Neil Young Takes a Side Trip to 'Greendale'

By: Mark X. Cronin
June 26, 2003

Neil Young is living up to his reputation on his current tour: a bit ornery, focused on his latest vision, remaking his music. This time out, he’s previewing his “musical novel,” Greendale, which arrives in stores in both CD and DVD versions in mid-August. Leave it to Mr. Young to tour ahead of the release of the album. Greendale is a fictional town inhabited by the Green family and residents ranging form corrupt police, overbearing media and Satan (yes, you read that right). A 10 song cycle mixed with some between-song explanations and rambles, the songs contain some of the best and the worst of Young’s music. Not only does Young perform the songs over 95 minutes, he stages them as well, complete with a troupe of over twenty actors, singers and dancer, stage sets (the town jail, a farm house) and videos. 

Before turning to Greendale, consider an oddity of Young’s 35 plus year music career. While he’s succeeded with everything from ballads to guitar feedback, quiet ruminations to anthems, he has never turned to the story song. With the exception of some songs from his first album, his songs and albums have touched on theme and built on loose association of ideas, but he’s chosen not to write narrative songs. Thus is seems curious that he elected to leap into an album built around a story; at least he didn’t call it a rock opera. 

And what a story it is. We have Grandpa and his son Earl, the Vietnam Vet who paints psychedelic paintings without selling one in35 years; cousins Jed, who’s s drug runner, maybe a terrorist, and shoots a cop, Carmichael. Of course, Carmichael’s not who he seems and we hear about that form his fellow cops, neighbors and a scene with the widow at the grave. Then there’s the granddaughter, Sun Green, who hooks up with Earth Brown, and, oh yeah, Satan lives in the local prison. Don’t get lost, because we’re just getting started. 

In the Thursday night show at Madison Square Garden, the stage theatrics overwhelmed the music, creating more confusion then sense, complete with muddled images and symbols. Sunday’s show at Jones Beach went off better because the stage shenanigans receded more to the background and the music stepped to the fore. Many of the songs build on Young’s strengths: insights on small details, human frailties and doubts. He muses on the role of the artist, human interaction with nature and homespun wisdom all melded with guitar playing that’s insistent and alluring. Many of the songs succeed with these ingredients; the opening song “Falling from Above,” has an infrequent chorus, “A little love and affection/In everything you do/makes the world a better place” as well as the rant, “people take your bullshit/turn it into gold” all sung over a rolling guitar line with a harmonica for emphasis. Young achieves a peak in the lone solo acoustic song of the night, “Bandit,” that’s full of his musings over the role of the artist, it has some of the gentleness of the Harvest albums, yet the desperation found on Tonight’s the Night or On the Beach. 

The songs fall apart when Young yokes them to the narrative he’s trying to tell, or when he reaches for an anthemic quality with lines of political or social significance. The Greendale portion of the show ends with the entire ensemble dancing on stage a la “Hair” or “Godspell,” chanting, “We have a job to do/Save mother nature” while a video screen portrays Earth Brown running into the wilds of Alaska to save Mother Nature. The energy of the dancers, the vehemence of the guitars and vocals don’t make the song more inspiring, instead, they emphasize how ludicrous it is. 

Young has gone wrong before with albums (remember Transactor and This Notes for You?) and he had a massively misguided film project in the early 1970’s. Yet his wanderings have produced a widely divergent set of songs that speak to his many interest and the passions. Young is second only to Bob Dylan in his many incarnations. If he goes down a new path – as he does with Greendale – who can tell him he’s wrong? And even if they did, would Young listen given the success he’s had as a maverick in the past? It is an interesting dilemma for the man who spoke to the audience Sunday night of how playing new songs makes him feel alive and having to play only the old songs would kill him. He clearly identifies with Earl Green, the painter who has not sold a painting in 35 years, though Young continues to sell out at $85 a head. He signaled his appreciation for the audience’s patience by playing a 50 minute “encore” of those old songs, including Hey, Hey, My, My” with his signature line, “better to burn out, then rust away.” 

His audience is willing to travel with him to Greendale and would do so again, but it’s a place to visit briefly, not a place to live. 

Copyright © 2003 Mark X. Cronin. All rights reserved.