Blimey - three posts in 25 hours!
I originally started this mini series of blogs because I acquired some
software which lets me copy vinyl albums to CD. As I can’t post pictures of the covers, I’ve tried to provide links and have been genuinely quite amazed at how much is actually available from so long ago. Ain’t gonna stop me getting’ me money’s worth, though!
4 Way Street is the very aptly-named double album which marked the conjunction of Neil Young with what was the already well-established trio of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash.
These live recordings from 1970 are basically split into acoustic (“wooden”) music and some surprisingly rocking electric stuff, but sadly (and unusually for my vinyl collection), one side of the acoustics is so badly scratched, that not even AudioLab could render it listenable. Great shame, because the version of “Love the one you’re with” is especially good. The only salvageable track is announced as ‘Here’s a song guaranteed to bring you down. It’s called “Don’t let it bring you down”. Starts off real slow then kinda fizzles out altogether.’ So it got shelved from my CD. Well, with promotion like that …
“Triad” deals with a man being loved by two women - he can’t see a problem with that (unsurprisingly) but the girls clearly are, shall we say, a little more hesitant? Still, deeper than you’d think, given the subject - and sensitively worded. Who’s to say it’s wrong or unworkable, as long as everyone’s cool?
The acoustic tracks allow full rein to the beautifully rendered 3- and 4-part harmonies (only
The Thorns are currently producing anything anywhere near as good) and include complementary guitar work which rides roughshod over the “Duelling Banjos” style of instrumental featured in the film “
Deliverance”.
The electric tracks are driven along by the frenetic beat of the drummer, Johnny Barbata and the Jamaican bassist, Calvin Samuels. “Southern Man” - at over 13 minutes the longest of the album’s tracks - deals with the slave trade:
“Southern change’s gonna come at last
Now your crosses are burning fast”
and wonders at how long it took for the slaves to rail back at the planter’s bullwhips.
“Ohio” commemorates the deaths of four university students, gunned down by U.S. troops, trying to quell a riot - presaging the Tiananmen Square murders by some years.
Another 13-minuter, “Carry on” is a frantic ‘drive time’ number which can’t fail to have you hammering the steering wheel and leads to the sombre closing track, played virtually a capella:
“Find the cost of freedom
Buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you
Lay your body down”
Goodnight.
# posted by Mr.D. @ 7:24 PM
Drinking and Driving (but clearly not simultaneously)
