From: ljason@wam.umd.edu (L. Jason colton)
Subject: Re: Neil Young's New CD
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 20:17:13 GMT

In article <1992Oct1.204335.5721@sequent.com> peteg@sequent.com (Pete Gibson) wr
ites:
>In article <1992Oct1.180530.21686@lester.appstate.edu> VETTERS@vax1.elon.edu (S
teve Vetter  ) writes:
>>Has anyone heard anything about Neil Young's New CD
>>called "Harvest Moon"?  I heard that it was like
>>a 'sequel' to "Harvest."
>
>That's the general consensus.  The rumor is that Neil will be backed by the
>Stray Gators - Buttrey, Keith, Nietzsche, et al. - the same group as in 1972.
>If the music that turns up on `Harvest Moon' is the same as what I saw Neil
>perform solo acoustic this past January, then expect a laid-back, acoustic-
>dominated, country-flavored album.  My initial impression was that the music
>was quite good, but the lyrics were a bit trite and contrived.

Hear, hear.

I love the guy, but I've got to admit, when he played all his new matierial
earlier this year (I saw him at the Beacon in NYC), I got the exact same
impression.  The music was often interesting, but the words......ooh.
Small shudder.

Strangely, it sounded as if many of the new songs are directly inspired by
individual tunes from "Harvest"...I remember one which sounded very much
like "Old Man" in its introduction and chord changes (it fooled the audience,
including myself, for a minute), and a tune called "silver and gold" which
sounded very much like.....yes, "Heart of Gold."  Also, of course, there's
"Harvest Moon"... I'm not saying that these songs are unoriginal ripoffs of
his old material, but they were sort of painfully similar.

Other tunes to look forward to:  a chilling song called "War of Man",
a silly song about his dog Elvis, and one called "Harley Davidson."
Oh yes, then there's a very weak song which he played on the piano.
It sounded to me like a song by Dana Carvey's Derek Stevens character
("Choppin' Broccolay!")...really banal lyrics..."I love you...and you love
me...you are a woman....and I am a man..."something like that.

The crowd at the show was VERY upset that he wasn't playing any of his
old material.  I think the only older songs he played were "Look out for
my love" (an Excellent acoustic rendering), "Long May You Run", and the
encore, "After the Goldrush", on the pipe organ.

At one point, while Neil was beginning yet another new song, which began
with a very soft intro, some very tactful audience member was yelling out
all sorts of rude things...I think yelling at Neil to play some old songs.
He kept playing, for a little bit, though the entire hall was paying more
attention to this drunk, yelling asshole (pardon).

Neil couldn't take it any more.  After one verse, when the guy was still
yelling, he stopped the song and yelled, "SHUT UP, ASSHOLE."  Needless
to say, everyone applauded.  Neil then went into a pretty lengthy speech
about the fact that when he gets these kind of reactions from people, it's
as if they don't want him to go on, and actually evolve musically; they
just want to hear the same "Big Hits" over and over again.  (I don't remember
the speech in detail)  He then said he was just gonna start the song
over again.  And he did.

I also caught him doing full band arrangements of these tunes on Farm Aid
(V?) in the spring.  Maybe he had the Gators there.  I dunno.  There was
quite a lot of slide guitar....banjo...a very "country-ish" feel.  That's
what I'd expect from "Harvest Moon".  So...Ragged Glory it will hardly be.
The only problem is...it may likely pale to "Harvest" also...
As Pete said...

>We'll all know more later this month.
>-- Pete
>   peteg@sequent.com

That's about the size of it.

        Heading out in all directions on the freeway of your choice...

ljason@wam.umd.edu.         I wanna live....I wanna give......           O-|--<

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