Neil Young and Crazy Horse -‘Americana’ (Reprise)
So, let’s get the obvious pointers out of the way first. This is Neil Young’s 33rd solo album since his first, 1969’s self-titled debut. It is also the first time he has united with his longtime backing band Crazy Horse since 2003’s Greendale.
If you’d only ever heard one or two albums by Neil Young, it would be easy to try and pigeonhole him. But impressively, over four decades in music (getting onto five), he has sought not so much to reinvent himself as to continue to explore new avenues. Americana has been spoken of as being one of his more ‘unusual’ records (see also: Everybody’s Rockin’, Trans etc..) Yes, he has long been considered to produce records that would be considered ‘folk’ but also he has experimented with far rockier sounds (see his last album, the rather fine Le Noise, Ragged Glory). And on this album, the two come together.
The album is comprised of eleven folk songs, many of which as Young points out, are songs that they (he and Crazy Horse) would have learned in Kindergarten, plus finishing with ‘God save The Queen’ which would originally have been the de facto american National Anthem, until Independence. Rather wisely, there is no sound of the controversial ‘Rebellious Scots to crush’ line that appeared in early versions of this song. The songs presented are not pastiche, nor novelty, but rather Young and co.’s interpretation of them in their own style.
The album opens with ‘O Susanna’ – if there’s meant to be any reference to the infamous spat between Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd it’s not here), ‘I’ve come from Alabama with my B.A.N.J.O. on my knee.’ It’s not twee, it is Young and it is great. ‘Gallows Pole’ appears on investigation to be even older (0and possibly of European origin), and was performed by Led Zeppelin in the 1970s. ‘Jesus’ Chariot’ is probably better known on this side of the Atlantic as ‘She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain’, while ‘Clementine’ as long been reworded as a playground song (‘build a bonfire, build a bonfire, stick the teachers on the top/Stick *** in the middle and then burn the bloody lot!’).
Sure, these are ‘folk songs’ as in belonging to the people, rather than just having an acoustic guitar on them. The band truly make these their own -and if this is seen as being one of Young’s more ‘diffifult’ or ‘unusal’ albums, it’s a heck of a lot easier to get to grips with than most.
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Americana is out now on Reprise
Stream the album at The Guardian’s website
