September has no theme. And it's almost over.
But one day in the last week, I woke up with a song in my head. This happens often. Usually it is from something I had heard in the last few days - but this time, it was not the case.
Love love love Neil Young and arguably, he was no better than between 1977-1981. He has lots of great periods in his career, but I'm fond of the (mostly) Crazy Horse era.
His disk Rust Never Sleeps, which is a live album - but shouldn't be confused with his other live disk, Live Rust - is primarily known for the opening and closing numbers: "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" and "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)", semi-acoustic and full on electric respectively.
The album has lots of good songs, but the best (my opinion, of course) is "Powderfinger). This song is fully electric along with distorted guitars for which Crazy Horse could be known. The phrase "fade away" comes in this song, as it does in the two aforementioned tunes. I won't say it's a theme, but Rust's overriding sentiment is survival.
The song was originally recorded but not released in 1975. It was offered to Lynyrd Skynyrd two years later, but never recorded after some band members died in a plane crash. This always interested me, since Skynyrd's song "Sweet Home Alabama" was a response to Young's "Alabama".
I have never been able to pinpoint why this song resonates with me so, but it does. For me, it ranks up in Young's top 10 songs.....maybe top 5.
1 comment:
Survival is a great sentiment.
Music is very personal too. Great choice.
JP
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