WOEBOT

In the past I've gone through phases of not liking Neil Young. His voice was always the sticking point. Was it irritating? But then if you remove the voice in your mind, perhaps the backing music isn't so interesting. One has to recognise that in that era of exceptionally polished LA music his whine stands out. So I've come to accept it, love it even.

In my opinion these are the records you want, though "Zuma", "Comes A Time" and "American Stars and Bars" aren't too bad either. The way his career goes is that his debut "Neil Young" didn't quite hit the mark but "Everybody knows this is nowhere", a stone classic, became a heavy-rotation LP on the underground AM radio back in the days when they would play whole albums.

Neil, who had mixed feelings about bands after his experience with famed nut-job Steven Stills in Buffalo Springfield really took to Crazy Horse.

(The first Crazy Horse LP actually might be the best thing here and it's a shame they never topped it. Crazy Horse on the face of look like a normal band, but inspect closer and "woah"- what's old Jack Nitzsche, Phil Spector's engineer doing in there? I always remember Steve Albini's review for Slint's "Spiderland" in the Melody Maker, where he gushingly compared it to "Marquee Moon" and this LP. That sent me scuttling off down the Music and Video Exchange.)

"After The Goldrush" is amazing all the way through. To return to his voice, as an instrument it must be up there with the other great strange voices, like Diamanda Gallas's. He's unable to hold a note without quavering ridiculously, which brings to mind a dear friend of mine who has a condition called Benign Essential Tremor, he shakes gently all the time. The thing about it is that he never occupies one space, and like that visual mismatch when you're looking through binoculars, the effect is quite cosmic, as though he simultaneously inhabits a parallel universe. I always wonder about poor Neil's disabled boy, whether there's some pre-echo of that in his way of singing. Interestingly La Monte Young's thing with singing is that vibrato is strictly a no-no, sacrilege. That's what they heard in Pandit Pran Nath's voice, no quaver at all. Purity.

Young came to hate this LP, but even though it was hugely popular I think it's superb. Highlights have to be "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man". "A man needs a maid" is a rum one though, not exactly politically-correct is it? When Jack Nitzsche went on the rampage in the press, bitterly complaining (quite unfairly in truth) about how badly Neil treated him, he always cussed this song, saying listening to Young play it on stage made him want to vomit. This must date me, but I remember at one of the earliest concerts I went to, perhaps in 1988, an old guy at the concert wearing a Harvest Concert Tour T-shirt. It was really old and worn out. 1988 is now nearly twenty years ago.

After the massive success of "Harvest" Neil famously remarked that he had been in the middle of the road and it had bored him, and now he was headed towards the ditch. These three records are known nowadays as "The Ditch Trilogy". Robert Christgau, who has an amazing, very reliable users guide to Neil Young online likes "Time Fades Away". It is now the only Neil Young LP not to have been reissued on CD in spite of a massive online petition for it to be made available. No diss intended but I'm not so sure it's so good.

This, though is excellent.

The final record in the "Ditch Trilogy", I was really surprised to hear "Revolution Blues", Young's song about Manson (who like many Los Angeles music scensters: Alex Chilton, Dennis Wilson, Terry Melcher had known Charlie), among the tracks John Lydon played on Capital FM. But on reflection it makes perfect sense, the content is suitably nihilistic obviously but he and Rotten are also both unique vocal stylists. That was pretty much what Joe Boyd says about Lydon too.

(sighs) This is right up there with "After The Goldrush" I think. To return to the erstwhile Pistol, Neil's lyrics on the title track have always baffled me. "The king is dead is but he's not forgotten, this is the story of Johnny Rotten," The story of Sid Vicious surely?