I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: NEIL YOUNG-Chrome Dreams II (2007).

I reviewed some live Neil Young releases a little while back, and now I’ve come to this, Neil’s latest release. Since he stopped making his grunge records in the nineties, he’s been releasing a lot of records that are more mellow (aside from Living with War which was clearly a cathartic outburst for him). Silver and Gold (2000) is a very pretty collection of songs, and Greendale (2003) is a fun, meandering story with some rather good songs on it. So, Chrome Dreams II is a really nice change of pace for the man of so many genres.

There’s some back story about why it’s called Chrome Dreams II, and you can read about it here if you want. But I just want to talk about the songs. The record starts off with another fantastic country-tinged ballad “Beautiful Bluebird” as heartwarming a song as Neil writes. But it’s really song three that is the standout track. At over 18 minutes long, “Ordinary People” is a weird piece of music for Neil. It’s a very simple song: verse, chorus, bridge, solos. It rocks pretty hard, almost like the grunge days of yore, but the horns make it seem less grungey and more classic rocky. The verses are little slices of life, the chorus is about how the folks in the choruses are all ordinary people, and the bridge moves to the solos. What is pretty impressive about the song is that it never gets tedious, even for 18 minutes. The solos are pretty interesting, and they get more frenetic as the song goes on, but there’s also solos from the horn section (yup, the song has horns, too). My favorite part of the song is the seemingly tossed off feeling of it. The backing vocals don’t really keep up with the lead vocals, sometimes they’re lazily behind, there’s even some improvs from them. It just sounds like they’re having a lot of fun. And that’s good. Normally I like my 18 minute songs to have multiple parts and time changes, but this one manages to pass by on charm.

The rest of the album contains a mix of pretty ballads and unusual rockers. “Shining Light” is another strong ballad that hearkens back to the seventies for me. And then there’s “Dirty Old Man,” a totally silly song about being, well, a dirty old man. It rocks pretty hard in the way many of Neil’s classic songs do. The album then winds down with a 14 minute song that’s not quite a thrilling as “Ordinary People,” as it’s a lot more soloing. The album ends with a pretty song sung with what seems like a children’s choir, “The Way,” which is cute and never descends into mawkishness.

It’s an album that’s all over the place, and yet those differences really make the set versatile and interesting. It’s a really enjoyable collection. It seems that with every new release, people always talk about how Neil is washed up. It must be hard to live up to the glory days of the classic period. And yet, I find his newer releases to be very enjoyable, too. I can’t help but wonder, if you’re Neil Young, you pretty much have to recognize that your all time classic songs are behind you. I mean, he has songs that people still love that are over 30 years old. So, it’s probably okay to sit on your laurels a bit. He still turns out good solid records every couple of years. So, is it possible he’s saving up another “Like a Hurricane” or “Ohio?” I was delighted with the passionate outpouring of Living with War, and am delighted with Chrome Dreams II. I just can’t help but wonder if it’s even possible to write a song now that lasts 30 years.

[READ: March 14, 2008] The Book of General Ignorance

Why is it that UK covers (the one on the right at the top of the post) are so much more interesting than US covers?

Anyhow, this is yet another book of information marketed as something of a popular cultural compendium that can be read and enjoyed and in which you will hopefully learn something about the history of the world. There are many many books of this ilk, like the Don’t Know Much About series, and Lies My Teacher Told Me, and they are all designed to “teach” you the “truth.” When I was younger I bought these books in spades, assuming I would read, and more importantly, retain this information, and could therefore feel smug about myself, and, ultimately, win a Trivia games. Usually I would buy this books, flip through them, read a line, and then put them on my shelf to impress people (which doesn’t work).

The things that set this book apart are these: Stephen Fry writes an introduction (this is actually how I found the book, as I was doing an Amazon.com search for Stephen Fry and this came up (along with Stephen Fry’s history of classical music, which I also bought but am fairly certain I will never actually read)). Also, this book is written by John Lloyd. He is British, and therefore funnier than the other authors, and he co-authored The Meaning of Liff with Douglas Adams (and anyone who has written with the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is automatically okay.

[DIGRESSION]: I actually bought The Meaning of Liff when I was in England in high school. I stopped at an airport book shoppe and found this small volume–it looked just like the cover of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (when the lightning bolt hits the final F to make it an E) and it was co auithored by Douglas Adams. So of course I bought it. I wonder if I ever read it.)) Third, it intends to show you that everything you think you know is wrong. It is not just going to give you the facts, it is going to make you go WHAT!!? on every other page.

The book is not set up in any particular order, it seems to go from topic to topic, which is just as well, as it keeps the book fresh. Some things that you will see that you were wrong about include: What man-made artifact can be seen from the moon? [None.] Who invented champagne [not the French]? How many legs does a centipede have? [Not 100]. Where was baseball invented [not the U.S, and not by Abner Doubleday]. And where does the name America come from [not from Amerigo Vespucci, but from Richard Ameryk, a Welshman].

Now the thing about this book is, there is little or no citation for any of these findings. And, frankly, even trying to verify some of these things on the mighty Web often comes up with nothing, or just speculation. For instance, searching for Richard Ameryk (whom I had never heard of ) comes up with people’s theories that he is the reason for the name America, however, you will find that Vespucci pretty much trumps all instances of Ameryk. (The argument that America would actually be named after the person’s last name (Vespucci) rather than his first, is actually quite convincing, however). This is not to say that I think any of the book is wrong, per se, it’s just that if you are going to blow my mind, I’d like to know that you’re not just making things up.

Despite that, I really enjoyed the book. It had a whole bunch of questions with answers that were unexpected. Before reading the book, I’d say I would have wondered about at least half of the questions posed, but after reading, I ‘d day there were only one or two which were duds for me. (Since the book is British, it focuses on a few UK things that I don’t really know about). But the style is funny, and the answers will surprise you.

I probably will never go back and read those other books, so I can’t compare it to them, but I can say that this one was really enjoyable.

I have also created a new category (dip-in books) because of this one. A Dip-in book is a book that is designed for you to dip into at random points where you can read a few pages and then close it up. There are tons of books that fit into this category, and in fact, I have read several of them recently. The funny thing for me is that I am too anal to dip into these books, and I almost invariably read them cover to cover. Nevertheless, its nice to know that you can leave them in certain rooms of the house so you have something to do if you happen to be in there unexpectedly.