Ragged Glory - Neil Young

Alot of artists who had a great 70s suffered badly in the 80s. David Bowie went from being one of the most consistent artists with his albums and a true experimenter, To  being a cliched 80s megastar and making awful 80s cheesy pop. While he was the most popular he's ever been, Music wise he stunk up the joint. It wasn't until he started to hang around with Trent Reznor that he got a little bit of his dignity back. Neil Young was another one. In the 80s he truely lost his way. Going from Kraftwerk type albums to rockabilly. He was even sued by Geffen for not making Neil Young albums. But as soon as the 90s rolled around Young went from being a washed up artifact to being the godfather of grunge. He was hanging around with Sonic Youth, R.E.M. and Pearl Jam. Getting name dropped by Kurt Cobain and Thom Yorke. His songs were being covered by The Pixies. The Neil Young revival was something really special. He went from years of wandering aimlessly in the music wilderness to being the godfather of modern alternative music. This album is Young at his best. Young has always been great at both acoustic and loud distorted rock songs. This entire album is Young at his loud distorted rock best. Youngs rip roars with his guitar here. I have always loved Neil Young jams. This album is full of them. Country Home opens with Youngs trademark guitar riffs. His solos are some of my favourites in music. F*!#in' Up is a perfect grunge song. This song could of easily been played between Smells Like Teen Spirit and Evenflow back in the day. The amount of distortion on some of these songs are truly magnificent. Mother Earth (Natural Anthem) crackles. Hendrix would of been proud of that one. The jams are somof his best. If you love Youngs grungey rock songs then you will love this. Godfather of Grunge Indeed.

 I'm no connoisseur of grunge so I can't really comment on what specifically that movement gleaned from Neil's music, but listening to this album it's not hard at all to understand why the grunge pioneers were excited about it--it's fuckin' awesome! Strong songs musically and lyrically, perfect balance of dark and hopeful themes, Crazy Horse sounds great, and most of the songs are platforms for ridiculous extended soloing from Neil and ol' black.  His guitar tone is typically juicy on this album, and there are some of the most righteous licks I've ever heard the man play--something about his style, though it's simple and often melodic, just carries an energy that nobody else can pull off.  Great driving music, and it sounds better the more you crank the volume up.  My one complaint is "Mother Earth," which tries to cop Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" vibe and comes off corny because of some heavy-handed and cliché lyrics.  That still leaves you with about 57 minutes of pure gold, though.

 

 This is certainly not the only Neil Young & Crazy Horse album that the following description fits, but Ragged Glory is a great paradigm case for it:  this album remarkably paints a picture of a local, small-town hobby band made up of blue collar guys, playing simple country music, but that just can't help sounding heavy as fuck, grooving hard and inexplicably reaching transcendent heights when they play.  You can easily picture this being recorded at a weekend neighborhood barbecue.  

That that's not really the story with Neil Young & Crazy Horse is part of their genius.  It's definitely something that Young intentionally shoots for.  Heck, on Crazy Horse's 1986 tour, he billed the band as "the third-best garage band in the world" (although supposedly Bill Graham came up with that moniker for them first).  It's not easy to do--it's not easy to write songs this music-theoretically simple that have this kind of impact.  It's not easy to be a career professional yet so convincingly give that "hobby band" tint to your music.

 

Neil Young and Crazy Horse's hardest rocking album by far. Ragged Glory is all electric all the time. It's a glorious mix of very loud chords and feedback, great songwriting and wonderfully primitive yet driving Bass and Drums that is noting less that an aural feast. Some of these amazing saurian stompers absolutely demand that the knob be ripped off. Fuckin Up is appallingly amazing. Over And Over is a scorching love song writ large. Mansion On The Hill is simply incredible. And Farmer John, just wow, what a song. If You love hard electric Guitar music, you need Ragged Glory in your collection.

 

Artist Neil Young

TypeAlbum

ReleasedSeptember 9, 1990

Rating 3.84 from 1745 ratings Ranked#35 for 1990 , #2290 overall

Genres Hard RockGarage Rock, Folk Rock,Ragged Glory

A Million in Prizes: The Anthology - Iggy Pop

Artist
Type	Compilation
Released	July 19, 2005
Rating	4.09

"He's gonna do another strip tease..."

Like the similarly influential Lou Reed, the former James Newell Osterberg Jr has been repackaged and anthologised many times in the past with mixed results, but it's only recently that a truly worthwhile compilation has been available. For Reed it was the programmed-by-a-fool NYC Man - The Ultimate Collection 1967 - 2003, for Iggy it's the remarkably solid A Million In Prizes.

Like Reed, it's probably fair to say that without being a significant part of one of the most influential bands of all time, Iggy probably would not have made it as a solo star. This is something underlined by the ten Stooges cuts that open this chronological compilation (Pop one, Reed nil) and while disc 1 closes with Pop's two most enduring post-Stooges tunes in "Lust for Life" and "The Passenger", it's an erratic listen, taking in the brilliance of the likes of "Kill City" and "China Girl", but also a clutch of strangely anonymous cuts.

It's notable that disc 1 covers the first ten years of Iggy Pop's career and the second disc covers the late 70s onwards (i.e. the best part of three decades), which indicates that like so many of his contemporaries, Iggy lost momentum after his initial success as a solo artist. You wouldn't guess it by listening to the second disc of this compilation though, as it skims the cream from a patchy 80s era, throws in a couple of splendid duets with Katie Pierson of The B-52's and Deborah Harry, a pair of splendid live cuts from the early 90s and cherry picks from his various albums since then.

I didn't really know what to expect when I purchased A Million In Prizes, as I've always felt that Iggy Pop is best listened to in short, sharp blasts rather than over a long haul so a two disc compilation does seem excessive and to a point that's true, as I for one don't have the endurance to listen to it in one sitting. That said I do now have a certain level of respect for Iggy Pop that I didn't have before. Sure, chances are I won't be buying any of his solo albums in the near future, but that's only because A Million In Prizes does its job so well.

Better than the equivalent Lou Reed compilation.

"I'm sick of keeping quiet and I am the wild boy,
But if I have to die here first I'm gonna make some noise."