Greendale. It’s a CD. 2004 release. Is
that possible? Seems like I’m still experiencing Greendale brand new. There’s the CD, the music is everything, and
there’s also a DVD. I’m planning to watch the DVD again soon, perhaps at the
Erie Art Museum, somewhere they screen film. Last time I watched might have
been so long ago, 2005 maybe, Alice still with us and Nicole living with Jeremy
and at least Caitlin on Old Harbor Street, Southie, in that groovy walk-up
where I organized that family watching of Greendale.
Remember?
Greendale. Greendale, it’s an album yes, and it’s a project. There’s a book
included, the typical CD package-style book, more a chapbook really, where,
instead of lyrics to the songs, Neil has penned a page-size prose piece, themed
to each song, displaying the chops he’s lately channeled into his full-size
memoir book (author’s note: gift idea!).
I caught
Neil’s current act with Crazy Horse in Cleveland and it’s hot. I am not the
same. As I haven’t been the same since Greendale,
maybe even more so. Greendale has
everything. You know that challenge, bring an album to a desert isle? Greendale could be that album.
Greendale’s a concept album (and how). Greendale tells a story, with characters
and a plot, and setting, Greendale. Greendale is a place. I think the fun tv show
Community may be paying Neil tribute
with the name of their Community College. This Greendale feels Pacific
Northwest, north of San Francisco, where there’s forest, and sharp curves, and
guys in flannel shirts and girls who break your heart just to look at ‘em.
North to Alaska.
If that’s
everything; everything, that is, except variety of music. Greendale is all Neil, that chunky outlaw country clump rock that
really hits my sweet spot and maybe yours. Neil with Billy Talbot and Ralph
Molina and once in a while a gingham gang of back-up singers. Many different
versions and tempos of the clump rock, rising to ecstatic. I’m not kidding. Neil
says himself, It’s all the same song.
10 tracks
for Greendale. The effect builds
steadily. Falling From Above sets the tone from the first notes, the beat drop,
the electric guitar, then the first words of the lyric. Grampa said to Cousin
Jed. People appear, they settle, they entertain, they die, they fuck up, they
make better decisions. Track 3, Devil’s Sidewalk. Greendale, Greendale. By the
end you will be in your own awkward way flying. Track 9, Sun Green, includes a
sly tribute to John Lee Hooker, kicks the clump rock right up to boogie. Let’s
dance, honey. If this is poetry it’s that poetry you dance to.
And if you
think you’re in the right place after Sun Green be ready for Be The Rain. Be
The Rain predicts Chrome Dreams II’s
Spirit Road by those many years. And for those of you who prefer your Neil
Young around a campfire, strumming his acoustic guitar from a picnic table
outside the trailer, try Bandit. Someday you’ll find everything you’re looking
for. He’s right. Neil’s right.
Greendale tells this story, a real story
so plenty sad, a story of art and crime and love and death and growth and dope
and politics and journalism and show business. Like Jerry Maguire except a little short on sports. A tragedy, with
humor. Peopled with memorable characters: Earl, Earl Green, and Edith, Edith
Green, and Cousin Jed, Grampa, Gramma, Sun Green, Susan Carroll, Carmichael,
Carmichael’s widow. Carmichael’s widow! I can hear her voice, through Neil’s.
Neil
Young. That guy who just keeps singing / can’t somebody shut him up? / I don’t
know for the life of me where he comes up with this stuff. A little love and
affection in everything you do will make the world a better place, with or
without you. Why do we listen? What is this thing called music? Try some. Wow,
huh? What do you say? Would you recommend Greendale?
Lyrics to each song are on this website: http://www.nygreendale.com/
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