Track Listing

1. Emperor of Wyoming
2. Loner
3. If I Could Have Her Tonight
4. I've Been Waiting for You
5. Old Laughing Lady
6. String Quartet from Whiskey Boot Hill
7. Here We Are in the Years
8. What Did You Do to My Life?
9. I've Loved Her So Long
10. Last Trip to Tulsa

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59092 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Released in early 1969, Neil Young's first solo album is essentially an extension of "Broken Arrow" and "Expecting to Fly," his two most inventive contributions to Buffalo Springfield. Jack Nitzsche arranged and produced several of the tracks, fusing haunting strings and even funky female backing vocals to acoustic-oriented songs like "Here We Are in the Years" and "The Old Laughing Lady." "The Loner" is the one song from Neil Young to achieve classic-rock immortality, but "I've Been Waiting for You" is almost as good, and the rambling "Last Trip to Tulsa" presages the dark acoustic epics of On the Beach. Though it's not an essential album, Neil Young-like the man himself-is rarely less than interesting. --Dan Epstein

Customer Reviews

An understated, but fabulous, debut from a legend.
After a few years of coming and going with Buffalo Springfield, the "first American supergroup," Neil Young parted ways for good in 1967 with his band. In 1968, with Crazy Horse pianist Jack Nietsche arrangement, Young's self-titled debut was unleashed. Out of all his following albums, "Neil Young" is the most cohesive, mainly because Nietsche helped keep the budding artist on track. It probably has more overdubs than anything that Young did with the Springfield, and certainly everything since Granpa Crispy struck out on his own. The album starts off, ironically, with one of Nietsche's own compositions, "The Emperor of Wyoming," a nice, pleasant country instrumental. "The Loner" follows, and now we are clearly in Neil's world of angst and paranoia. "The Old Laughing Lady" is a great track, with female background vocals reminiscent of anything done for Motown, despite the fact the song is clearly not a Motown product. Besides the aforementioned, Neil's other songs of longing, like "If I Could Have Her Tonight" and "What Did You Do to My Life," make this a thrilling ride. The final track, "The Last Trip to Tulsa," is Young accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. The track is about nine minutes long, with the most arcane, non-sensical lyrics I have ever heard. The crazier the song become lyrically, the harder Young strums his guitar, until you think the strings will crack under the strain. With Nietsche's brilliant arranging, "Neil Young" is a fine start to a long, storied career.

Consistent Melodies
Neil was at the height of his powers when he wrote the songs on this CD. There are no klunkers here, every song has a strong melody and intriguing lyrics.

I find this album compares favorably with the more famous Beach Boys or Beatles albums that came out at the same time. Like the Beach Boys and the Beatles, the rich melodies are the primary appeal of the album. Every song is good, though they are almost all sad, with lots of sweet, heartfelt chords and notes.

The production of this album is a source of frequent comment. In my opinion, the CD is better mixed than the original vinyl. I'll have to confess however, that when I was listening to this album as a teenager, I had a poor stereo. It may simply be that the great sonic equipment we can buy now does justice to an album that couldn't be heard properly on a cheap stereo. Certainly it seems to me that Neil's voice is louder in this mix than the way I remember it from my youth. Also the songs seem to have more of an edge to them, so that the rockers come out with a bit more punch. Some of the instruments seem to stand out more clearly now.

The melodies from this album are so strong that I would compare it favorably against many other good records from any point in rock history. However, you have to understand that this is Neil Young, and the album is moody, a bit introverted, even quite dark at times. But I listen to it for the lush production, the warm bittersweet chords, and the beautiful melodies. Plus, I like Neil's youthful melancholy. It rings true to me.

The LP is much better
This album is good, but only if you have it on vinyl. The song "What did you do to my life" is mixed very badly on the cd, with that sort of droning incredibly irritating organ sound. This is only one instance of the poor transfer to digital that occured with this cd. It is on one of the best songs on the album, but just sounds horrible on the cd. I don't think they put this one out on vinyl since the early eighties, I was lucky to get it from an old neighbor. On LP, "what did you do to my life," without the bad electronic noises, gives the album a cohesion that it otherwise lacks. Does anyone else out there know what I'm talking about? The rest of the album lacks the rich production level of the LP. It's almost like it's a completely different album. I know--this is Neil Young minutia, but I just can't get over how bad this album sounds on cd.