Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Ragged Glory [RE-UP]

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Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Ragged Glory [RE-UP]

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Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Ragged Glory [RE-UP]
Year: 1990 Reprise Records/WEA | CD#: W226315 - 786889T | File-hosts: HF, FF & RS
FLAC-5 image | Complete Artwork (JPG, 400 dpi) | WinRAR Recovery 5%
Rock | CD-length 1:02:43 | FLAC: 443 MB | Artwork: 11 MB

EAC Secure-rip with LOG+CUE+COVERS | Source: My CD-collection

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The album revisits the hard rock style previously explored on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and Zuma. The first two tracks are songs Young and Crazy Horse originally wrote and performed live in the 1970s with Country Home notably being performed on their 1976 tour. "Farmer John" is a cover of a 60s song, written and performed by R&B duo Don and Dewey and also performed by garage band The Premiers. Young admitted that the song "Days that Used to Be" is inspired on Bob Dylan's "My Back Pages". The album features many extended guitar jams, with two songs stretching out to ten minutes and more.

Having re-established his reputation with the musically varied, lyrically enraged Freedom, Neil Young returned to being the lead guitarist of Crazy Horse for the musically homogeneous, lyrically hopeful Ragged Glory. The album's dominant sound was made by Young's noisy guitar, which bordered on and sometimes slipped over into distortion, while Crazy Horse kept up the songs' bright tempos. Despite the volume, the tunes were catchy, with strong melodies and good choruses, and they were given over to love, humor, and warm reminiscence. They were also platforms for often extended guitar excursions: "Love to Burn" and "Love and Only Love" ran over ten minutes each, and the album as a whole lasted nearly 63 minutes with only ten songs. Much about the record had a retrospective feel – the first two tracks, "Country Home" and "White Line," were newly recorded versions of songs Young had played with Crazy Horse but never released in the '70s; "Mansion on the Hill," the album's most accessible track, celebrated a place where "psychedelic music fills the air" and "peace and love live there still"; there was a cover of the Premiers' garage rock oldie "Farmer John"; and "Days That Used to Be," in addition to its backward-looking theme, borrowed the melody from Bob Dylan's "My Back Pages" (by way of the Byrds' arrangement), while "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)" was the folk standard "The Water Is Wide" with new, environmentally aware lyrics. Young was not generally known as an artist who evoked the past this much, but if he could extend his creative rebirth with music this exhilarating, no one was likely to complain. [AMG]

Full circle with Crazy Horse.

With Neil Young's 1989 solo effort Freedom, I like many others was warming up to his music again, after the numerous and sometimes alienating stylistic changes he was making in the 1980's. On Freedom, I tended to favor the harder cuts on the album such as "Don't Cry" "Rocking In The Free World" his driving cover of "On Broadway". At the same time I was heavily listening to some of his work with Crazy Horse; Live Rust and Rust Never Sleeps. All though this I was thinking, "Why doesn't he just make another kick-a**, all electric album from beginning to end?" "And at the same time why not just get back together With Crazy Horse?"

Well less than a year later in 1990, both prayers were answered. Neil Young finally reunited With Crazy horse for Ragged Glory. And the music matched my expectations and anticipation. I was totally blown away with their resulting effort. Raw, honest, intense and most importantly, excellent songs. Truckloads of guitars and solos. Short, terse rockers are mixed with their trademark eight to ten minute jams and loads of feedback in the right places. Most importantly this album matches all of his 70's work, with and without Crazy Horse.

Ragged Glory is also the essential album to listen to on a long country drive, disturbing the cattle and the small towns on the way! The leadoff track on the CD "Country Home" is obviously well-suited for the aforementioned type of drive. "White Line" has an excellent driving riff and is a very concise song, almost ending prematurely, kind of like Stone Temple Pilots "Interstate Love Song" four years later.

"F*!#in' UP" is my favorite track on Ragged Glory. It is the most aggressive song on the album lyrically and musically. It's an understatement, but this song kicks serious a**. The title itself prevented it from major airplay, but changing or editing that would be a grave injustice. "Over And Over" has a killer melody, a great chorus and the guitars keep on rocking.

"Love to Burn" is a ten-minute long opus that seriously rocks. It will hold your attention the entire duration and at the same time may cause to you look deep inside yourself on what you want and need out of love and out of life.

The bouncy "Farmer John" snaps you out of that, I think of a comely, natural, well built county girl almost every time I listen to it. "Mansion on the Hill" is the track that garnered the most radio airplay at the time. The second ten-minute opus is "Love And Only Love".

The only downer is "Mother Earth" I respect the message Neil is trying to make with this track, but it is completely sub par and totally out of place on the CD, unfortunately, it practically rescues the CD from near perfection. It is a totally expendable track.

This album may have prepared me somewhat for 1991-92 grunge explosion. I was beginning to gravitate towards rawer, grungier rock at the time, not to replace the more polished hard rock or progressive rock that I was listening to but to compliment it. While Neil Young's "Godfather Of Grunge" title is obvious and a little overused now, Ragged Glory helped me welcome the sounds of Nirvana, Soundgarden & Pearl Jam with open arms. [Amazon user review]