Chrome Dreams. Neil Young

How many records did Neil Young not release in the 1970s? Slowly but surely I'm getting confused, as the albums I have come to love and cherish at the time were not what was once intended. But can a fan of Young's work of the age complain when all this beauty is released any way, in a perhaps once intended but discarded way?

In 1977 I lived in Australia for five months. I bought my first Neil Young album there, because 'Like A Hurricane was on Mudgee's 2GB radio station, late in the evening, when they played the same show over and over and over. The result was a big fright, because all the other songs had nothing to do with Neil Young's best rock song ever.

Things changed over the years, when I got to appreciate the different sides of one of the most versatile artist on this planet. 'American Stars 'n' Bars already was an amalgam of songs from different years. Chrome Dreams is no different, while almost all songs can be found, in a different version or not, on an album from that time. What has not changed, is the quality Young offers on Chrome Dreams. With 'American Stars 'n' Bars' and 'Rust Never Sleeps' Chrome Dreams has the different styles on one album in common. Expect his country side to flourish and his great rocker recorded in 1975 and released in 1977 in one.

It's time to look at these releases as Neil Young's 'The Bootleg Series'. I have never been one for bootlegs. (Oddly enough they seem all over the place on LP these days, as if no one cares anymore.) Who cares that these albums have never been released at the time? What we did not have, we could not know. Besides, great albums were released in their stead. We have them now though and in the new order all these songs still work great. They are all from the days that Neil Young was cranking out one great album after another. Fans know all these songs and probably do not mind investing in a new album format, with a slightly different version or not on it. Chrome Dreams is a fantastic album, perhaps unnecessary, because of the songs themselves.

Their is one big difference between the two dinosaurs, an obvious one. Where Dylan sometimes seems to have held back his best songs for whatever undecipherable reasons, there's nearly no new work on the Young albums. He used the songs not released on Chrome Dreams elsewhere. I can't imagine my life without the beautiful 'Pocahontas', the earth-rattling solos of 'Like A Hurricane' or the power of 'Powderfinger'. Again, you cannot miss what you do not know, but still. Young gave to us when he was soaring high, Dylan totally surprised me time and again with what could have been.

True, I do not put on one of Young's original albums on a daily, even monthly basis anymore but when I do, I am still surprised by the quality of the songs. And that is exactly the same thing this new album does: it's thrilling. I think I will get it anyway.

Wout de Natris