"CSNY - when it works - can
make music that is very committed, heartfelt and sincere. It's not easy to get it out and
it's not easy to overcome some of the bullshit around it. American Dream was an attempt
that failed to reach anything like its true potential. But that's no reason for me to not
try it again sometime. " Neil Young. " Neil Young
This project was subject to huge
expectations, with the return of both Crosby (from prison and addiction) and Young (from
his solo career). Like a Beatle reunion, it was probably doomed to disappoint. American
Dream is very much like the Byrds reunion in 1972. The material is a mixed bag. The
production is all wrong for the band. And the public and critical response doomed any
follow-up recording or touring by the foursome.
The single, for the first time, was not a
Graham Nash song, but a Neil Young song, perhaps to take full commercial advantage of Mr.
Young gracing them with his presence. The synthesized American Dream was an unpromising
introduction. It is hard to pinpoint the problem. Is the song just bad? Is it the
inappropriate synthesizer work, an attempt to be "contemporary sounding"? Is it
the overproduction?
Neil Young did this album because he had
promised to do a CSNY album if Crosby cleaned up. It doesn’t seem like Neil’s
heart was in it though. He seemed to think that CSN was the place to bring weak acoustic
songs (Feel Your Love, Name of Love, This Old House) that would have been filler on any of
his solo albums. Neil was on the verge of a stunning return to form with his Freedom
album. What he brought to CSNY, however, was these mellow, simple and simplistic songs.
This Old House is the worst. It blames
bankers for the far more complex problems of family farms. "This old house of ours is
built on dreams, and a business man don’t know what that means," whines
Neil.
The banker did understand the dream, and actually bought into it with his
money. The
farmer in the song failed not because of the bank, but because of larger economic
realties. This is CSNY at worst, almost a self parody.
For Crosby it was just too early in his
recovery. He is back and cleaned up, but his muse has not returned in full
flower. Compass, Crosby’s tale of recovery, should be the emotional center of the album. But
the music on this song is flat, the vocal almost spoken rather than sung. It has some
power, but only because we know the man and the story. He did have some great songs in
reserve from his rejected 1981 solo album which showed up on his 1989 solo
work, Oh Yes I Can, though, so maybe Crosby was just reviving the great CSNY tradition of putting solo
work ahead of group projects.
Nash's simple songs hold up the worst to
the overproduction. And instead of a batch of his strong, emotional, personal songs we get
the simplistic, sloganeering, activist Nash (Clear Blue Skies, Soldiers of Peace). While
his heart is usually in the right place, these songs, by ignoring the real complexities of
life, have little of the power of his more personal work, which sees the bittersweet
realities of life with clarity.
Stills produces a mixed bag as
well, and
many of the songs that sound like Stills songs are in fact credited
"Stills-Young." The best of these is Got it Made, which is probably the best
song on the album. Crosby expressed his disappointment with Stills’ material
publicly, which was perhaps fair, but definitely a case of the pot calling the kettle
black.
There are some moments, and the album has
it’s supporters. In the end it is not as bad as it’s reputation, and many of the
problems are probably production rather than material. But it still is not one you’ll
pull out and play very often. The production buried the charms of the simple songs and
killed the impact of the heavier songs. Worse, it just didn’t sound like
CSNY. They
reunited to make an album that just didn’t matter. It seemed to motivate Neil
Young,
who went on to make Freedom, Ragged Glory and Sleeps With Angels. It seemed to put CSN in
a tailspin.
Raincheck.
