VIDEO: Richie Furay's New Song 'We Were The Dreamers'

Here's a video of Richie Furay's new song "We Were the Dreamers" from his new album Hand In Hand (Neil Young guests on Buffalo Springfield's "Kind Woman" bonus track.)

The inspiration for the song "We Were the Dreamers" is the band Poco. Richie Furay tells Billboard about the track:

"It's the story of Poco".

"Not that I sit around and dwell about Poco, but the lyrics began to tell that story and I just went with it. It was one of those natural things that just had a flow to it, and the (music) reminded me of what we were trying to do back in 1969. We wanted to bridge that gap between country music and rock 'n' roll music. The Byrds were doing it. The (Flying) Burrito Brothers were doing it. And Poco was certainly instrumental in creating that country-rock sound in southern California. So there was the song."

The autobiographical opening track and first single from Hand In Hand, Furay's first new solo album in eight years and set for release on March 31.

Richie Furay
THE DENVER POST | Cyrus McCrimmon

Furay does, however, acknowledge that part of the delay was staying open for the possibility of more Springfield performances, and perhaps even some new recording before the group went on an indefinite hiatus in early 2012. "I think I certainly had that thought in the back of my mind," Furay says. "I know I'd play some of these riffs while were doing sound checks and Neil would look over -- 'New song, eh?' I think Stephen and I thought maybe there would be a Springfield album that came out of it.

But things change, as they do and that's OK. There were a lot of fans out there that wanted to see the Springfield, and I would have liked to make that exclamation point a bit deeper.

But (Young) didn't feel the same way and, y'know what? That's just the way it goes. I've rolled with a lot of punches. I was just happy and satisfied I still had a place to go with my music after that."

Richie Furay - Hand In Hand
(Preview Tracks)

Also, see Buffalo Springfield's Richie Furay Looks Back & Forward.

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Comment of the Moment: Kim Gordon's Girl in a Band: A Memoir

Kim Gordon - Girl in a Band: A Memoir
(Click to "Look Inside & Listen")
It's been awhile since we've had a Comment of the Moment here on Thrasher's Wheat.

Not to over analyze things too much, but we see a number of factors coming together in a perfect storm to attribute to the recent drop in reader comments, which we'll get to below.

In the meantime, the Comment of the Moment is from the recent post on Kim Gordon's Girl in a Band: A Memoir by Mr Henry:

Thanks for highlighting this segment from Kim's book. I've been reading lots of excerpts over the past few weeks, and this is my favorite one. Some of the others have focused too much on old, sensationalized, time-to-move-on information (there were strippers at birthday parties during the Smell The Horse Tour?! I'm shocked, absolutely shocked!) and newer fuel-the-fire tidbits (e.g. more piling on poor Lana del Ray), which seems to have been encouraged by the publisher. I look forward to reading Girl In A Band sometime soon, especially the remembrances of old, dirty NYC days and early Sonic Youth.

The link below has the complete session from last week's visit to the JCC in San Fran, part of the book tour that just completed on Saturday. Kim is interviewed by Carrie Brownstein, and it's enlightening and entertaining in equal measures. As an aside, I saw Sleater Kinney's Boston show last month, and Carrie's guitar playing is even more phenomenal. Can't wait to read her book when it comes out in the Fall.

https://www.jccsf.org/arts-ideas/ondemand/2014-2015-season/kim-gordon/

An interesting note on music writing and pop culture: Kim's book came out the same day as Robert Christgau's new memoir Going Into The City. Not sure if that was just pure coincidence or part of some larger plan. As you might know, during the 80's Robert and Sonic Youth weren't too crazy about each other (see the original title of SY's Kill Yr Idols), but grew much more sympatico after that. I've also read some excerpts from Going Into The City, and there are great stories around the early, early days of seeing Television and The Ramones.

Finally, I just read the full Dylan interview from last month's AARP magazine. Every Dylan interview is an adventure, but this might be the best one I've ever read. To paraphrase an old saying, every decade gets the Dylan interview it deserves...thanks Bob!

“That city I know doesn’t exist anymore, and it’s more alive in my head than it is when I’m there.”
--Kim Gordon from Girl In A Band

"Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers, and no doubt this applies to certain of the recollections I have gathered here."
--Kazuo Ishiguro from A Pale View of Hills

"It made me the listener that I am today. It made me listen for little things: the slamming of the door, the jingling of car keys. The wind blowing through trees, the songs of birds, footsteps, a hammer hitting a nail. Just random sounds. Cows mooing. I could string all that together and make that a song. It made me listen to life in a different way."
--Bob Dylan from interview with Robert Love
AARP The Magazine Feb/March 2015

Thanks, as always Mr H! It's good to hear from you and it's been awhile.

As we mentioned above, there seem to be a number of factors coming together in a perfect storm to attribute the recent drop in reader comments. Over the years, we've seen the dreaded "Facebook Effect" at work where attention spans continue to dwindle and many find engagement levels of clicking a "thumbs up" to be a sufficient demonstration of their thoughts,attitudes and feelings. So comments with sentences and full paragraphs are becoming an increasingly nostalgic memory.

The second factor is the man and the music itself. For whatever variety of reasons, fans just are not as energized and passionate as they once were. Call it burn out or boredom, Neil Young's ability to fire up his community seems to have hit a speed bump over the past year or so. As personal as albums like A Letter Home and Storytone may be, they clearly have not resonated widely.

And last but not least, there is the whole Neil-Pegi-Darryl saga which even we have had trouble coming to terms with and reconciling. Undoubtedly, fans are moving along -- both with and without Neil's music.

Thus far, news in 2015 has been remarkably sparse. In fact -- since we began near daily blogging here at TW back in 2003/4 -- we can not remember such a quiet period extending so long. The last very quiet period actually occurred during the Crazy Horse reunion and the Psychedelic Pill recording sessions. So it is with this in mid that we remain hopeful for the ongoing Nelson Boys recording sessions.

Afterall... good things come to those who wait ... or at least that's been our experience.

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45 Years Ago: 'Deja Vu' by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Last year, we posted that Graham Nash was Considering Re-Mastering 'Deja Vu' All Over Again .

So here we are, 45 years after the release of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's 'Deja Vu' looking back... again. From Ultimate Classic Rock by Frank Mastropolo:

The addition of Neil Young to the Crosby, Stills and Nash supergroup in 1969 created great expectations for the band’s second album, Déjà Vu. The follow-up didn’t disappoint fans, who took the record to No. 1 album after its release in March 1970.

David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash set the bar high with their 1969 debut, Crosby, Stills & Nash, a deft mix of folk and rock that featured intricate three-part harmonies. Nash said the first album’s success made the addition of a fourth member a necessary evil.

“When we finished the first record, we realized two things: One, that we had a big hit on our hands, because everybody was just wiped on the floor with it, and two, that we would have to go on the road,” Nash told Music Radar. “Stephen played every instrument on that record except for the drums and the acoustic guitars that David and I played on our songs. He played bass, he played organ, he played lead guitar, he played rhythm guitar, he played everything. Captain Many Hands we called him.”

Jimi Hendrix and Steve Winwood were asked to join CSN but refused. Atlantic Records’ head Ahmet Ertegun then suggested Young, Stills’ former bandmate in Buffalo Springfield. Nash was underwhelmed with the idea but agreed to meet with Young in New York’s Greenwich Village.

“I didn’t think we needed anybody else, but I said, ‘Okay, if you’re so adamant, I have to meet this guy,’” he recalled. “I knew him as a songwriter, but I didn’t know if I’d like him, if I could hang with him — all of that stuff. So I had breakfast with Neil on Bleecker Street, and after that I would have made him king of the world. He was funny, he was dry, he was dedicated and he was a special man. I realized that right off.”

In the summer of 1969, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young performed together at the Woodstock festival and began recording Déjà Vu in Los Angeles with bassist Greg Reeves and drummer Dallas Taylor. The turmoil in the band’s personal lives carried over to the sessions. Stills had split with singer Judy Collins; Nash broke up with Joni Mitchell. Crosby’s girlfriend Christine Hinton had recently died in a car accident.

“I was at the worst place I’d been in my whole life. I would walk into the sessions and break down crying.” Crosby told Crawdaddy in 1974. “I couldn’t function. I was in love with that girl.

“Atmosphere and feeling … now, they count for much more than the actual technical quality of the music. During Déjà Vu, I felt awful. To me, it communicates. There’s good art on Déjà Vu, but you can’t put it on and feel like it’s a sunny afternoon the way you can with Crosby, Stills & Nash.”

The LP’s biggest single was “Woodstock,” which peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard chart. It was the only song not written by a member of the band. Mitchell composed “Woodstock” in New York City as she watched news reports of the historic festival. CSNY sped up the tempo of Mitchell’s ethereal folk song to create one of the band’s signature tunes.

More on Ultimate Classic Rock.

Apparently, "the tree" is still going strong. Happy Birthday Deja Vu!

Deja Vu Photo Composites
via Susan Miller on Neil Young's Heart of Gold spreading on Facebook

The cover was shot in 1969 in the backyard of David Crosby's rental house in Novato, California.

Thanks Susan!

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Crosby, Stills and Nash Opens Tour with Jackson Browne

Crosby, Stills and Nash opened their World Tour 2015 in Tokyo, Japan.

Jackson Browne joined Graham Nash and performed "Crow on the Cradle" from 1982.

The 41 date tour continues to Philippines, Singapore, the US, and Europe.

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Reviews of 52 Neil Young Albums | Everybody's Dummy

Neil Young
Swedish TV Interview - 2005
Way back in 2004, a longtime esteemed Rustie and Neil Young fan by the name of Mike "Expecting 2 Fly" Cordova posted a series of articles on his experience listening to all of Neil Young's albums in chronological order. It was his journey, his self-appointed task.

Now, a decade or so later, another intrepid Neil fan, Wardo, has completed a review of Neil Young's album discography on Everybody's Dummy: Neil Young.

There are 52 Neil Young album reviews, with the latest being Neil Young 52: Storytone.

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A Letter Home proved to be not much more than a snapshot of an experiment, as Neil’s next real album was much more substantial. Storytone was presented as an orchestral album with Neil’s voice and occasional harmonica, but also made available with a Solo Storytone disc of Neil accompanying himself on piano or guitar. At this writing he’s still talking about releasing yet another permutation of the songs, so whichever is the “real” version remains up in the air.

In the orchestral setting his voice sounds more vulnerable than ever, bringing to mind recent Brian Wilson. The strings recall Comes A Time, and particularly the lonesome cowboy sweep of Prairie Wind, while even evoking Gordon Jenkins’ work with Frank Sinatra. The songs are presented as a suite, some seeming to follow on from the one before, whether she’s sleeping or he’s still driving.

“Plastic Flowers” recalls the piano version of “Living With War”; it’s unknown if giving the flowers of the title to Mother Nature’s daughter is supposed to be a good thing. “Who’s Gonna Stand Up?” is the one he likely hopes to will get the most attention. With its urgent riff and choir, it’s not as much of a departure. The end is overly melodramatic, ending with a “Day In The Life”-type stop and a surprise coda. The grumpy “I Want To Drive My Car” is more This Note’s For You than Fork In The Road, with a big-band backing and even an electric solo, probably courtesy of Waddy Wachtel. The joy of the open road doesn’t seem to pervade in “Glimmer”, where he’s left alone behind the wheel with only his thoughts and choked memories. Here’s a place where the Sinatra echo is most obvious, particularly when followed by “Say Hello To Chicago”, arranged in a style that will sound to most under-40 ears like Brian Setzer. Seeing as Neil doesn’t croon, it sounds very out of place.

“Tumbleweed” is more lush yet gentle, a lullaby suggesting the plant itself. “Like You Used To Do” is another Bluenotes cousin, a woman-done-me-wrong song, before the grand sweep of the final songs. Insisting that he’s not different from anyone else, “I’m Glad I Found You” offers a hushed, repeated ending in a naked love song. “When I Watch You Sleeping” sounds like it has a pedal steel, asking the unanswerable question as to how the late Ben Keith might have shaped this album. She’s still sleeping in “All Those Dreams”, while Neil rides off into the sunset, burning not a drop of gasoline.

The horn-driven blues songs break up any threat of monotony, but they don’t really fit in; in many ways the solo versions, each just as unique and just as considered as the arranged versions, allow the listener to get in deeper. “Plastic Flowers” and “I’m Glad I Found You” are pretty on the piano, “Who’s Gonna Stand Up?” stark, “Glimmer” less mournful. “I Want To Drive My Car” and “Like You Used To Do” are more subdued strums, and “Say Hello To Chicago” a boozy late-night reverie right off a Tom Waits album. “Tumbleweed” is given a ukulele arrangement similar to how Paul McCartney’s been playing “Something” of late. “When I Watch You Sleeping” and “All Those Dreams” finish things up, quiet and acoustic.

Coming so soon after the shocking revelation that he was divorcing Pegi (and taking up with Daryl Hannah), it’s not easy to keep the lyrics separate from diary entries. In fact, the mood and content of Storytone can be compared with Elvis Costello’s North, another love-lost-and-found album that divided listeners. Time will tell whether this will be a substantial chapter or just another tangent.

Neil Young Storytone (2014)—3

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Thanks Wardo! Nice job. Quite comprehensive and a very useful resource. Check out out all 52 reviews of Neil Young's albums at Everybody's Dummy: Neil Young.

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