Things I’m Supposed To Love, But Can’t Stand: Neil Young
By Mitch Berg
While we’re on the subject of Canadian folk singers gone awry – I just can’t stand Neil Young.
Let’s make sure I’m clear here. I love tons of Neil Young music; “Down By The River” is one of the sixties’ better moments; that it can survive the presence of Stephen Stills is testimony to its greatness.
And he’s got plenty of great music where that came from; much of Harvest; “Rockin’ in the Free World”; a lot of what he did with Crazy Horse.
And still I grit my teeth and expect the worst every time I hear he’s got something new coming out.
Neil Young is like that crazy neighbor who happens to be a fantastic baker. You know that nine times out of ten when you hear anything from that neighbor it’ll be because he’s plinking at cats with a BB gun, or because the cops are hauling her back into treatment. But there’s that odd visit where he/she brings over the lemon meringue pie that proves the existence of a divine loving God that makes you forget the other nine times – for the moment.
That’s Neil Young. He bounces from the sublime to the…well, not really “ridiculous”. “Tiresome”? “Not really quite right?” “Waste of time?” Anyway, he bounces around like a hyperactive four-year-old who’s broken into the Coca-Cola.
And I don’t mind that, even. Oh, it’d be cool of so many of Neil Young’s reinventions weren’t squibs (Trans, Re-Ac-Tor, and on and on), but it would be boring, for Young and for the audience, if he never,ever changed.
So part of the problem is that I get worn out keeping up with Neil Young.
But the big problem I have?
Let’s go back to college. I took a piano tuning class. In learning how to tune pianos, my ears became incredibly sensitive to pitch, and especially to harmonic dissonance between strings; when two strings that are supposed to have the same pitch are just ever-so-slightly out of tune, phase cancellation creations a subtle “beat” in the sound; the more out of tune the strings are, the faster the beat.
So by the time I got done with that class, my ears were as sensitive as a dog’s.
And then Re Ac Tor came out. And its first single, “Southern Pacific”, came on the radio.
And I listened. And held my head in pain. Neil Young’s guitar was out of tune.
And as I listened to more and more Young, the throbbing phase beats told me Neil Young never ever ever ever tunes is &^%^$#$@ guitar! My ears are still very sensitive to pitch, by the way, which is why Karaoke night can be so utterly painful to me.
So stylistic schizophrenia aside, even when I like Neil Young, he makes my teeth hurt from clenching at the out-of-tuneness of it all.
In 20-odd years, I haven’t been able to ignore it.
So yeah. I’m supposed to love Neil Young. But he bugs me.
May 4th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
The only Young work I like is “Trans,” the early sorta-electronica album he did for no particular reason; to his fans, it was his “Metal Machine Music.” Otherwise, it’s like having a drunk bee in your ear.
May 4th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Young has always made my skin crawl! I never cared for CSNY either. But I did enjoy the stories about Stills slapping the snot out of Young!
May 4th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Just to add; I’ve seldom had a greater desire to stomp someone’s balls as I get anytime I have to suffer through “Sugar Mountain”.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I’ve always given Neil the benfit of the doubt. It always seemed to me that whatever was in his head, he put out there in public, then moved on to the next thing. (Remember the Shocking Pinks?). Even his politics seem spur of the moment as in “I don’t like what’s going on. Tomorrow I might change my mind so I’d better record this today, release it tomorrow and then write something else. There are enough really good songs to allow me to accept (though not listen to) the rest. I don’t give others the same pass.
May 4th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Everybody seems to wonder, what it’s like down here. You gotta get away from this day to day runinng around. Everybody knows, this is nowhere.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
I loves me the garage sound of Crazy Horse. Easy to duplicate if you just thrash enough…
Don’t know why, but I love Ragged Glory. I can hear everything distinctly: all the guitar parts, the bass, the drums, where they spliced solos together. Even hearing it’s numerous faults, I still enjoy it.
True story, my wife went to purchase a copy of Ragged Glory as a gift for me. She went into Tower Records and asked for the new album by Neil DIAMOND and Crazy Horse. The reaction from the Tower Records staff is just about what you’d suspect.
But I would PAY cash money to hear Neil Diamond and Crazy Horse. Cuz I’m sick that way.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
A southern man don’t need him around, anyhow.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
James,
Wow – I’d heard that Trans fans existed, but had never encountered one in the wild…
Scott,
Young’s version is merely irritating. Every time I go to a coffee shop, it seems someone’s just gotta cover it, usually an octave higher than Neil…
Don,
I hear ya. I’m kinda the same way, except that I give Young passes the same way I do my teenage son. I keep giving ’em, but I’m not getting any better-natured about it…
Kerm,
Rough day at Anti-Strib? 🙂
Juan,
Hah!
And yes – I like Crazy Horse. Or at least the idea of Crazy Horse. And whatever Young’s other sins, “Cinnamon Girl” absolves most of ’em.
Rider,
Hah. Which reminds me – we do have Young to thank for giving Nils Lofgren his first big break…
May 4th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Rough day at Anti-Strib?
Rough month.
Juanito, I love the sound they got on Harvest, especially the intro to Alabama, and all of Words. Thick and full of natural echo. That album was pretty much seminal for me. Mitch Berg, look at my life, I’m a lot like you were….
May 4th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I took a piano tuning class. In learning how to tune pianos, my ears became incredibly sensitive to pitch
From the department of forgotten history:
The golden age of the family piano was from the mid 19th century until the First World War. It lasted from roughly the time that Middle class could afford to buy a piano until they could afford to buy a gramaphone and a radio. Every medium sized town in Europe & the US had a thriving piano-tuning business. Small, outlying communities were served by traveling piano tuners.
By examining pianos from this period we know that many of these tuners were not very good at what they did. They ruined adjusting screws and levers & made shoddy repairs. They also had a tendency to tune ‘bright’, because it sounded better to the ear. Tuning a piano ‘bright’ could cover a host of sins.
In England they decided that they could train the blind to become piano tuners, because there was an excess of demand for tuners and a surplus of blind people who were otherwise unemployable. The Victorians kept excellent records when it came to this kind of social experiment. They determined that blind piano tuners were no better or worse than sighted piano tuners, but at least it kept them off the dole.
May 4th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Crazy Horse. Grunge. Feedback. Nirvana stole every lick from Neil.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Sorry, Mitch. I can remember their teen years, but my two have moved beyond. The one you met so many years ago when she was about 6 months old, is 24, and the younger one graduates from college this week (a Hoosier, no less). So keep giving Zam those passes, but make sure he sees the pained expression on your face when he gets them.
May 5th, 2009 at 9:36 am
I generally admire and agree with your musical tastes, Mitch, but I’m 180 degrees off on this one. Hate Lightfoot, think the dead sailor song is incredibly tedious, dig Neil Young.
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming…
May 5th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
“Scott,
Young’s version is merely irritating. Every time I go to a coffee shop, it seems someone’s just gotta cover it, usually an octave higher than Neil…”
My guess is the octave higher part is due to the retribution being dealt out for singing that God awful song………..The high pitch is due to those other singers getting their balls stomped on as well…..(wink)