Neil Young

Released: 12th November 1968

Track Listing

Side 1

The Emperor of Wyoming - 2:14

The Loner – 3:55

If I Could Have Her Tonight - 2:15

I’ve Been Waiting for You - 2:30

The Old Laughing Lady - 5:05

Side 2

String Quartet From Whiskey Boot Hill - 1:04

Here We Are In The Years - 3:27

What Did You Do To My Life - 2:00

I’ve LOved Her So Long - 2:40

Last Trip To Tulsa - 9:25

Album from: https://www.discogs.com/user/RONKASDELIGHT

£11.95

Neil Young is the debut studio album by Canadian/American musician Neil Young following his departure from Buffalo Springfield in 1968, issued on Reprise Records, catalogue number RS 6317. The album was first released on November 12, 1968, in the so-called 'CSG mix'. It was then partially remixed and re-released in late summer 1969,^[2] but at no time has the album ever charted on the Billboard 200.

The album is Young's first solo record after releasing three albums with Buffalo Springfield. After their final breakup, Young hired Joni Mitchell's manager Elliot Roberts to also manage his career. Roberts continue to serve as Young's manager until his passing in 2019. Roberts organized Young's first solo tour of coffeehouses and negotiated a record contract for Young with Reprise Records, a division of Warner.^[3]

From Wikipedia

A bit of a false start with this one. Ordered at a reasonable price from discogs but the seller had unfortunately sold it that weekend at a record fair and forgot to take it off the site. Anyway, I ended up with a nice version and I rather like the artwork, there’s something of a modern Christian evangelist stained glass window about the colours.

As noted in the Wikipedia blurb above, Young was well established with Buffalo Springfield before going solo with this. My decision to cover this Canadian trinity is supported by the incestuousness of the professional relationships around this record as Young joined up with Joni’s manager while David Crosby was producing her and Stephen Stills was kind of hanging around from the Buffalo Springfield days. Young would have a future with Crosby and Stills. It’s kind of what Rock Family Trees was made for.

The openng track on both sides is an instrumental, The Emperor Of Wyoming is a pleasant country meander, String Quartet From Whiskey Boot Hill is a bit more puzzling. NIce enough but the strings strike a feeling of discordancy. Young’s voice could be described as an acquired taste, but I reckon if you don’t acquire it quickly you never will. I once saw it described as ‘consumptive’, which given his health problems down the years probably contains a grain of truth.

The synthesiser (yes, in 1968) that opens ‘The Loner’ is particularly striking, and the song itself gives the best impression of the harder edged Neil Young that would emerge over time.

Some tracks suggest a CSNY feeling. Here We Are In The Years is appropriately nostalgic, but the guitar prowess is there for all to hear too, there’s a light Isley Brothers ‘Summer Breeze’ feel to ‘What Did You Do To My Life’ and plenty of fuzzy noodling on ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’.

He weighs in with a hefty 9-minuter at the end. ‘The Last Trip To Tulsa’ Apparently he’s been fairly clear that the lyrics are all stream of consciousness stuff and if his acolytes have been puzzling over it for 55 years, I doubt I can add anything here. I suspect it is best enjoyed with some additional chemical input of the type that was reasonably popular in 1968. It does feature murder-by-palm-tree however.