Album: Rust Never Sleeps (Neil Young and Crazy Horse)
Released: July 1979
Blindsided; a term typically used in negative light. This is not my intention here, but blindsided
is the only word I can think of to use to start this series. It’s the best term to describe how I felt
the first time I saw Neil Yong live with Crazy Horse in the mid 80’s. And so, blindsided it must be.
When we are very young (and innocent), we tend to get blindsided on an almost
a daily basis: The moon, the sky, the
sun, waterfalls, insects, snakes, mountains, birthdays, Christmas, fireworks,
family, friends:
“I am a child, I’ll last a while.
You
can’t conceive of the pleasure in my smile”
When Neil Young sings these lyrics in I
am a Child, he bows to the blindsided fascination of youth: The magic and wonderment of routinely being
caught unaware. “What is the color when black is burned?”
As we grow older, these experiences come fewer and farther between. If we are lucky, we are blindsided by love at
some point or by the birth of a son or daughter or grandchild. We may have a religious experience or some
other unexplained phenomena could happen to us.
We may be blindsided in our travels, visiting natural or cultural parts
of the world prior to which we had only read about and imagined. We may be blindsided by wildlife and
wilderness. But in general, the gap
widens between these special moments as we grow older, or better put, the
intensity is not as great as to place them on the same level as what we felt in
our youth. Why? Well, our expectations may be too high, or
our knowledge too keen to be blindsided on a regular basis. Hopefully the fascination is there, but rarely
does it equate to blindsided
fascination.
Yet it was indeed blindsided fascination that hit me in September of 1986
at Great Woods in Mansfield, Massachusetts (which opened for business earlier that
summer). I had just turned 24 years old
not one month earlier, so was well past my most formative years. On the recommendation of good friend, Bob
Bouvier (Bouv), I hesitatingly agreed to unload him of a spare ticket to the
show. Bouv, a friend since senior year
in college, had attended a Neil Young (with Crazy Horse) concert before. He was certain I would love this show and during
the event, he expressed his own fascination often, glancing over to me at
eye-opening moments with a look of crazed intensity on his face (the likes of
which only Bouv could exhibit).
Bouv knew I was captivated right from the opening salvo (Mr. Soul). I don’t know how, but he knew. I’ve been captivated ever since, having seen
Neil Young on stage at least 15 times; more than any other musician in my long
list of concert attendance.
And so begins my yearlong in-depth journey into the music of Neil Young. This should be interesting. I’m not going to explore Neil’s music in the
same fashion I did with the Rolling Stones in 2012. With the Stones, I tackled each
“Stepping Stone” through their studio albums.
With Neil Young, I’m going to have to mix it up some. He’s delved seriously into a handful of media
forms including movies and video and he also hosts a number of great websites
that showcase his interests in all sorts of things, from cars to trains to sound
to farming to charity. Young appears more
willing than most to allow his breadth of work to be easily accessible on the
web, and so his live performances will be dabbled more readily here. And like the Grateful Dead, his music is
heavily bootlegged, so there will be some dipping into that realm as well. In short, there’s a treasure trove of stuff waiting
to be explored. In the process, I hope
it all opens up the memory banks to my own past and allows me to connect with
those potential blindsided life experiences that still lurk inside, waiting to
be tapped.
My first in this ‘Forever Young’ series is a song from that Great Woods show: Powderfinger. I believe this song is an apt choice as my
introduction for a number of reasons.
First off, it’s a highlight from that blindside event and has stuck with
me all these years (along with Cortez the
Killer, which I am sure to be covering later in the series).
Secondly, the song’s meaning mirrors the general theme of this opening
entry, that of youth and innocence, the foundations for wonderment. Powderfinger
is the story of a young man losing that innocence while facing an impossible
task on his own and in the end being literally blindsided (this time the word
being used in a negative light) by a force far more powerful than he. Thirdly, well… there’s really no better way I
can think of to open up this series: Powderfinger is simply a very powerful
song that portrays Neil Young and Crazy Horse in one fell swoop ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woN-rSesgDM
). And every time I hear it or see it
live, I like to sing along with those intense backing vocals from Billy Talbot
and Ralph Molina……. That “ooohhh, ooohhh” ascending/descending refrain they
repeat throughout.
Finally, I’d like to dedicate this series up front to Bob Bouvier,
“Brother Bouv”, who passed away several years ago. Bouv was one of my fellow music aficionados,
particularly in relation to Neil Young and the Who. I hope to capture some of what his friendship
meant to me during this series. He is
missed.
-
Pete
No comments:
Post a Comment