i have to be in the mood for this record, and luckily, today, it was just what i needed... today, i found the personal lyrics soothing instead of maudlin... today, i found the instrumentation melodic instead of anodyne... and today, i truly appreciated the beauty of 'war of man' and 'natural beauty', which i always like regardless of which neil young mood i'm in... because sometimes, i want screaming anger -- 'ragged glory' or 'rust never sleeps' style... sometimes, i want storytelling, like 'after the gold rush'... sometimes, i want jadedness, like 'tonight's the night'... and this is why neil young is one of my favorite artists -- because over the years, he's never been afraid to try something different, to create what he believes at that time, at that point in his life, is the statement he needs to make to stay sane... i guess you'd call it not compromising -- i call it true artistry...
i saw neil young tour for his 'greendale' album a few years ago... i knew that he was performing the whole album with a stage show included, but i suppose a lot of the audience didn't... people yelled, people screamed, people left -- and lots more of the people who stayed were pissed as all get out when he came back on for a one 'greatest hits' song encore, played a decent version of 'like a hurricane', and we were done... he had a new album -- a concept album no less -- that he wanted to tour... that's his right... and that's why i respect him so much... it would be so damn easy to cash in, have everyone do a 'heart of gold' or 'down by the river' singalong, pretend like he was still in his 20s, and walk away with tons of cash and no artistic satisfaction... so long may he run -- because there are fewer and fewer artists with his integrity every day...
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