Review of the Moment: Neil Young's 'Storytone' + TONIGHT: Thrasher's Wheat Radio Hour

Neil Young & Brian Wilson
The Bridge School Benefit - 10.25.14
Photo by Jay Blakesberg Photography

As noted earlier -- not surprisingly -- the initial early reviews of Neil Young's latest album 'Storytone' are all over the map.

Here's a comment on First Listen: Neil Young, 'Storytone' : NPR by Mikkelrev:

Yes, this is a beautiful record. It has been a long time since I played a record over and over, and still wanting one more time.

What amazes me when reading TW, is all the holy moralists we have got here these days.

People seem to know everything about Neil and Pegi, about Hannah, about everyone's relationship, and most of all they seem to be justified to make a judgment. And, even more interesting, they evaluate Neil's records and songs from their own moral judgment about his life, his decisions and his relationships. "Oh no, this song is no good because I know this is about Pegi which he left!", "this performance is no good because he made it in front of Pegi!", "this record is a piece of crap because Neil didn't find a girl when he was young, a girl which he should have married and lived together with his whole life, and he should never have thought of another woman, ever!". That is a strange way of evaluating his songs and records. Do you have the same standard when judging a Bob Dylan-song or a Leonard Cohen-song? In that case, all the fantastic Dylan-songs now seems to be pieces of crap all of them, because Dylan was probably not a holy angel all the time. And if you are not a holy angel - and we know! We know everything, always! - then your songs and records are no good.

I'm amazed and surprised, but most of all quite sick and tired, of all these holy angels and moralists that seems to know everything about Neil, and that are justified to make a moral judgment, and evaluate his songs from their own holy moralist judgments.

Keep on, Neil, this record is a gem!

Thanks Mikkelrev for the thoughts. Yes, we too are amazed and surprised, by our fellow Neil fans at times. But never sick and tired because we've got faith in the ordinary rusties.

And -- most importantly -- it's nice to hear you're enjoying the sounds of man not ready to go quietly into the night.

We know this is a delicate topic and have trusted folks to handle sensitively -- which they have for the most part here at TW. As esteemed rustie HarryO remarked on the song "I'm Glad I Found You...":

"the most significant lines in the song are the first two, not the refrain. "So many people don't understand what it's like to be like me, but I'm not different from anyone else." I generally feel like he chooses to express his current state of mind at his shows. I thought it was fine for him to play it, just like it was fine for Pegi to sing "Starting Over" -- bold artistry is great stuff!"

And what else might be going on in Neil world these days? Well, we'll have a bit more to say on all of this tonight, Saturday, November 1 at 9:00 PM EST, on the Thrasher's Wheat Radio Hour from WBKM.org.

Tonight's edition will feature concert highlights from last weekend's annual Bridge School concert, discussion and news.

Tune in details and podcast info @ Thrashers Wheat Radio Hour.


Thrasher's Wheat Radio
Tune in on WBKM.org, Saturdays @ 9P EST

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