THE RISING STORM

This is easily my favorite Neil Young record. Actually, I grew up not listening to Mr. Neil because I had never liked the sound of his radio hits. But a while back I got into his discog (starting with On The Beach) and realized what an idiot I was. If you made this same mistake, go get the above record and make amends.

It’s a bit seedy and a little drunk; Mr. Neil tells it like it is on Borrowed Tune: “..singing this borrowed tune…too wasted to write my own.” When I first heard this late night piano confessional, a tribute to the Rolling Stones’ Lady Jane, the final lyrics gave me the chills. Then they come in with Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown, a cover of the rollickin’ Crazy Horse tune, and you’re sold. Easy as that.

It was recorded in 1973 and released in 1975. The whole album is great, and it feels more like Neil Young than anything else. As if the album was as loosely constructed as possible, like they just wrapped a couple of one-take sessions in newspaper and dropped ‘em off at the video store. It’s a masterpiece though, about drugs and loss. Apparently, this album was part of the ‘Ditch Triology‘ of Mr. Neil’s releases, an unofficial grouping of three experimental albums recorded after his initial commercial successes.

The first of the trilogy is a live record called Time Fades Away which still hasn’t seen release. Give it a looksie @ aquariumdrunkard.com.

I love this song Albuquerque. It make you think every city should have a song. Mr. Neil’s Sufjan Stevens approach.

“Albuquerque”

[ under $10 used @ amazon ]