"Suave...Godd@m, You Are One Suave F#$%*!"

The title of this post just came to me in a flash, 15 seconds before I typed it. I took just enough time to say to myself, "That's WAY too obscure," and then, "Is that even the right line?" Finally, I answered myself, "Close enough, since nobody's going to get it anyway." [A hint follows in the 1st sentence of the next paragraph.]

Neil writes on AFTER THE GOLD RUSH (1970), "Most of these songs were inspired by the Dean Stockwell-Herb Berman screenplay "After the Goldrush'." Apparently, Neil was quite the fan of Dean Stockwell. In any event, this is one of my absolute favorite Neil albums of all time. It's hard for me to rank Neil's albums in order of "best to worst", because each album has its own mood and feel. But, any way you cut it, this is on my short list (say, "Top 5" certainly).

This is definitely one of Neil's most consistently excellent albums from start to finish, and one of his most lyrically inventive. The imagery is inspired. Maybe I should try to track down that screenplay...

Side One begins with the acoustic "Tell Me Why", which is classic Neil ("Sailing heart-ships/Through broken harbors/Out on the waves in the night/Still the searcher/Must ride the dark horse/Racing alone in his fright/Tell me why/Tell me why/Is it hard to make/Arrangements with yourself/When you're old enough to repay/But young enough to sell?"). Great opener. [haahnster note: Many people have misheard the "old enough to repay" as "old enough to repaint".]

The title track follows, and is one of Neil's most brilliant songs. He plays it on the piano, and sings in that ultra-high/falsetto voice that doesn't always work, but works perfectly here. "Look at Mother Nature on the run/In the 1970s", "I was thinking about/What a friend had said/I was hoping/It was a lie", etc. Amazing.

"Only Love Can Break Your Heart" is acoustic-based, but with more accompaniment. "I have a friend/I've never seen/He hides his head/Inside a dream". This is followed by the blistering "Southern Man", one of Neil's all-time classic rockers. "I saw cotton/And I saw black/Tall white mansions/And little shacks/Southern man/When will you/Pay them back?/I heard screamin'/And bullwhips cracking/How long? How long?" And, the guitar-soloing easily matches the fury of the lyrics. Side One ends with the ultra-brief "Till The Morning Comes". It's as if Neil is allowing the listener to regain his/her senses after the onslaught of the previous song.

Side Two opens with a cover of Don Gibson's country standard, "Oh, Lonesome Me". I've read negative things about this song. I think it works here. However, it's certainly not essential to the album, in my opinion. Next up is one of my favorites, and another candidate for Neil's "most overlooked song" (I can't believe it wasn't on DECADE), "Don't Let It Bring You Down". Check out the lyrical imagery on this one, "Cold wind ripping/Down the alley at dawn/And the morning paper flies/Dead man lying/By the side of the road/With the daylight in his eyes". It goes on...truly awe-inspiring.

"Birds" is a beautiful, piano-based tune with great harmony vocals. "When You Dance I Can Really Love" is a great rocker of a song. It is a favorite concert tune, and later appeared on LIVE RUST and YEAR OF THE HORSE. "I Believe In You" is next. It's a perfectly fine song, but I certainly wouldn't have included it on DECADE over some of the others on this album (of course, Neil never asked me). "Crippled Creek Ferry" closes the album. Man, at 1 minute, 34 seconds, it is WAY too short!!! I would love to have this expanded into a full 3 or 4 minute song.

It's interesting (to me, at least) to note that after Neil's previous album, which ended both sides with extended guitar workouts, he went in the exact opposite direction here, ending both sides with extremely short songs. Also, some housekeeping issues: my album cover lists these songs as "When You Dance I Can Really Love" and "Crippled Creek Ferry", but the label on the record itself says "When You Dance You Can Really Love" and "Cripple Creek Ferry". However, the lyrics, which are in Neil's handwriting, have the "I Can" and "Crippled" versions of the titles that match the album cover. So, that's what I'm going with. I know it seems like a minor point, but somebody somewhere would've said something.

Bottom line: When my brother expressed an interest in Neil Young's music, I bought him this album (on CD), along with GREATEST HITS (2004). That's how good I think this album is, and how underrepresented I think it is on DECADE.

PS - OK, I couldn't help myself. I just did some quick research (gotta love the internet), and found this about the David Lynch film Blue Velvet:

In one of the film's most striking scenes, Ben (Dean Stockwell), the effeminate, clownish, kabuki-like, Queen Bee proprietor-pimp and host of the small-town bordello greets them in the outer room of the filthy gangster's den. With mascara, lipstick, and ambiguous sexual/gender orientation, he is dressed in a gaudy, ruffle-fronted tuxedo and sporting a cigarette holder. The hellish brothel is peopled by several over-bloated, heavily made-up whores and a fat man
- it is a veritable insect hive of insect creatures. Frank is impressed by the effete look of his homosexual/pimp friend:

Suave. God damn, you are one suave f--ker.

My memory isn't completely shot!!! Click here for more.