| Neil Young - "Freedom"
Posted: 10/11/2006 6:36:34 PM | Anybody out there like this album? It was released in 1989... and I recently came across an old cassette I have of it. I listened to it quite a bit this past weekend and was very impressed. I had forgotten how awesome this album is. I think my favourite song would be the Spanish sounding one called "Eldorado", although I found myself not having to skip any songs at all... it was all so good!
1. Rockin' In The Free World - (live, acoustic)
2. Crime In The City (Sixty To Zero Part 1)
3. Don't Cry
4. Hangin' On A Limb - (with Linda Ronstadt)
5. Eldorado
6. Ways Of Love, The - (with Linda Ronstadt)
7. Someday
8. On Broadway
9. Wrecking Ball
10. No More
11. Too Far Gone
12. Rockin' In The Free World - (electric)
Notes
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Personnel includes: Neil Young (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Linda Rondstadt (vocals); Frank Sampedro, Chad Cromwell, Rick Rosas, Pancho Villa, Steve Lawwrence, Ben Keith. Producers: Neil Young, Niko Bolas. Engineers: Niko Bolas, Dave Hewitt, Tim Mulligan. Recorded at Jones Beach, Long Island, New York; The Barn-Redwood Digital; The Hit Factory, New York, New York; Redwood Digital. After spending the 1980s going through stylistic changes, Neil Young released FREEDOM, a more straight-forward rock album that was no less lyrically complex despite its appeal to a broader piece of the mainstream. Playing with an assortment of musicians versus a set back-up band like the Stray Gators or the Shocking Pinks, this 1989 release is pure Neil Young. Like any great songwriter, Young populates these songs with memorable characters. "Crime in the City (Sixty to Zero Part 1)" is like a mini-Robert Altman movie with criminals and crooked cops rubbing shoulders with producers and artists whereas Rommel, oil riggers and televangelists populate "Someday." Although Frank Sampedro is the only participating member of Crazy Horse, Young still manages to get a big guitar crunch on the predominantly stripped-down "Don't Cry" and a ferocious cover of "On Broadway." The subtler moments are also captivating, whether it's a duet with Linda Ronstadt on the folkie "Hangin' on a Limb" or the slow-burn, Spanish twang of "Eldorado" that occasionally burps up a bit of heavy distortion. Young's indictment of the Reagan '80s comes in bookended versions (one live acoustic, one electric) of the anthemic "Rockin' in the Free World" that howl with righteous indignation.
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I'd love to hear your thoughts out there. Thanks! | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 10/11/2006 7:06:00 PM | I think most notably, this album is missing Neil's long time producer David Briggs. Hence a different sound all together. You can tell on the album where Neil wants to cut loose, but the producer, Niko Bolas, holds him back, going for more song structure rather than more "free form" which Neil is known to do in his heavier material.
I always wondered what this album would sound like with David Briggs behind the board, and the rest of Crazy Horse in the studio.
"Eldorado" is probably a missing gem from the catalog. "Too Far Gone" is yet another bash against his old band mates with Crosby, Stills, and Nash (this time, against Stephen Stills. I always wonder why Neil goes back to them if the results are always that bad).
After the years of genre hopping, this is probably the most Neil Young sounding albums of them. Sometimes I still wonder if it really is a Neil Young album. It sounds too clean. But still enjoyable.
If anyone is interested, try to find the "Eldorado" EP, which was a limited edition Japanese (methinks) import, with an even rawer sounding verson of the song "Eldorado", and perhaps Neil's greatest song from that era "Cocaine Eyes". (Neil finally had enough of all his musicians and collaborators all strung out, or over dosing, on that drug at the time. Think of it as "The Needle and the Damage Done" for the eighties.) | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 10/11/2006 7:08:30 PM | this is where he started to turn the corner again with popularity...and self confidence in his music. The album before, the bluenotes one...was good...but I think in looking back he was trying to save face from his past few releases that saw his popularity wane..."LIFE" was Crazy Horse at its' worst (in my opinion)...using 80's synthesis..totally away from the crazy horse sound...and Landing On Water before that was a total 'flop'...tho..in looking back...i think it was an undiscovered gem...harder rocking synth-pop than the top 40 stuff going on around it. I love that album...one of my Favourites by Neil Young, actually! By the time Freedom came around...it had the hit single and the music itself show more of Young at being himself. Then Ragged Glory and he 90s came about...a decade which he excelled in!!
Just My Opinion , of course! | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 10/11/2006 9:11:49 PM | | i wore this cassete out and have put a beating on the cd. eldorado and don't cry are my favorite cuts | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 10/12/2006 7:48:16 AM | | Wrecking Ball is one of my favourite Neil Young songs ever. | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 10/12/2006 9:10:23 AM | vindicator,
"...but I think in looking back he was trying to save face from his past few releases that saw his popularity wane.."
I think those poor, un-Neil like releases you referred to were Neil's response to the shitty record company he was with at the time(which one i don't recall). The record company wanted him to make 4 or 5 sequels to "Harvest" that were just like it. In typical Neil fashion, he said, "F-you" and promptly made the Shocking Pinks album and Trans just to piss them off.
I think the shitty state of music in the Eighties contributed to his lessened poularity in that era. Young didn't gel his hair and wear spandex so he wasn't big. The arrival of grunge and it's clear connection to the Crazy Horse sound helped revive his career as well. Didn't hurt that the biggest bands of the day all worshipped him. Ever hear anything from his shows w/ Pearl Jam as backing band/co-headliners..........awesome.
Neil is timeless and brilliant and I will listen to him until i'm dead. | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 10/12/2006 12:22:30 PM | Thanks for all of your comments. I enjoyed reading them... very interesting. I know this might be shocking, but I think I actually like "Freedom" better than "Harvest". That's just me though... I do love his acoustic stuff too... don't get me wrong. I dunno... there's just something about the groove/vibe of "Freedom" that I like. The guitar work and general beat of the music is just fantastic eh? To me, it's the perfect type of music to listen to while driving along a deserted highway.
As far as his acoustic music goes... for me, I like "Harvest Moon" and "Comes a Time".
Have any of you bought his latest "Prairie Wind"? | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 10/12/2006 1:38:50 PM | Allie,
Just heard a couple songs from "Prarie WInd" but they were good. If you'd like a good sense of Neil and Crazy Horse at their best, check out "Live Rust"....IMO one of the two or three best live albums of all-time. | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 10/12/2006 1:39:05 PM | | i never cared for harvest. in fact it is one of the all time best sellers that i don't have in my collection. and after buying prairie wind i decided to revisit harvest and i liked it a whole lot better but still not as much as harvest moon. | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 10/12/2006 2:11:11 PM | | Cavalier... is that the same as the "Rust Never Sleeps" concert? I have that one on VHS and it's amazing!! I never get tired of watching that one. A musical masterpiece for sure. | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 10/12/2006 2:16:03 PM | No....but kinda similar.....Rust Never Sleeps came out in June of 1979....Live Rust in November 1979
It's a double album:
Sugar Mountain * [4:53]
I Am A Child * [2:53]
Comes A Time * [3:05]
After The Goldrush * [3:38]
My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue) * [3:49]
When You Dance I Can Really Love [3:39]
The Loner [4:51]
The Needle And The Damage Done * [2:12]
Lotta Love [2:51]
Sedan Delivery [4:46]
Powderfinger [5:29]
Cortez The Killer [7:25]
Cinnamon Girl [3:08]
Like A Hurricane [7:10]
Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) [4:59]
Tonight's The Night [6:59]
Live Rust was released in November 1979 by Neil Young & Crazy Horse | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 10/12/2006 4:40:16 PM | "Freedom" was a return to form after all those 1980s albums that had him going off into different creative directions and having Geffen records sue him for it.
"Crime in the City" is a good tune from that record. I saw him live around the time "Freedom" was released (1989) and he put on a really good show! Acoustic show, too!
Just before "Freedom" he released the 6 song "Eldorado" EP in Japan/Australia only. A little pricey since its an import but worth it if you can track it down.  | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 11/5/2009 9:40:29 PM | | Yes a fine NY album come on are there really any bad ones hell I even like Landing on Water. For you fans of the song Eldorado look for a song called Road of Plenty (unreleased) virtually the same song just completely different lyrics. Neil Young finest canadian ever to live EVER. | |
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| Neil Young - Freedom
Posted: 11/7/2009 6:59:04 AM | Neil Young is awesome, but I've always preferred his older stuff, and his stuff with CSN. Harvest and After The Gold Rush, and def Everyone Knows This is Nowhere are my fav albums of his. As I truly am a Cinnamon Girl. I always felt like Neil crawled into my brain to write that song.
I Believe in You - another favorite | |
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