Song Video Premiere: "Jesus' Chariot" (She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain) by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Here's the new video of "Jesus' Chariot" from the upcoming Americana by Neil Young and Crazy Horse.
From the Liner Notes for Americana by Neil Young & Crazy Horse:
Jesus’ Chariot (She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain)
Written in the 1800s based on an old Negro spiritual, this song refers to the second coming of Jesus and “she” is the chariot Jesus is coming on. Some interpret this as the end of the world. Others have said that “she” refers to union organizer Mary Harris “Mother” Jones going to promote formation of labor unions in the Appalachian coal mining camps. The Americana arrangement continues the folk process with a new melody, a new title and a combination of lyric sources.
Per Song Premiere: Neil Young Sets 'Americana' On Fire : All Songs Considered Blog : NPR:
This song, as with all the songs on the record, have been paired up with archival footage. This footage is from an early scene in D.W. Griffith's controversial 1915 film Birth of a Nation, in which the Southern Cameron family hosts a farewell ball for soldiers fighting for the Confederacy.
Set for a June 5th release, you can now pre-Order "Americana" on Amazon.com
(Thanks! You'll be helping to support us here at Thrasher's Wheat.)Labels: americana, crazy horse, jesus' chariot, neil young, offficial, video
by thrasher@PermaLink: 5/11/2012 06:33:00 PM
39 comments
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39 Comments:
Genius... I just love that man... and the horse
Dug
Neil Young is God. Sends chills down my spine hearing that guitar and that band.
Best guitarist of all time!
witness the next great rock 'n roll concert dance craze!
Very Very Very Impressive and I loved it!
The Horse is back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We're finding this non-traditional approach to music videos to be quite cool & bold.
Also, this clip from D.W. Griffith's film Birth of a Nation, with a southern family's farewell ball for Confederate soldiers fighting in the Civil War seems to go directly at any number of references.
The whole Southern Man/Alabama confrontation comes to mind.
more later...
Halleluyah!
Are we in the midst of the second most productive period of Neil's career? The amazing trunk show and 2009 concert tours with Ben et al, followed by the great Le Noise and amazing solo tour, and now some serious old fashion R&R with the Horse that sounds really really fresh at a time of auto tune and overly processed garbage on the radio. And we still have new material to come in 2012? I am brought back to Eddie Vedder's comments at Neil's 1996 R&R Hall of Fame induction speech where he said that it was unusual for an artist to be inducted at a time when he was still a vital part of the scene - 15 years later and, well, praise Neil. I just wish he was 15 years younger - not that it would make him better, but I have never lived a day without Neil and I cringe at the thought when.... There better be a Canadian NY&CH tour cause I don't have the cash for a big trip south, yet feel it will be inevitable.
Feckin' awesome!!!!!!!!!! Love it to bits.
Is that not the drum riff from Fuckin' Up?
Awesome arrangement and vibe. Ralph is killing it. And those Horse harmonies are excellent and have been missed. Gimmie some more of THAT Kool-Air!
Kool-Aid, sorry. Mustve been the thirst.
Me thinks Le Noise should have been the Horse comeback album. These guys would have killed that material with as good as they are sounding now....
@ Brent
I agree. I enjoy Le Noise, but when he played Walk With Me with Pearl Jam, it opened up a whole new possibility for the music IMO
Matt
Love the time machine piece that links our folk legacy to today's world for tomorrow. Thanks Neil
Neil has been writing songs about America's past, especially America's conflicts, for some time now. THIS to me is like Ragged Glory turned inside out, revealing not only great songs written about the times they were written in, but updating them with brilliantly used archival footage that just nails the beat of these new versions. Thanks to Ralphie!(I heard Neil call him that once)
But this isn't what I would call new in Neil's output over the years. All you have to do is look at CSNY's cover of Deja Vu and you'll see where those guy's heads were at. Seems they were all history buffs. I still think they're all reincarnated rebels from the 1860's!
"I think Geronimo himself has jumped into Neil Young's soul and is having a heydey with that Canuc!" Who said that? Somebody said that.
Anyway, I'm thinkin' now it might be Ralph that Geronimo went paranormal on. What a BEAT! Not to mention those long sustained bass lines and a rhythm guitar that can play lead at the same time! And that seemingly angry lead guitar piercing the air like an arrow!
Now that's the kind of horse I like to ride!
Between Geronimo, Scott Young, the muse and a whole lot of soul, I think we're all in for one hell of a ride!
Ralph Geronimo....what a stage name.....eh?
So much for the fears and concerns that the album was going to be a "drag". Lol! I thought it was going to be unique when I say Neil and Dave Mathews do "Oh Suzanna" at the Bridge. It's even better tha I thought! Neil is following the muse. Those that want Buffalo Springfield or CSY&N, be patient and like Neil, trust the Muse.
Stills is/was the history buff 'Find The Cost of Freedom'
@arthur - "like Ragged Glory turned inside out"
exactly. nice :)
If there's any other singer/songwriter out there that I follow as much as Neil, it's Stephen Stills. And his son Chris ain't bad either! The apple fell close to the tree there!
And yes, Stills is quite the history buff. I love his songs just as much as Neil's. Anyone who can add a line to a Neil Young song, Stills' version of Only Love Can Break Your Heart, with his added line at the end, shows so much love and passion, that I add it on when I fiddle around with playing Neil's stuff here at home.
"We just love ya! We just love ya!
...tell 'em who we are."
Oh, man. Do we know.
....Also I forgot thanks to the Crazy Horse for a great ride. It was a synergy of translations of Americana past and present. Timeless for me.
Neil Young is so cool, it makes me think he is not human. Maybe he is an Ancient Alien! Meet you at the portals Neil, we'll go back to Orion's Belt...when she comes!!
F$*#@@(ing mindblowing. It sounds like Americana Space Rock! Spoooooky and EPIC and beautiful, those crazy harmonies, that wonderful rock and roll awesomeness... aaaaaahhh (descends into unintelligible streams of utterly thrilled half-formed thought-spew) ...
This song reminds me of "Murder Ballads" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
Wow. Incredibly original, totally nuts--and isn't that why we love Neil? The thing that's really crazy about this, though, is how well it works. Musically, I love it. I hear shades of "Goin' Home'" mixed with "Shock and Awe"-- which itself took no small influence from 'Into the Black.' I'll have to look it up, but going by every traditional version I'm aware of, Neil added the cool verse about the "portal". LOL
More in a bit..
I'm loving both the tracks that have been put out. Can't wait for the album.
Almost every one of these songs on [Americana] I had to memorize for my music merit badge back in '67 for the Boy Scouts of America. I still know them by heart but NY& CH's versions are beyond what I ever thought those songs should sound like. Incredible is all I can say.
Forty-six years ago, Neil crossed the country, headed for California, driving a hearse. This summer, he will be driving a forty-three year old Americana legend, turned into a twenty first century Hybrid, back across the country. And hopefully, we can all watch it in live stream, like in Wichita.
Yep! She'll be comin' 'round the mountain when she comes!
Only LV is just ONE big, beautiful white horse!
I love following Neil.
He's so.....unusual.
Kinda like a modern day Pied Piper but with more gizmos.
Conceptually these 'Americana' tracks are starting to remind of me of Traffic playing 'John Barleycorn Must Die', even though these are a different kind of folk songs and different kind of rock 'sound' from Traffic.
Of the recordings released so far, I marginally prefer 'Oh Susanna' at this point, although I have to say that, after about three or four playbacks at this point 'Jesus' Chariot' has begun to click a little more in terms of how Neil and the Horse have tailored it to fit their own sound. I do very much like the sound of these tracks musically, and I'm highly curious to hear them all in the proper context of the album.
Also, if there are any percussionists about, what exactly is Ralphie doing on the drums? It could just be me, but it sounds a lot like the Native American "war drums" thing that was happening on 'Goin' Home'. Meanwhile the lyrics (apparently culled from various sources) appear to reference both Christianity and Voodoo/pre-Christian sacrificial practices ("the big red rooster")--which, I suppose, is not that surprising given that the song is based upon an "old Negro spiritual.' It reminds of how when Christianity came to Europe, in many countries and cultures they didn't completely give up their Pagan or pre-existing religious traditions, but fused the two, making for an increased diversity of belief and practice, even under one religious "banner". Speaking of which, a rather belated happy May Day to everyone!
Wave theory shows us how many things travel within and over cycles of twenty years, with the third wave being the most pronounced of all. So with that in mind:
Crazy Horse 1971/1972 Wave One
Crazy Horse 1991/1992 Wave Two
Crazy Horse 2011/2012 Wave Three
Then remember how great the crashing surf was after the first two and get ready to ride the big one...see you there!
I haven't bought an album in 20 years - as soon as Americana is released I'm buying ten copies, one for me and the rest for friends. If they don't like it, that's the end of the friendship.
With regard to the drums, yes it sort of sounds like the drum groove in Goin' Home but that's not quite right. The groove is a straight eight - bass on the 1 and 5, snare (or floor tom) on the the 3 and 7. The use of the floor tom changing with the snare is what people are picking up. It's really simple stuff but Ralph does it as well as anyone.
Oh my God, has Neil jumped the shark? I've been dreaming, praying, obsessing for a Horse return since they left the stage in Amherst. As original as Oh Su was, this is as lame. Somewhere, David Briggs is rolling over and cursing. The ledger for you keeping score out there, Neil & CH 1, Bad Neil & CH 1. Looks like this (record anyways) is going to be a nail-biter.
I'd rather see this as kind of the soundtrack of the Sam Peckinpah movie: 'the wild bunch'
Concerning Ralph's drumming, Neil's affinity to the Native American and the '60's hip movement as a whole, I remember it being said years ago, that the hippies and a lot of OUR generation, were influenced by Native American spirits taking these white children's culture over by growing their hair long, being more communal and getting back to nature.
Drum circles started popping up at concerts and fairs. Herbal influences abounded! After all, for a time, Neil was known as "The Hollywood Indian", with his fringe jackets and long dark hair perpetuating the myth. But is it a myth?
"Spirit come back to me. Give me strength to set me free. Help me find the magic in my heart!"
With the wooden Indian constantly with him on stage and Crazy Horses' beat, ya gotta think there is something to this spiritual highjacking.
Anyway, this has been in my mind since I first heard about this spiritual awakening years ago, or could it be just too much herbal influence?
Most songwriters when asked where the songs come from, most say, like Neil, that they just come, and you better be ready to write it down. "Americana" is different since the songs words aren't Neil's originally, but the musical renditions are all his and CH's. It's their primal sound that really hits a chord with NY & CH's fans. It makes you want to dance around the fire!
To this day in my garage. I have a toy set up I've had since the '50's, called "Custers Last Stand". It has teepees and Indians on horses shooting arrows. Most of the cavalry are on the ground with arrows sticking in them.
Shades of "Dances with Wolves", but I always wanted the Indians to win.
Why do I feel like this totally transcends music and enters some other realm where the soul communicates with the essence of forever, or some primordial awareness deep in the recesses of the human condition cries out from the center of the universe, flung into a dark ether so vast and empty that all of space-time reduces to a single point in comparison!!??
I obviously can't stop listening to this track. It's really scary sounding to me. It's just bigger than itself.
Maybe it's those spooky backing vocals, or that thundering, relentless drumming, or... just...
I don't know, maybe I'm totally over-experiencing this thing. Maybe it's just a really cool song and nothing more, but to me this recording might be the most transcendent expression I've ever heard from Neil and the Horse.
Just in how it really drills down to the center of the human condition and explodes in this ... apocalypse of beauty.
i hear johnny spud.
@Matt - Just so we're clear here, are you saying you like it? ;)
What I think is happening here is an incredible "cross pollination" of two forms of music, some would call fusion.
Taking the well established 19th-20th century song formulas and putting them to the beat of a band like NY & CH, creates a HYBRID release of, if you will, " musical pollen."
Since it's spring time, this new "musical pollen", when ingested by already rabid fans of the band,like you and me, tends to bring on side effects,similar to extreme spiritual satisfaction and deep electrical synapse changes in the brain, resulting in little "Mona Lisa" type grins on all those effected.
I, for one, do not want a remedy,but want to feed my symptoms, with more of the same "HYBRID NOTES", that when the album releases those "notes", like pollen from a hybrid flower, will permeate the air with sound......that matters.
Like Willie says:
"Roll me up and smoke me... when I die!"
After hearing this track, does anyone have any doubts anymore that the Horse is back!?
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