Neil Young

Neil is certainly an acquired taste, and while I don't have all of his records, the ones I do have, I love.

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Neil Young (1969)

The Emperor Of Wyoming
The Loner
If I Could Have Her Tonight
I've Been Waiting For You
The Old Laughing Lady
String Quartet From Whiskey Boot Hill*
Here We Are In The Years
What Did You Do To My Life?
I've Loved Her So Long
The Last Trip To Tulsa
Written by: Neil Young, except *by Jack Nitsche
Produced by: Neil Young & David Briggs ("The Old Laughing Lady", "String Quartet From Whiskey Boot Hill" and "I've Loved Her So Long" produced by Jack Nitsche, Ryland Cooder & Neil Young)
Thoughts: Neil Young's debut album was clearly made by a man who had no idea what the hell he wanted to do. For that, the album is all the better. Six of the album's ten tracks run less than three minutes, meaning that Young knew that these songs did not have to go on forever. He knew he had short statements and there was no reason to extend these with useless instrumental guitar riffs and jamming. These tracks are just beautiful, short statements. Neil Young has three epics, "The Loner", "The Old Laughing Lady" and "The Last Trip To Tulsa". "The Loner" is one of my favorite tracks and just screams onto the stereo after the beautiful "The Emperor Of Wyoming". Neil's fuzz box effect on his guitar, which he uses often throughout this LP, gives it a unique sound along with the oddly placed string phrase that comes in after every chorus. "The Old Laughing Lady" is downright strange. The lyrics are rather cryptic but at the same time simple. It's just about an old laughing lady that sees everything...and laughs. All these things happen and she just sits and laughs. Production-wise, it sticks out. The backing vocalists swallow up Neil's lead and control the majority of the song. At other points of the album the vocalists are you to accent Neil, like in "I've Loved Her So Long", but here they take a different role. Finally, there's the album's closing, nine minute and twenty-two second acoustic epic, "The Last Trip To Tulsa". When I first heard it, I dismissed it as a Bob Dylan take off, but it really isn't. Neil's lyrics are filled with oddball surrealistic humor with a slight touch of uncomfortable musings. Here is the second verse:
Well, I used to be a woman, you know/I took you for a ride/I let you fly my airplane/It looked good for your pride./'Cause you're the kind of man you know/Who likes what he says./I wonder what it's like/To be so far over my head./Well, the lady made the wedding/And she brought along the ring./She got down on her knees/And said: "Lets get on with this thing."
Now isn't that freaky or what? The thing to note here is that Neil seems to shift easily from a first-person to a third-person view, which, if you're listening, it's hard to see. The rest of these long verses aren't as tough to get as this one, but that's when you take the verses separately. They are each stories that Neil tries to wind together, but he doesn't really seem to. Getting back to the album as a whole, it's certainly unique! None of these songs made his Greatest Hits, so if you think you know how Neil Young got his solo career started, you have no idea until you buy Neil Young.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere - Neil Young with Crazy Horse (1969)

Cinnamon Girl
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Round & Round (It Won't Be Long)
Down By The River
The Losing End (When You're On)
Running Dry (Requiem For The Rockets)
Cowgirl In The Sand
Written by: Neil Young
Produced by: David Briggs and Neil Young
Thoughts: If you're looking for proof that Neil Young is a great songwriter, look somewhere else. However, if you're looking for proof that Young is a great guitarist and (gasp) singer, look no further. These seven songs are teeming with great guitar interplay between Young and Danny Whitten and great vocals, from a time when Neil was supposedly self-conscious about his singing.Crazy Horse has a strong vocal presence, which might seem surprising, and Robin Lane, featured on "Round & Round," does a wonderful job contrasting Neil's rough style. Bobby Notkoff has a screeching violin spotlight on "Running Dry." Beyond that, all instruments are by Young (guitars), Whitten (guitars), Billy Talbot (bass) and Ralph Molina (drums), giving each song a consistent sound. If I was grading this merely on how well Crazy Horse plays here, it'd be a clear ten, but Young's songs feel a bit lacking in the lyric department. "Down By The River" is nothing more than a jam session and "Cowgirl In The Sand" has nothing but repetitive verses that merely switch words. "Cinnamon Girl" is still a freakin' awesome song and arguably the highlight of the album.