\nHarvest Moon<\/i> saved Neil Young from popular obscurity. (I’ll
\nnow pause so Young’s diehard fans can fire up Netscape mail to
\nflame me.)<\/p>\n
There are undoubtedly fans of Young throughout the years who
\ncould name me at least one song on every album he’s done that have
\nremained in the public eye… and by no means am I ripping into
\nYoung. But
\nHarvest Moon<\/i> did earn him significantly more airplay, and
\nhelped to attract a new fan base to his music. (One of these days,
\nwe’ll review
\nHarvest Moon<\/i> here on “The Daily Vault”.)<\/p>\n
What it also helped to do was to introduce Young to the MTV
\ngeneration – a group that, as far as I know, last saw Young in the
\ndouble-time video for “Wonderin'” back in the ’80s. His stint on
\nMTV Unplugged<\/i> made sure that the words “Neil Young” and
\n“hip” could be used in the same sentence in the ’90s without
\ncausing some people to laugh.
\nUnplugged<\/i>, the 1993 souvenir from that TV performance, shows
\nYoung’s strengths, as well as a few limitations.<\/p>\n
As long as I have Young’s fans already pissed, let’s throw a
\nlittle more fuel on the fire, and get the negatives out of the way
\nearly. Young is not the strongest singer (something he’d probably
\nadmit cheerfully), though the emotion of his performances easily
\noutweighs any stylistic flaws in his voice. Likewise, Young’s
\nplaying is occasionally erratic; you can hear him blow a chord or
\ntwo on the opening song “The Old Laughing Lady” and while playing
\nthe pump organ on “Like A Hurricane”. (I’ll give Young credit for
\nnot going back and overdubbing these in the studio.)<\/p>\n
Now that we have some people hyperventilating with anger, let’s
\nquickly move to the positives about
\nUnplugged<\/i>, of which there are many. If you’re not very
\nfamiliar with Young’s vast body of work, this album is a great
\nprimer for you. From story songs like “Pocahontas” (written well
\nbefore Disney’s venture) to the stark beauty of songs like “Mr.
\nSoul” and “Helpless,” Young proves often that he is a songwriter
\npar excellence, even if some of his best work was never appreciated
\nin its time.<\/p>\n
If you’re a diehard Young fan, hearing old standbys like “The
\nNeedle And The Damage Done” (one of the most powerful anti-drug
\nsongs ever recorded), “Like A Hurricane” and “Long May You Run”
\n(originally done by the Stills-Young Band) will put a smile on your
\nface that can’t be erased. Peppered into the mix are some of the
\nbest tracks from
\nHarvest Moon<\/i> (which Young was promoting at the time of his
\nMTV appearance). “From Hank To Hendrix,” “Unknown Legend” and
\n“Harvest Moon” sound incredibly crisp – though my personal favorite
\nrendition of “Harvest Moon” was Young’s solo guitar performance on
\nSaturday Night Live<\/i>.<\/p>\n
There are dozens of tracks I wish that Young had included in
\nthis set – what about “Cinnamon Girl”? “Lotta Love”? “Heart Of
\nGold”? Still,
\nUnplugged<\/i> is a powerful set that shows the resurgence in
\nYoung’s popularity was no fluke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5692],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38899","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-neil-young","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38899"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}