Song: Bandit
Album: Greendale
Released: August, 2003
In the fall of 2003, I got my first (and to date only) taste of a
disgruntled Neil Young crowd. I’d heard
of other Young tours that threw off the fan base. The ‘Time Fades Away’ tour in 1973 had the
crowd expecting a mellow ‘Harvest’ sound.
Instead they heard what was interpreted at the time as borderline chaos
(but has since been seen in a better light).
For the ‘Trans’ tour of Europe in 1982, guitar was frequently replaced
by vocoder, a bizarre about-face by Young, drawing many jeers. Later there would be Young’s war-protesting ‘Freedom
of Speech’ tour in 2006 with Crosby, Stills and Nash…. and another miffed crowd
(including Brother Joe, who actually enjoyed the show). To a lesser degree, there were the Shocking
Pink (1983) and Blue Notes (which I caught in ‘89) tours, the first heavy on
the doo-wop, the second heavy on the brass.
I’m sure I’m missing a few more.
And so, in 2003 it was my turn to get a dose of Neil Young’s unpredictability
in the form of ‘Greendale’, a concept album brought to life on stage. I actually enjoyed both album and tour. At
the Boston show, however, I was surrounded by a crowd who spent most of the evening
scratching their heads (including at least one in my own party), many uninterested,
some sounding pissed off that they wasted their time and money. Part of me couldn’t blame them. Although Neil Young was performing with his
magical band, Crazy Horse, this time they were joined on stage by thespians who
were acting out the songs, and a set….farm houses, a jail cell, a cop car; all
well and good for a play but not so much for a rock concert. Another part of me, though, was disappointed
in the crowd. With Neil Young they
should have known better. They should
have expected the unexpected.
I had experienced something like this 10 years earlier, watching Pete
Townshend perform his then new album ‘Psychoderelict’ with a band, actors and
stage props. A few years earlier it was Lou
Reed’s performance of his new album ‘New York’.
At these shows, the crowds were yelling for Won’t Get Fooled Again and Sweet
Jane respectively. It was not going
to happen. The musicians were intent on
playing their new songs, disregarding demand for the old and reliable. I was
prepared, having listened heavily to these new songs before the tours. I loved
it all; the albums and the tours (though I do have to admit, I've occasionally been in the dark myself. One memory was the CSN 'Daylight Again' tour, Jeff Brady enjoying the show immensely - which was laced with the news songs - while myself and others were busy crying out for the "Y" part of the band).
‘Greendale’ was Neil Young’s first overt attempt at telling a multi-song
story. It was 2 years after 911. As Rolling Stone Magazine stated in its
review of the album, “there’s paranoia on Main Street”. There’s plenty else too, including
stream-of-consciousness and insights into how Neil Young writes music and what
he thinks about on stage. There are
plenty of complex characters in the story to wrap your mind around as well. There’s
a well-respected hippie grandfather (and grandmother), a troubled nephew, a
struggling son, an unfortunate cop (and cat), the mysterious Lenore, and a hip,
eco-friendly granddaughter carrying her grandparents hippie ideals to a new generation. Oh and
there’s the devil weaving his effect on the goings on in the small town.
To enjoy this show and album, I found it helped to connect with the
little nuances of Young’s persona in his music, singing, and lyrics; stuff only
he could dream up. How Grandpa takes his
wife’s words of wisdom and makes them his own in the opener, Falling From Above; the local furor over
Earl and Edith (son and daughter-in-law of Grandpa and Grandma) renaming the
“Double L” ranch to the “Double E” when they bought it; the references to John
Lennon and Bob Dylan; the reaction of a grieving widow upon taking in the news
of her husbands death (killed-in-the-line-of-duty) in the song Carmichael (“you asshole”) and
reflecting on nice memories, including his spontaneous abuse of Wayne Newton
during a chance encounter on Pebble Beach while they were on vacation years
earlier; Grandpa moaning about the singing he - and only he - hears (is it Neil
Young himself?) while dying of a heart attack after confronting a media horde
(“can’t somebody shut him up!”); and on and on.
Neil’s persona comes out in all sorts of ways in this week’s ‘Forever
Young’ song, Bandit. It’s a familiar theme for Neil Young about a
guy down on his luck. In this case, it’s
the owner of the “Double E” ranch, Earl. He’s lost another bet and doesn’t know where
he’s going to get the money to pay up.
He can’t turn to his brother or his friends; those bridges have been
burned. He’s not been able to sell his
paintings. He’s also got too many
secrets, and is in jeopardy of becoming invisible (a reference to Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone). Pretty heady stuff, and played brilliantly by
Neil Young in this Madison Square Garden performance: ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-9nlETnSUI
).
In general, I find that rock critics have always struggled with concept
album. To many of them the abstraction goes against the grain. Rock is supposed to be spontaneous and edgy,
not grandiose. There’s too much thought put
into a storyline lasting longer than 3 minutes.
I can see that reasoning. I mean,
could you ever imagine the Ramones doing a concept album? But to me the criticism makes it all the more
alluring when a musician takes that plunge that risk, and invests a good chunk
of time into explaining a deep storyline in song. ‘Quadrophenia’, ‘Tommy’, ‘The Wall’,
‘Schoolboys in Disgrace’, ‘American Idiot’:
They are all impressive to me. All
these albums catch the musicians who wrote and performed them at the height of
their careers.
Equally impressive to me though are a handful of latter-day, post peak,
concept albums, ‘New York’, ‘Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking’,‘Psychoderelict’ and
of course ‘Greendale’. I believe these
albums are even riskier than the aforementioned ones, because the musicians are
older and wiser to the critical reaction:
Been burned once, and it can be hard to go back. It’s this very age and wisdom however, that
makes these albums special. ‘Greendale’
comes at you from many angles. It can
sound naïve during one listen, and multi-layered during another. It can have me embarrassed for Neil Young at
one moment, and reassured of his amazing talents the next. ‘Greendale’ is packed with a lifetime of
failures and successes. I’m not sure Mr.
Young could have conceived of this album in his 20s or 30s.
A big reason for Neil Young’s success - his niche really - is
made more apparent than ever with ‘Greendale’.
At his core, Young is a risk-taking hippie, someone who doesn’t care
what the establishment thinks of him. You can say this about a very few handful of
people from his era (another that comes to mind is Patti Smith). When I listen to ‘Greendale’, I’m reminded of
John Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance bed-ins
and nude album cover with Yoko (‘Two Virgins’).
Lennon was a guy not in the least afraid to wear his emotions and
beliefs on his sleeve. I wonder sometimes
what would have happened if he were never killed?
Hmmm…. Maybe the answer has played out after all: Perhaps Neil
Young has done it for him.
-
Pete
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