NEW VIDEO: 'Wolf Moon" - Neil Young and Promise of the REAL
Here is a new video from the upcoming The Monsanto Years album by Neil Young and Promise of the REAL called 'Wolf Moon".
And already, some folks think the song is nice ... others -- not so much.
Also, here's a look at an earlier video "A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop" by Neil Young + Promise Of The Real.
Also, see Rehearsal sessions and interview on the making of The Monsanto Years.
Labels: neil young, video
by thrasher@PermaLink: 6/12/2015 05:42:00 PM
10 comments
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And don't forget Big Box (audio only): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwgH5zKwYH0&app=desktop
For those too impatient to watch the entire Wexler video, there are excerpts of Winterlong here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVxq-0q0rAA), and Hold Back the Tears here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zBtTaEdCRM)
Well, at least on a semi-positive note, this song has made me more appreciative of "A Rockstar Bucks a Coffee Shop." By comparison, that one now seems like a rocking witty triumph.
I've listened to "Wolf Moon" 4 times and can't imagine listening to it again (at least this year). It's just so boring and uninspired/uninspiring. I did like the first chord or two--to me it sounded like Harvest, but I could be wrong as I'm tone/chord deaf.
Thanks for the link to "Big Box" Babbo. Of the 3 Monsanto songs I've heard, it's easily the best. It sounds like it could have been from Living With War, and as far as I'm concerned, that's a compliment.
My ratings of Monsanto songs I've heard:
"A Rockstar Bucks a Coffee Shop": 4/10 (Bad lyrics, infernal whistling & muddied chorus--plus, I think he's misinformed and disingenuous about the role Starbucks plays in all of this)
"Wolf Moon": 3/10 (Bad lyrics, bad voice, forced, unimaginative and utterly boring)
"Big Box": 7/10 (Now this one actually has a little bit of that snarling Neil. Lyrics are still generally weak, but it has some solid moments where the words, music and voice all mesh together well.)
Too big to fail, too rich for jail..
I disagree with TopangaDaze. As a big fan of acoustic Neil this hits the spot. Vocals similarly fragile like Falling Off the Face of the Earth. Evocative animal/earth imagery. Slight pedal steel like tones that I thought might never come back into Neil's music. As irreplaceable as Ben Keith is, I hope he decides to try to bring back the steel. If he needs a suggestion, a guy named Bill Patton out of Seattle is Ben's heir if there ever was one. The instrumentation at the end Of this is pretty cool as well.
@Unknown--Have to agree with you. I, too, am a fan of acoustic Neil (in fact, I'm thinking about giving the Canterbury House Archives set a listen at some point).
I like the first verse of this one in particular. There are some lovely lyrical moments (I love the first line, "Wolf moon, thank you for shining" and the image of the "last fish" is starting to capture my attention). And there's some interesting instrumentation, with the double bass. The whole soundscape is somewhere in between Harvest/Prairie Wind folky Neil and the more spacey vibes of the acoustic parts of On the Beach, as well as side one of Hawks and Doves. Referring to Hawks and Doves, in this case, is not a bad thing. Little Wing and Lost in Space are particular favorites of mine (and if I'm right, were recorded around the period of On the Beach, so the resemblance I hear between those songs and Ambulance Blues makes some sense). The vocal is just classic of Neil in the higher end of his range: gentle yet impassioned. It's not blowing me away or anything, but I'm generally positive on this one. A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop, to me, comes across as such a novelty that it's nice to get a sense of what the rest of this batch is like. I haven't heard Big Box yet.
One thing that I think helps this song is that there are hints of something other than just eco-commentary on it: "I know some hearts were broken", followed immediately by the allusion to the big eagles suggest, to me, some internal searching as well. We quickly get back to the ecological thread, but I still think this helps to flesh the lyrics out a bit.
This is a deep and beautiful love song to Mother Earth, a statement of gratitude from one earnest, daring Artist. Neil Young, with the great talents of Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real backing him on this gorgeous track. You hafta be pretty jaded to not see the talent of Neil Young here. Yes, his voice is aging a bit. But Gracefully so. How many times have we heard a "mediocre" album and only later realized it was a true classic? This is one of those moments. 2 of Willie's boys show up in the band and help Neil tell the truth from his heart about the state of the Earth. Do you think it is insignificant and unimpressive? What he does here so impressively is to sing a beautiful song about the Earth amidst this environmental crisis. This stuff actually MATTERS. This is the biggest threat since the Cuban Missle Crisis. The US Military readily explains that it is a national security threat. And yet these Republicans on the payroll of the Koch Brothers spout the party BS line about science being unsure. This is such a joke! These Clowns are merely Puppets of the 1%. This is the constant blundering he mentions in the song. That and the Gulf Oil Spill. And the FDA being made up of Monsanto shills. Neil cares about the planet, the poison being sprayed on our food supply, the people effected (see rising Autism rates link to pesticides and herbicides), and he sees the constant blundering of Industrial Society as humans gather at another World Summit on Climate Change and cannot walk away with any commitments or agreements. In spite of the scientific reality of Global Warming, America remains in denial about this grave threat to life here on Earth. People are so unbelievably selfish that they continue to pretend that there may not be a scientific consensus on the matter. The People will lead on this cause. Leaving it for the next generation to deal with makes us complicit in its destruction. Meanwhile the Koch Brothers buy up newspapers so they can do like Fox News does and feed propaganda for the 1% 24/7. The ultra rich would prefer to keep white american ignorant and fed a steady diet of hateful lies about minorities, poor people, etc. . The real welfare recipients are the Corporations, most of which pay no real taxes. The middle class foots the bill to subsidize american corporations and pay more than their share of the taxes. And the Oil Company Party GOP strongly oppose clean energy like Solar. Their power has Republicans writing bills against solar or charging people money to live off the grid. Neil's album is also about how the Modern US has gone off the deep end with Citizens United, etc. This is gonna be a great album. I have heard the stuff live and it will tickle your funny bone. There is also some great music in there. Give him a chance. He usually comes through. Or should be record Harvest again. This guy has been doing Farm Aid forever. He feels strongly and it comes through in this crucial song. Alan in Seattle.
(D.)IK - glad you're enjoying the song, but just for the record, the first line is, "Wolf moon thank you for risin'." And the fish line is "Less fish swimming in your oceans." And the bird reference after the broken hearts line is, "Big crows still flying in your sky."
Oh, and feel free to listen to "Big Box" at the link I posted above. Pretty good stuff there, too.
" And there ain't nothing like a friend
Who can tell you you're just pissing in the wind "
N.P.Y.
Sweet song....
Babbo B.-- Thanks for the corrections. That was a little sloppy on my part. I listened to the song again after posting and realized about the crows, which do make more sense in that line than eagles. The eagles are mentioned later in the song. I also got "thank you for rising" and "keep on shining" mixed up in my brain. Still love that opening line, though.
"Wolf Moon"...hmmmmm...Well,first of all I think Neil is singing it in a key that is simply too high for his voice...he is straining to sing and that is not a good thing.Decent lyrics and nice music,nothing more.I am not feeling too good about this upcoming album. I believe that Neil needs to slow down, and put out an album only when he has about 10 or 12 excellent songs ready to go.Too many albums lately and not enough songs that are up to Neil's high standards,that's for sure !!
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