Tonight's the Gold Rush on Zuma beach
Geinspireerd door de keuze van popjournalist Swie Tio (klik voor interview) in de nieuwe Oor toen hij zijn keuze voor 'beste album aller tijden' bekend moest maken, Tonight's the Gold Rush on Zuma beach, besloot ik ook een poging te wagen om deze 4 klassiekers op 1 cd te krijgen.
Ik weet dat je niks mag weglaten en dat alle albums song voor song geëxtraheerd dienen te worden, maar de uitdaging blijft...
Sowieso lijkt het me onomstreden dat de winning streak, die Neil Percival Kenneth Ragland Young vanaf zijn titelloze debuut via Everybody know this is Nowhere, Afther the Gold Rush, Harvest, On the Beach, Tonight's the Night en Zuma opbouwde, een van de meest indrukwekkende sprongen in de muziekshiznit aller tijden is. Persoonlijk zou ik geen 4 kunnen kiezen uit deze rij, maar de 4 van Swie Tio is geen verkeerde keus (kan dus ook niet) :
After the Gold Rush (1970)
After the Gold Rush was recorded with the aid of Nils Lofgren, a 17-year-old unknown whose piano was a major instrument, turning one of the few real rockers, "Southern Man" (which had unsparing protest lyrics typical of Phil Ochs), into a more stately effort than anything on the previous album and giving a classic tone to the title track, a mystical ballad that featured some of Young's most imaginative lyrics and became one of his most memorable songs. But much of After the Gold Rush consisted of country-folk love songs, which consolidated the audience Young had earned through his tours and recordings with CSNY; its dark yet hopeful tone matched the tenor of the times in 1970, making it one of the definitive singer/songwriter albums, and it has remained among Young's major achievements.
On The Beach (1974)
Following the 1973 Time Fades Away tour, Neil Young wrote and recorded an Irish wake of a record called Tonight's the Night and went on the road drunkenly playing its songs to uncomprehending listeners and hostile reviewers. Reprise rejected the record, and Young went right back and made On the Beach, which shares some of the ragged style of its two predecessors. But where Time was embattled and Tonight mournful, On the Beach was savage and, ultimately, triumphant. "I'm a vampire, babe," Young sang, and he proceeded to take bites out of various subjects: threatening the lives of the stars who lived in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon ("Revolution Blues"); answering back to Lynyrd Skynyrd, whose "Sweet Home Alabama" had taken him to task for his criticisms of the South in "Southern Man" and "Alabama" ("Walk On"); and rejecting the critics ("Ambulance Blues"). But the barbs were mixed with humor and even affection, as Young seemed to be emerging from the grief and self-abuse that had plagued him for two years. But the album was so spare and under-produced, its lyrics so harrowing, that it was easy to miss Young's conclusion: he was saying goodbye to despair, not being overwhelmed by it.
Tonight's the Night (1975)
"According to Young's late-great producer, David Briggs, this is the "water-downed" version of what really happened. At the time, Briggs said Neil kind of wussed out on the full length version & preened things down. So somewhere out there lies the whole story. Collecting dust. That being said, welcome to Neil Young's darkest hour. Coming off the heels of "Harvest" this one kinda freaked those San Francisco Hippies out. On the subsequent tour they were expecting "Heart Of Gold". What they got was a jabbering, Tequila swilling mad man in a "Tinkerbell" T-shirt. Inbetween songs he'd scream stuff like, "Bruce, you stole his guitar & put it in your arm!". For Young the 60's were over. As if tunes like "Roll Another Number" don't go to show. Pot had given way to smack. Suffice it to say, the record was panned. But Young maintains it's his best album. I agree. Nearly 30 years later, not one sloppy note sounds dated or premeditated."
Zuma (1975)
Having apparently exorcised his demons by releasing the cathartic Tonight's the Night, Neil Young returned to his commercial strengths with Zuma (named after Zuma Beach in Los Angeles, where he now owned a house). Seven of the album's nine songs were recorded with the reunited Crazy Horse, in which rhythm guitarist Frank Sampedro had replaced the late Danny Whitten, but there were also nods to other popular Young styles in "Pardon My Heart," an acoustic song that would have fit on Harvest, his most popular album, and "Through My Sails," retrieved from one of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's abortive recording sessions. Young had abandoned the ragged, first-take approach of his previous three albums, but Crazy Horse would never be a polished act, and the music had a lively sound well-suited to the songs, which were some of the most melodic, pop-oriented tunes Young had crafted in years, though they were played with an electric-guitar-drenched rock intensity. The overall theme concerned romantic conflict, with lyrics that lamented lost love and sometimes longed for a return ("Pardon My Heart" even found Young singing, "I don't believe this song"), though the overall conclusion, notably in such catchy songs as "Don't Cry No Tears" and "Lookin' for a Love," was to move on to the next relationship. But the album's standout track (apparently the only holdover from an early intention to present songs with historical subjects) was the seven-and-a-half-minute epic "Cortez the Killer," a commentary on the Spanish conqueror of Latin America that served as a platform for Young's most extensive guitar soloing since his work on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.
Ga toch maar es proberen dit in een Tonight's the Gold Rush on Zuma Beach-cd van 80+ minuten proberen te gieten!
And this scares the %$#&# out of me :
Ik weet dat je niks mag weglaten en dat alle albums song voor song geëxtraheerd dienen te worden, maar de uitdaging blijft...
Sowieso lijkt het me onomstreden dat de winning streak, die Neil Percival Kenneth Ragland Young vanaf zijn titelloze debuut via Everybody know this is Nowhere, Afther the Gold Rush, Harvest, On the Beach, Tonight's the Night en Zuma opbouwde, een van de meest indrukwekkende sprongen in de muziekshiznit aller tijden is. Persoonlijk zou ik geen 4 kunnen kiezen uit deze rij, maar de 4 van Swie Tio is geen verkeerde keus (kan dus ook niet) :
After the Gold Rush (1970)
After the Gold Rush was recorded with the aid of Nils Lofgren, a 17-year-old unknown whose piano was a major instrument, turning one of the few real rockers, "Southern Man" (which had unsparing protest lyrics typical of Phil Ochs), into a more stately effort than anything on the previous album and giving a classic tone to the title track, a mystical ballad that featured some of Young's most imaginative lyrics and became one of his most memorable songs. But much of After the Gold Rush consisted of country-folk love songs, which consolidated the audience Young had earned through his tours and recordings with CSNY; its dark yet hopeful tone matched the tenor of the times in 1970, making it one of the definitive singer/songwriter albums, and it has remained among Young's major achievements.
On The Beach (1974)
Following the 1973 Time Fades Away tour, Neil Young wrote and recorded an Irish wake of a record called Tonight's the Night and went on the road drunkenly playing its songs to uncomprehending listeners and hostile reviewers. Reprise rejected the record, and Young went right back and made On the Beach, which shares some of the ragged style of its two predecessors. But where Time was embattled and Tonight mournful, On the Beach was savage and, ultimately, triumphant. "I'm a vampire, babe," Young sang, and he proceeded to take bites out of various subjects: threatening the lives of the stars who lived in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon ("Revolution Blues"); answering back to Lynyrd Skynyrd, whose "Sweet Home Alabama" had taken him to task for his criticisms of the South in "Southern Man" and "Alabama" ("Walk On"); and rejecting the critics ("Ambulance Blues"). But the barbs were mixed with humor and even affection, as Young seemed to be emerging from the grief and self-abuse that had plagued him for two years. But the album was so spare and under-produced, its lyrics so harrowing, that it was easy to miss Young's conclusion: he was saying goodbye to despair, not being overwhelmed by it.
Tonight's the Night (1975)
"According to Young's late-great producer, David Briggs, this is the "water-downed" version of what really happened. At the time, Briggs said Neil kind of wussed out on the full length version & preened things down. So somewhere out there lies the whole story. Collecting dust. That being said, welcome to Neil Young's darkest hour. Coming off the heels of "Harvest" this one kinda freaked those San Francisco Hippies out. On the subsequent tour they were expecting "Heart Of Gold". What they got was a jabbering, Tequila swilling mad man in a "Tinkerbell" T-shirt. Inbetween songs he'd scream stuff like, "Bruce, you stole his guitar & put it in your arm!". For Young the 60's were over. As if tunes like "Roll Another Number" don't go to show. Pot had given way to smack. Suffice it to say, the record was panned. But Young maintains it's his best album. I agree. Nearly 30 years later, not one sloppy note sounds dated or premeditated."
Zuma (1975)
Having apparently exorcised his demons by releasing the cathartic Tonight's the Night, Neil Young returned to his commercial strengths with Zuma (named after Zuma Beach in Los Angeles, where he now owned a house). Seven of the album's nine songs were recorded with the reunited Crazy Horse, in which rhythm guitarist Frank Sampedro had replaced the late Danny Whitten, but there were also nods to other popular Young styles in "Pardon My Heart," an acoustic song that would have fit on Harvest, his most popular album, and "Through My Sails," retrieved from one of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's abortive recording sessions. Young had abandoned the ragged, first-take approach of his previous three albums, but Crazy Horse would never be a polished act, and the music had a lively sound well-suited to the songs, which were some of the most melodic, pop-oriented tunes Young had crafted in years, though they were played with an electric-guitar-drenched rock intensity. The overall theme concerned romantic conflict, with lyrics that lamented lost love and sometimes longed for a return ("Pardon My Heart" even found Young singing, "I don't believe this song"), though the overall conclusion, notably in such catchy songs as "Don't Cry No Tears" and "Lookin' for a Love," was to move on to the next relationship. But the album's standout track (apparently the only holdover from an early intention to present songs with historical subjects) was the seven-and-a-half-minute epic "Cortez the Killer," a commentary on the Spanish conqueror of Latin America that served as a platform for Young's most extensive guitar soloing since his work on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.
Ga toch maar es proberen dit in een Tonight's the Gold Rush on Zuma Beach-cd van 80+ minuten proberen te gieten!
And this scares the %$#&# out of me :
“Well, I dreamed I saw the silver space ships flying in the yellow haze of the sun,There were children crying and colors flying all around the chosen ones.All in a dream, all in a dream the loading had begun, flying mother nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun."
(PS. Sorry voor de lange post, maar kon hier niet kort over zijn!)
posted by Bruno Banani at 1:41 a.m.
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