Track Listing

1. Little Wing
2. Old Homestead
3. Lost in Space
4. Captain Kennedy
5. Stayin' Power
6. Coastline
7. Union Man
8. Comin' Apart at Every Nail
9. Hawks & Doves

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46959 in Music
• Brand: YOUNG,NEIL
• Released on: 2003-08-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Album Description
2003 remastered reissue of 1980 album. This controversial acoustic album initially peaked at #30. Nine tracks. Reprise.

Customer Reviews

Peaceful Young
1980's Hawks & Doves is one of Neil Young's most underrated albums. The follow-up release to Rust Never Sleeps, the album moves away from the power chords to an acoustic base. The album clocks in at less than a half an hour with most of the nine songs at under three minutes. The original album was broken up into two sides, the first side acoustic and the second side with a full country band. "The Old Homestead" is a rambling track with some of the most mysterious lyrics of Mr. Young's career. It's tough to get a sense of where he's going with the song, but it is intriguing none-the-less. "Lost In Space" is the a truly bizarre track complete with vocals from the marine munchkins. "Captain Kennedy" is a the stand-out track on the album. A dark and foreboding song about a young soldier heading to war. While he's on the water approaching shore he remembers his father who was shamed in battle by having the wooden schooner he captained blown up by the Germans. As he's done remembering his father he hopes his fates are different when reaches the shore and he hopes he can kill good. The song is one of Mr. Young's all-time best. The songs with the country band are filled with fiddles and hooting and hollering like a real hoe-down. "Union Man" is funny and the best of the bunch. Hawks & Doves was generally spurned by critics and the public, but it is a fine example of how Neil Young marches to the beat of his own drummer and isn't afraid to follow wherever his muse takes him.

Comes a time for this one, too.
This is a much-overlooked Neil Young classic. Released two years after his triumphant 'Rust Never Sleeps' trilogy of album, film and 'Live Rust' anthology, 'Hawks and Doves' returned to the pre-'Rust Never Sleeps' sounds of 'Comes a Time'. Although the CD closes with a number titled 'Hawks and Doves', it is clear that the title is also an apt description of the aural content of the complete work.

Originally released on vinyl in 1980, side one is the 'Doves' side. It features some lovely acoustic music, especially tracks one and three. 'Little Wing' (not the Jimi Hendrix composition) and 'Lost In Space' occupy a light, airy, stream-of-consciousness perch that few artists ascend to. The longest track on the disc, 'The Old Homestead', is actually a mid-1970's Neil composition. It runs almost eight minutes in length, and contains a great deal of difficult-to-make-sense-of imagery, such as "Just then the sound of hoofbeats was heard, and the sky was darkened by a prehistoric bird, who flew between the unfulfilled moon, and the naked rider to a telephone booth". Like abstract art, you could spend more than a few hours drawing meaning from this one. The closer on side one is 'Captain Kennedy'. I'm not anything near to being an expert in musical structure, but this song sure sounds like a knock-off of The Blind Fiddler, a traditional folk tune used by Stephen Stills on his 1991 'Stills Alone' CD. It's a fine melody and Neil's lyrics are interesting, but I wonder how conscious the similarity is.

While side one sticks with the soft acoustics of Neil's voice and guitar, side two is a country-rock patriotic party... the 'Hawks' side. Interestingly, this album accompanied one of the most desperate times in our nation's history in terms of self-confidence and economic prosperity. Neil gives the nation all it needs with optimistic, upbeat songs such as 'Stayin' Power' ("We got stayin' power, you and I, stayin' power through thick and thin"), 'Coastline' ("we don't back down from no trouble"), 'Union Man' ("I'm proud to be a union man"), 'Comin' Apart at Every Nail' ("Oh this country sure looks good to me"), and 'Hawks and Doves' ("Ready to go, willing to stay and pay, U.S.A., U.S.A."). It's one great album side, with Neil churning and turning up the electric guitar another notch with each song, and the fiddle that just says "down home America" will fetch a smile to your face as it explodes in each song.

Hillary O'Brien deserves special mention for providing exquisite backing vocals on side two of the vinyl version of this album. She plays the Nicolette Larson role from 'Comes a Time' for this memorable set. Also of note is Levon Helm's drums on 'The Old Homestead'.

I'm rating this a four primarily due to the severely limited length of the album. It comes in at under thirty minutes, and eight minutes are devoted to the weakest track on the album. 'Little Wing', 'Stayin' Power', and 'Union Man' barely crack two minutes, so this one is over before you know it. The songs are vintage though, and the liner notes include the lyrics.

Neil's comin' apart at every nail
Hard to believe that this is the follow-up to the all-time classic "Rust Never Sleeps", but once again Neil confounded everyone with yet another bizarre release ala "American Stars & Bars". Like that album and "Rust" we have two stylistically different sides. Side one, tracks 1-4, consisted of material written and, in some cases, even recorded in '74-'75 and is the more interesting batch of songs. 'Little Wing' is a slight acoustic number w/ shimmering harmonica. 'Old Homestead' is a brilliant and oblique number that recalls classic acoustic Neil travelogues like 'Thrasher' & 'Ambulance Blues'. 'Lost in Space' is the weirdest one on the album, but may be the best. With its underwater sounding guitar, bizarre lyrics, and even children singing at one point, makes this one of the most enjoyable pieces in the Young cannon. 'Captain Kennedy' is a solo Neil story song. The second side, tracks 5-9, was played by a one-off country band assembled by long time Young compatriot, Ben Keith. The hokey honky-tonk songs about family, the working man, and good ol' USA, fit together very nicely but just aren't very strong songs. People must have thought he was crazy singing these just a year after screaming 'Rock and Roll can never die!' on "Rust". One would think the album would be better if he stuck with one style , however, no one knew at the time about the situation with his severely handicapped son which limited his time to write songs and record. Neil would only play one show in 1980 at the Bread & Roses festival...the lone show in a nearly four year period of live inactivity. Worth having in the collection if only for the first four songs.