Happy 2021 ARC Day!
Well it's ARC day!
For the unitiated, Deb "Rewriting the Rules" on Rust has been encouraging folks to play ARC -- one of the more obscure Neil Young recordings -- on April 1 each year.
Part of the Arc-Weld release, Arc is 35 minutes of pure distortion and molten feedback from the 1991 Neil Young and Crazy Horse tour.
According to legend, Neil placed a video camera on his amp during the 1991 tour and recorded the beginnings and endings of various songs which were later edited down into the single track of Arc. "It was the sound of the entire band being sucked into this little limiter, being compressed and fuckin' distorted to hell," Neil said.
"Arc is like being inside of a very big thing. I equate Arc to that movie Fantastic Voyage -- it's like a trip through a power chord. The chord may last like five or six seconds, but it takes thirty-five minutes, at the size we're reducing ourselves to, to go through it." – Neil
Arc is a composition of feedback, guitar noise, and vocal fragments that was realized from various shows on the 1991 Neil Young and Crazy Horse US tour, which was originally released with Weld in a special-edition 3-CD set called Arc-Weld. Arc bears no small resemblance to the music of Sonic Youth, which was one of the support acts on the tour.
According to an interview with Steve Martin of Agnostic Front that appeared in the December 1991 issue of Pulse! magazine, Arc had its genesis in a film that Neil made called "Muddy Track" (referred to in an interview with David Fricke in the November 28, 1991, issue of Rolling Stone), which consisted of beginnings and endings of various songs from his 1987 European Tour. Neil placed a video camera on his amplifier during the 1987 tour and recorded the beginnings and endings of various songs, that were later edited down into the film's soundtrack. "It was the sound of the entire band being sucked into this little limiter, being compressed and fuckin' distorted to hell," Neil said to Martin, referring to the soundtrack of "Muddy Track". Young showed the video to Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, a noted figure in New York's avant-garde music scene, who suggested that he record an entire album in a similar manner. However, Arc was not recorded through video camera microphones, as was the case with "Muddy Track", but instead was compiled from various professional multi-track recordings made throughout the tour.
April Fool jokes are a long running rustie tradition going back to the '90's by playing ARC at full blast -- with the windows open -- on repeat for 24 hours.
Ever since, rusties have traditionally tried to raise the stakes with gags and jokes. TW also has a long tradition of ARC inspired April foolery over the years.
For example, here are a few April 1 highlights from the Archives:
- Neil Young Helps Complete Long Lost Film Starring Dylan and Hendrix
- Legendary Cellar Door Nightclub Becomes A Starbuck$
- SNEAK PREVIEW: Possible Europe Setlist for Neil Young and Crazy Horse?
- Behind The Scenes at the "Americana" Album Playback Session
- Free Neil Young Warmup Concerts Canceled
- Time Fades Away To Finally Be Re-released
- NEW NEIL SONG: "I am music and I write the songs"
- Toast: New Unreleased Crazy Horse Album
- Top 10 Reasons Why Neil Young is Better Than Bob Dylan
- BIGFOOT-RARE 1972 Neil Young Harvest PROMO LP on eBay
- Neil Young Suffers Brain Aneurysm: Long May You Run! (Which -- sadly -- was not a cruel April Fool's Day joke.)
- Separating the Wheat From the Chaff ... or... REAL From the Fake - No April Fool's Day Joke
At the bottom of these posts, we clearly indicate Happy Arc Day -- shorthand for "Don't Get Fooled Again". Even Archives Guy has commented in the past on some of our more clever attempts. Even Neil gets into on the fun. See his tweet in 2019:
More tickets are onsale to see Neil + Promise Of The Real at @BottleRockNapa on Saturday, May 25th. Plus, Neil will be giving away his entire collection of guitars at the show.https://t.co/uclQmTd7u3#neilyoung #neilyoungarchives #nya #bottlerock #napavalley #aprilfools pic.twitter.com/7HaAW3Ni4U
— Neil Young Archives (@NeilYoungNYA) April 1, 2019
Anyways, all in good
fun. Traditionally we avoid the internet on 4/1 and are always using our
disCERNment the other 364 days of the year.
The fakery and chaff reach new heights practically daily.
TW does it's part in trying to prepare folks for the Big Shift -- separating the wheat from the chaff... or truth from lies ... or real from fake -- as best we can with posts like: FACEBOOK UNCOVERED: How They Lied To You | Neil Young's Archives (NYA) Times-Contrarian. You can't say we didn't try...
But hey?!
Lukas Nelson sings "Turn Off The News" and brother Micah sings "Everything Is Bullshit".
So "Speak The Truth" where ever you are, when ever you can.
no harm, no foul.
peace
ps - In honor of ARC Day, Rust Radio will be playing ARC continuously for the next 24 hours.
Also, if you must have Neil Young's ARC, it is available on Amazon
NO. MORE. PAIN.
Attend ARC Day NOW!
"traveling twice the speed of sound, it's easy to get burned, with both feet on the ground"
Labels: neil young
by thrasher@PermaLink: 4/01/2021 10:23:00 AM
9 comments
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9 Comments:
(AP)Redwood California: April 1, 2009
Rocker Neil Young, caving in to fan pressure for the first time in history, is set to release a new song on Wednesday written after agonizing over blogger response to his new Fork In The Road album.
Says Young, " You know the pressure of everyday stardom has begun to really bother me, so, in an effort the placate the 100 or so fans that I have left, I decided to really concentrate on their opinions of my new stuff. I can't believe I haven't been sensitive to their wants and desires over the past 40 years. I cried to my wife Peg for hours over this. Finally after the tears dried, I was able to really commit to something so powerful that I couldn't deny it anymore. I really hope they like this new one"
Young has allowed release of these new lyrics in advance of the song. Finally, we can all agree that he has written a true masterpiece.
I've been alive forever, and I wrote the very first song
I put the words and the melodies together
I am music and I write the songs
I write the songs that make the whole world sing
I write the songs of love and special things
I write the songs that make the young girls cry
I write the songs, I write the songs
My home lies deep within you
And I've got my own place in your soul
Now, when I look out through your eyes
I'm young again, even though I'm very old
Oh my music makes you dance
And gives you spirit to take a chance
And I wrote some rock 'n' roll so you can move
Music fills your heart
Well, that's a real fine place to start
It's from me it's for you
It's from you, it's for me
It's a worldwide symphony
***
Thanks for the vintage rust memories SONY!
And soon we’ll even finally be able to play Arc on vinyl - that’ll be a treat for April fool’s 2022
Ps
Just listening to the ROLLING STONE MUSIC NOW podcast where some of their writers are talking about the Vol II box - we’ve obviously heard a lot of opinions already but Just in case you want to hear more (for me Vol II Is the most listened to box set I own out of any artist - I would put five discs on at a time in my CD carousel and let them play over and over and over late last year - particularly the old homestead, look out for my love and everybody’s alone discs - there you go another opinion!!)
Arc on vinyl !! of course, Thanks Thomas! what could go wrong?
In other news ....
NASA Names Guitar Stones on Mars after Neil Young
https://www.rusted-moon.com/2021/03/neil-young-mars-gitarren.html
I miss Sony chiming in here
random comment :
the intro to Love and Only Love on the quality CD mix of WDITRB is epic Neil & the Horse
Billy starts the groove..
it all begins to quake...
it builds & then Ralph just grabs the wheel & he kicks it in...
and then - and then
they all REALLY lock together and they just groove into the stratosphere!
I’ve had it with this shit! Phil Collins wrote more great songs than Neil Young EVER could! Stop wasting your time on box sets and unreleased albums! With Phil Collins you can have it all already! He had more talent in his little toe than any other artist ever, including Dylan!
Kidding! Un-Alan in LA
Sonic Youth were absolutely brilliant, miss them so much as a band. Most of their records are actually pretty catchy, even though they are so known for their use of dissonance. By Neil Young’s tuneful standards, Arc is indeed impenetrable. But after spending a little time listening to real experimental music, Arc sounds like what it is: a compilation of song and set endings. For me, Arc works as almost an alternate version of Like A Hurricane. It’s inseparable from Weld as an extension of that album. I find it soothing, almost easy listening. But I’m going to hold off on hearing it again until the vinyl box comes out and I can experience it in full fidelity!
well if you can't make it thru the entire ARC. There is always the promo ARC the single! I have that, anyone else ever find it?
Thanks for the post Thrasher. I remember well the backlash of Fork in the Road and somehow the idea of Neil caving in to peer pressure surfaced in that (AP) story idea and just made me laugh.
Hello Jonathan, thanks for the note. I'm around, just busier in life than before but still tracking. A little problem with sign-in has me puzzled as well. The kids are out of the house so my computer skills are back to hunt-and-peck strategy. Doesn't work too well I must say.
~SONY
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