In which our hero talks nonsense about Neil Young's 1968 Debut solo album.
Welcome to Ragged Glory, A Neil Young Adventure, where you join me on a trip through the back catalogue of one of the world's most prolific artists and songwriters, Neil Young. And there's no better place to start than at the beginning, sort of.
So in this episode we look at the debut "solo" album from Neil Young and try and see if we can find any hints of the artist he'd become on his first solo endeavour
We'll look at how the album stacks up against Neils other work as well as look at some reviews from 1968 before I try to mould my thoughts into a coherent "review" and pick a favourite track from the album
Ragged Glory is written and produced by Rob Jones.... you can find his other podcast Records & Bands, alongside his other side-quests on www.recordsandbands.com
And see what we're showing off from my record collection on Instagram
A few spoilers from the podcast…..
On “The Loner”…..
The Loner, track two, is a bit of a stomp along. And it really feels like a Neil Young that we've come to love. The guitar tones are really cool, really wicked. The rhythm guitar chugs along. There's some lead bits in there, they've got this like high pitched buzzsaw quality that I really dig. And then there's a few quieter bridges, kind of a throwback to that folksy feel on the first track.
On “What Did You Do With My Life”….
I really like this track. It is a bit of a mess and at one point it's on that kind of Laurel Canyon sound and then on the next it's stomping along and that high-pitched buzzsaw guitar is cutting through again, but all the way through his voice is delicate and beautiful. And again, maybe it feels like a demo for something that we'll hear on a later album. Not a specific song, but it just feels like maybe something off of early 90s Neil Young records, maybe something off of Broken Arrow.
On “The Old Laughing Lady”
Now, it takes a bit of a darker shift on this and it's fairly sedate and Neil's voice is definitely the highlight of the song really. The instruments are quite sparse, but at the same time there's quite a lot going on. There's odd little piano bits, the strings come in, there's a flute, when the flute comes in, yeah, it's really beautiful. And then in the second half of the track, the choir kicks in and it takes it to a new height, but it's a really, really good song and it takes you on a bit of a trip, which is maybe the point.
There’s loads more on the podcast so give it a listen and let me know your thoughts on this album and if you have any opinions you want to share about some of the albums coming up drop them in the comments Next time we're looking at 1969's Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. and The Grand Entrance of Crazy Horse.”
Share this post