The other night I had Neil Young playing, On the Beach, an album I finally got an original pressing of. (On the early pressings the inside of the album cover is printed with a pattern of the beach umbrella that's in the front cover photo. I'm a packaging geek.) I've heard the record a zillion times, but it was one of those nights when you're going about your business, kind of half listening, and you hear something you hadn't noticed before. On this night it was "Revolution Blues" that made me back up. The song has an almost apocalyptic feel to it, something like Mad Max in flannel. Dark. It's kinda sorta about Charles Manson, who Young had met prior to the Helter Skelter nonsense. It's definitely sung as if coming from a fuck-off-and-die no good outsider.
The thing that struck me when I heard "Revolution Blues" this time was that it sounded like the guitar interplay of Marquee Moon-era Television (actually Young and David Crosby) with the rhythm section of the Talking Heads around the time of their second LP (actually Rick Danko and Levon Helm). A lot of it is the production, bare bones. Regardless, now I can't un-hear it. Sure, that all sounds douchey but if you're familiar with both of those bands, listen to it. You tell me.
Neil Young - Revolution Blues mp3 at Internet Archive
2 comments:
I hear Chris Frantz.
Almost like you can hear the entirety of George Hurley in the Red and the Black.
Wow, a Minutemen reference! Hat's off for that. You know that "The Red and the Black" is a Blue Oyster Cult cover right?
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