296. Neil Young, "Rust Never Sleeps"

 


Before we get into the guts of this record, please allow me a Burrito Justice-style historical diversion.  The acoustic portions of this album at the beginning ("My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)," "Thrasher," and "Ride My Llama") were recorded in San Francisco at a long-gone theater called the Boarding House, that was located at 960 Bush Street.


After a fire, the theater was torn down in 1980 and replaced by the featureless condos you've passed a million times on your way downtown (Bush to the Bay, Pine to the Pacific, y'know).


Enough historical diversion.  Neil Young again!  We are getting about one Neil Young record a week now.  I knew Neil Young was important but really I did not anticipate him being the most featured artist in the bottom 205 records at all.

I had this album on cassette in the late 80's/early 90's and I wore that thing out.  This was definitely one of my most listened to albums during that time.  As I've mentioned before, "Pocahontas" was one of the first songs I taught myself to play on guitar (with the wrong chords, IIRC).  It's a melancholy memory-warp between the subjugation of the Native Americans and the modern age.  Icons of the modern world like Marlon Brando ands the Astrodome flit in and out of the narrative like images on a staticky TV.  The whole thing seems like an acid trip; maybe it is.  

That tension between the simple rural life and the oppression of modern mechanized society animates several of the songs here.  "Thrasher," which has a lovely melody and some of the best lyrics Young ever wrote, appears to be about agriculture on its surface but the eponymous thrashers turn out to be some kind of menacing machinery that will tear the narrator's life apart.  Similarly, the powerful "Powderfinger" concerns government gunships arriving to blast the singer's simple life into pieces.  It's really an incredible song.

The album is bookended by the gentle, plaintive "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" and the fuzzy, chaotic "My My, Hey Hey (Into the Black)," flip sides of the same song.  "Blue" is so soft and gentle that you're left wondering if "rock and roll is here to stay" is really true or just a wish, but "Black" leaves no doubt in its angry wake.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Absolutely yes.

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