Wow! Found some interesting things on LTTE: Question: "Was Deep Forbidden Lake going to be on Homegrown, when was it pulled and where was it in the track list?" Answer: "Deep Forbidden Lake was never in Homegrown" Just what I've thought. Those trial lists were nothing but...trial lists.
It also says you have to be careful with Neil's quotes, "Another song from "Homegrown." I cut this the same time as "Star Of Bethlehem." It hopefully signified the end of a long dark period which started with Time Fades Away." Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977 "Written in England after 1974 CSNY. Originally recorded for Homegrown." Neil Young from NYA Volume 1, Blu-ray disc 5 photos & clippings (alternate notes for Decade) 1976
I think Neil's been pretty good with revealing the sources of what he's released, and how they worked with it. Lets hope that continues with this OB series of releases.
I'll point out that Greendale isn't Neil using characters to put across political or social issues. Most of the writing is, to borrow his lyric, taking "pure bullsh*t and turning it into gold". In other words, he's trusting the creative process and seeing where it takes him, stepping into the void and pulling something out. Rather than self-consciously trying to force some pre-defined concept into the framework of the songs. Above all, it's an album that broadly focuses on people: their lives, their deaths and their relationships. With all manner of themes and interesting asides revolving around this central point. It's easier to demonstrate this with a separate example. On a slightly more epic scale, Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In America touches on the themes of prohibition, bank heists, and rape. But we can see that it's not really about those issues. These subjects just arise naturally as off-shoots. A more central and persistent theme is the relationship between the lead two characters (I won't elaborate more as it will spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet). So Carmichael isn't a song making a statement about the risks of being a policeman: it's a song centered, first and foremost, around grieving. About losing someone and living on without them. That's where the feeling of the song is. In fact, a lot of this album focuses on death and renewal, just like Sleeps With Angels. It's also easy to see why Neil once put this record on the same level as Tonight's The Night. Leave The Driving, meanwhile, is mostly a song that focues on a "split second tragic blunder". Jed suddenly becomes Cortez The Killer. The song Sun Green isn't primarily about fighting corporations, although that is a compelling side topic: it's more about Sun Green coming of age and finding her place in the world. And so on. The only song that really revolves around environmental issues is the last one, and it does so very compellingly. But I think the perception that this is some sort of heavy-handed "statement" album is why a lot of people have never really given Greendale a chance (though I do also understand, and respectfully disagree, with where @tug_of_war is coming from). It's not that, and it's actually so much more than that, as well.
I'm aware of what he says on Decade, I mentioned it myself on the wikipedia entry of the album. But one thing is to record a song for an album, including it is another. He recorded around 30 songs during that period, most of them were intended for the album, but since it was never going to be a double album, it was clear from the start that some of the songs he considered would have to be excluded. That's the case of Deep Forbidden Lake and many others. What he says on Decade doesn't necessarily contradict what he says now.
that was my question. i hope he keeps the stories between the songs. the bootleg i have is hard to hear at times, but the music is ****ing spooky.
You're totally right, great point. That's the difference between this and the times when he just rants about an issue. This feels like more because the main point is the characters. good call!
Still no preorder for Return to Greendale? Is it an NYA only release or what. Haven’t been paying attention.
While I'm a big fan of Greendale, it's third on my list of anticipated Neil releases for the rest of the year. My order is: 1. Archives Volume 2 2. Rust Bucket 3. Greendale Live 4. Young Shakespeare
"Sedan Delivery" is playing today in the Hearse, Screen 2. One thing that I like to do is focus on Poncho's rhythm guitar...on every Crazy Horse recording...but here is another clear example of him being such a 'glue' to all the pieces.
Thanks for the heads up. Sleeps With Angels is top tier Neil. Truly great. I don’t think he ever hit that level of quality again.....but I don’t want to start up the debate about latter years Neil again. Watching that I forgot what a strange and spooky song Safeway Cart is.
Neil making his guitar scream on thet Sedan Delivery performance. Man I am so looking forward to the Rust Bucket!
I was with you until the "gold" part. You probably spent more thought on Greendale than Neil did writing it.
It's a truly great album. And mysterious - there's a prevailing dark mood, but almost all the songs were written before Kurt Cobain's suicide. So it's about something heavy going on aside from that tragedy.
He did a bit of rejigging after Cobain’s death though. The opening song “Go To Heaven” was dropped, and the closing song “Go To Hell” was dropped as well. “Go To Heaven” reappeared possibly reworked (?) as “A Dream That Can Last”. I assume “Go To Hell” was some kind of electric version of “Go To Heaven” in much the same way that Neil opened and closed albums with the “My My Hey Heys” and “Rockin’ In The Free World”.
Uh oh...in the most recent batch of LTE, Neil is asked about footage Denny Purcell shot during the TFA tour in 1973. Neil says he will contact Denny and see if he has it. If Denny still has it, it might take some searching because Purcell passed on in 2002.
This is the first time that we've seen this Sleeps with Angels documentary, right? I hope that Neil follows up on his promise to add more material and release a complete version down the line. The footage of "Safeway Cart" is downright hypnotizing.
That was my question. I was surprised with Neil's answer too because I had researched Denny to ask him about it and found out what you did he's been dead nearly 20 years. The thing is the quote in Shakey makes it obvious that video was being feed to the truck. I've never read about theere being video screens on the '73 tour, so it seems the purpose would be to record the tape. But if it was being fed to the truck, I don't see why Denny would have it as the camera operator, one would assume it would have been archived similar to the audio recordings from the tour also recorded in the truck. Perhaps Neil misunderstood and thought I meant Denny was filming on like a 8mm camera or something. If this footage exists, I'm surprised it really hasn't been mentioned much other than about two sentences in Shakey. Anybody in touch with Joel Bernstein?
The other theory is that it was just a feed to monitors inside the recording truck so the engineers there could see what was happening onstage, with nothing actually recorded to tape.
Ya that's true and a definite possibility considering they were live recording. But Neil seems to want to archive everything, so an opportunity lost if he didn't
