Anybody seen Neil Young do Greendale?

There's a lot of idiosyncratic NEIL in it -- not least of which is the equation of serious flag-waving nationalism with hard-core environmentalism, which seems like a political/social view that would be all over, but I really can't think of any other instances.

Plus, shirtless dancing cops, a jazz-dancing Satan in red shoes; you know, a rock show...

Maybe it's more cultural commentary (media, environmentalism, violence) than political -- and it's DEFINITELY cynical toward demagoguery and conformity, unsurprisingly.

Unsettlingly, one of the best songs (solo acoustic) had a verse that sounded EXACTLY like "Lullaby" by Shawn Mullins. I'm so confused.

POP REVIEW | NEIL YOUNG
Small-Town Humanity in Easy Song
By JON PARELES

Neil Young has never put on a show like "Greendale," the self-described "musical novel" he performed at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. For about 95 minutes he and his band, Crazy Horse, played all 10 songs from "Greendale," which he will release as an album and a DVD in August. Around them, a cast of dozens acted out the skein of narratives and lip-synched Mr. Young's vocals and harmonica, with homey sets (a front porch, a jail) and video backdrops.

It's a small-town story about the Green family in the fictitious California town of Greendale. Crusty Grandpa wishes things were more like the good old days. His son, Earl, is a psychedelic painter with no patrons, and Earl's daughter, Sun Green, becomes a crusader for the environment. Cousin Jed is a drug dealer who shoots a cop named Carmichael. The devil, in a red jacket and red shoes, lives in the Greendale jail and dances through the other characters' lives. Various forms of mass media — from Grandpa's morning newspaper to the television crews that besiege the family after Jed's crime — are ubiquitous.

The difference between a musical novel and the term no one mentioned — rock opera — must be that Mr. Young sings all the roles himself. The songs are sparse and leisurely. Frank Sampedro of Crazy Horse played quiet keyboard parts, leaving Mr. Young, Billy Talbot on bass and Ralph Molina on drums to vamp through the handful of chords in each song. There are slow folk strums that take on gravity as they go, blues riffs fringed in distortion, and stately lead-guitar melodies that sound as if they were hewn from Appalachian granite.

Like many a Neil Young song, "Greendale" isn't exactly linear. It ambles through incidents, character studies, philosophy and rabble-rousing. It ponders humanity's failings and dogged perseverance, and it has moments of self-deprecation, mentioning a song that's "longer than all the others combined, and it doesn't mean a thing."

In "Carmichael" and "Grandpa's Interview," Mr. Young sketches action in succinct and cinematic detail, moving from character to character. And "Bandit," which Mr. Young played alone on acoustic guitar, ponders artistic crises and consolation: "Someday, you'll find everything you're looking for." For "Be the Rain," the finale, Sun Green leads a chorus line of environmental protesters, like a latter-day "Let the Sunshine In" from "Hair."

Most of "Greendale" is more reflective. It's the work of a 57-year-old songwriter who's contemplating the fates of older generations looking back and younger ones determined to move on, and it's full of Mr. Young's wayward insights and moments of grace. But "Greendale" doesn't blast and stomp the way Crazy Horse can.

"I still remember my old songs," Mr. Young announced early on. And he led an hourlong encore: "Hey Hey, My My," "Like a Hurricane," "Sedan Delivery," "Powderfinger," "Rockin' in the Free World" and a free-form stretch of one-chord mayhem. His lead guitar became a bulldozer, a banshee, a giant bell, a wounded mammoth and a flame-thrower, and the old songs' visionary tales and wistful choruses were reminders of Mr. Young's primal power.

had a verse that sounded EXACTLY like "Lullaby" by Shawn Mullins
..which to me always sounded like a Townes Van Zant song anyway.

Friends who went to Sunday's Jones Beach show as well as MSG said it was received far less openmindedly there -- lots of heckling, eg "Neil, everybody knows Greendale is nowhere!" etc.

like it all, mostly.

greendale however....I don't think you can use the 'Hey look it's all new songs, he's fucking with the audience' argument like 'Tonight's the Night' and not because I want to hear 'Old Man' (yuck)

The songs are weak, unfocused, go nowhere, say little or nothing. And the fact that he's wearing so many 'messages' on his sleeve--well, Young is the last person I'd expect that from.

I mean, have you listened to the WORDS of 'Be The Rain'? Cringe-making.

We paid for Neil Young and Crazy Horse and were treated to "Our Town" with distortion. Why were we forced to watch a high school play for the privilege of hearing a few Crazy Horse classics at the end? Greendale is the poor man's "Tommy"--without the catchy tunes or insightful lyrics. One of Young's strong points is the ambiguity of his songwriting. There's no ambiguity in Greendale; it's all specific to the characters and narrative, with all the subtlety of a Jerry Bruckheimer film. It's a story with a beginning and an end--but no middle tying it together!

And by the way, Neil, if you want to rant about corporate greed, don't charge $80 for mediocre seats and $45 for a fucking T-shirt! And here's an idea--how about not advertising the tour as a reunion with Crazy Horse when it's actually a 90-minute commercial for your upcoming CD--which hasn't even been released yet! Feel free to give us a chance to listen to it first so we can decide whether or not to blow $200 bucks on your 90-minute commercial for the show.

Call me when you're out of the musical theater business. What's next, a Christmas pagent?

I'm thinking the Greendale record could be anywhere from appalling to damn good, based on the show, and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and buy it.

wtf?

I'm always happy when I don't know what I think.

I believe this one is ahead of its time.

Any one remember The Point by Harry Nillson?

First - the sound was horrible!! The back half of the crown was yelling "turn it up Neil!" & "We can't hear you!"

Second- The stage show was absolutely the worst thing I have ever seen in my life.. I had bad dreams about grampa! For the whole first set the crowd was as still as stone. Zero energy.. Lame.. What was with the cardboard cars! The background shots looked like the were shot by someone with a $20 video camera! I felt sick to my stomach, thinking "...why Neil..WHY!"

The "rust never sleeps" part was good. JUST GOOD! the last time I saw Neil with CH it was Amazing, Mind-blowing! ...yes I'll say it Awesome!
This time it was just kinda O.K. Sound mix was muddy & much too low.

I have been depressed all day at work today.. I was happy when Grampa died.. If I could erase last night from my memory I would be a happy man!!!

I have been a big fan of Neil Young's music for as long as I can remember. I also have an open mind and welcome some new songs at any performance. But this was not just a few new songs. Neil and the promoters weren't honest with us. I would have been a lot more forgiving if he had publicized the fact that he was not going to be playing most of his old songs with Crazy Horse and we had gone knowing that this was going to be different. We felt duped. For a guy who claims to be anti-big business, anti-media, anti-this and that, shouldn’t he have been honest with the fans - or would that have eaten into his and the promoter’s pocketbooks?

You can have an open mind when spending $15 on a CD but when you spend $100 on a concert ticket, you expect to see what was advertised.

JAMES

P.S. Who is Nigel

"I am imagining a Spinal Tap sequel in which Nigel decides to write a play based on a fictional California town called Greendale. The play has such wonderfully imaginative characters as Grandpa (didn't we guess early in the performance that Grandpa would die a tragic death from the stress of it all?), the cynical sea captain and young Sun the radical environmentalist (I must admit, however, that she does look good in a cheerleading outfit). After boring us with 90 minutes of banal amateur theater the performance climaxes with an "Up With People" rally complete with youthful environmentally conscious cheerleaders and a chorus of backup singers looking like overweight AT&T operators with headset microphones (yes, this group does include Neil's wife and no, I won't go to hell for saying that). Don't waste your time trying to defend this garbage. If it weren't Neil Young, would you still like it? Do you think the songs will stand on their own without the distraction of the visuals of the play? Will anybody be listening to them in a few years? This play is the product of a performer so arrogant he has the nerve to play five classic songs at the end (including the encore) as a reward for sitting through Greendale. And by the way, Mr. Anti-Corporate Greed's brochure to accompany Greendale is complete with an advertisement on the back cover for his upcoming CD and DVD sponsored by Reprise Records, which is of course a small record company operating out of a tin shack on the corner of Haight-Ashbury that donates all of its profits to environmental groups opposed to the exploitation of Alaska's natural resources and the general deterioration of our civil liberties by John Ashcroft. I'm sorry, I got a bit off track there. Greendale is a recycled version of Young's worn out message about the evils of the government and corporate greed. It's amateurish, it's hypocritical and, no matter how you look at it, it is a ripoff for the many fans that assumed that a reunion of Neil Young & Crazy Horse might actually be based on the songs that made that combination famous. Don't waste your time defending this nonsense.
"I am imagining a Spinal Tap sequel in which Nigel decides to write a play based on a fictional California town called Greendale. The play has such wonderfully imaginative characters as Grandpa (didn't we guess early in the performance that Grandpa would die a tragic death from the stress of it all?), the cynical sea captain and young Sun the radical environmentalist (I must admit, however, that she does look good in a cheerleading outfit). After boring us with 90 minutes of banal amateur theater the performance climaxes with an "Up With People" rally complete with youthful environmentally conscious cheerleaders and a chorus of backup singers looking like overweight AT&T operators with headset microphones (yes, this group does include Neil's wife and no, I won't go to hell for saying that). Don't waste your time trying to defend this garbage. If it weren't Neil Young, would you still like it? Do you think the songs will stand on their own without the distraction of the visuals of the play? Will anybody be listening to them in a few years? This play is the product of a performer so arrogant he has the nerve to play five classic songs at the end (including the encore) as a reward for sitting through Greendale. And by the way, Mr. Anti-Corporate Greed's brochure to accompany Greendale is complete with an advertisement on the back cover for his upcoming CD and DVD sponsored by Reprise Records, which is of course a small record company operating out of a tin shack on the corner of Haight-Ashbury that donates all of its profits to environmental groups opposed to the exploitation of Alaska's natural resources and the general deterioration of our civil liberties by John Ashcroft. I'm sorry, I got a bit off track there. Greendale is a recycled version of Young's worn out message about the evils of the government and corporate greed. It's amateurish, it's hypocritical and, no matter how you look at it, it is a ripoff for the many fans that assumed that a reunion of Neil Young & Crazy Horse might actually be based on the songs that made that combination famous. Don't waste your time defending this nonsense.
"I am imagining a Spinal Tap sequel in which Nigel decides to write a play based on a fictional California town called Greendale. The play has such wonderfully imaginative characters as Grandpa (didn't we guess early in the performance that Grandpa would die a tragic death from the stress of it all?), the cynical sea captain and young Sun the radical environmentalist (I must admit, however, that she does look good in a cheerleading outfit). After boring us with 90 minutes of banal amateur theater the performance climaxes with an "Up With People" rally complete with youthful environmentally conscious cheerleaders and a chorus of backup singers looking like overweight AT&T operators with headset microphones (yes, this group does include Neil's wife and no, I won't go to hell for saying that). Don't waste your time trying to defend this garbage. If it weren't Neil Young, would you still like it? Do you think the songs will stand on their own without the distraction of the visuals of the play? Will anybody be listening to them in a few years? This play is the product of a performer so arrogant he has the nerve to play five classic songs at the end (including the encore) as a reward for sitting through Greendale. And by the way, Mr. Anti-Corporate Greed's brochure to accompany Greendale is complete with an advertisement on the back cover for his upcoming CD and DVD sponsored by Reprise Records, which is of course a small record company operating out of a tin shack on the corner of Haight-Ashbury that donates all of its profits to environmental groups opposed to the exploitation of Alaska's natural resources and the general deterioration of our civil liberties by John Ashcroft. I'm sorry, I got a bit off track there. Greendale is a recycled version of Young's worn out message about the evils of the government and corporate greed. It's amateurish, it's hypocritical and, no matter how you look at it, it is a ripoff for the many fans that assumed that a reunion of Neil Young & Crazy Horse might actually be based on the songs that made that combination famous. Don't waste your time defending this nonsense.

GREENDALE


:-P

If you are thinking of going, go if you are thinking, and enjoy.

I thought the music was powerful and more focused than many of the original albums of the last five or so years. (And, it's a long way ahead of the filler live albums of the same period!!!)For me, the work as a whole outshines 'Broken Arrow' , 'Sleeps With Angels', and 'Mirror Ball' in terms of delivering a message.

I don't disagree with the message. We're the richest and best country on erath, but there's a growing rot that needs to be excised. A song cycle/concept album/rock operetta - call it what you will - is an acceptable way to address it.

In point of fact, I think Neil's been heading this way for years. A number of his albums - 'Tonight's the Night', 'On the Beach', 'Harvest', 'Sleeps with Angels' come to mind - have had a over-riding objective that the listener was being led toward. But, that's part of music.

And, to that end, there's no question that our boy Neil has issues with the corporate rat maze that describes our poltical-economic system. I think those selfsame issues cause him some distress because of his hypocritical approach to being part of it. H*ll, the tickets were US$75 a pop.

But., let's leave that for another day.

I think what is bothering a number of us - I know it's got me a little p*ssed-off - is the matter of the so-called stage show that was going on in and around NY&CH.

Neil, what the h*ll are you thinking????

I simply do not understand what the stage show brought to the music. Maybe I'm unimaginative, maybe I'm stupid, maybe I just missed the point; what did it add?

The answer is nothing. Just like a show based around the album Tommy' added nothing to the music; just like all that silliness that Ray Davies engaged in duirng the 70s and 80s added nothing to the music; and just like, in retrospect, 'Hair' wasn't all that great...nor was some - a lot, maybe - of the music.

So, I ask again: what was it all about? Why were we exposed to this silliness? To validate some symbolism about greed and decadence and decay? Why do we ned this now, when we haven't needed it before?

Can it be because Neil Young is trying one more time to do what he failed at with all his other film efforts? To "expand" into another genre?

Rob

I've been a Neil Young fan since the beginning and I can stomach Greendale. The songs are weak lyrically, musically tuneless and the concept is an embarrassment. He's doing something new--great. But that don't make it good.

But I guess not liking Greendale is a sin, right, Cheech?

I find Young's 90s input way overrated. People cut him slack for who he is, not what he creates. The sound of RG is truly great, but the best SONGS on it were written in the seventies. Just another opinion, of course.

But at least you're not SCREAMING ABOUT IT

Sun Green is a babe though, even if her name makes me want to hurl (and by the way, her crunchy hippie hunk is named Earth Brown, I kid you not).

so....just got the greendale COMIC BOOK at the office!

can't wait to read this mess :)

http://vertigo.blog.dccomics.com/tag/neil-youngs-greendale/

weird ...

also: what a weird thread

I saw Neil Young live in Sydney last night. It was one of the strangest gigs I've ever been to. He did all of Greendale in the first half (see below) and came back for the most boring, sludge-fest of a Crazy Horse rock show imaginable in the 2nd, encoreing with 2 lighter numbers - Ie they actually had tunes you could hum to.
the Geendale show is possibly the most cringe inducing thing I've ever witnessed - at least on par with some of the Australian Idol viewing. don't get me wrong - i actually like the album quite a bit (confused concept that it is) and some of the tracks were substantially better in the live arena - especially "Sun Green" with it's loudhailer 'chorus' and the beautifull "Bandit".

but the show itself was impossible to watch with a straight face. on either side of the stage are 2 badly made props - a housefront and a jail cell - and behind the band is a raised stage area in front of a video screen. in these spaces and around the band travel a group of actors MIMING badly to the lyrics as they are sung and over-acting the characters in them. Eg a bloke with a grey beard playing granpa green, eyes a poppin, knees a twitchin and finger a pokin as he dies on his porch of a heart attack.

best of all - there's a troupe of dancers who come out for the last 2 songs who reminded me of nothing other than the whole FAME crew doing their rock dancing best. the last song (it's already corny enough without all this rigmarole) was a pure classic of unmitigated schmaltz with US and Aus flags being flapped around, the whole bunch of actors and hangers on singing and clapping along and the dancers... the dancers... flexing and twirling and punching their fists in the air and making a wave when old neil sings about "saving mother earth". ah god, i wish i'd left after that.

― phil turnbull (philT), Saturday, November 22, 2003 12:10 AM (eighteen years ago)

I was thinking of getting the Blu-ray of the new Return to Greendale and I found out that the video for two numbers were up on YouTube. Phil gave a spot-on description, but it doesn't really sink in until you see it.

Even more bizarre, as mentioned elsewhere, they made a CG keyboard player on stage to represent Pancho (who's never seen)! (There's a nice shot of him below at 5:49)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4SjFk1BWug

And here's the climax where it really feels like a high school production pumped up with a shitload of money without any changes to the overall aesthetics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mq1hnrgphk

(The Blu-ray made the CG that is...that would be pretty weird if Neil had like a hologram of that figure live on stage.)

I wish they had the actual video of the Vicar St. performance on YouTube because I really like the DVD they made of it for the album release. (They have all the audio on YouTube though.) The whole concept works as a barebones and intimate one-man storytelling session - it works great when you hear it like an uncle recounting a fable or a fairy tale because the details look too ridiculous when they're literally seen.

and I guess that should be "overall aesthetic"- singular and not plural...

I kind of laugh that the only time I’ll have ever seen NY live was for the Greendale tour. If you’re going to get thrown into the NY universe and still come out a strong fan after that god bless.

I wonder if they had any fan reaction shots? Those might've been interesting.