No. 260: Shakey

 SHAKEY By Tom Wills, August 2014, 23x27" (framed) $200

I spent three days immobilized with back pain, down in my cave of art and music, tripping out to 12 hours' worth of Neil Young. I had time to bring out a lot of his hairy detail because I really had nothing else to do and not many places to go. The effect was very spooky but the result is good. I like the hair, and the beard is grizzly.

I'm better now, but Neil Young is still spooky.  A believer ("When God Made Me") who sings about killing movie starts ala Manson ("Revolution Blues"). He's also political ("Ohio," "American Dream"), sentimental ("Old Man"), criminal ("Down By The River") and romantic ("A Man Needs a Maid.") Neil Young loves his big cars -- sings about them a lot -- but needs a road map, because baby he's all over the place, and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

This picture reflects my favorite period for Neil Young, through his first five albums -- an astounding whirlwind through Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Harvest, Tonight's The Night, After The Gold Rush and his most twisted genius fare ever, On The Beach. (Held back from CD release for years, he finally relented. Perhaps it spooks him, too.)

"Well, I'm a barrel of laughs,
with my carbine on
I keep 'em hoppin',
till my ammunition's gone.
But I'm still not happy,
I feel like
there's something wrong.
I got the revolution blues,
I see bloody fountains,
And ten million dune buggies
comin' down the mountains.
Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon
is full of famous stars,
But I hate them worse than lepers
and I'll kill them
in their cars." *

Keep in mind that, during this fruitful period, he also was contributing to and performing with his sometime-pals Crosby, Stills and Nash. 

Playing through all of these records is like listening to a scrapbook: Many of the songs are clearly of their era. Most of the records had not been played in their entirety since I was in high school, yet I can remember where I got them, who I was with and when we listened to them.

I always preferred the concise titles to the half-hour wankfests Young has put his fans through, at full volume, in later years. I'm also quite fond now of his acoustic or "country" sides, now that I'm old enough to appreciate the craft and the skill.

Hell of a guitarist, though he's all over the map and the scales -- as well as the volume knob.

His voice quivers all over that harmonic scale too, and he has adopted the pseudonym Bernard Shakey for all of his film work. 

I find it ironic that Neil Young is on the same label as Frank Sinatra, Reprise -- the label Sinatra started. 

The Chairman of the Board and Shakey; Mr. Concise and Mr. Blow Out Your Earholes for A Full Album Side.

What a conversation that would have been, in Neil's big Lincoln Continental ("the best car that Ford ever made").

Betcha Frank's voice would'a quivered as they drove into the desert.

Revolution Blues on the 8-track ...

 
*Excerpt from "Revolution Blues" P.C. 1974 Silver Fiddle (BMI)

To purchase "Shakey," email hankbonesman@embarqmail.com or willstom01@gmail.com