Thursday, August 21, 2003
Artist: Neil Young
Album: Greendale
I think of rock music as the great American art form of the working class. While Indie rock has been infiltrated with the well-to-do and private schooled, rock remains a wide open arena for a working class or "black" kid to get a break. Usually that means they eventually cop-out and lose touch with the inner fire that brought them to the party. This is known as "selling out."
You can count, on two hands, the number of successful rock bands/artists that haven't sold out at least once in their career: among them I would include Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, and Neil Young. While Young's art has frequently suffered hiccups - he has never sold out and has frequently ran away as success loomed on the horizon. Always unpredictable Young challenges his audience to grow and change with him: Crazy Horse; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; The Shocking Pinks, Trans; alone & acoustic, or with Pearl Jam as a back-up band (Mirror Ball) etc... Consternation follows him everywhere.
Knowing that the art in commercial radio is dead, Young has used his own legacy to help promote his new release, Greendale. When his new album hit retail stores on August 19th, he also reissued some older titles, Remastered and at a smokin' low price point; American Stars Bars, On the Beach, Re-Act-Or, and Hawks & Doves. I would rank American Stars & Bars and On the Beach as both "great" albums. While Hawks & Doves and Re-Act-Or are sub-average.
Greendale is Young's "Tommy" opera as there is an accompanying movie forthcoming. Included on the initial releases of Greendale is a full length concert DVD of Young's solo-live performance of his "opera." What's it sound like? Excellent Neil Young & Crazy Horse material including acoustic tracks, full length jams, and rough hewn edge that Crazy Horse albums are supposed to have.
He may be Canadian but he's damn good! (LOL)
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