Neil Young 1976-1988

[CRAZY-HORSE]

NEIL YOUNG "american stars and bars" #21 US, #17 UK, #21 AU

an underrated/forgotten NY album and one that should be discovered or rediscovered, whatever your case may be.
the album is a mix of styles from a waltz,country, rock, country crossover, psychadelic folk and contains the classic "like a hurricane", which IMO is the greatest song NY ever recorded, and almost certainly is his greatest vocal performance, at eight and a half minutes long it shows Crazy Horse at their finest moment. the Horse only play on two of the tracks on this on: "hurricane" and "bite the bullet" which is another great CH moment.
some of these tracks apparently date back as early as 1975 but that is no discredit to the album as it sounds like a complete album throughout. all tracks except for one are slightly underproduced to give that raw sound that NY is now known for, only the seven minute plus "will to live" is overproduced here and sounds like it could have been on his debut solo album. this album sold reasonably well on the back of the Stills-Young album and tour.
following the release of this one Young released a retrospective double album called "decade" which includes his favourite tracks from the first ten years of his recording career, which is a good place to start as a new NY fan.

worst track: will to live
best track: like a hurricane

tracks:

1. the old country waltz***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uSX0YOiJqU audio
2. saddle up the palomino***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOZqQTUCiBo audio
3. hey babe***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxxpePEjQaI audio
4. hold back the tears***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hGL4HtXCb8 audio
5. bite the bullet***
6. star of bethlehem**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrBPJEBL06U audio
7. will to live*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z4KdVwCvmI audio
8. like a hurricane***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KxiEjPCXA8 live
9. homegrown**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eetrxNlR-M live

3s=6
2s=2
1s=1

rating: 2.4