Tim Pope is the director of numerous highly acclaimed 1980's Neil Young music videos such as "Wonderin'", "Cry, Cry, Cry" and "Touch the Night".
All of these songs and music videos are from 1986's "Landing on Water" -- which is an "incredibly underrated Neil Young album". "Landing on Water"'s minimalistic punk funk was an acquired taste back in the day and only gets more progressive as we continue reeling in the years. (Of course, we all know that in 2009 that life imitated Neil Young's art.)
Neil Young
More on Tim Pope: Making "Wonderin'" Video with Neil Young.
Frames from Neil Young music video "Wonderin'", 1983
Director Tim Pope
Also, see Making of "Touch the Night" Music Video by Tim Pope.
Frames from "Touch the Night" -
Neil Young Music Video directed by Tim Pope
Also, see Tim Pope: Neil Young Music Video Director | PODCAST by Adam Buxton.
I have to admit that Landing on water is like great French red wines that age well. I would say a Chateauneuf du Pape rather than a Bordeaux or Bourgogne: it is far stronger like Neil guitar and Steve Jordan drums!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI keep on listening to it in my old small car, not a Porsche like that manager Neil was talking about.......
I true love it
Peace&love
I dunno that Touch the Night is a highly acclaimed video? It looks like it was filmed on a $5 budget!!!
ReplyDeleteI am starting to think that Neil is a good director! This has a bunch of original stuff in it that was painstakingly put together. So damn funny, The girl's antics are, of course, over the top. This lessens the depth of the video in our modern era, but it was meant to be superficial to begin with! We can forgive the artist/ director that! This very good song has absolutely nothing to do with the video presentation. Neil owns this role and the whole thing just slays me. Thanks for sharing. Alan in Seattle
ReplyDeleteThx - you know this song has never been played live. I think it would sound much better played with Crazy Horse or POTR on electric guitars with no keyboards. It would even sound good solo acoustic.
ReplyDeleteI am starting to think that Neil is a good director! This has a bunch of original stuff in it that was painstakingly put together. So damn funny, The girl's antics are, of course, over the top. This lessens the depth of the video in our modern era, but it was meant to be superficial to begin with! We can forgive the artist/ director that! This very good song has absolutely nothing to do with the video presentation. Neil owns this role and the whole thing just slays me. Thanks for sharing. Alan in Seattle
ReplyDeleteStop it ! LOW is a stinker 'punk funk' do we have to make up this nonsense here?
ReplyDeleteI agree that album is on the bottom of the heap. But Hard Luck Stories live kills it. And Touch the Night is a good song. I relate, having lived thru a high speed wreck myself. I think Weight of the World needs more live band, more Old Black & a human drummer to make it great. Alan in Seattle
DeleteC'mon Alan, you tend to like everything Neil does, but you consider Landing on Water to be the bottom of the heap?
ReplyDeleteI will always defend this album and I struggle to see why so many people consider it to be one of Neil's worst. When it came out, it was basically a return to form that found Neil writing good songs and playing and singing good basic funk and rock. He was getting serious again, albeit in a somewhat lighter way. Every song has good lyrics and melodies, and there's snarling guitar work smattered throughout.
And I always loved the dominant sound of Steve Jordan's drumming and the other "modern" sounds throughout. There's not a truly bad song on the album.
I won't single out Neil's albums that are much worse than Landing on Water, but I could easily name 10-15-20 albums that can't compare to this, including much of his well regarded 90s work.
People WAKE UP!! Landing on Water is a good to great album.
"Take my advice
don't listen to me"
Played it again.....and I woke up.....I dreamt someone here said LOW was a great record it's not.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good fun album with catchy melodies and good lyrics. It certainly draped itself in the "standard" 80s commercial sound with heavy drums, synths and affects, and I get that some people don't like it, or more importantly, don't want to like it, but I think that's more a function of expectations and revisionist negative history.
ReplyDeleteWhen it was released, Landing on Water hit me like a breath of fresh air. Finally Neil was making "normal" music again. No vocoder, no rockabilly, just good fun songs with the typical Neil quirkiness, humor, anger, fear, doubt and resolve. The album is filled with catchy songs, and from beginning to end, I enjoy them all.
Maybe it's all about expectations and perspective, but I liked the album the first time I heard it in 1986, and I still like it. It always makes me smile and makes me want to dance, and I hate dancing!
"Take my advice
don't listen to me"