Neil Young Albums ReviewsNeil Young News
In 2004 Rustie, Mike "Expecting 2 Fly" Cordova posted a series of articles on his experience listening to all of Neil Young's albums in chronological order. Here is one in the series. For a complete listing, see Albums in Order reviews.
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:51:36 -0800 (PST) I was starting to become very aware that Neil Young had a huge backlog of finished songs. Fully half (in fact all of side one) of Hawks And Doves, Neil’s 1980 release, was comprised of songs that had been completed many years before. He had some new musical ideas for this album, but the new songs were only enough for half of an lp and he filled the opposite side of the record with already-completed tunes from the past. This was not without precedent; it had been done in similar fashion on American Stars ‘N Bars. The two albums of original songs between ASnB and HAD also had older songs, but for those albums they had been re-recorded or at least in the case of Pocahontas, embellished with new studio overdubs. All of the side one songs of HAD were from the vaults, from sessions in the past.
The new music Neil Young was making at this time was quite a departure from rock anthem of Hey Hey My My and the cryptic poetry of Thrasher. I guess it can best be described as country swing; heavy on fiddle, steel, and piano. I liked it very much. The themes range from a celebration of commitment (Coastline and Stayin’ Power) to a hilarious take on union mentality (Union Man “Live Music Is Better”) to a political comment perhaps on what President Carter called a malaise (Comin’ Apart At Every Nail) to the surprisingly patriotic-themed title song (“got rock and roll, got country music playin’, if you hate us you just don’t know what you’re sayin’.”) Anyway, that’s side two. Side one was a completely different album.
Little Wing is a beautifully performed acoustic tune. It’s a wonderful, much too short, piece. I cracked up when I read one reviewer’s description of The Old Homestead as the sequel to The Last Trip To Tulsa, I guess because the meaning of the lyrics to both tunes doesn’t exactly jump right out at you. Good song though; I love that saw. Lost In Space was another nice number and Captain Kennedy was and is a helluva tune. Which brings me back to the vaults. Here it looked like anytime Neil wanted to, he could pull out a few songs from completed sessions to fill out an album. And I’m telling you that I want to hear what else is in those vaults, what’s in the Archives. I remember feeling that way in 1980 when HAD came out. And here it is 24 years later and I still feel the same way…
I very much enjoyed listening to Hawks And Doves today.
Mike - Expecting To Fly
From: Mike Cordova
To: rust@rustlist.org
Subject: Albums in order: Hawks And Doves
For more of Expecting To Fly's reviews, see the Albums in Order series.
Neil Young Archives - Thrasher's Wheat