NEW TRACK: "Song Of The Seasons" by Neil Young & Crazy Horse + PATRON Zoom w/ Neil
by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
We interrupt our "unplanned/forced sabbatical" here at Thrasher's Wheat, with breaking news of a new song from BARN, the upcoming album by Neil Young & Crazy Horse.
"Song Of The Seasons" by Neil Young & Crazy Horse is previeing now on Neil Young Archives.
Neil shares the following:
"Written in Canada about a year ago, it’s the oldest song on Barn. There was a recording of the song done in my hometown that is the earliest. This is the first one with Crazy Horse! It starts the album."
ny
From WBR label PR:
"10 new songs that capture the raw, idiosyncratic rock and roll spirit and lyrical beauty that epitomizes a classic NYCH collaboration. Recorded this summer under a full moon, in a restored off-grid 19th century barn high up in the Rockies, the Horse was right at home and the album’s stunning love songs, reflective ballads and powerhouse rockers naturally burst into life."
"The Volume Dealers" — Neil Young & Niko Bolas — Engineers: Guy Charbonneau, Anthony Catalano
Neil Young: guitar, harmonica, vocal
Nils Lofgren: accordion, vocal
Billy Talbot: base, vocal
Ralph Molina: drums, vocal
UPDATE: PATRON Zoom call w/ Neil just completed where he discusses BARN recording. See report summary by GreyRider below in comments. Thanks much GreyRider!
Labels: album, crazy horse, neil young, song, track
by thrasher@PermaLink: 10/13/2021 09:58:00 AM
54 comments
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54 Comments:
Sweet acoustic tender love song with which to start the album.. Very fitting given the trauma and exhaustion we’re all suffering from since the last Crazy Horse album. Neil introduces us to his current emotional and state and reflects on current events. Nils’ accordion really sets the contemplative tone on this one. Ralph and Billy do a great job letting the song flow easily like the stream to which Neil refers, they are totally in the groove with Neil and Nils. I’m sure the album will build to the Crazy Horse feed backed rockin’ barn shaking crescendo for which we are all thirsting! I’m excited to hear more. Thanks for teasing us Neil! Love the cover art too!
Barn also is added to the timeline. Besides the preview track, the tracklist is: Heading Back, Change Ain't Never Gonna (Come?)
Canamerican, Shape of You, They Might Be Lost, Human Race, Tumblin' Thru the Years, Welcome Back, Don't Forget Love.
Listening to "Song of the Seasons" I am strongly reminded of The Circle Game - and not just for the refrain of that song.
Looking at the song titles I do not expect a "feed backed rockin' barn shaking crescendo" - but as always I could be dead wrong.
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Release date: december 10th.
Just got off another of these last minute Patron calls with Neil. Been lucky both times as he gives you about 2h notice (because, as explained on the call, they don't want to commit to anything and keep it spontaneous). Anyway, Neil looks/sounds great and in good health. My rough notes from the call (as its good to share):
Harvest Time will have a lot of things you have not heard before. Different versions of songs like Alabama, Words, studio takes from Nashville. Considering four Harvest outtakes that that did not make the record. Dance, dance, dance, Bad fog, see the sky about to rain.
There will be a movie for the new Barn album that goes with music and them learning songs, and doing everything. Nils brings a finesse to the Horse that is not usual for the Horse! His sympathy for the music is important. Welcome Back has a long jam in it. The record is a gift as he’s had the time to spend on the music. He feels really good about it. Very special to him. Already starting looking at the next record! Written the next song already. Probably longer songs and maybe a double LP.
Touring when safe, but Neil’s not there yet.
NYA Vol III is huge. There will be a CD package with exactly same audio content as Blu Rays. BRs are huge. Almost twice as big as the other NYA volumes. Unfinished albums in there that he has now finished. No replays of anything. A lot reordered. No Rust Never Sleeps again, for example. Also there are 2 audio documentaries: One playing with Nicolette and Linda when showing them the songs for the first time and another like that which is while they were practising (Union Hall from Nashville?) for the Miami gig.
Biggest surprise about NYA is how much of a part of his life it is and how much he has to focus on himself, which is why he is focussing on new things and not just going through the old shit. Really enjoys the letters and is part of his routine.
Still records all analogue. Neil is bothered about tech companies not preserving the original art. They are more focused on coming up with new mixes than the sacred pieces of music by the artist. They do not respect the original music.
Neil says “you never know” about a question re doing a new album with synthesisers, vocoders, etc. He never closes the door on anything.
Does not have a favourite cover of his songs off the top of his head, but he thinks it’s nice when other artists cover him.
The end of Human Race on Barn is like ARC, which was just a suite of endings in itself.
Lost verse of Cortez is lost. When the power went off it was lost.
1969 Canterbury Show. He remembered it being good. Thinking about it as a 3 CD set for NYA members.
The Q&A will go up on NYA at 17.00 PT but maybe only for Patrons who missed it.
Peace. Toby
Thank you Toby!!
@ Greyrider / Toby : I was there with you for the Patron Zoom call and you sum it up nicely. A very relaxed vibe and very enjoyable experience. Nothing I can add to what you posted, but a real nice perk for being a Patron member.
Peace 🙏
Thanks! Good to know.
Nice! Glad you were in on that action!
Alan in Seattle
This is an excellent summation of the Zoom. Great job Toby
Wow....that's good info.....thanks Toby!!! Bet that was exciting being on that call!!!
Patron call was superb, would have missed it but got a message from Mark Golley to tell me, had to rush home from an open mic where I was performing.
I felt NY was much more relaxed than on the last one, was swilling beer and ended up with hiccups.
Worth every penny of the patron level, he did say we give you nothing for that level, i disagree, two Zoom calls more than makes up for it.
Andrew Byrom
Rodley, UK
Thanks everybody. It's a pleasure and summarising meetings/info is kinda my day job! One thing I forgot to mention is how nice it is to see all the rusties and NYA crew on the call. It's a lot of fun scrolling through the zoom screens (about 250 people joined, most with video on) during the call and putting names to faces (Dan! Robert! Catman!).
@Andrew : I totally agree….. completely worth it.
Peace 🙏
Everybody Knows This Is Pre-Sale Time. The numbered De Luxe version with Vinyl, CD, Blue Ray with a DH documentary, photo prints and D/L Code is up for 71 € + customs and delivery fees.
just a word preordered :-)
what a long wait we have in front of us...
the #big #curiosity #grows
Pretty mellow song by Crazy Horse standards, not bad by any stretch. I do agree that the accordion adds a nice layer to the sound. Overall, I'm pretty happy after hearing it.
I'm not sure if a whole album of mellow Horse is what I really want, we do love to hear the Horse BURN, but then again, these are not young men playing this music. Maybe the days of crunchy Crazy Horse like a "Sedan Delivery" or "Piece of Crap" may finally be over. Let's see what the rest sounds like, it's always exciting to get fresh Crazy Horse.
@ Richie : During the Zoom Call Neil said that there are some jams on Barn and one song in particular has a ending jam similar to Arc, so rest assured that the Horse will burn.
Peace 🙏
This new song has all the familiar elements Neil has used before (with the exception of the accordion which is the driving force here) and like a lot of his songs, this one required a few listens (for me anyway) before it started to really sink in. This has been the case for me with a lot of Neil’s songs over the years. Sometimes I feel that instant connection with a song but with others it takes a while before it hits me. I’m not even sure if that makes any sense really, but I wasn’t sure what to think about this one on the first listen. It wasn’t like I disliked it, but perhaps it just felt almost too familiar at first. After about the third time through things started to fall into place, and I made a connection with what his intention was.
The song is definitely observational, although I don’t quite understand the verse about the queen and how it relates to the other elements of the lyrics. Perhaps it has to do with Canada I suppose. I’m certainly open to any other interpretations anyone else might have on the subject. He’s looking through a different window on each verse except the last one, and it’s clear that his love for Daryl is key to how he sees the world around him. My favorite line is “I see nature makes no mistakes”. That one line says it all really. A song written by someone who has lived a long life and learned much along the way, and knows what is truly important. Love.
Peace 🙏
Hi Dan, I had an opposite response, although I totally get what you are talking about. I immediately love that song, grabbed me. I have no answer to the last verse. I think, and I am groping, perhaps an echo of loneliness and loss of relevance (or worse)- the Queen has everything she ever really had, or at the macro-level, the institution is what led to our problems. Human "royalty" is simply a mistake and will be washed away by the eternal force of natural reality.
I mean to say, the queen has lost everything she ever really had- or thought she had, an illusion.
@ Abner : That actually makes sense, I think. I really do like the song and I have a feeling it will be the perfect song to begin the journey through the rest of the album. Neil definitely knows what he’s doing. Can’t wait to hear the whole story. And I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the lyrics.
Peace 🙏
I spent the last four days in the driftless area of northeastern Iowa and southwestern Wisconsin. We were doing water quality sampling in several stunningly beautiful trout streams that are close to animal confinement operations. Current plans have a new 10,000 cattle confinement being constructed right on the watershed of several of these creeks (I found the facility and it has manure lagoons the size of hockey rinks or larger). I thought of Neil's new song. What is going on in this country right now is so totally stupid, so incredibly selfish and short-sighted. I met our sons on Friday night and they trout fished while I worked with colleagues. I told them, "enjoy it now because in two years it will very probably be ruined." Neil is in my head, he is right.
Song feels low effort and phoned in. I love Neil but c'mon man!
I'm sniffing for the Horse and I don't smell a thing
@ Unknown: Thanks for your input here, always nice to get a general sense of how people feel about a new song. I respect your opinion and would like to get a little more information on your take on the new song. Your post certainly says a lot, but could you please elaborate on what you’ve already said. I’m actually very interested in hearing more.
Peace 🙏
Unknown, I would also like to hear more, please elaborate.
It's the barn or stable where it starts - not the pasture. Sniffing around in a barn does get you a lot of smells. Currently it will be the smell of this falls hay. Back in the old days when I still was a freewheelin' tramp in the wide open valleys of Bavaria, barns with well dried hay were very cozy places to stay overnight, especially in cold October nights...
Also: Not smelling anything nowadays counts among the first symptoms of a dreaded infection.
ha ha ha!!!! Let's hope someone has "cleaned the stalls"
Don't spook the horse!
@ Dionys : What a wonderful post!!! It really stirs up some wonderful memories.
Peace 🙏
The barn motive maybe is one of the roots of my Neil Young over-identification. Empty barns also were the location of many wild fests back then. I lost the second disc of my "Live Rust" LP-set at one of them and that hurt because Ididn't have any money to buy another one. In the 70's and 80's countryside Bavaria barns were the places where all got real, your friends, the girls, the music. (Insert here: Theme for an Imaginary Barn Stomp).
Another unneeded redundancy. Hes completely lost the ability to write new good songs. But thats nothing new. I wont retire but I might retread. Yea no kidding. How many times can you recycle the chords and melody. A infinity number it seems. How a guy who had 30 good years of songwriting ending 1996 can fall to such medicore to bad depths. I am a fan w 50 shows on my resume. No ones making me buy new product and I wont waste my time. Im glad hes still here to quote Vedder. Im glad hes healthy and if the times permit he'll be out there again playing. But count me out. Not good. I mean look at something like Expecting to Fly. Brilliant and inspired. What happened to that guy. How bout something half as good. Impossible. It would have happened by now if it was gonna occur.
Ny gonna do what he wants. Regardless. Thats his right
"More barn!"- well some sunuvabitch had to say it...
"unneeded redundancy" is itself a redundancy.
This whole Patron shit has me feeling dirty. As much as I love Neil and his music, I can't get into buying a friend, and only on their terms. It also separates and divides the audience. Not a good feel especially in this world where I come for music to get away from that.
"Nobody ever said to Van Gogh: 'Paint the Starry Nights again'" (Joni Mitchell on Miles of Aisles). Van Gogh later painted farmhouses with a few barns thrown in, windmills and a lot of fields and cottages. But he completely lost his ability to paint starry nights. How a good guy who had 30 years of painting ending in 1889 can fall to such mediocre to bad depths... You get it. By the time he composed The Ninth Symphony Beethoven had completely lost his hearing, but today nobody said that he should have written something like the Fifth Symphony again instead. Not that I would rank Neil Young in these spheres of artistry, but I do believe that he is well beyond "these hook and ladder dreams". My idea of an artist's existence is that he or she permanently has to re-invent him- or herself, doing what they want. That's not only a right of the artist, it's his or her raison d'être. "It's easy to get buried in the past". So if you loose your curiosity listening to Neil Young, it's not decided who lost what.
Thanks all for keeping the neil-rust conversations burning.
@ Dionys - it is these deeply profound & thoughtful responses here that help inspire us to pick the torch back up again someday.
this subject of "what an artist owes to their audiences" (& see Artists who challenges their audiences) has been a long running passion here @TW. and it will become even more pertinent as time marches ahead relentlessly and predictably ...
thank you for being here & peace be with you
In order to meet Neil Young in person I had to buy show tickets at a price that is prohibitive for many people around me who also like his music - so they are separated and divided, too? And I live on a different continent, with a lot less opportunity to attend a show tha most Americans, am I separated?
Does that make me a somewhat lesser Neil Young fan? Or is it time that separates us as fans because there are fans who think that beyond 1996 NY lost it and I have not been to NY shows before 1982?
Buying a Neil Young ticket makes me a part of the audience, I am not his personal friend in the conventional sense of the term (although he and DH did things for me and some close friends, that would qualify NH and DH somehow to be literally pretty distant friends of mine because we share a common interest beyond music).
As a patron I am happy in supporting a structure (NYA)and the people working for it, that I find interesting, and which apparently is still in need of sponsoring because it is not yet self-supporting. I like the idea that other fans who are not patrons or not in the Rust tier can participate because patrons make contributions to keep NYA running.
I missed out on these Zoom calls twice, because the announcing messages and the time frame are maybe not that convenient for Europeans. But eventually that might happen. I think it to be like a "Meet and Greet" occasion. I might be too timid to ask a stupid question before this forum of knowledgable fans with better questions. I would not feel d divided and separeted. If there were 250 onlookers during the last date, how many got the chance to ask a question, communicate personally /digitally with Neil Young?
Dionys, brilliant post. I think the move along or rust sort of approach works in philosophy and literature as well. Repetition is creative suicide.
@ Dionys : I would like to echo Thrashers and Abner here… you have spoken wisely and compassionately and you hit the nail on the head with regards to artists. The great ones are always searching for the next best way to express themselves and they don’t owe any obligations to their fans in the process. The best of them continue moving forward and don’t concern themselves with their past; always seeking and changing. This is a quality that is almost always misunderstood by those who have not been touched by creative forces. Thank you for speaking it so clearly so others may come to understand the creative process.
Peace 🙏
Dear Dan . You don't know anything as usual. Tw i dont want trouble but i hate both alan and dan .
Oh stop it WS. Be constructive and productive or do not post here. Hate has no place.
This is a great topic and I just want to add a few points, ideas, arguments. A nice Friday morning here with a break in work. Yes, the artist moves forward, but as we think about it carefully, any forward movement is conditioned (always and necessarily) by the artist's past. So, while some artist x might not care about their past, their past still informs what they do and, more importantly, can do. For example, I do not think Rust Never Sleeps was really possible without Tonight's the Night and On the Beach. Neil Young was building pieces into his future as an artist. There are all kinds of elements in the 80's albums that made the enormous creative burst of Freedom and Ragged Glory possible, along with the incredible creative pieces of the 70's. And then we have to expect an exhaustion or depletion at some point. Faulkner's biographer titled his book "Ten Matchless Years"- the years that included "The Sound and the Fury," "As I Lay Dying," "Absalom! Absalom!" "Light in August" and "Go Down Moses." What followed was a gradual decline. The works were still vital and worthy but they were not at the same level of achievement. I don't think we should think of this as failure, this is just human. Remember that Neil Young is now an old man, there is no avoiding this fact, even though I sometimes would like to. He manages in various ways to keep elements of youth, but ultimately that fades as well.
@ Abner : Excellent points, and outstanding comparison.
I think that it’s important to recognize that artists don’t necessarily pay as much attention to their past as their fans do. They just move on to the next thing, while a fan may get really touched by a particular piece that they resonate with in a deep and personal way. This tends to bring on expectations that the artist doesn’t recognize, or isn’t interested in exploring. So they just naturally move on, and the fan is disappointed because he or she wants more of what they need, without considering where the artist wants to go next.
The whole age element is definitely a factor in why some fans are reluctant to embrace what Neil is producing lately. Perhaps it has to do with their own issues with aging, I wouldn’t know. He’s only doing exactly what he has always done. I don’t really need Neil to pretend he’s not growing old and I respect his willingness to allow that to be reflected in his music. If people don’t like his later stuff that’s okay. They have every right to dislike whatever they choose.
Personally, I’m really enjoying growing old with Neil. I totally get where he’s coming from and I’m really looking forward to hearing this new album.
Peace 🙏
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It's pretty harsh to say Neil lost his songwriting edge in the last 25 years. Try writing 1,000 songs with such an amazing track record of great songs like Neil did. Of course there's reused melodies and ideas. I'm a songwriter and I gotta say, none of us can do that.
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@ wsanjose01 - during these Big Shift times, it is more important than ever that we not succumb to the divide and conquer strategy of TPTB.
already, we -- The People -- are massively divided across every demographic, black/ white, rich / poor , etc.
rusties are one the last remaining undivided communities. let's stand strong together.
that's how we prevail
UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL
peace,
koritfw
Thanks for the insightful response. As my two responses were ultimately deemed unnecessary I deleted both, and desired to simply move on.
Peace 🙏
Dan, you were the person who got me to first comment here, thanks for being you. I hope to meet you in the near future.
@ Abner : Thanks for the support my friend, I would really enjoy the opportunity to meet with you some day. Your input here has not only been valuable, but important. You bring so much to the conversation. and I respect your knowledge and insights. You have so much to offer, and we all benefit from your presence here on Thrashers Wheat.
Peace 🙏
You have missed a lot of great albums from Neil by believing your own negative propaganda. That’s sad for you. Peace Trail is a masterpiece of sorts. Le Noise is also a masterpiece. I love Americana and Psychedelic Pill. Great stuff. Crucial, searing. If you don’t see brilliance in Walk Like a Giant, maybe you should take off this dark, dark glasses and find a new prescription. Eddie Vedder’s words are not significant in this discussion, speaking of artists who can’t compete with their own past works.
The world is burning. Planet Earth is in tough shape. There are lots of things to be upset about. But take your cynicism and shove it in a new direction. Your lack of ability to find joy in Neil’s later work may be more about you than the Artist. Alan in Seattle
It’s an honor to be hated by a fool such as you.
Alan in Seattle
Good, now go away and take your misery with you.
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