Let me begin by putting to rest the rumor that, despite its similarity to `Revolution #9' from the Beatles White Album, if you record the disc onto tape and listen to Neil repeating, over and over, "I wanna love ya" backwards, you will not, I repeat will NOT hear Neil, sounding like SCTV's Bob McKenzie, saying "Take off, you Hoser!".
That being said, what else can I say about this "compilation composition", as Neil calls it? I'm not sure there was any real "composition" preceding it, save snippets from `Hurricane', `Love and Only Love', and `Welfare Mothers', but it is, definitely, a pile of something. What Neil has apparently done is to take his extended song endings, inspired by his tour mates SonicYouth, and manufactured a 35 minute seamless montage of ... song endings. Since it appears that only the above mentioned 3 songs are the source songs for this `pilation', there is some repetition. To create a 35 minute pile, Neil had to glean song endings from a variety of performances of the same three songs. Lyrically we have from `Hurricane', "I wanna love ya" and "Once I thought I saw you, in a crowded hazy bar"; from `Love and Only Love' we get (predictably) "Love and only love"; and from `Welfare Mothers' Billy Talbots "No more pain..." mantra. Aside from Talbot's single take, the verses are repeated more times than you will be inspired to count.
Is it any good? Well, ask yourself, if you've seen the video `Weld' (the film produced during this same tour) whether you enjoy the extended song endings offered there, or do you find yourself wishing Neil would wind it up already and move on to the next song? If you haven't seen the video, ask yourself if you enjoyed George Harrison's experimental `Wonderwall' album, or the `Apple Jams' disc in his `All Things Must Pass' box set. If you did, and you're `into' unconventional, rather psychedelic, distorted electric guitar meanderings, then you're like me and you should get your hands on this disc, and perhaps some therapy!
The sheer fact that Neil was able to produce such an album and `get away with it' reinforces the aura surrounding his accomplishments. In a small and odd way, it helps to round out his body of music, much like `Revolution #9' revealed to us the extremes in the mindset of the Beatles. Not sure if it's good for what ails ya', but you will possess a deeper appreciation for the artist Neil Young. Three stars only because that's dead in the middle, and I have no idea what to rate this.
FANTASTIC
Who said psychedelia is dead?
