Notes on Neil Young Album "Young Shakespeare" - A Telegram from the Scotsman

Young Shakespeare by Neil Young   

FROM: The "Inextinguishable Scotsman"

TO: Thrasher — my notes on "Young Shakespeare" are below. Thanks, and see you at TW!

Scotsman

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NEWSFLASH!

Neil was right.

Young Shakespeare *is* markedly different to the more famous Massey Hall album from the same tour in 1971.

At least part of this is down to production differences. Massey Hall is a more punchy and polished-sounding recording. It's very upfront...a classic David Briggs mix. Whereas Young Shakespeare sounds more like a well-worn bootleg — soft and hazy and dream-like.

Massey Hall has a cutting edge where Young Shakespeare floats on the breeze. And where Massey Hall is intense, Young Shakespeare is often more relaxed; aloof and distant, at times.

Now, I've been listening to Young Shakespeare via streaming on NYA. But I think this is the sort of album that should really be played on a proper record player on a snowy winter's evening.

There's a warmth to the inviting, crackly analog sound (and the performance) that really feels like a "journey through the past". This music isn't coming to you, in 2021: you're going back to it.

As for me, I wasn't even around in 1971. But I feel like I was, listening to this record.

We're travelling back before social media, back before the internet. Before mobile phones and blogs and instant messaging. Back when Neil hadn't written Like A Hurricane, and the World Trade Center's twin towers were still being built.

It's overwhelming, thinking of all the things still to come. Some good, some horrific.

Here's a question for you, out of curiosity:

Does 1971 feel like it was a very long time ago? Or the opposite: does it feel like it was yesterday?

For me, it feels like a different world entirely.

Is it possible to have nostalgia for a time you never knew? This record proves the answer is "yes".

Young Shakespeare isn't all warmth and cosiness. Certainly, Neil's spoken song-intro about heroin addicts (before The Needle And The Damage Done) should send a shiver down your spine:

"The ones I know, aren't dead yet."

Of course, at the same time this music was innocently dancing between the walls of the Shakespeare Theatre (a venue that, in my imagination, has velvet seats and friendly, uniformed staff), Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten was still living his life.

Tuscaloosa, meanwhile (a half-dead and borderline-depressing concert album from 1973), was recorded only about 10 weeks or so after Danny died from an overdose. And you don't have to listen to more than 30 seconds of the first track of Tuscaloosa to hear the difference in Neil's mental health.

The highlights of Young Shakespeare? For me, two tracks stand out.

A Man Needs A Maid is the first. It feels like the hard-hitting centerpiece, and the multi-layered piano arrangement shifts the record into a 3D experience. I love Neil's spoken song intro, too, where he sounds totally relaxed whilst enthusing to the audience.

The other stand-out track is Down By The River.

In its greatest electric performances (e.g. Bronco Bowl 1989), this song often attacks the listener like a cleaver-wielding maniac. Here, it seduces you down to the river before hiding your body inside a hollowed-out tree stump.

You'll listen to this version and find yourself haunted by it, days later.

Yes, it's true: there is a lot of violence in the world. There's horrific violence even in that non-vegan hamburger you just ate — for God's sake.

And there's even violence in the innocent world of 1971. Even within the safe space of the Shakespeare Theatre that we've temporarily found ourselves huddled together in.

We can't stay here forever. Sooner or later, we need to get back to 2021. I feel a bit sad as I write these words. And I sense you are feeling it, too.

I think Down By The River is a fitting end to this record. A powerful place to stop — on a (chilling) high.

But there's one more song, Sugar Mountain, which attempts to restore some cheer via a crowd sing-along. Neil is both relaxed and funny, here. But he's also just too "inward" to make this sort of thing work.

Of course, that's unfair: it probably *did* work well, live in the venue.

But I'm not in the venue! I'm here in 2021.

Or am I?

Listening to this record, it's hard to be sure. That's what I keep coming back to as I write this column. Time doesn't seem to matter too much. I've been writing now for a half-hour. Or is it an hour? Am I in 1971 or 2021? I've lost track.

Young Shakespeare has that sort of hypnotic effect. Hypnotic and magical.

Can a record be melancholy, cheerful, nostalgic, intense, tragic and relaxed — all at the same time? Give Young Shakespeare a few listens before sharing with me your answer.

Scotsman.

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FROM: Thrasher

TO: The "Inextinguishable Scotsman" 

Most excellent, sir.  Thanks for sharing your "notes"! 

We have given YS a spin or 2 and have watched the video films.  It still really stuns us all these years later how one man w/ an acoustic guitar could quell a large rowdy audience back in those turbulent times with new, unheard songs.  

It always struck as sheer bravery.  No band. No props. No effects.

So melancholy, cheerful, nostalgic, intense, tragic and relaxed?  All of the above, like water-washed diamonds on that rusted beach.

What is that they say about critics and sitting alone? Well, you're definitely much better than us for what you've shown.

Glad you're here Scotsman. As Meta Rocker would say:  om shanti

More on "Young Shakespeare" Album by Neil Young - Preview Track + Video: "Tell Me Why".

Young Shakespeare Deluxe (CD, LP & DVD) 

Neil Young's new release  "Young Shakespeare" is now available.

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