I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: NEIL YOUNG-Live at the Fillmore East (1970) & Live at Massey Hall (1971).

I came to the Neil Young ballgame much later than lots of fans. I’ve always more or less liked Neil, I really liked his Weld live album, and of course, I knew all of his classic rock, um classics. It was Sarah who really turned me on to Neil’s more mellow side, especially Silver and Gold. And, once you’re into the raucous and the mellow, well, that’s the whole oeuvre, pretty much.

So, I’ve been getting various records by him over the years. And there was so much buzz about these archival releases that I had to check them out. I’m not going to go into whether they were “worth the wait” (some complained about waiting twenty some years for these releases to get only 6 songs on the first one…but I wasn’t waiting terribly long for them, so I don’t care).

Live at the Fillmore East. This is a fun, rowdy little disc. I’m confused as to why it’s only 6 songs, as surely they would have played more at the time, but I’m not going to spend any real time figuring that out. The first two songs, “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” and “Winterlong” are fuzzy, brief versions of these cuts. They’re a good opening in prep for the twelve minute “Down By the River.” Two more short songs, “Wonderin'” and “Come on Baby Let’s Go Downtown” barely prepare you for the 16 minute “Cowgirl in the Sand” conclusion. I didn’t know that “Downtown” was a “Crazy Horse” song and not a Neil song. I’m not even sure where I know it from, but it was as familiar as most of his tracks. And it was interesting to hear one of the other guys sing the song.

This is Neil and Crazy Horse at their 1970s prime. They sound great, the extended tracks aren’t tiresome, and the quality of the recording is fantastic.

Live at Massey Hall. The same quality is evident on this recording as well. But this record is just Neil solo. It’s a more mellow affair, with the songs being pretty evenly split between acoustic guitar and piano. This disc has 17 songs on it and only one runs over 5 minutes (actually the closing “Dance, Dance, Dance” runs pretty long too, but it’s basically 2 and a half minutes of applause which Neil really should have cut).

What is most interesting/fascinating/cool about this recording is that so many of these songs, which at this point are rightly deemed classic, are heard here by this crowd for the first time. It’s really funny to hear a song like “Needle and the Damage Done” that doesn’t immediately generate a huge round of applause on the first note. You can hear the Toronto audience really listening to the songs. It’s pretty intense.

There’s two or three songs that he says something like, “I just wrote this song last week.” There’s also the really fascinating introduction to “A Man Needs a Maid/Heart of Gold Suite.” I’ve never much like “A Man Needs a Maid” but when he explains the context for writing it (that he’s making a musical (and whether that is true I have no idea) and you can hear the orchestral version playing along in your head) it actually WORKS! The only confusing thing is that he busts into “Heart of Gold” in the middle of the song, and no one bats an eyelash because no one has heard it before!

It’s a really cool collection of songs. I’ve not heard Neil banter so much on record before, and he sounds so YOUNG. It makes sense to hear him write and sing “Old Man” since he wasn’t an old man at the time.

It’s hard to pick one or the other because they are so different, but I think for historical value Massey Hall is the winner. Plus, you get the home town crowd cheering every time he mentions Canada.

[Read: January 28, 2007] This Shape We’re In.

This is a strange little book. It’s about 55 pages. I had never read any Jonathan Lethem before, and since this book was cheap from the McSweeney’s store I thought I’d give it a shot. And boy is it strange. The pun of the title is that the characters are indeed in a shape.
It is never stated exactly what the shape is, nor do the characters really seem to know. They seem to be aware that the shape is, vaguely, human. There is talk of various body parts as they trudge through. At times it seems like the characters are microscopic, and yet they have full awareness of things that happened in the human world (Marlon Brando, various films, etc).

The plot is basically that Mr F and his son’s friend are traveling through the Shape looking for Mr F’s son, who went in search of the eye (or the third eye) of the shape. Through a series of humorous incidents (the main character has a deliberately unfortunate sense of humor) the two men make their way to the heavily guarded eye.

If you’re expecting full clarity, you’ll be disappointed by the story, as the resolution, such as it is, is preparation for a battle against an unspecified enemy. However, if you simply accept the story as a bizarre alien landscape and look forward to seeing what happens, you will enjoy this piece. I’m not sure it would have worked if it was full novel length, but it was quite a bit of fun at this length.