Neil Young - Chrome Dreams 2 - 2007

I love 'A Man Needs a Maid' but not much past the 70s.

haha, sounds great! "Ordinary People" is an old 14 minute song from the Bluenotes era that, if I recall correctly, has tons of late 80s cultural references ... Something about Lee Iacocca anyway. Weird (though maybe not weird for Neil) that he's releasing it now, almost 20 years later. That kook!

this is not the "chrome dreams" legendary lost bootleg lp btw, just a borrowed title from it

Neil Young: weird cat

And yes, I'm excited!

01 Beautiful Bluebird
02 Boxcar
03 Ordinary People
04 Shining Light
05 The Believer
06 Spirit Road
07 Dirty Old Man
08 Ever After
09 No Hidden Path
10 The Way

it looks like its' going to be some re-recording of rarities..:
"beatiful bluebird" is a country harvest moon style song
"ordinary people" is a long guitar session he does live sometimes
"boxcar" was also performd live and it's neil, and an electric guitar anly,

"Boxcar" is another late 80s tune -- it was on the unreleased Times Square LP that eventually became Freedom (and the El Dorado EP). A fine addition to Neil's many train songs. Neil Young nerds ahoy! When is "Beautiful Bluebird" from? Very curious as to what the new "Ordinary People" will sound like ...

A question for the experts: is it possible that I heard a super rowdy version of "Country Home" in a 1976 or so bootleg?

yeah, i think he premiered it on the Zuma tour ... it is pretty killer -- there are some wild versions recorded in Japan.

http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PGyD7h%2BIL._SS500_.jpg

bought my tix for the Chicago show ... 3rd row! psyched.

So it doesn't sound like Trans then. :(

I heard "Ordinary People" ten years ago on a live bootleg box a friend let me tape. It's a pretty great song as I remember it; this might be worth hearing. (Haven't paid any attention to new Neil Young in years.)

Ordinary People by Neil Young

In a dusty town a clock struck high noon, two men stood face to face.
One wore black and one wore white, but of fear there wasn’t a trace.
Two hundred years later two hot rods drag through the very same place,
And a half a million people
Moved in to pick up the pace, a factory full of people.
Makin’ parts to go to outer space, a train load of people.
They were aimin’ for another place, out of town people.

There’s a man in the window with a big cigar, says everything’s for sale.
The house and the boat and the railroad car, the owner’s gotta go to jail.
He acquired these things from a life of crime, now he’s selling them to raise his bail.
He was rippin’ off the people.
Sellin’ guns to the underground, tryin’ to help the people.
Lose their ass for a piece of ground, rippin’ off the people.
Skimmin’ the top when there was no one around, tryin’ to help the people.

He was dealing antiques in a hardware store but he sure had a lot to hide.
He had a backroom full of the guns of war and a ton of ammunition besides.
Well, he walked with a cane, kept a bolt on the door with five pit bulls inside,
Just a warning to the people
Who might try to break in at night, protection from the people.
Selling safety in the darkest night, tryin’ to help the people.
Get the drugs to the street all right, ordinary people.

Well, it’s hard to say where a man goes wrong, might be here and it might be there.
What starts out weak might get too strong, if you can’t tell foul from fair.
But it’s hard to judge from an angry throng of hands stretched into the air,
The vigilante people.
Takin’ law into their own hands, conscientious people.
Crackin’ down on the druglord’s land, government people.
Confiscatin’ all the dealer’s land, patch-of-ground people.

Down at the factory, they’re puttin’ new windows in.
The vandals made a mess of things, and the homeless just walked right in.
Well, they worked here once, and they live here now, but they might work here again,
They’re ordinary people.
And they’re livin’ in a nightmare, hard workin’ people.
And they don’t know how they go there, ordinary people.
And they think that you don’t care, hard workin’ people.

Down on the assembly line, they keep puttin’ the same thing out.
But the people today, they just ain’t buyin’, nobody can figure it out.
Well, they try like hell to build a quality end, they’re workin’ hard without a doubt,
They’re ordinary people.
And the dollar’s what it’s all about, hard workin’ people.
But the customers are walkin’ out, lee iacocca people.
Yeah, they look but they just don’t buy, hard workin’ people.

Two out of work models and a fashion slave try to dance away the michelob night.
The bartender poured himself another drink, while two drunks sat watchin’ the fight.
The champ went down, then he got up again, and then he went out like a light,
He was fightin’ for the people.
But his timing wasn’t right, for las vegas people
Who came to see a las vegas fight, high rollin’ people.
Takin’ limos though the neon night, fightin’ for the people.

And then a new rolls royce and a company car they went flyin’ down the street.
Each one tryin’ to make it to the gate before employees manned the fleet.
The trucks full of products for the modern home, set to roll out into the street
Of downtown people.
Tryin’ to make their way to work, nose-to-the-stone people.
Some are saints, and some are jerks, hard workin’ people.
Stoppin’ for a drink on the way to work, alcoholic people.
Yeah yeah, they’re takin’ it one day, one day at a time.

Out on the railroad track, they’re cleanin’ up number nine.
They’re scrubbin’ the boiler down, well, she really is lookin’ fine.
Awe, she’s lookin’ so good, they’re gonna bring her back on line,
Ordinary people.
They’re gonna bring the good things back, nose-to-the stone people.
Put the business back on track, ordinary people.
I got faith in the regular kind, hard workin’ people,
Patch-of-ground people.

As a special offer for Neil Young ticket purchasers you are entitled to receive one copy of Neil Young's new album "Chrome Hearts II" for each pair of tickets you order. This offer is being fulfilled directly by Warner Brothers Records and you will receive an email from Ticketmaster within the next 48 hours with complete information on how to redeem this CD offer.

From the Ticketmaster website

there's a link to an mp3 of "ordinary people" on www.chromewaves.com today -- listening to it now. Seriously, I think this might be actually a late 80s vintage recording -- it's got the Bluenote horns, keyboards that sound suspiciously like Freedom-era keyboards and, yes, the Lee Iacocca reference intact. Anyone know if this is a recent recording or just something culled from the archives? Sounds good anyway ... kind of a cousin to "Crime in the City" from around the same time ...

bought my tix for the Chicago show ... 3rd row! psyched.

anyone know who is backing up Neil on this tour? acoustic vs electric?

hoping to get tix for one of the United Palace shows in new york

nm, I found it

Recorded last summer in Northern California, musicians include Ben Keith (pedal steel guitar, dobro and other instruments), Ralph Molina (drums) and Rick Rosas (bass), who will be performing with Young on the tour.

Anyone know when the pre-sale for the NYC shows starts?

pre-sale's over, I missed it

regular sale looks like Monday 10 am

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2007/09/neil_young_tix.html

Bob Lefsetz on Neil Young excerpt from lefsetz.com

This guy's been coasting on his reputation too long. Seen as a man of the people, it appears Mr. Young is only in it for himself. Furthermore, what's this ONE CD with each PAIR of tickets? You can't afford to give a disc to EVERYBODY? In a world where silver platters are essentially worthless, where you buy a hundred for FREE (with rebates), do costs really have to be cut here? Or is it assumed everybody going to see Neil is taking a date, whom they live with. And there's no download. Because they don't sound fucking GOOD ENOUGH for Neil. Even though many of those who get the album will rip it to iTunes as soon as they get home, so they can transfer it to their iPod and listen in their car or in the gym... WHAT PLANET IS THIS GUY LIVING ON? You can be iconoclastic if you're not fucking with me. But these ticket prices are an INSULT! Never mind $257 for the best seats in L.A., you've got to pay $132 in PORTLAND! I guess they're richer in Seattle, with all that Microsoft money, because there the price is $157. Or if you're really lucky, you live in Denver, where you get a break, the most expensive ducat is $104. BEFORE THE TICKETMASTER FEE! An act's worth depends on its fanbase. You have to nurture it, respect people, make them feel they're along for the ride with you. At these prices, people feel like they're being held up at gunpoint. And, NOT EVERY NEIL YOUNG FAN RAPED AND PILLAGED AND IS NOW RICH! Only Neil is rich. But obviously, he needs more. Bob Dylan is a famous breadhead, but he doesn't charge these prices, not even close. WITH Elvis Costello, the top ticket is $65.50 in Portland. And Dylan is coming off a number one album and critical kudos. For that price, you may not care that he mangles the old material. You're privileged just to be there. And maybe, you'll enjoy it too. (In truth, that's Portland MAINE, not Oregon, but even in Chicago, Dylan and Costello are only charging $87, while Neil Young is charging $157! At the SAME THEATRE!) Actually, I enjoyed Neil Young's "Greendale" album. And tour too. But it wasn't sold out. It's not like there's a shortage of tickets to see the man. Hell, tickets are available EVERYWHERE for this tour. Just because everybody else is doing it, that doesn't mean you should too. How many shows do you think people are going to go to if a couple has to drop nearly five hundred dollars to attend? Yup, you've got to park, you've got to eat, buy some merch... This is not Led Zeppelin. They were always into the money. And they haven't been on tour since the SEVENTIES! They can go on the road and charge all they want, it's a once in a lifetime event. But not Neil Young. He's still recording music. He wants us to care. Neil, you should be ashamed of yourself. Blame your manager, your agent, the promoter... But if you're savvy enough to comment on the war in Iraq, you can't really be that out of touch with the consumer. You want the buck to stop with Bush, then the buck stops here with you. Positively insane.

right on curmudgeon. *but* i do have an acquaintance that is a "ticket broker" and i just love seeing how upset he is seeing his potential profit messed with

Is his profit being messed with? You mean if Neil charges a ton, then your broker friend can't make as much re-selling?

they added another show in ny (three total), hurry, before this one is also sold out ,and it's pretty close to that.
i'm gonna be there.

I got some for Thursday

psyched

Hey: Did anyone who bought tickets ever get any notifiction (supposedly after 48 hours)about receiving the promised CD? I haven't.

I got an email from them yesterday with the codez

Chrome Dreams II - Review by MOTU http://www.motu.net

Neil Young’s latest effort shows a mature artist getting older and drawing upon past creative styles for expression. The album contains ten (10) new Neil Young songs and runs just a little over sixty-six minutes. The songs cover a variety of styles that Young has been comfortable with ranging from acoustic Harvest Moon type to harder Crazy Horse type material. Like most of Neil Young’s recent works, I found that I had to listen to it at least twice to digest it and form any opinion of it.

The CD opens with Beautiful Bluebird which is an effective acoustic type song that has a striking slide resonator guitar lead throughout giving it a blues dimension. However, the song remains vintage Young and is a good attention catching opening to the CD. The second song; Boxcar; follows this acoustic Harvest Moon type style that is set in the first song with a banjo providing the key background instrument. That is where the mood of this CD ends because the third song; Ordinary People; bursts the acoustic mood with a rock sound more like Crazy Horse. You also get the sense that Young may be looking to break some kind of rock song record as Ordinary People runs well over 18 minutes! Time aside, the song flows well and like a good movie seems to be far shorter than it really is. The fourth song; Shining Light; then gives the listener a retro fifties type feel only to be followed by another Crazy Horse style rock song; Spirit Road.

In general, I didn’t find Chrome Dreams II cohesive as a total work. On a first listen, it does not knock your socks off the way some of Young’s past classic albums succeeded in doing on the first play. However, there are some real great individual songs here if you are willing to give it a chance. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being best), I give it a 7.

the record seems kinda mediocre.
than again, neil young didn't release any real great,classic record for the last...15 years or so?!

it looks like its' going to be some re-recording of rarities..

hasn't that been neil's m.o. for pretty much his entire career? stocking up songs, sometimes for years, sometimes for decades, and recording and releasing them only when the mood strikes?

maybe, but usually it turned out to be a classic.not in this case.

Neil's CDs are usually more about the songs than the actual recordings. Often the musicians and recording won't sound great (as on this CD) but if you take the time to sort through the song, you'll find something valuable.

"ordinary people"

I think I'm the only one who really loved "Are You Passionate?"

It's a grower in a big way, and has some pretty terrible singing on it. Nonetheless, it seemed really sincere and ended up being one of my favorite Neil CDs. Anyone else listen to it?

Haven't heard all of it, but Going Home is one of the great Neil Young songs.

He still does the 7+ minute epic better than anyone...I'm The Ocean, Going Home and Ordinary People are 3 obvious examples.

"Mr Dissapointment" and the title track are pretty great. Underrated yes, but not a spot on his classic stuff

than again, neil young didn't release any real great,classic record for the last...15 years or so?!

I would say 17 years (Ragged Glory)

15 years wld be Harvest Moon which I think is good but not classic ....

was Prairie Wind any good? somehow I never heard that one

i'll rep for Sleeps With Angels as being close-to-classic. A lot of great songs on there, and some atypical ones as well -- "Trans Am," "Safeway Cart" ... and what the hell, i like about half of Mirror Ball and I like Broken Arrow whenever it comes on. There's good stuff sprinkled throughout all of the post-94 albums, but they are spotty to say the least. Prairie Wind had a nice sound, but the songs were never particularly memorable ...
anyone seen the tour yet? setlists look pretty sweet -- "Ambulance Blues", "No One Seems To Know", etc.

I never thought Ragged Glory was all everybody had it cracked up to be. I love everything up to Rust Never Sleeps, after that, not so much.

I am going to try to go to one of the NYC shows though.

i think Ragged Glory is only marred by the last song and maybe by some of the overdone backing vocals on a few tracks ... yechh! i mean, come to think of it, it's a rare Neil Young album that doesn't have at least one stinker ... Everybody Knows, On The Beach, Tonight's the Night and Zuma are the only "perfect" ones for me -- and I love the guy more than almost anybody else!

What are the stinkers on After The Gold Rush or Rust Never Sleeps?

hmm maybe you're right about Gold Rush (maybe "Cripple Creek Ferry"?), but I've always kinda hated "Welfare Mothers" on Rust ... it's funny on Weld, but I've never quite understood the gist of the song, to be honest ...

OK, you got a point with "Welfare Mothers" - maybe not a stinker, but a throwaway, Ill grant you. But "Cripple Creek Ferry" rules!!

Then again, you're talking to a guy who loves Reactor, so, grain of salt...

haha, yeah since i typed that i've had "cripple creek ferry" stuck in my head ... so i'll add Gold Rush to my personal "perfect Neil Young" albums list ...

those who don't understand welfare mothers should think about it this way - it's the best song on the album

Most of Young's great songs are total throwaways.

seriously, how hard is it to understand?

well, for starters, is he actually complaining about welfare mothers or is he making fun of people who complain about welfare mothers? (i stand by my "worst song on rust" classification)

1. My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
2. Thrasher
3. Ride My Llama
4. Pocahontas
5. Sail Away
6. Powderfinger
7. Welfare Mothers
8. Sedan Delivery
9. Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)

seriously -- by FAR the worst song. In my opinion. The rest are stone cold classics. In my opinion.

xpost I like it fine, but it IS a throwaway. The rest of that album is one masterpiece after another. Is "Welfare Mothers" a masterpiece?

evey song on the album is a classic

is "bo diddley" a masterpiece? xgau calls the song the album's "Inspirational Bumper Sticker"

is he actually complaining about welfare mothers

what do you think?

What I love most about Neil is how he transforms these idiotic catchphrases and garbled stuff from the newspaper into statements of purpose (look at "T-Bone" or most of Ragged Glory).

I'm always shocked listening to RNS cuz the lyrics on stuff like "Powderfinger" and "Thrasher" are (for him) thoughtful and written in complete sentences.

what do i think? i'm saying i don't know! neil's a weird guy! what do YOU think?

The new album is worth buying for "Ordinary People" alone. "Spirit Road" and "Dirty Old Man" sound like Ragged Glory era Crazy Horse -excellent. "The Believer" and "Ever After" are two great tunes in the mellow, Comes A Time tradition. "No Hidden Path" is another 15 minute guitar workout, with the choral background vocals Neil seems to favor so much these days. "The Way" is just insane - a piano and organ-based uptempo ballad complete with children's choir! One of his more successful crazy ass experiments of late.

Second half >>>>>>> first half, so don't give up on it too quick.

how would calling welfare mothers better lovers be a complaint about them?

and why would he make an anthem out of it?

yeah, i'm definitely going to have to get it -- i've heard "ordinary people" and "the way" and like 'em both quite a bit.
alfred, regarding neil being thoughtful and writing in complete sentences, there are actually a number of lesser-known 80s tracks that I think are great, lyric-wise -- they're these long, surreal narrative pieces. I made a mix of that stuff recently -- mostly from bootlegs. There's the original "El Dorado" (called "Road of Plenty"), the outrageous 20-minute "Crime in the City," "Ordinary People," "Interstate," and a couple others. Good stuff -- some of his most ambitious songs, lyrically at least.

xpost

i dunno, is "welfare mothers" really an anthem? seems more like a nasty rocker to me, with satirical edges ... it's not like it's "like a hurricane" or something ...

"Welfare Mothers" is a searing indictment of the federal bureaucracy's slow response to LBJ's Great Society.

hmmm ...

People, pick up
on what I'm puttin' down now

Welfare mothers
make better lovers

Down at every
Laundromat in town now

Welfare mothers
make better lovers

While they're washin'
you can hear this sound now

Welfare mothers
make better lovers

Divorcee!

Hard to believe
that love is free now

Welfare mothers
make better lovers

Out on the street
with the whole family now

Welfare mothers
make better lovers

Hard to believe
that love is free now

Welfare mothers
make better lovers

Divorcee!

People, pick up
on what I'm puttin' down now

Welfare mothers
make better lovers

Down in every
Laundromat in town now

Welfare mothers
make better lovers

While they're washin'
you can hear this sound now

Welfare mothers
make better lovers

Divorcee!

interview piece with audio interview in Sunday New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/arts/music/28pare.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Vintage Neil Young, Still Working for the Muse by Jon Pareles October 28, 2007

He talks about his upcoming movie doc, the album, the tour...

“Chrome Dreams II” also glances back to the 1970s. It is named after “Chrome Dreams,” a 1977 album Mr. Young never released. That album, widely bootlegged, would have introduced some of his best songs, among them “Like a Hurricane,” “Too Far Gone” and “Powderfinger.” The cover had been designed, and the album had been mastered, but it never appeared.

Why not? “Sometimes there isn’t a good reason,” he said. “It just passed me by. I did it, I got to a certain place, and then something would happen and distract me, and I would get into something else and forget what I was doing before. That’s happened a lot.”

The anchor of “Chrome Dreams II” is “Ordinary People,” an 18-minute song he recorded in 1988. Those people include drug dealers, factory workers, boxers, gun runners, vigilantes and models. “The people were real to me,” he said. “They’re all in there. I don’t know where they came from. I can’t make them go away. I didn’t invite them.”

just came here to post that. pretty good piece I thought. loved this quote on song choices for the tour

“Some of them went right under the radar,” he said. “Some of them never came out. I’ll be doing a lot of songs that are only on collectors’ albums that are not my albums, that are bootlegs.” He continued, “It’s like if you were in a gallery and all the paintings were upside down or piled in a corner, and the ones that you knew, that you’d seen in the magazines, were all really. ...” He paused. “I want to know what’s in the corner. Put them on the wall for a while.”

the crazy horse style rockers on Chrome Dreams II are pretty awesome (Spirit Road, No Hidden Path ... Dirty Old Man's not bad either)

I really like about ... two-thirds of the record. a couple clunkers but overall I dig it.

neil's self-awareness is top shelf
For Mr. Young, faith doesn’t involve organized religion. It’s about walking among the trees on his Northern California ranch, “trying to figure things out,” he said. “How did I get to where I am? I mean, what happened? Where’s the guy who wrote the other songs? Where’s the guy who wrote a lot of the early songs? There are some songs I can’t even sing. I don’t even know who wrote them. But I know I did. When I listen to myself, I go, ’O.K., but I can’t do that now.’“
when he says stuff like that, i hope despite my better judgment the new one will offer some classics. sort of a lucy-football-charlie brown effect

And here I thought he re-recorded Ordinary Peeps and just added in the 80s Lost Boys sax to make it sound authentic. Stupid me....

I love this album more every time I hear it

Hail the prodigal son!!!

so .. anybody else check out the tour? This is the third time I've seen Neil, and I'd never seen a solo set before. Amazing!! The previous two times, I saw him with Crazy Horse (1991 "Ragged Glory" tour with Sonic Youth that produced "Arc/Weld", and 1997 on the "HORDE" tour), so this was a real treat. He did "Ambulance Blues"! He played "Mellow My Mind" on BANJO! and then later with the full band, "Oh Lonesome Me" and "Winterlong" and a Squires song! I can die happy now.

The new songs sounded GREAT live .. "Dirty Old Man" is in the tradition of "Fucking Up" and "Piece of Crap" .. just a chance for Neil and band to get loud and silly... "No Hidden Past" was an epic extended guitar-solo blaster

Solo set:

From Hank to Hendrix
Ambulance Blues
Sad Movies
A Man Needs A Maid
No One Seems to Know
Harvest
Journey Through the Past
Mellow My Mind
Love Art Blues
Love Is A Rose
Cowgirl in the Sand
Heart of Gold

With band:

The Loner
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
Dirty Old Man
Spirit Man
Bad Fog of Loneliness
Winterlong
Oh Lonesome Me
The Believer
No Hidden Past

Encore 1:

Cinnamon Girl
Tonight's The Night

Encore 2:

The Sultan

Holy shit.

SO jealous! I've heard "Mellow My Mind" on banjo on several bootlegs, but the fact that he's doing it now...and "The Loner?" Fuck, man.

It's weird .. "Mellow My Mind" has long been one of my favorite Neil songs because of the wonderful structure of it, those beautiful chord choices (think of the "I've been down the road" / "And I've been back" / "Lonesome whistle on the railroad track" part), and playing it on the more harmonically limited banjo kind of robs those chords a little bit, but still just seeing him play the song itself was a treat, and seeing him pick up the banjo was a nice change of pace

a squires song?!?! holy shit.

yeah that was "The Sultan" .. surf instrumental. It sounded like "Ghost Riders in the Sky" .. someone identified it in the comments box in Greg Kot's review of the show. crazy. He must be gearing up for the 'Archives' release with that one...

i heard 'the sultan' it once on the radio. it's good.

i can't believe he is doing "ambulance blues" live now!!!
must see , will see!!

tour-opening show for download (and it's great quality) here: http://www.bigozine2.com/archive/ARrarities07/ARnyboise.html
looks like he's been sticking pretty close to this setlist -- though "Sultan" is certainly out of nowhere ... Maybe his next record will be all surf instrumentals? Honestly, I don't think such a thing is out of the question for Neil.

great show 2 days ago...
the man still eats the electric guitar for breakfast...
and the sacoustic+band 2 section gives a complete awesome picture of his work.
can't believe he is nore than 60 now...the energies...like a hurricane...

just heard this for the first time, thought it was pretty dope.

some good stuff on this album.

"Ordinary People" is an old 14 minute song from the Bluenotes era that, if I recall correctly, has tons of late 80s cultural references

ha interesting, it really sounds like it belongs on

Life

oops that last part was suppossed to read "it really sounds like it belongs on Life (the 80s cold machine lyrical themes + background chimey synth leads)