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Rating: The second release of the legendary Neil Young Archives is finally available!
After several years spent waiting in vain with Neil's continuous but never kept promises, now finally by the end of the year, the first box set will also be available along with this release and the 'Live At Massey Hall' released a few months ago! Two small premises to be clear: the album I'm about to review is an acoustic live from '71 recorded entirely by Young alone with his trusty acoustic, so no one should expect something like 'Live Rust' or 'Weld'; lastly, the album was supposed to be released according to Young's own statements between 'After The Gold Rush' and the yet unreleased at the time 'Harvest'.
And now, as a great contemporary writer says, the commercial break is over. Now hold onto my arm. Hold tight. We'll visit exciting places, but I think I know the way. You just make sure not to let go of my arm.
The album begins with a burst of applause and some trial notes from Neil in the background. We are immediately transported to the venue where a very long-haired Young with pronounced sideburns gives us a quick glance and after a few seconds starts with "On The Way Home" from the third and final Buffalo Springfield album. The song is not one of his most well-known at the time, but the applause at the end demonstrates the appreciation. I won't go on describing every single song because in albums like this everyone has a different sensitivity towards one song or another.. be it for the memories tied to one or for a certain text, but that's how it is.
Suffice it to say that following a much-applauded "Tell Me Why" come "Old Man" (which would soon become a classic with its release on Harvest), "Journey Through The Past", and the wonderful "Helpless" which brings back the images of Woodstock where Crosby Stills Nash & Young performed even with this song and whose popularity for a moment rivaled that of the Beatles. It's time for "Love In Mind" and an "A Man Needs A Maid" which in my opinion surpasses the one later recorded for Harvest due to the lack of heavy orchestral arrangement... halfway through the song "Heart Of Gold" sneaks in like a perfect fit and you almost don't notice anything.
The subsequent "Cowgirl In the Sand" stripped of its electricity and nonetheless wonderful, then come "Don't Let It Bring You Down", "There's A World", "Bad Fog of Loneliness" (still unreleased on studio album), "The Needle And The Damage Done "and the historic "Ohio" which provokes a real standing ovation!
To conclude, a thrilling version of "See The Sky About To Rain", "Down By The River", the other unreleased "Dance Dance Dance" and "I Am A Child". Under endless applause, the album concludes.
In short, in conclusion, an indispensable album that if it had been released in its time, today we would surely find it alongside Harvest and After The Gold Rush among our classics. An album for those who appreciate Young's acoustic side but also for all those who want to relax in this chaotic world with some true auteur music. As for the lack of electricity in this album, I recommend you head towards the albums I’ve already mentioned before because this is another story, and I hope you’ll allow me to tell it to you another time.
I don't know about you, but for me every time I get to the end it feels like waking up. It's sad to let go of the dream. Thank you for accompanying me. I enjoyed it and hope you come back because as someone said in an old book, there’s always some new story to tell or listen to.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Out on the Weekend (04:35)
Think I'll pack it in and buy a pick-up
Take it down to L.A.
Find a place to call my own and try to fix up.
Start a brand new day.
The woman I'm thinking of, she loved me all up
But I'm so down today
She's so fine, she's in my mind.
I hear her callin'.
See the lonely boy, out on the weekend
Trying to make it pay.
Can't relate to joy, he tries to speak and
Can't begin to say.
She got pictures on the wall, they make me look up
From her big brass bed.
Now I'm running down the road trying to stay up
Somewhere in her head.
The woman I'm thinking of, she loved me all up
But I'm so down today
She's so fine she's in my mind.
I hear her callin'.
See the lonely boy, out on the weekend
Trying to make it pay.
Can't relate to joy, he tries to speak and
Can't begin to say.
02 Harvest (03:11)
Did I see you down in a young girl's town With your mother in so much pain?
I was almost there at the top of the stairs With her screamin' in the rain.
Did she wake you up to tell you that It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup With the promise of a man.
Did I see you walking with the boys Though it was not hand in hand?
And was some black face in a lonely place When you could understand?
Did she wake you up to tell you that It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup With the promise of a man.
Will I see you give more than I can take?
Will I only harvest some?
As the days fly past will we lose our grasp
Or fuse it in the sun?
Did she wake you up to tell you that It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup With the promise of a man.
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup With the promise of a man.
04 Heart of Gold (03:07)
I want to live
I want to give
I've been a miner for a heart of gold
It's these expressions I never give
That keep me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
Keeps me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
I've been to Hollywood,
I've been to Redwood
I've crossed the ocean for a heart of gold
I've been in my mind
It's such a fine line
That keeps me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
Keeps me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
Keep me searching for a heart of gold
Keep me searching and I'm growing old
Keep me searching for a heart of gold
I've been a miner for a heart of gold.
05 Are You Ready for the Country? (03:23)
Slipping and sliding
and playing domino
Lefting and then Righting,
it's not a crime you know.
You gotta tell your story boy,
before it's time to go.
Are you ready for the country
because it's time to go?
Are you ready for the country
because it's time to go?
I was talkin' to the preacher,
said God was on my side
Then I ran into the hangman,
he said it's time to die
You gotta tell your story boy,
you know the reason why.
Are you ready for the country
because it's time to go?
Are you ready for the country
because it's time to go?
06 Old Man (03:24)
Old man look at my life,
I'm a lot like you were.
Old man look at my life,
I'm a lot like you were.
Old man look at my life,
Twenty four and there's so much more
Live alone in a paradise
That makes me think of two.
Love lost, such a cost,
Give me things that don't get lost.
Like a coin that won't get tossed
Rolling home to you.
Old man take a look at my life I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes and you can tell that's true.
Lullabies, look in your eyes,
Run around the same old town.
Doesn't mean that much to me
To mean that much to you.
I've been first and last
Look at how the time goes past.
But I'm all alone at last.
Rolling home to you.
Old man take a look at my life I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes and you can tell that's true.
Old man look at my life,
I'm a lot like you were.
Old man look at my life,
I'm a lot like you were.
08 Alabama (04:02)
Oh Alabama
The devil fools with the best laid plan.
Swing low Alabama
You got spare change
You got to feel strange
And now the moment is all that it meant.
Alabama, you got the weight on your shoulders
That's breaking your back.
Your Cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch
And a wheel on the track
Oh Alabama
Banjos playing through the broken glass
Windows down in Alabama.
See the old folks tied in white ropes
Hear the banjo.
Don't it take you down home?
Alabama, you got the weight on your shoulders
That's breaking your back.
Your Cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch
And a wheel on the track
Oh Alabama.
Can I see you and shake your hand.
Make friends down in Alabama.
I'm from a new land
I come to you and see all this ruin
What are you doing Alabama?
You got the rest of the union to help you along
What's going wrong?
09 The Needle and the Damage Done (02:03)
I caught you knockin' at my cellar door
I love you, baby, can I have some more
Ooh, ooh, the damage done.
I hit the city and I lost my band
I watched the needle take another man
Gone, gone, the damage done.
I sing the song because I love the man
I know that some of you don't understand
Milk-blood to keep from running out.
I've seen the needle and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie's like a settin' sun.
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Other reviews
By R2061478
He molests it. He squeezes it, forcing it to purge every residue of its soul.
Restless but not confused, of someone who doesn’t know where he will end up but knows which direction to go.
By the clash
There is something magical and dreamy in the atmospheres of Out On The Weekend, Harvest, Heart Of Gold.
Perhaps for that tone of voice so fragile and close to breaking of the great Neil.
By joe strummer
"Harvest is a constant yearning for perfection, a search for ecstasy, which is often captured with depth by Mr. Young's magical singing."
"Heart of Gold is simply beautiful, a tableau of the sun setting behind the hill, while a gentle wind tousles our hair."
By amoBORGES
"Harvest IS the music, just as much as other celestial tales of its kind."
"Each note corresponds to a color, an irrecoverable memory, a heartbeat of a faraway submerged world and countless traversed miles."
