Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Psychedelic Pill, Oct. 2012

got pretty drunk last night w/some friends at an informal listening party, was a super fun time

track impressions:

driftin' back - i like it! i'm a fan of year of the horse and it reminds me of the way they jammed on that album, very dreamy and floaty feeling....parts of the guitar jams actually remind me of television a bit...the lyrics are ridic, but honestly lyrics are probably what, 5 minutes out of 30 so who cares? again, this is about as hardcore crazy horse fan shit as you can get, seems like something that should be a "legendary" bootleg or something, obv super weird choice for the first track....but i like the endless feeling of it, i feel like i could leave the house for a week, come back and they'd still be jamming until infinity....

psychedelic pill - holy fucking phaser! honestly it's like they literally ran the entire master mix through a fucking cheap DOD pedal....my friend had really nice speakers and it was kind of bizarre in a way that you don't want to listen to a gain...i've made an itunes playlist where i replace this song with the regular alt mix that they tacked on the end and i think it helps the album tremendously...the phaser really robs the guitars of their heaviness and the alt mix is really pummeling...i like it because it's a good uptempo song in the flow, but the mix on the regular one is too distracting

ramada inn - heard this on the concert boots, and it's a great song, some of neil's best lyrics in recent years, one of the better songs he's written plus some really great solos in the jams that recall ragged glory solos

born in ontario - heard the acoustic solo version on the boots, the band version is way better, kind of a fun throwaway that i'll tolerate from neil and pretty much no one else...kinda reminds me of the song "homegrown" in vibe and general goofiness...catchy as hell though

twisted road - man the lyrics to this are really bad, seems like he's pandering to the hippies/deadhead types that go to his shows...i could see this one being a fan favorite w/a certain crowd...i actually really like the chorus's melody and descending chord change....but yeah pretty lightweight....

she's always dancing - i think lots of ppl on lukewarm on this but i love it...lyrics are again throwaway but i like the horse's singing on this and the dark chord changes are a nice takeoff point for jams...really really dig this one

for the love of man - pretty spare arrangement, and feels out of place on the album...it's ok in a hokey 50s kinda way but probably the weakest song overall

walk like a giant - don't know if anything could top those colorado show boot versions of this, but goddamn this comes pretty fucking close. i love this song so much, i think it's a truly great song, best thing he's done in years and years, could be a future neil show staple like hurricane or cortez IMO...love it. giant godzilla/transformers shit at the end is genuinely bizarre and awesome, so many great things about this....

it's like they literally ran the entire master mix through a fucking cheap DOD pedal

On Pono, it sounds like a Behringer pedal. Vast improvement.

lol

one thing i like about this record is that you can totally tell it's all live in one room, you can hear the bass rattling the snare drum

yeah totally. here's the console neil uses -- the Green Board!
http://www.uaudio.com/media/blog/2008/december/heritage_610.jpg
interview w/ his engineer http://www.uaudio.com/blog/john-nowland-ua-interview/

one thing i like about this record is that you can totally tell it's all live in one room, you can hear the bass rattling the snare drum

― seasonal hugs (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, October 31, 2012 12:32 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

maybe because when they tried to edit things together in the first two minutes of "Driftin' Back" it was such a mess that they didn't try it again

you mean the acoustic to electric thing? i guess i thought that was jarring on purpose just crossfading two different performances

either way the snare thing just means the bass cab was pretty close or maybe they don't like to use baffles

You can hear the snares buzzing on Ragged Glory, too. The cover photo is from one of the sessions: live vocals, no baffles/separation.

ah cool, it's just kinda awesome that they record like some local band in a basement

yeah i kinda like records where you can hear the snare buzz. tempted to do a thread about that.

Grand Funk's Red Album is a great one for that.

When I was studying audio engineering, the guy who handled the in-studio portion of the program asked each of us if we had an album that we loved the sound of, and wanted to know how to make records that sound like that - Grand Funk's Red Album was my pick. Everybody in one room, but every instrument perfectly clear.

neil's facebook "about" page, keeping it mature
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mctufkzaLb1qbpzuro1_500.png

lol

Bought this on the way home. Buying new is something I basically stopped doing around the time new vinyl went for $5.99, so a compliment/gesture of faith.

Arc 2012, Part II - http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/34835597518/arc-2012-part-ii-spirit-come-back-to-me

Woo-hoo!

I liked "Driftin' Back" at first, the lyrical zengahs, vocals (lead & harmonies both), suggestions of Television covering "Eight Miles High", groove, all very cute-but eventually seemed static, I nodded off. Woke up for the rest of Disc 1, really liked the way "Ramada Inn" is so intense ann even more when it's like a screen grab of scenes from a marriage in crisis, slowly, inexorably unfolding, but could go off the road at eny second, or not. That's life, that's what all the people say. That was the boombox, but when I tried Windows Media Player, right-clicked on the tiny HDCD in lower right, went to enhancements >graphic equalizer, with tasteful presets (incl Grunge), but started over w Custom, to maximize the shred and chaos theory around the bounce. "She's Always Dancing" is even about this aesthetic, this way of life, and is prob may fave so far, but "Driftin' Back" works much better this way, and wowww, "Walk Like A Giant", guys! By the same toke, I prefer tbe first version of the title song, with its "psychedelic Bromo-Seltzer", as Beefheart called this phasing when his album got dosed. Also like the very relevent "She's out for a good time", and your basic sonic cheap thrillz, beneath the usual nostalgic coating. And overall, despite some fatty deposits, this album seems like a strong seconding (twelthing, XXIVing) of Janis Joplin's reply to a reporter's question about what Today's Troubled Youth are searching for: "Sincerity, and a good time." Woo-hoo indeed!

"twelthing, XXIVing"--but I hear a lot of albums that try to provide this, and most of 'em just reach new heights of mediocrity, at best.

'walk like a giant' is awesome. this album isn't great, generally think the songs really aren't there, but i don't care - fave since broken arrow (and i like broken arrow alot), will always have room in my heart for neil & crazy horse just jamming records. anything w/ this much neil guitar i'm gonna have time for.

I've listened to "Driftin' Back" five or six times now, the rest of the album once through. I think (so far) the rest is okay. Nothing jumped out at me, though, "Walk Like a Giant" included.

"Driftin' Back" is my favourite Neil song in years and years--at least since "Over and Over." I honestly think it's major. (Neil's the kind of artist where you'll hear that said about every single album now; I've put a couple of songs in my Top 10s the past decade, but I don't remember making any special claims for them.) I'm glad there are few words--they're neither here nor there, but there's not enough of them to get in the way of the music. In a way, they're not necessary. I think you'd get everything you need from the chorus and the music alone--anyone who's listened to enough Neil probably has a pretty good idea of the kinds of things his mind drifts back to. And the Maharishi, digital music, and an old ad campaign aren't really great targets of scorn. (Don't know why Neil would lose interest in Picasso--the ads weren't his fault.) Anyway, like I say, the words pop in and leave quickly. The guitar work contains everything I love about "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "Cortez the Killer." It's not heavy at all, like "Walk Like a Giant"--I don't especially like Neil when he tries to sound heavy, something that crept into his work after "Out of the Blue." It doesn't feel overlong to me in the least.

You don't find it just a tad dull, though? I mean, north of minute fifteen or so?

Not at all--I'm with it the whole way. (Times out well for my drive to work.) Excessive length has never been a problem for me when it comes to music or films if I'm immersed in something. It's only a little bit longer than "Dark Star." And don't forget, we're only getting 5% of Neil's music; originally it was supposed to run nine hours.

I would love a nine hour version of it, probably. Suck it, Flaming Lips!

That said, if I went to a Crazy Horse show and a third the set was "Driftin' Back," I'd be bummed. But whomever upthread suggested that if the track had been left unreleased for years it'd be regarded as some lost classic was OTM.

i listen to "driftin' back" in the same way i listen to like eno ambient stuff or mellow techno music...it's so samey but these gradual things emerge then fall back into the fog

That's for sure, for better or for worse (like those lyrics, ugh).

yeah i guess i dunno, doesn't really bother me, i like the chorus a lot....there's what...5 minutes of singing out of 28?

Very much ambient, which is why the specificity of the lyrics is a problem (I don't think they're terrible, just intrusive)--elliptical lyrics like "Cortez" or "Cowgirl" work better in that kind of setting.

But the chorus is beautiful, yes.

more stuff like "hey now now hey now now, blockin' out my anger/finding my religion/i might be a pagan" would be better

Yeah, that's a great punchline of sorts,esp. after he goes from blocking out his thoughts, except the thought of being Jesus in His cave (not His tomb, not yet, Hallelujah), rolling away thoughts like rocks, and then getting his mantra on for 35 bucks, so "excuze my religion." Also like the "hey now" etc going to the bit about Picasso turning to wallpaper, which tends to happen even after burning out and/or fading away (can always buy some more wallpaper of your fave artiste, if the previous fades). He knows it's a near thing of ambient not turning to wallpaper at the wrong moments--"gonna get me a hip-hop haircut", not sneery but to a very Neily tune, good 'un. Those zengahs!

"Driftin Back" I could probably get really into if I had editing software and could just erase all words except the title phrase: weird Neil I love, love, love; cranky grampa Neil increasingly just makes me deeply sad....

Ramada Inn makes this album for me.

"Driftin' Back" is so totally the weakest of the long songs imo

I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart--you broke my heart.

(I've been playing this in its entirety for my grade 6 art classes as they work away. Almost all of them are oblivious, but one guy in my homeroom seemed to be getting right into it yesterday. Someone in this morning's class: "How long is this song?")

really fuckin' long, kid....really long

man i want to be in clemenza's class

Expect memories like this: "That guy was such a bastard...But wow, those Ditch Trilogy sketching classes were the best."

They should bring back the Health Hustle

This record is like musical heaven to me. Ramada Inn, Walk Like A Giant and Drifting Back can all go on forever and I'd be perfectly happy. His best album in 20+ years.

I like this album tons but Le Noise is better imo

Dying at the "I used to dig Picasso" lyric in Driftin' Back.

I've always thought a lot of the "Le Noise" tracks would have sounded great backed by the Horse, like "Sleeps With Angels" level of eerie and rocking.

yeah was hoping at least one of those would make it into rotation this tour.

Dying at the "I used to dig Picasso" lyric in Driftin' Back.

― This Is Not An ILX Username (LaMonte), Sunday, November 11, 2012 2:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i am grateful that i did not read anything about the record before listening, so i could just crack the fuck up barely believing my ears

Ramada Inn makes this album for me.

― Duke, Wednesday, November 7, 2012 6:54 PM (4 days ago)

Still this ^^^. Best song on this album. Great lyrics, great vibe, great guitar playing...

///BRAG ALERT///

waiting to hear this until after I see the tour (got tickets today for the 30th)

so giddy right now

Listened to Broken Arrow on the train home tonight. It stomps all over this record - except for "Walk Like a Giant," which continues to rule.

Don't know if it quite "stomps" all over it, but Broken Arrow certainly never got the praise it deserves.

I guess I should revisit Broken Arrow - I never really connected with that one at the time, and oddly, the only song I remember from it is the acoustic one ("Music Arcade")