Simply Neil
Today (November 12, 2021) is Neil Young’s 76 th birthday. His music has been a part of me for forty years. I'm fifty-two. In that time, I’ve learned there are some truths, both good and bad we have to keep in mind about our boy Neil... NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF NEIL: All Neil albums (with the exception of two, maybe) have at least one song that is substandard, and often truly horrible at that. But that’s okay because… NEWTON’S SECOND LAW OF NEIL: All Neil albums have at least three songs and other moments that make them worthwhile. Consider Trans , considered by many (not me) to be the nadir of Neil’s career. Half of the album was Neil doing songs a la Kraftwerk, with synthesizers, vocoders, drum machines, and the like (this was 1981 and well before MTV made such standard issue). The remaining songs used traditional instrumentation with Crazy Horse in support. Honestly, the electronic songs are better (with one exception) than the traditional songs. ...