Before And After (2023)

When Before And After was announced and I saw the track list, I was really happy to see we would be getting a live album of the Coastal Tour that I attended this past summer. It was a special night for me. However, the more that was said about Before And After, the more I was confused. Neil’s own description leaves out the live origin: “Songs from my life, recently recorded, create a music montage with no beginnings or endings.” This veiled wording led to a lot of theorizing. Were these studio recordings or takes from soundcheck? Was it a Taylor Swift situation (not really a theory, just an amusing thought)?

When the preview clips came out, it became obvious it was closer to Rust Never Sleeps, live recordings with the audience stripped out. The good people at Sugar Mountain have even identified which show each song comes from by comparing with audience recordings. There are several places you can hear the crowd bleed through his harmonica mic (usually when he sings the first line of a more well-known song and the crowd realizes what it is). Yet, when asked directly, such as in this interview with KCSN, he just says they were recorded “all over.” Very odd.

Provenance aside, it’s a curious but typically Neil move to do something unexpected (and confounding) like this. Apparently he conceived this idea in tandem with producer Lou Adler. The structure with no gaps between songs was so that there was no release from the message until they were done with you. When examining the tour set lists, there is a heavy thematic element. He clearly put these songs together based on lyrical content. Love is most prominent, but memory, dreams, and mortality are close behind. As Neil approaches his elder years, it’s no wonder these topics are on his mind.

“I’m the Ocean” remains a powerful opener and I’m glad it made the cut here. Neil’s 12 string works wonders on this multitrack recording, with his strumming sounding like waves coming from all around you. A fitting sound, as Neil attempts to simultaneously lay out his life and his music’s relationship to us, the listeners. I’ll forever remember him launching into this and being slightly awed by his audacity. It’s a long song, with no repeated lines and no chorus until the very last stanza. Relentless, poignant, and honest, it shares a theme with the following “Homefires”: “I'm not the same man / I was a while ago / I've learned some new things / I hope that it shows.” 20 years separates these two songs, but they show the same level of self-reflection.

I haven’t talked too much about Buffalo Springfield, but I do really love “Burned.” It’s one of Neil’s catchiest tunes and the acoustic rendition shows a man still grappling with the same highs and lows that fame demands. “On The Way Home” is another Springfield song and my favorite part of this performance is the amazing harmonica sound he gets. It’s huge and sustained, perfectly making a bridge to his pump organ rendition of Trans outtake “If You Got Love.” This is so good. Not only is it a lovely song, but he’s showing a mastery of the pump organ here that is clearly coming out of the “pump funk” of World Record.

The transition between pump and tinkling piano (“A Dream That Can Last”) is one of the more gorgeous blends on this “whole piece” experiment. Those transitions don’t always work, but this one is lovely. Neil’s soliloquy was always sad but in the context of the album and his advancing age, it takes on a new meaning as he imagines what comes next. Likewise, on “Birds,”, a break-up song suddenly becomes a message from beyond the grave to a loved one left behind. This dream of love and mortality then continues with another Sleeps With Angels song, the gorgeous “My Heart,” before wrapping it up on a pure ode to love, “When I Hold You in my Arms” from Are You Passionate? The latter is completely transformed here with Neil trading off between piano and guitar (impressive to see in person). I did not love this song in its original form, but he has infused it with a newfound relevance here that really works.

I like “Mother Earth,” but I miss the Crazy Horse harmonies on it that make it sound massive. That said, it kicks off the final section in a grand way. I’d say this is the message section, where Neil implores his listeners to not take things for granted. Here it’s Earth herself, but on “Mr. Soul,” it’s your own mortality to watch out for. Neil penned the latter after suffering frequent epileptic attacks on stage (“Stick around while the clown who is sick does the trick of disaster”). These last two are back on the pump organ, but “Comes a Time” is on guitar and “Don’t Forget Love” is on piano. That parting duo bring the theme back to love, but this time it’s more of an admonition than an ode. I love hearing his voice fry on the “Comes a Time” chorus. He usually doesn’t give this song that kind of edge, but it really works here. “Don’t Forget Love” is the most hummable song from Barn and an apt finale. I’m somewhat surprised he didn’t end Before And After with “Love Earth,” but that would have clearly revealed the live nature of these recordings.

In the end, Before And After is a fantastic recontextualization of underappreciated songs from the entirety of Neil’s career and I’m happy to have it. Would I rather have a full live album (and film) of the Coastal tour? As the meme says, Why Not Both?

Top 3:

1. I’m The Ocean
2. If You Got Love
3. My Heart

Cut song: I would have rather heard something on Old Black from the Coastal tour (“Song X” perhaps) than another version of “Mother Earth,” but a strong electric guitar would have felt out of place in this “whole piece.” He gets away with it on “When I Hold You In My Arms” because it’s a more subdued blues solo, but full Old Black would be somewhat abrasive.

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