Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Rust Never Sleeps
Original LP release: 1979
This CD released: 2005-09-21
Label: Warner Music Japan / Reprise
Catalog #: WPCR-75096
Tracks 1-5: With Nicolette Larson, Joe Osborne & Carl Himmel
Tracks 6-9: With Crazy Horse
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From cduniverse:
Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Neil Young (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars); Frank Sampedro (guitar); Billy Talbot (bass); Ralph Molina (drums).
Additional personnel: Nicolette Larson (vocals); Joe Osborne, Carl Himmel.
Producers: Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Tim Mulligan, David Briggs.
As far as pure songcraft goes, it's hard to beat this 1979 offering from Young and Crazy Horse. By the end of the '90s, Young, Talbot, Molina and Sampredo had refined their crushing sonic assault to the extent that they could bludgeon the listener with Wagnerian riffs and rhythms (the entropy hymn "Hey Hey, My My") or provide just enough grit to keep Young's far-out lyrics from ascending into the stratosphere ("Ride My Llama.") Songwise, RUST is a schizophrenic album. Young moves from the brilliant surrealist imagery of "Pocahontas," with its evocation of "Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me," to the sharp narrative perspective of the equally transcendent "Powderfinger" and the good-humored social commentary of "Welfare Mothers."
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From Wilson & Alroy:
Young's best collection of song material in the late 70s, interestingly presented as a set of live recordings with the crowd noises mixed out, the acoustic and electric numbers segregated on each side of the disc, and the key tune - his blistering Sex Pistols eulogy "Hey Hey, My My" - bracketing the album with two very different versions that both were radio favorites. The acoustic Side 1 is stronger, with the witty, impressionistic "Pocahontas" being a standout, but "Ride My Llama" being catchy and short, "Sail Away" (with a Nicolette Larson duet vocal) serving as a fine example of his country-western ballad formula, and "Thrasher" measuring up well. Meanwhile, the wrenchingly stark acoustic arrangement of "My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)" is a good intro to the set, and the second side's leadoff track ("Powderfinger") is just mellow enough to bridge the transition - it's also one of the strongest compositions here. Unfortunately, Crazy Horse's sputtering, leaden sound on the next couple songs ("Welfare Mothers"; "Sedan Delivery") comes off as poorly rehearsed metal instead of the righteous country-punk Young was trying to invent. But by the time "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)" staggers through to its glorious, feedback drenched-conclusion, you'll find yourself agreeing that rock 'n' roll is here to stay. Co-produced by Young, Briggs, and Tim Mulligan; Carl Himmel and Joe Osborne back Young on guitar on the acoustic side.
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AMG review by William Ruhlmann:
Rust Never Sleeps, its aphoristic title drawn from an intended advertising slogan, was an album of new songs, some of them recorded on Neil Young's 1978 concert tour. His strongest collection since Tonight's the Night, its obvious antecedent was Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home, and, as Dylan did, Young divided his record into acoustic and electric sides while filling his songs with wildly imaginative imagery. The leadoff track, "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" (repeated in an electric version at album's end as "Hey Hey, My My [Into the Black]" with slightly altered lyrics), is the most concise and knowing description of the entertainment industry ever written; it was followed by "Thrasher," which describes Young's parallel artistic quest in an extended metaphor that also reflected the album's overall theme -- the inevitability of deterioration and the challenge of overcoming it. Young then spent the rest of the album demonstrating that his chief weapons against rusting were his imagination and his daring, creating an archetypal album that encapsulated his many styles on a single disc with great songs -- in particular the remarkable "Powderfinger" -- unlike any he had written before.
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1. My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue) [3:47]
2. Thrasher [5:39]
3. Ride My Llama [2:30]
4. Pocahontas [3:23]
5. Sail Away [3:48]
6. Powderfinger [5:29]
7. Welfare Mothers [3:48]
8. Sedan Delivery [4:38]
9. Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) [5:15]
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