Life (1987)

On the cover I am seen in jail, counting off the years. (Neil Young Archives, July 10, 2019)

This is the last album Neil did for Geffen and for him, it was like the end of a life sentence. He calls leaving Reprise his biggest mistake and he’d rather forget about the whole thing. I think that’s a sentiment shared by a lot of his fans. He also calls “Prisoners of Rock ‘n’ Roll” the best song on this album and I wholeheartedly agree. It’s worth the price of admission alone and sums up his feelings on the relationship with Geffen. It’s also really catchy!

He’s still dabbling in synths on this album, but it’s much closer to a traditional Neil album than most of the Geffen years (if it wasn’t still so aggressively 80s in production and songwriting). On some tracks, it’s almost like he’s intentionally singing worse than his normally controversial ability. Neil’s voice is the dealbreaker for many people. I’ve never been bothered by it until this album. You can hear he’s not putting in any effort and he’s just tired of the situation. The majority of the album is also once again recorded live.

“Mideast Vacation” is an extremely weird meditation on the experiences of some kind of agent in a war zone. It’s told in Neil’s storyteller mode and one of the more successful songs from that perspective, but the production is bogged down by strange sound effects and a laconic rhythm. The next song is an old song of Neil’s originally titled “Letter from ‘Nam,” but now called “Long Walk Home.” It has a beautiful harmony on the chorus as it puts you in the mind of soldiers away from home. Too bad it also suffers from overpowering sound effects. “Around the World” is a less specific song about overall geopolitics with a hard edge…with a bizarrely synthesized refrain and strange interludes. My read on this song is that he’s equating shifting political priorities with fashion changes. It’s not a bad line of thought, but executed too sloppily to strike deep.

After those three political songs, we shift into what’s vaguely meant to be a sequel to “Cortez the Killer.” Unfortunately “Inca Queen” is nowhere near the level of that classic, but it does have beautiful guitar playing and a lovely feeling. Too bad Neil is reaching for some notes he can’t hit and it ends up coming up a bit half baked despite the wonderful instrumental behind him. I’d put that instrumental up against anything in his catalog, though. The next track “Too Lonely” is awful, with a generic drumbeat, grating chorus, and embarrassing lyrics.

I talked about “Prisoners of Rock ‘n’ Roll” above already, but I’ll just reiterate it’s the best song here and worth checking out. It’s definitely on that “We Aren’t Gonna Take It Anymore”/”Fight For Your Right” vibe, almost like a stadium anthem song, railing against record labels trying to change artists and not understanding them. The best line in the chorus is a hilariously meta commentary on Crazy Horse’s reputation “That’s why we don’t wanna be good.” Crazy Horse may be Neil’s favorite backing band and best collaborators, but they’ve always had a reputation as not very good musicians. “3rd best garage band” and all. Here its shown to be a defiant stance, capping Neil’s tenure at Geffen off with a rough and sloppy album.

“Cryin’ Eyes” is kind of a throw-off rock song without much to make it stand out, but “When Your Lonely Heart Breaks” is a surprisingly well constructed ballad. I’m surprised I sort of dig this one, but it’s nicely composed, with an earnest message and good harmonies. “We Never Danced” is just awful and trite, though. Originally written and recorded for a movie, they took the song and re-recorded it with Martha Davis instead. I don’t blame them.

Whew. The Geffen experiment is over. What a strange few years in Neil’s catalog. They are not talked about much when people discuss his music’s best moments. While I admire his desire to try different things and not just remake his hits over and over, it’s hard to take any of this too seriously given the combative relationship with his label. More than one of these albums sound like they had an intended audience of one: David Geffen. And the message was “don’t tell me what to make or you’ll regret it.”

Top 3:

1. Prisoners of Rock ‘n’ Roll
2. Inca Queen
3. When Your Lonely Heart Breaks

Cut song: We Never Danced

A short note about the film Muddy Track. Neil shot this during a European tour in the couple months before Life was released. It attempts to chronicle what life is like on the road for a band. The tour was a disaster. Plagued by technical issues, an actual riot, canceled shows, poor weather, and some ongoing band friction. Neil explodes in one particular after show argument with the band, centered on bassist Billy Talbot’s messing up changes on a new song (days later they are embracing and goofing off). You have to wonder if part of this was stress related to the impending release of Life and the end of his tenure with Geffen.

As an honest document, Muddy Track is excellent (despite it’s overall poor video quality). You get moments where they are discussing Billy’s desire to change the harmonies on “Cortez the Killer,” a song they’ve been doing for almost 15 years at this point. That little interlude is a great peek into band dynamics as they work together.

Interspersed throughout are snippets from the all the interviews he did during the tour. Some of them he’s engaged with, some of them he looks like he’s answering questions he’s answered a thousand times before. Two quirks: he hilariously talks to his camera off and on, which he’s named Otto. And he wears a Lionel Trains t-shirt on stage practically every night.