For all the albums Neil Young has released throughout his prolific career, there is\u2014to the best of my knowledge\u2014only one that has never seen release on compact disc. That would be Journey Through The Past<\/i>, the 1972 soundtrack to a film that was not particularly well received. (The film finally saw release through Young\u2019s Archives, Volume 1<\/i> box set\u2014and, no, I haven\u2019t seen it.)<\/p>\n
What also served essentially as the first retrospective of Young\u2019s still-nascent career serves less as an exclamation point for what he had accomplished in such a short time, than as a question mark in terms of just what this was supposed to represent. Musically, it could be considered to accurately represent Young\u2019s career\u2014both to that point and in the future\u2014as a hodgepodge of different styles, some of which conflict each other.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no denying this collection contains some good music. The two Buffalo Springfield cuts, \u201cFor What It\u2019s Worth\/Mr. Soul\u201d and \u201cRock & Roll Woman,\u201d culled from live television appearances, showcase just how hot that band burned before they crashed to the ground like a phoenix. Similarly, the inclusion of two tracks of works in progress, \u201cAlabama\u201d and \u201cWords,\u201d pre-dated the inevitable box sets that included every time an artist farted in front of an open microphone. Hearing \u201cAlabama\u201d take shape with vocal harmonies is fairly interesting, while \u201cWords\u201d seems to stretch on a little long past its freshness date.<\/p>\n
Now, maybe I\u2019m confused because I\u2019ve never seen the accompanying movie, but the inclusion of two tracks from The Tony & Susan Alamo Christian Foundation Orchestra & Chorus (as well as a discussion Young had with someone on \u201cRelativity Invitation\u201d)\u2014well, it just doesn\u2019t really jibe with the image of Young. (Of course, I could be completely wrong… but seeing Neil doesn\u2019t return my calls anymore, we\u2019ll never know.) The musical selections \u201cHandel\u2019s Messiah\u201d and \u201cKing Of Kings\u201d (the latter composed by Miklos Rozsa) are not unpleasant. They\u2019re just not what one would expect to hear on a Neil Young album\u2014especially when Young himself doesn\u2019t play or sing on them. (The same argument could be made for the cover of Brian Wilson\u2019s \u201cLet\u2019s Go Away For A While\u201d… though it could just be that these tracks were part of the film, and their inclusion could easily be explained that way.)<\/p>\n
As for the tracks featuring Young? Some inclusions make sense, such as \u201cOhio\u201d and \u201cSouthern Man\u201d\u2014that is, work he was well known for. And, you could argue that adding in songs like \u201cSoldier\u201d and \u201cAre You Ready For The Country\u201d served as reminding listeners that Young was more than what one heard on the radio. But, strong cases can be made for replacing a few of these with some of his better-known songs like \u201cCinnamon Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, Journey Through The Past<\/i> ends up being spotty with its song inclusion and overall performances. Is it an unpleasant experience? No… but it\u2019s hardly one that you would consider casting it in the light of being a must-own album. (The key word here is \u201calbum\u201d; unless you opted for the eight-track or reel to reel, an old vinyl copy will be the only way you can listen to this one.) But Young was always an artist who followed his own nose, and not the ass of another lemming, even if\u2014especially if\u2014doing so hurt his commercial credibility. In that regard, perhaps Young knew exactly what he was doing with this particular album. If that\u2019s what made him happy, all the better… but don\u2019t go into this one expecting to hear a greatest hits collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5692],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-47213","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-neil-young","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47213","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=47213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47213"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}