Neil Young (1968)
the debut
As I talked about in my “about” post, my memories of Neil Young start with seeing “Rockin’ in the Free World” on MTV and asking my dad about him. He had a huge record collection and proceeded to pull out three or four early albums, a few cassette recordings, and a couple CSNY albums. I was hooked. Despite that I had never heard Neil Young (Dad’s LPs started at Everybody Knows This is Nowhere) before starting this. From reading up on it, it had a fraught release, so maybe it just wasn’t around very much in the shops. The original release used a process called CSG that tried to make stereo albums compatible with mono record players. It sounded awful, apparently. Months later, it was rereleased in a partly remixed version that removed the CSG process. This was also not a great release and many felt the songs were diminished. Here in March 2023, though, the Neil Young Archives digitally released a new version that apparently replicates how the album was suppose to sound. Producer Niko Bolas oversaw a “CSG Reverse Mono” process that presents the album in the original mono mix intended but uses a reversal method to negate the CSG processing. That’s the version of the album I’ll be basing this review on given it’s the closest to what came out of the mixing console.
In 1968, Buffalo Springfield broke up, in no small part at Neil Young’s urging. He was clearly yearning to follow his own muse and felt somewhat confined by the personalities within the band. Despite being lifelong and close friends (they still jam every Wednesday!), on stage Stills and Young dueled for supremacy. They competed for guitar presence and probably more telling, songwriting dominance. It just wasn’t a tenable situation in the long term. It’s also quite telling that two important figures entered Neil’s life at this point: Eliot Roberts, his manager until his death in 2019, and David Briggs, the abrasive and fierce producer behind many of Neil’s greatest moments until his death in 1995. These twin forces were the angel and devil on his Neil’s shoulders (often switching roles), always pushing and supporting Neil in equal measure. I’m not sure if Neil’s career would have quite been the same without Roberts, Briggs, and Young coming together at this particular point in time.
Neil’s self-titled debut is weighted heavily to songs that would have fit right into Buffalo Springfield and consequently doesn’t exactly sound like the Neil that we come to know in the ensuing years. There are two songs, though, that hint at the direction Neil would immediately head towards when he set out on the road for solo tour immediately following recording. “The Old Laughing Lady” and “Last Trip to Tulsa” sound the most like that acoustic folk singer persona that Neil would adopt at this point. Other songs shine through in various ways, but those are the two that seem to drop the trappings of the psychedelic folk rock Buffalo Springfield was known for. Its almost like Neil wanted to head in a more poetic direction at this point, and he first found his voice in these songs. That’s another thing to hear. Through most of Neil Young, Neil’s voice sounds unsure and awkward, as if he was trying to emulate singers he had heard before. But when he let himself come of his shell on the aforementioned songs, there’s a confidence lacking on other songs. That’s why he sounds most like himself to me on those songs. Perhaps he was just getting used to hearing himself without Stills.
Rewinding to the beginning, Neil Young starts out with something I don’t think we ever hear again in Neil’s career: a purely instrumental song. Featuring Buffalo Springfield bandmate Jim Messina and Poco drummer George Grantham, “The Emperor of Wyoming” is a loping bit of country funk. The bass and drum are great, but it’s certainly a strange way to start our your solo career. Then again, Neil had just started getting comfortable with his voice, so maybe this made sense to him as a way to ease people into the album. Perennial statement song “The Loner” follows. Neil has played this song off and on over the years and it’s always felt like he was obliquely referencing himself as a way to put his persona in the minds of audiences. I don’t really like the fuzz guitar on this rendition, but otherwise the song is a good indication of the directions Neil would go pretty soon with Crazy Horse. Neil is augmented by legend Ry Cooder on “If I Could Have Her Tonight” but other than that, Neil’s awkward vocal on this song makes it a throwaway to me. He’s using that fuzz sound again, that holdover from the late 60s guitar sound that he soon abandons.
The first classic of Neil’s solo career appears next, “The Old Laughing Lady.” A song evocatively about death, this first recording features Cooder, Wrecking Crew bass player Carol Kaye, and one of the most sampled drummers of all time, Earl Palmer (sadly Palmer doesn’t get to do a lot here). The images and poetry of this song coupled with Neil’s fragile vocal is why I would call it the first solo classic. This is the Neil people see in their mind. A wounded singer songwriter hunched over a guitar on stage, letting his guard down and pouring out his insecurities. However, this is a good place to talk about Jack Nitzsche. Having previously worked with Buffalo Springfield, Nitzsche was an obvious collaborator on this first album but he’s also responsible for some of the heavy handed overdubbing and sweeping string accompaniments. He’s a great arranger and musician who worked extensively with Phil Spector and composed some classic film scores, but there’s something overblown about his productions that will ruin a couple Harvest songs in a few years. He was also a bit of a jerk to Neil and has some questionable events in his life that are still not fully sorted out, years after his death in 2000. The back half of “The Old Laughing Lady” becomes a cinematic soul song suddenly and it robs it a little of its poignancy in my opinion. That will be a recurring theme with Nitzsche involvement.
Bizarrely, the next track on Neil Young is a one minute string quartet “jam” arranged by Nitzsche but is actually the first part of a song called “Country Girl” that Neil would end up recording with CSNY for Deja Vu. “Here We Are In The Years” has been heard a couple dozen times throughout Neil’s career, mostly in solo acoustic performances. This version has Messina and Grantham plus an assortment of session horns and strings. I’m not a fan of Neil’s voice on this. It’s very hesitant and unsure and the mix buries his vocal a bit too much (probably on purpose). “What Did You Do To My Life?” sees the return of the fuzz guitar and a hypnotic vocal that sounds very of the time. Again, it’s not really the Neil we come to know in the next few years, but “I’ve Loved Her So Long” does have the yearning of Neil’s best songs. It’s sad but joyous at the same time, only slightly diminished by the overblown backing vocals (thanks Jack!).
The album ends with what I think is the most Neil-sounding song of the time period. To be clear, Neil is Neil and anything he makes sounds like his particular personality, but many of the songs on Neil Young feel a bit like an unsure solo artist being pulled in unfocused directions by some strong personalities. However, the nine minute “Last Trip to Tulsa” is very clearly Neil in the studio with just Briggs at the console capturing a statement piece by an artist finding his own voice. And I mean that literally, the voice on this song is unlike any other track on the album. It’s strong, slightly bitter, but not hesitating for one minute to be who he is and say what he wants to say. The acoustic strumming is forceful and complex, with a driving rhythm that really evokes the tale told in the song. This is the Neil we love.
Top 3:
- Last Trip to Tulsa
- The Old Laughing Lady
- I’ve Loved Her So Long
Cut song: If I Could Have Her Tonight
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