So while Neil taketh the glorious Cortez "Almost Famous" Sneak Preview, Neil giveth a new Sneak Preview.
A new Sneak Preview of a track from the upcoming live album "Noise & Flowers" by Neil Young + Promise of the REAL has just been posted on NYA. (Thanks Phil!)
As reported earlier, "Noise & Flowers" is expected for release in 2021. The live album was recorded on the 2019 Europe tour and includes at least the track "Heart of Gold" in Berlin 2019 (per NYA LTE), as well as, the encore "Rockin' In The Free World". "Noise & Flowers" is planned as a double album, as well as, a concert film.
The lyrics to "Rockin' In The Free World" have been updated to include a dig at President Trump for "using this song".
‘NOISE AND FLOWERS’ is a record made just after the passing of my life - long manager and best friend, Elliot Roberts.
Promise of The Real and I had a tour planned of Europe. D and I were in the bus, on our way to New York to catch a plane to Europe . . . . when we got the call. After returning to the funeral for our beloved Elliot, we got on a plane and left for the tour.
During the tour, we had a poster of Elliot on a road case, right where he always stood during all shows. Everyone who was with us felt that this tour was amazing for its great vibe. The REAL and I delivered for Elliot.
Neil Young + Promise of the REAL
More on "Noise & Flowers" Coming in 2021: Neil Young + Promise of the REAL | NYA - UPDATED.
He giveth. We taketh. And, so, we thanketh Neil!
A slightly disjointed listening experience, yet definitely a passionate rendering. I did appreciate their desire to take the song to another place, although I’m not completely convinced it was successful. It did have some nice moments though. Just my first impressions.
ReplyDeletePeace 🙏
While Neil Young (and his various bands) in North America apparently appeal to all age groups European audiences are a little different from North American ones, older and more respectful maybe. Compare Neil's European acoustic Greendale tour to the experiences with audiences at acoustic tours in the US. For the 40+ generation audience "Rockin' in the Free World" forever will be the soundtrack or hymn to what happened in 1989 and the following years across central and eastern Europe. So this version (and the one played in Munich during the 2019 tour was very similar, or maybe it's the very one) to me was like a comment to what had happened since 1990. While everybody wholeheartedly embraced freedoms (that is: comsumer's freedom, freedom to travel, listening to Neil Young, expressing your opinion) many people began to choke on the fact, that freedom does have a price tag indeed. All these cacophonic noises, false endings and reprises but also the singing along in this version of RITFW to me represent the disorientation that befell many Europeans during these days and ever since. I see a connection to that recent LTE by an East German to Neil Young defending The White house imposter, not knowing what a government of this type in East Germany would have done after the iron curtain fell.
ReplyDeleteIs it gone already? I get a 404 for the link and can’t find it on the app.
ReplyDeleteNever mind, I am clearly in need of a coffee this morning!
Delete@ Dan - RITFW w/ Promise vs CH.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely diff styles on the song for sure. Yes, Promise's version do have that disjointed feeling as a pure audio experience b/c of the numerous false endings.
In concert tho, it is quite effective w/ audience, bringing crowd to peak over & over. we've been there, done that and it works, very cool. folks love it.
but yes on pure audio it can just seem a bit over extended. maybe the concert film will better capture the intent and impact.
but we get how folks are fond of the CH style of RITFW.
we're someone can produce a dissertation on the topic of RITFW: Horse vs REAL
all submissions welcome and considered here @ TW
peace
@ Dionys - the international perspective is most welcome and appreciated.
we'd certainly like to hear from other parts of EARTH to brinng more balance.
as we've said befire, don't let mastery of the language hold you bnack from commenting here.
we're able to interpret your thoughts and feelings just fine thru broken syntax.
no worries.
anyone bullying poor english, grammar & punctuation will be summarily sanctioned and sent back to obedience school.
(we're joking for all of those literal minded sanctimonious types.)
@ John - you're awake?! or just woke? or back to sleep? :)
enjoy your coffee and your day !
It can be assumed that someone at NYA is reading this blog on a regular basis. With my comment above, published this morning, relating to that East German Trumpist LTE I find it kind of "innaresting" that there now is a long news item on the newly introduced NYA politics page which gives a pretty good panorama of right wing developments in my country and where this LTE most likely came from. Could all be just a funny coincidence, of course, but still...
ReplyDelete@ Dionys - great! yet another "Neil-incidence"!
ReplyDeleteThe Neil synchronicities just keep piling up. but it does seem that someone out there has eye on TW given the CTK earlier this week.
yeah, the T-C is really spreading its wings in the name of freedom of the press w/ new sections on Politics, Sound, etc
In particular the new Sound page has some great info on DACs which is something that we've struggled to find the time to learn and understand how to achieve high resolution digital streaming via Bluetooth. Certainly not your Grandmas stereo of yesterday, for sure.
btw, just wanted to mention your previous reference to 1989 and Berlin Wall.
absolutely vividly recall seeing news clip scenes from Berlin with celebrants atop the wall, smashing it down to the soundtrack of RITFW. It was a glorious moment in the quest for freedom.
we don't think we've ever been more optimistic than those days at the thrill of the end of the long Cold War. A Cold War that really got hot ... until it didn't.
The peace dividend didn't last long though. About a year maybe.
And then onto more wars -- hot, cold and everything in between.
time to hit that peace trail again ...
He hasn't put out decent music in decades. Too wrapped up in politics. It's funny how people come to the U.S. to make it big, but once they do, they spend their time tearing the very country that made them multi millionairs down. He can talk a lotta shit from his mansion in Hawaii or Broken Arrow, but when it comes down to it, he's just another capitalist pretending to be a hippie.
ReplyDeleteSaid the Unknown.
DeleteHe is incredibly talented and is one of my favorites of all time. First time I saw him was 1973. But he really hasn't done anything to compare since the 80s. It funny to me when I see a young person walking around in a tye dye with Grateful Dead on it because I know that they didn't see them live but it's good to see that the music still lives on and resonates with the young. But the fact remains, Neil hasn't put much out that worth listening to in many years.
DeleteYou are not the yard stick for patriotism. Neil is an artist. If you like his music from the early 70s great buy Harvest and put it on repeat. He made that. He's moved on. He's evolved. You might not like all the art in the gallery, and that is fine, it doesnt take away from the artist or the art. Perhaps they are better left unsung, don't know don't really care. Let there be songs to fill the air....who was it that said that I wonder ;)
DeleteEveryone my age has a story to tell about these days. The Chinese massacre had happened just a few months before that and everybody was holding their breath with the refugee situation in Prague and elsewhere escalating, the demonstrations in Leipzig gaining momentum. And then the implosion of what a few weeks before was thought to be an eternal reality. My wife back then was counting passengers for the West German Railway company when within days hundred thousands of East Germans flooded Bavaria by train, rendering all previous statistics useless. I recall myself a couple of days later being involved in a clandestine trip to document and photograph the uranium mines in the southeast, a no-go-area in the then still existing GDR, but Soviets and the secret service people guarding the mines were all gone. I remember these East German border polic waving us through, being stone drunk. And I remember the phone calls of our friends everywhere in the world congratulating. And to me all this is tied to that Neil Young song. When my 17-year old son, who wasn't even born at the time, in 2011 played that song with his school band in front of a Canadian audience, he didn't know what an avalanche of emotions he triggered with his proud father.
ReplyDeleteI went to Antwerp, Amsterdam and Hyde Park on this tour. Really hope On The Beach from Antwerp makes the cut. One of my greatest moments of seeing Neil Live. It was superb.
ReplyDeleteThat would be great. Also crossing fingers for “Like an Inca” from Kilkenny.
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