” rank among the singer’s best. Perhaps Harvest’s best moment comes at the end with the thundering “Words (Between the Lines of Age).” Often overlooked, “Words” returns to “Cowgirl in the Sand” and “Down by the River” territory where Young lets loose a blast of electric guitar over rumbling, propulsive four chord structure. I only wish it went on longer.

by David Harris