Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

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cortez the killer
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Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by cortez the killer »



“Heart of Gold” had put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there.”

This, now semi-famous, quote originally appeared in the liner notes of the excellent Decade collection. Part of that quote has been used to coin the phrase for a period of Neil Young’s life during which he recorded a string of albums that marked a significant departure from the sound he had previously cultivated. Beginning in 1973 with Time Fades Away, Young, disillusioned with stardom and devastated over the deaths of two members of his inner circle, released a trio of deeply-personal and decidedly anti-commercial albums. Those albums (Time Fades Away, Tonight’s the Night, and On the Beach) are commonly-referred to today as “The Ditch Trilogy.”

Up to that point, Neil Young led a charmed existence. At the age of twenty-one, he hooked on with the successful psychedelic country/rock outfit, Buffalo Springfield. After Buffalo Springfield disbanded, he went onto achieve success as a solo artist, and later with a ragtag collection of musicians he dubbed Crazy Horse. He joined a new folk-rock super-group (CSN&Y). He had just recorded his most commercially successful album (Harvest) which yielded his first #1 single (“Heart of Gold”). He was at peace in his personal life as well. His successes afforded him the luxury of purchasing a large, sprawling ranch in California (“Broken Arrow”). He had found a woman he loved, actress Carrie Snodgrass, with whom he had his first child - Zeke Young. However, his world was about to unravel.

Capitalizing on the buzz of his 1970 release, After the Gold Rush, Neil found himself in Nashville, Tennessee for an appearance on The Johnny Cash Show. Ironically enough, Neil debuted the unreleased “The Needle and the Damage Done” on the show. A few days after his appearance, Neil found himself in a Nashville studio with a group of studio musicians who came to be known as The Stray Gators. Not your typical collection of Nashville hired hands, The Stray Gators included Tim Drummond (bass), Kenny Buttery (drums), and Ben Keith (pedal steel). Also in town, due to an appearance on the same Johnny Cash Show, were Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor who were also brought in to provide vocal contributions. This impromptu affair wound up providing most of the material for his next album, Harvest. Upon its release, the record received a tepid reception from many critics who felt the album was too radio-friendly. Despite the lack of critical acclaim, Harvest was a huge hit commercially catapulting Neil to superstar status. It also gave him his first (and only) #1 single - “Heart of Gold.“ To this day, it remains his best-selling studio album in the U.S., having sold over four million copies.



To be continued....
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by Bill in CT »

Great idea for a feature, Cortez! Tonight's The Night is my favorite album of all time and the other two are favorites of mine as well. At the risk of being pedantic, I have a few minor comments about your first post in the feature. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you're saying that Neil joined an already-extant Buffalo Springfield when he was 21. That would be incorrect. He co-founded the band when he was 20.
The other comments are just typos...it's "Buttrey" and Snodgress" for those two last names.
I'm looking forward to the rest of the feature!
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by beantownbubba »

Cortez, I gotta say I'm disappointed and more than a little surprised. Stooping to cliffhanger endings to build your audience? :o
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by cortez the killer »

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Fourteen junkies too weak to work. One sells diamonds for what they’re worth. Down on pain street, disappointment lurks.

Several months after the release of Harvest Neil invited The Stray Gators, Jack Nitzsche (who helped produce and played piano on the album), and Danny Whitten (Crazy Horse guitarist) to Broken Arrow for Time Fades Away rehearsals. It was a well-known fact that Danny had a major heroin problem, yet somebody had convinced Neil that Danny was in good enough shape to tour. A short time into the rehearsals, it was apparent that Whitten was in no condition to head out on the biggest tour of Neil’s career. Neil made the painful decision to fire his friend and sent him back to Los Angeles with $50. Later that evening Whitten was found dead at a friend’s house. He died from an overdose of alcohol and valium. When his body was found, there was no identification, just a note with Neil’s phone number. Neil was crushed. Reflecting upon the situation years later, he commented, “I felt responsible. But really there was nothin’ I could do - I mean, he was responsible. But I thought I was for a long time . . . . Last time I saw him, he was really wasted. Couldn’t keep it together to remember what he was doin’ in the sessions. I had to tell him he wasn’t in the band. Then he went home and OD’d. That was devastating.” Longtime friend Sandy Mazzeo said Neil once told him, “Hey, every musician has one guy on the planet that he can play with better than anyone else. You only get one guy. My guy was Danny Whitten.” The day after Danny died, faced with the prospect of his own fragile mortality, Neil wrote the autobiographical song “Don’t Be Denied.”

The original intent of the Time Fades Away rehearsals was to record an album. Once the album was recorded, the band was to head out on tour. Dissatisfied with the rehearsals, Neil, at the last minute decided to scrap the studio idea and record the new material live on the road. Producer Elliot Mazer had to scramble and put together a recording truck which Neil later dubbed “His Master’s Wheels.” Before they headed out, Buttrey informed Neil’s manager Elliot Roberts that he needed $100,000 to tour. Nitzsche soon found out about Buttrey’s demands and told Drummond. They, too, demanded similar compensation. Neil was incensed, but acquiesced to their greedy demands which furthered soured his already surly demeanor heading into the tour.

The tour itself was a bit of a disaster. They were scheduled to play 65 shows in 90 days. Up to this point, Neil had been a club act. Buoyed by the success of Harvest, the Time Fades Away tour would be played in arenas. Neil was pissed off and frequently drunk on his newly-found beverage of choice, tequila. Nitzsche commented, “Neil was such a jerk on that tour. Now he’s a star, he’s not easygoing Neil anymore. He’d yell at people. We’d get to a town and he’d say, ‘I want everybody to stay in their rooms, ‘cause we’re gonna do a sound check and rehearsal.’ After several hours, Neil would then announce, “Well, there’s not gonna be a sound check, just be ready to go . . . . It was as though he owned us. Since he as gonna pay us that much money, he could treat us like slaves.” Archivist Joel Bernstein noticed a different Neil, too. “How does a guy go from being a mellow hippie smiling in the barn to the drunk, intentionally out-of-it guy screaming at the audience? The hippie’s gone. The hippie took a plane home.”

One of the biggest targets of Neil’s anger during tour was drummer Kenny Buttrey. After a few shows Neil began complaining that he wasn’t drumming hard enough. He would berate him during sound checks and insist that he get bigger sticks. About three-quarters of the way through the tour Buttrey quit and was replaced by Johnny Barbata. Buttrey reflected on the tour, “I was playin’ ten times louder than I had ever played in my life. I was tryin’ thicker heads, bigger sticks. It was drivin’ me crazy. I looked down at the snare drum one night and saw something splatter. My hand would bleed, it was drippin’ down the stick and formed a big puddle on the snare. And when I hit the drum, blood would fly through the air. I just said, ‘Oh man, what’s happening here? This is a damn nightmare.’ It was the roughest time of my life. I wouldn’t go through that again for ten times that amount.”

Adding to Neil’s level of misery were the venues. Having only previously played clubs, he was now filling arenas and he was not comfortable in those settings. Shortly after the tour ended Neil commented in an interview, “It was a terrible affair. It was like I was watching myself on TV and someone had pulled the plug . . . I said to myself, ‘Who needs it?’ Who needs to be a dot in the distance for twenty thousand people . . . the circus might be all right for some acts, but it’s not for me anymore. I’m tired of singing to a cop, that’s all. Filling a twenty-thousand-seat arena is not rock and roll but rock and roll business. . . . I want to be able to see the people I’m playing for . . . I want to be able to live with myself . . . I just hope there is not a single off my next album.”

With the benefit of hindsight, Neil reflected back on tour years later, “The whole thing was, I was finding out that it wasn’t me who made the records. The records I was making with Crazy Horse - I couldn’t just go and do another record that was that good with just anybody. I didn’t know that until I did the Time Fades Away tour. Because with Buffalo Springfield, then Crazy Horse, it was there. I had Bruce and Dewey and then I had Billy and Ralph - y’know, they all moved. As much as there were great players in the Harvest band, it wasn’t the same kind of thing as Buffalo Springfield or Crazy Horse. So I think I was finding that out - that I was frustrated on that level.” Adding to the level of discomfort musically speaking, Neil was without ‘Old Black‘ which was temporarily out of commission. In its place he used a Gibson Flying V that would never stay in tune, driving Neil and the crew crazy.

The album itself is long out of print on vinyl and has never been released on CD. Neil has commented several times how it is his least favorite album. “My least favorite record is Time Fades Away. I think it’s the worst record I ever made. . . . I felt like a product, and I had this band of all-star musicians that couldn’t even look at each other. It was a total joke.” While Neil may not like the album, many “Rusties” cite it as one of their all-time favorites. In fact there is a petition out there for him to release the album on CD.

Personally, I love this album. It’s got ragged rockers alongside gentle, piano ballads with some of Neil’s rawest vocal performances. It has a disjointed flow, but I think that’s part of its charm. The songs are just fantastic. I mean, stuff like “Journey Though the Past,” “L.A.,” and “Don’t Be Denied” are some of the best songs he’s ever produced. It’s a live album, but not in the traditional sense. Coming off the heels of the huge commercial success of Harvest, Neil has the audacity to release an album that consists of previously-unreleased live material. I’m sure it was perceived as a risky move at the time, but what a brilliant decision. In fact, in 1996 R.E.M. cited TFA as an inspiration for their recorded live-on-the-road New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Whether or not it is ever officially released on CD or re-released on vinyl remains a mystery. There exists rumors of a Time Fades Away II being part of the next installment of the Archives series. Like everything with Neil, I would not get my hopes too high.

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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by dogstar »

beantownbubba wrote:Cortez, I gotta say I'm disappointed and more than a little surprised. Stooping to cliffhanger endings to build your audience? :o


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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by RolanK »

Great read so far. Thanks. I guess I have my rudimentary Neil knowledge in place. Always nice to get filled in on stuff like this.

EDIT: Typo corrected. Obviously not enough rudimentary knowledge to spell Neil's name the right way :oops:
Last edited by RolanK on Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by cortez the killer »

TFA tidbit - In TX on February 24th, Young and the band crossed paths with country-rock icon Gram Parsons, who was also playing a gig in Houston. Sharing a limo, Nitzsche appalled everyone by taking one glance at Parsons and muttering, “You look like Danny . . . and Danny’s dead.” Parsons would overdose just seven months later.
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by dime in the gutter »

hoo-fucking-ray for this thread. most excellent.

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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by Van »

Great read thanks Cortez.

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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by Steve French »

cortez the killer wrote:TFA tidbit - In TX on February 24th, Young and the band crossed paths with country-rock icon Gram Parsons, who was also playing a gig in Houston. Sharing a limo, Nitzsche appalled everyone by taking one glance at Parsons and muttering, “You look like Danny . . . and Danny’s dead.” Parsons would overdose just seven months later.


fascinating.
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by cortez the killer »

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I've been flyin' down the road, and I've been starvin' to be alone and independent from the scene that I've known.

The sixties are definitely not with us anymore. . . The change into the music of the seventies is starting to come with people like David Bowie and Lou Reed. . . “Walk on the Wild Side.” He’s telling a story, a street story, and that’s a reality in the seventies, heroin. . . . This is much more of a dope generation than we’re in now. . . And that’s what the approach a lotta of these people have towards makin’ records - is that homosexualism and heavy dope use and everything is a way of life to a lotta people - and they don’t expect to live any more than thirty years and they don’t care. And they don’t care. They’re in the seventies. What I’m tryin’ to say is that these people like Lou Reed and David Booie or Bowie, however you pronounce it, those folks - I think they got something’ there, heh heh. Take a walk on the wild side!
- Neil Percival Young

Tonight’s the Night was inspired by three events - the death of Danny Whitten, the death of roadie Bruce Berry, and the Topanga drug murders of 1972. Neil was anxious to get the bad taste of the Time Fades Away fiasco out of his mouth and head back into the studio with what was left of Crazy Horse (bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina). In addition to Talbot and Molina, Neil had Ben Keith and his steel back on board along with guitarist Nils Lofgren. The album was originally to be recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. However, producer David Briggs felt that the studio was “too stiff.” So after one day at Sunset Sound he took the sessions down the street to Studio Instrument Rentals (S.I.R.) which was ironically run by Bruce Berry’s brother Ken Berry. They backed a mobile recording truck into the alley next to the building, took a twenty-five pound sledgehammer, and smashed a hole through one of the walls to S.I.R. Cable was run into a small, closet-sized equipment locker that served as the control room and Neil the band played on a small stage with the sessions recorded live.

For the majority of the recording process the crew was inebriated and/or high, with alcohol, particularly tequila, being the chief culprit. The tone was set by Keith cracking open a bottle of tequila and throwing the top into the wind. “We won’t be needing that anymore,” he reportedly quipped. Talbot described the experience as a “drunken Irish wake.” Molina recalled, “We weren’t stumbling or anything. We’d just get to a point where you get a glow, just a glow. The head was fucking great, man. When you do blow and drink, that’s when you get that glow.” In a 1975 interview, Neil reflected back on the experience, “What we were doing was playing those guys on the way . . . I mean, I’m not a junkie, and I won’t even try to check out what it’s like. But we’d get really high - drink a lot of tequila, get right out on the edge, where we knew we were so screwed up that we could easily just fall on our faces. . . . We were wide open . . . Just wide open. I was able to step outside myself to do this record, to become a performer of the songs rather than the writer. That’s the main difference - every song was performed. I just didn’t feel like I was a lonely figure with a guitar or whatever the trip is that people see me as sometimes. I didn’t feel that laid-back. . . . So I thought I’d just forget about all that and . . . Wipe it out.”

Lofgren, who had previously played with Young on After the Gold Rush, found it to be a much different vibe this time. “With After the Gold Rush, even though the recording was done live as possible, at least we rehearsed things and got pretty on top of ‘em before we recorded. On Tonight’s the Night, Neil took it a step further. He was kinda rebelling against everything. I remember talkin’ to him and he said, ‘Hey, I’ve made records where you analyze everything and you do it three thousand times and it’s perfect. I’m sick of it. I want to make a record that’s totally stark naked. Raw. I don’t want to fix any of it.”

And so it went with the band holed up in the rehearsal space, getting wasted, wearing sunglasses all night, and playing all these new songs to an imagined audience. Neil Young archivist Joel Bernstein commented, “It was completely black inside, didn’t matter what time it was. I had to get ‘em in daylight. It was like doing a documentary on nocturnal animals pulled out from under a rock. They looked like rodents when you shine a light in their eyes.”

Neil reflected back on his mindset while writing and recording the album, “When I first started the record, I didn’t know what the hell I was doin’. But I did get into a persona. I have no real idea where the fuck it came from, but there it was. It was part of me. I thought I had gotten into a character - but maybe a character had gotten into me. I was twenty-seven when we did Tonight’s the Night, livin’ down there in L.A., travelin’ around . . . that’s the time when you start realizing, “Hey, this isn’t what I thought it was gonna be.” Things happen and they hit you around that age . . . but you still have enough energy to go nuts.” Briggs, whose influence is all over the record, echoed Neil’s assessment of the proceedings, “We didn’t go down there with the idea, ‘Let’s make a spooky record.’ The album just kind of evolved.”

The context is key in appreciating this dark affair. As Young told Cameron Crowe in a 1975 interview, “If you’re gonna put a record on at eleven in the morning, don’t put on Tonight’s the Night. Put on the Doobie Brothers.” It is an album that is characterized by out-of-tune singing, missed notes, boozy piano, and fuzzed out guitars. Neil voice is wrought with emotion, with the highlight being when his voice completely cracks on “Mellow My Mind.” He sounds like a man who has been pushed to the limit and he’s pouring every last bit of strength he has into the record. You get the sense he is running on fumes.

Whereas TFA was Neil’s least favorite album, TTN is the record he is most proud of - “Tonight’s the Night was just an attitude that was ahead of its time - or behind its time. For that time, that record was pretty wild. I just knew it was a good record. There’s something irreverent about it. Tonight’s the Night doesn’t care - and that makes you feel good about it. There’s no pretense.”

Shortly after the record was finished, Neil and the band headed out on the road. However, the album would not be released until 1975. In fact, Neil recorded two more albums (On the Beach & the never-released Homegrown) in the time between the completion of the recording of TTN and the actual release. Neil’s record company, Warner Brothers, and his manager Elliot Roberts urged Neil to hold off on releasing it. Both wanted more of a return to the sound of Harvest. Neil agreed to delay the release the album, but insisted on it being released eventually, “When you first listened to it (Tonight’s the Night) you thought, ‘Oh my God. What’s happening to these people - are these guys lost?’ Real music - played by people who have nothing else to do than play music, not because they’re recording, or anything. This shit had to come out. When they put out Harvest on CD, I made them put out Tonight’s the Night. I said, ‘If you wanna put out my biggest hit, I want you to put out my best record.’ So a lot of audiophiles get to hear tape hiss and fucking microphones popping and all kinds of shit they normally wouldn’t normally be able to hear - plus music that was way out of tune and fuckin’ crazy that they probably wanted to turn down anyway.”

As they hit the road, Neil named the band the Santa Monica Flyers. The band looked like a ragtag collection of homeless misfits. Neil’s outfit for the tour consisted of a white Tinkerbell “Topanga All-Stars” t-shirt, patched jeans, a scruffy beard, a pair of Polaroid Cool-Ray 420 Fastback shades, and a thrift-store seersucker sport coat. For most of the shows, Neil would cryptically announce, “Welcome to Miami Beach, ladies and gentlemen. Everything is cheaper than it looks.” The tour was unlike anything Neil had done before. The stage was adorned by a bunch of kitschy props including a sickly-looking palm tree (taken form the S.I.R. entryway) with a forty-watt bulb attached to it, a wooden Indian (stolen from a Santa Monica arts-and-crafts shop), platform glitter boots surrounding Neil’s grand piano, and beach baggies. During the performances Neil would smoke joints thrown on stage by the audience and take swigs from a gallon jug of Cuervo Gold he would pass down to the front row. According to Lofgren, “The mood live was completely different. There was an angry edge the original recording didn’t have. We were all pissed off about losin’ a couple of people close to us and it all came out.” However, he wasn’t nearly as depressed or self-destructive as he had been on the TFA tour. Snodgress reflected on the tour, “That passion, that hunger, that rock and roll release . . . watchin’ musicians get swept right up in it. Neil didn’t belong in that world. Tonight’s the Night was the beginning of the end for my life with Neil.” Looking back on the tour, Neil commented, “I was havin’ a fantastic time. It was dark but it was good. That was a band with a reason. We were on a mission. That’s maybe as artistic a performance as I’ve given. I think there was more drama in Tonight’s the Night because I knew what I was doing to the audience. But the audience didn’t know if I knew what I was doing. I was drunk outta my mind on that tour. Hey - you don’t play bad when you’re drunk, you just play real slow. You don’t give a shit. Really don’t give a shit. I was fucking with the audience. From what I understand, the way rock and roll unfolded with Johnny Rotten and the punk movement - that kind of audience abuse - kinda started with that tour. I have no idea where the concept came from. Somebody else musta done it first, we all know that, whether it was Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard, somebody shit on the audience first.”

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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by Iowan »

Enjoying this immensely. Covers some of my favorite Neil Young shit, and well written to boot. Rocked both On The Beach and Tonight's the Night on the road today.

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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by beantownbubba »

That TTN post has set a new standard around here, Cortez. Really terrific.

Not sure if it's coincidental, but my fave NY record and an easy all timer.
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by Bill in CT »

Great stuff Cortez!

In response to a recent thread on Rust about Kenny Buttrey, his daughter posted to the list. Her first post is linked below.

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/ru ... age/274544
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by Smitty »

Tonight's the Night is my fav Neil album most of the time, and my fav album period a lot of the time - "Albuquerque" is my favorite Neil song, ever. Except for "Tired Eyes".
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by cortez the killer »

Smitty wrote:"Albuquerque" is my favorite Neil song, ever. Except for "Tired Eyes".

That second side has some absolute gems - "Roll Another Number (For the Road)," "Albuquerque," "Tired Eyes" are essential pieces of the Neil Young catalog.

David Briggs agreed with you on "Tired Eyes" Smitty - “I think it’s the best song on Tonight’s the Night. You’ll never hear another song like it. The dreamy recitation, the lyrics are so abstract - Neil really caught dope murder, that kind of feel.”
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by cortez the killer »

Bill in CT wrote:Great stuff Cortez!

In response to a recent thread on Rust about Kenny Buttrey, his daughter posted to the list. Her first post is linked below.

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/ru ... age/274544

Thanks Bill.

Thanks for the Buttrey share.

"As far as the relationship between Neil and my dad
goes I don't know many details as most of the drama occurred when I was very
young or before I was born. I do know, however, that both were hard-headed
perfectionists who had personality clashes, and this isn't uncommon in the music
industry at all. The music was the most important thing to both of them,
professionally."
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by Iowan »

cortez the killer wrote:
Smitty wrote:"Albuquerque" is my favorite Neil song, ever. Except for "Tired Eyes".

That second side has some absolute gems - "Roll Another Number (For the Road)," "Albuquerque," "Tired Eyes" are essential pieces of the Neil Young catalog.

David Briggs agreed with you on "Tired Eyes" Smitty - “I think it’s the best song on Tonight’s the Night. You’ll never hear another song like it. The dreamy recitation, the lyrics are so abstract - Neil really caught dope murder, that kind of feel.”


The coked out layers of lurching guitar and piano on "Lookout Joe" deserve some props in any discussion of TTN's side 2.

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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by Duke Silver »

A+, cortez. Enjoying this a lot.
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by cortez the killer »

Iowan wrote:
cortez the killer wrote:
Smitty wrote:"Albuquerque" is my favorite Neil song, ever. Except for "Tired Eyes".

That second side has some absolute gems - "Roll Another Number (For the Road)," "Albuquerque," "Tired Eyes" are essential pieces of the Neil Young catalog.

David Briggs agreed with you on "Tired Eyes" Smitty - “I think it’s the best song on Tonight’s the Night. You’ll never hear another song like it. The dreamy recitation, the lyrics are so abstract - Neil really caught dope murder, that kind of feel.”


The coked out layers of lurching guitar and piano on "Lookout Joe" deserve some props in any discussion of TTN's side 2.

"Lookout Joe" is a very good one. Believe it or not, it was not recorded by the TTN band at S.I.R. It was actually recorded at Broken Arrow during the TFA rehearsals with The Stray Gators. "Borrowed Tune" also came from the TFA rehearsals. "Come on Baby Lets Go Downtown" was culled from a 1970 show at Fillmore East (later released as part of the NYA PS). The remaining songs were recorded with what Neil dubbed the Santa Monica Flyers at S.I.R. in L.A.
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Iowan
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by Iowan »

cortez the killer wrote:
Iowan wrote:
cortez the killer wrote:That second side has some absolute gems - "Roll Another Number (For the Road)," "Albuquerque," "Tired Eyes" are essential pieces of the Neil Young catalog.

David Briggs agreed with you on "Tired Eyes" Smitty - “I think it’s the best song on Tonight’s the Night. You’ll never hear another song like it. The dreamy recitation, the lyrics are so abstract - Neil really caught dope murder, that kind of feel.”


The coked out layers of lurching guitar and piano on "Lookout Joe" deserve some props in any discussion of TTN's side 2.

"Lookout Joe" is a very good one. Believe it or not, it was not recorded by the TTN band at S.I.R. It was actually recorded at Broken Arrow during the TFA rehearsals with The Stray Gators. "Borrowed Tune" also came from the TFA rehearsals. "Come on Baby Lets Go Downtown" was culled from a 1970 show at Fillmore East (later released as part of the NYA PS). The remaining songs were recorded with what Neil dubbed the Santa Monica Flyers at S.I.R. in L.A.


I would have never guessed. It sounds as if its recorded in the depths of that same tequila and blow bender. Jangly and lurching musically, with a loud, muddy mix and abstract lyrics, with a dark undercurrent.

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4sooner
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by 4sooner »

beantownbubba wrote:That TTN post has set a new standard around here, Cortez. Really terrific.

Not sure if it's coincidental, but my fave NY record and an easy all timer.


This

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Smitty
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by Smitty »

Sure enough,
they'll be sellin' stuff
When the moon begins to rise.
Pretty bad when
you're dealin' with the man,
And the light shines in your eyes
E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.

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Kudzu Guillotine
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

Not sure if Nine Bullets was around in 2004 when Buttrey died but I seem to remember posting there back then that he also played in Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band for a while as well.

As for Tonight's the Night and Time Fades Away, I should probably hunt those down at some point because I don't think I've ever heard either of them all the way through before.

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3milelake
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by 3milelake »

Outstanding write-ups Cortez.

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cortez the killer
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by cortez the killer »

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You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
- DPM

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cortez the killer
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by cortez the killer »

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It's easy to get buried in the past when you try to make a good thing last.

Like Tonight‘s the Night, On the Beach was originally supposed to be a David Briggs production. Recording began in 1974 on Neil’s ranch. The sessions yielded “Walk On” (his “fuck you“ anthem to his critics) and “For the Turnstiles” (which some have interpreted as Neil’s disillusionment with the oversized arenas of the TFA tour). Ben Keith recalls about the latter song, “I’d sing these off, weird harmonies, and Neil’d go, ‘Oh, that’s cool - do that.’ I didn’t know I could sing that high - I still can’t. I must’ve been sittin’ on a crack and got my balls in there.”

Shortly into the recordings Briggs got incredibly sick. Neil felt he was in a fertile creative zone and wanted to keep going. So he cut Briggs loose and continued the album without him. This did not sit well with Briggs.“ I got deathly sick the second day - sickest I’ve ever been, hundred and five temperature - and they just kept recording. Just threw me away because Neil is hot. Pissed me off so much that I didn’t have anything to do with him for a long time.” This opened the door for Ben Keith to assert himself on the direction OTB was to take. He brought in The Band’s rhythm section (Rick Danko on bass and Levon Helm on drums) as well as an old acquaintance from Nashville he had fist met in 1956, Rusty Kershaw.

Rusty Kershaw, a large, wild Cajun fiddler, born in the swamps of Louisiana, wielded a powerful influence over the recordings. He introduced Neil and the crew to his infamous ‘honey slides’ and pushed Neil even further out of the musical zone than he had been on TTN. With regards to the honey slides, according to Ben Keith, he and Rusty came up with the idea. You would take some weed and fry it in a skillet. After the weed would start smoking, you would add the honey. Keith recounts, “It just all looks like cowshit, heh heh. You take a spoonful of this cowshit and you eat it. And in about twenty minutes you start forgettin’ where you are.” Elliot Roberts, ever the voice of reason, had this to say about the psychedelic concoction, “People passed out. This stuff was, like, much worse than heroin. Much heavier. Rusty would pour it down your throat and within ten minutes you were catatonic.”

With everyone fucked up on the honey slides, Rusty was now positioned front and center as the OTB ringleader. Willie B. Hinds describes Rusty’s influence over the sessions - “It was Kershaw’s record, not Neil’s. This is a funny thing to say about Neil - people have had influences on him, like Danny Whitten or Kershaw. Ralph and Billy didn’t, Rusty Kershaw did..” Roberts echoed Hinds’ assessment, “Ben’s advertising Rusty as the new messiah - and Neil, if he has a problem, it’s that he wants to be a good ol’ boy too much. Too much.”

The vibe of the sessions were strongly influenced by the honey slides. This can be heard in the super-low, incredibly-slow D-chord drone of the L.A. sessions which produced “See the Sky About to Rain,” “Revolution Blues,” “Vampire Blues, “ “On the Beach,” “Motion Pictures,” and “Ambulance Blues.” These sessions were recorded at Sunset Sound (where Tonight‘s the Night was supposed to be recorded before Briggs moved it over to S.I.R.). Not feeling the cold, impersonal vibe of the space, Rusty insisted they spruce the place up to give it a more homey feel. The studio was furnished with old, vintage overstuffed chairs and floor lamps arranged in a circle and candles wrapped in tinfoil. Rusty preferred to not rehearse any of the material. Shocked by this, Neil asked, “How in the hell do you know how to play this thing the first time I play it? You don‘t know what I‘m gonna do.” To which Kershaw responded, “Neil, you carry a heavy vibe, and if I’m sittin’ close to you, I can feel what you feel before you play. I know where you’re gonna go.”

With Briggs out of the mix, Al Schmidt was brought in to produce. However, not being completely comfortable with the vibe and direction Neil wanted to take things (particularly the murky-sounding takes Neil favored), he left before the sessions were over and is unwilling credited as the producer on the Side 2 trio of “On the Beach,” “Motion Pictures,” and “Ambulance Blues.” In his place, Mark Harman, who had previously worked with The Band and Bobby Charles, was brought in. Harman oversaw “See the Sky About to Rain,” “Revolution Blues,” and “Vampire Blues.”

“Revolution Blues” (inspired by Charles Manson) was shaped by one of Rusty’s semi-frequent rants. He didn’t like the manner in which the musicians were playing it. According to Kershaw - “I said, ‘Look man, you don’t sound like you’re tryin’ to start a fuckin’ revolution. Here’s how you start that.’ And I just started breakin’ a bunch of shit and Ben jumped right in there. I said, ‘That’s a revolution, muth’ fucker.’ Goddamn, that sparked Neil right off. He got it on the next tale.” According to Billy Talbot’s brother, Johnny, as the band tore into that take, “Here’s this big fat tub (Rusty) in Lil’ Abner overalls - one side undone, with dirty long underwear - thinking he was a snake, slithering around on the floor.”

Neil had this to say about OTB - “Good album. One side of it particularly - the side with “Ambulance Blues,” “Motion Pictures,” and “On the Beach.” “Ambulance Blues” - it’s out-there. It’s a great take. I always feel bad I stole that melody from Bert Jansch. Fuck. You ever heard that song “The Needle of Death”? I loved that melody. I didn’t realize “Ambulance Blues” starts exactly the same. I knew that it sounded like something he did, but when I went back and heard that record again I realized that I had copped his thing . . . I felt really bad about that. Because here is a guy who . . . I’ll never play guitar as good as this guy. Never. He’s like Jimi Hendrix or something on the acoustic guitar.”

Bassist Tim Drummond was amazed how Neil got into character for the project - “Robert De Niro gained fifty pounds for Raging Bull, Neil did the same thing for his music. He was smoking two packs a day to get a late-night, frog-in-his-throat voice.”

In an ironic twist, the tour that followed the completion of On the Beach was actually a huge arena tour, this time with Crosby, Still, & Nash. Apparently Elliot Roberts, fearful that Neil was deliberately sabotaging his career with a string of out-of-character records, was able to convince Neil that the tour was the right thing to do. Dubbed “The Doom Tour” by Crosby, it was marked by heavy cocaine use, over-the-top expenditures, and left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths. Crosby remarked, “After that experience, Graham (Nash) and I never wanted to see Stephen (Stills) or Elliot (Roberts) - or, for that matter, Neil - or anybody else from that scene again. In particular, I never wanted to see Stephen again. He was . . . ‘crazy’ is too nice a word. It sucked.” Shortly after “The Doom Tour,” Young and girlfriend Carrie Snodgress went their separate ways.

One the Beach is an amazing record. It’s not my favorite Neil album, but it might be the best album he ever made if you can understand that. It’s a short record (eight songs, clocking in at under 40 minutes), but it has incredible sonic diversity and some of Neil’s best lyrics. The songs range from bouncy (“Walk On,” “Revolution Blues,” “Vampire Blues”), to dirgeful (“See the Sky About to Rain,” “On the Beach,” “Motion Pictures”), to sparse, country/folk songs (“For the Turnstiles,” “Ambulance Blues”). It contains some of his most cryptic, metaphorical lyrics, particularly on the epic closer “Ambulance Blues" (which also contains some of my favorite harmonica work by any artist ever). Alongside the cryptic and metaphorical material, OTB also contains some of his most sadistic lyrics. One need look no further than the twisted “Revolution Blues” where Neil takes on the persona of former Laurel Canyon cult leader and mass murderer, Charles Manson.



A broad range of emotions are explored and conveyed on the album. It was fame that drove Neil into the ditch in the first place. Much of the material on On the Beach addresses, in some way or other, fame and its trappings. However, you get the sense Neil is more at peace with the situation. That isn’t to say he embraces it. He ran away from it (into the ditch so to speak) and, in the process, cemented his status as an artist willing to live on the margins of the music world.

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"The Doom Tour" (Wembley Stadium '74)
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Rusty Kershaw
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Neil "Flyface" Young (Oakland Stadium '74)
You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
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3milelake
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by 3milelake »

cortez the killer wrote:This opened the door for Ben Keith to assert himself on the direction OTB was to take. He brought in The Band’s rhythm section (Rick Danko on bass and Levon Helm on drums) as well as an old acquaintance from Nashville he had fist met in 1956, Rusty Kershaw.


Never knew this, & I'm a big Neil/Band fan. I will listen to Revolution Blues & See The Sky About To Rain with renewed interest.

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cortez the killer
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by cortez the killer »

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OTB tidbit - The palm tree that appears on the back of the album cover it the same one stolen from S.I.R. and used as a stage prop during the TTN tour.
You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
- DPM

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dime in the gutter
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Re: Feature of the Week (3/18/12) The Ditch Trilogy

Post by dime in the gutter »

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is our boy stills is wearing a louisiana state trooper uni?

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