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“Hell, no, we won’t go”…or will you?
Ummm…this article posted by PASTE on my twitter feed. đ
PasteMagazineNeil Young: Fork in the Road http://tr.im/kJD8about 3 hours ago from twitterfeed
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/05/neil-young-fork-in-the-road.html
Road warrior still making driving rock
The backstory on Neil Youngâs umpteenth studio albumârock star works with crazed mechanical genius to convert a beat-up â59 Lincoln Continental into a lean, green, eco-friendly machine, then drives it across America just to show that he canâinforms nearly every song on Fork in the Road. There are almost as many references to cars, wheels, and roads in these lyrics as in the entire Springsteen catalog.
Not surprisingly, all the car references and metaphors mean more than they seem, and Young has more on his mind than simple nostalgia for the golden age of the American auto. Like 2006âs caustic Living with War, Fork in the Road finds Neil in cub-reporter mode, dashing off hastily scrawled dispatches that serve as his State of the Union address, circa the desperate economic spring of 2009. The sloppily played garage rock riffs complement the slapdash nature of the lyrics, andâas you might expectâitâs that loose, under-rehearsed and under-written methodology that is both the albumâs strength and its downfall.
There are no winding godfather-of-grunge solos here, and no hippie poetry. Thereâs only Young, living and rocking in the moment, for better or worse; a pattern heâs followed since the 2005 brain aneurysm that almost killed him. Maybe when you believe you donât have much more time you donât labor over the results.
Still, there are some jaw-dropping momentsâand not because of the musical majesty, either. Did Young actually write a saccharine ballad based on that horridly clichĂ©d slogan that itâs better to light a candle than to curse the darkness? Oh God, yes he did. Did he steal the riff from Van Morrisonâs âG-L-O-R-I-Aâ for one track, a riff so familiar and so overused that most third-rate bar bands know better than to touch it? Yes, he did that, too. But for every head-scratcher, Young churns out a sturdy, perfectly serviceable garage rocker that succeeds because of the passion and conviction he brings to the proceedings. âJust singing a song wonât change the world,â he opines on one song, but, unreconstructed hippie that he is, he doesnât really believe it. Heâs all about changing the worldâthrough song, through being an ornery prophet and social critic, through driving a dilapidated car and showing that itâs possible to get a hundred miles per gallon. Itâs hard to do anything but wish him well. There are half a dozen tracks here, most notably the scalding âWhen Worlds Collide,â the darkly pensive âOff the Road,â and the scathing title track, where it is impossible to separate the primal roots rocker from the social activist. And thatâs when heâs at his best.
Near the end of the title track, an otherwise blistering attack on Wall Street bankers and bean counters without souls, Neil stops to pen a love letter to his fans: âBig rock star, my sales have tanked / I still got you. Thanks.â Like the rickety jalopy he drives, there is much more under the hood than meets the eye. Long may he run.
Listen to Neil Young’s “When Worlds Collide” from Fork in the Road:
http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blog-671-heartless-bastards-to-do-austin-city-limits-tv-sho.html
Heartless Bastards To Do Austin City Limits TV Show
The season will also feature the first appearance by Cincinnatiâs Heartless Bastards. It will be the band’s first major TV appearance since they did Letterman in February, and corrected Dave when he asked if they were from Austin. The Bastards have a full summer that includes many of the major festivals and tour dates with Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis and The Decemberists.
@tntracy wrote:
Ah, so is the proper verb “Tweeting” as opposed to “Twittering” as I wrote above?
Things that may make you go hmmm…?
My favorite Lu tweet for the day. v
“stonermc I love this woman! Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels On a Gravel Road â« http://blip.fm/~5lzcr about 9 hours ago from Blip.fm”
@nickle wrote:
howdy, just wondering does anyone know what the ticket situation is like for the Covington show? Hubby has a conference in Cincinnati AT THE RIGHT TIME(!), and he’s considering going to the Lu show there. But he probably doesn’t want to get a ticket too soon, unless his trip is cancelled (or trying to figure out who to send the tickets to)…. We’re the ones who were lucky enough to see her in our home country of New Zealand, so for him to score a work trip that coincides with a Lu show is pretty damn fantastic. I’m a teeny bit
But am insisting that he goes, if it was me I’d be there in a shot!Oh, wow! There are a few of us in this forum going to this show! Message me if you want to co-ordinate something or need additional information.
Oh, and by the way, stoger, yes, I”m on my way to hang posters for Lu’s Cincinnati show today! Going to stop by the studio as well. WNKU is officially on board now for promoting the show.
ha, ha! I’m always one for a good natured rib. Thanks for the laughs this morning, you can always kill me with satire and humor…
I am trying to figure out how to send tweets from my phone. I signed up, sent a test tweet and it didn’t work, so I will have to ask some friends to help me get on board on that. Just imagine, real time information, and pictures, say, from a show, that can be instantly sent for others to view and read.
I’m just saying…. đź
Mr. Dylan is on the cover of the Rolling Stone (May 14 issue). He has appeared 16 times on the cover, according to a blurb on the inside.
Sauget, IL, Dayton, OH, Eastlake, OH, & Sevierville, TN…check, check, check, check. Husband approved, at that.
It will be interesting to see how they hold up in the heat in the middle of summer. Vegas, in August, are they out of their minds?
Looks as though you got your wish, Lefty, with Syracuse being reserved seating!
You ROCK! Intercepted from JM”s website, HA, even better! I will be able to make several of these shows, the dates all work out, I just have to figure out how many shows I can push without having divorce papers waiting for me on the kitchen table đ
Yet, another LOL for me on your Neil comment, I apologize, it was at your expense. I would like to share a very cool, at least in my opinion, cool, story about Neil. Several years ago, while volunteering at the Farm Aid show, several of us (volunteers and some friends) were seated in the catering tent after a meeting we had the night before the show, to go over volunteer duties, etc. We were instructed, as volunteers, to never approach the artists for pictures or autographs. As we were seated, I looked over to the table directly in front of me, a long table, and there was Neil, in the middle, seated with many, many folks (band members, family, friends, whoever). The next thing I realize, Neil had his cell phone up in the air and the entire table started singing “Happy Birthday.” It was truly a Kodak moment for a music fan, at least for me, but I wasn’t about to take a picture. 8)
Thanks for all the info, I really do appreciate it.
A promoter friend(he has the South Bend show) of a friend claims national announcement tomorrow (Friday). The good news is (for me) South Bend isn’t opening night, I was just told that would be the Illinois show, July 2, and I can make that, so, St. Louie, here I come!
This google alert came thru on another date:
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-now-dylan-show.a23,0,1593484.story?track=rss
NORFOLK – Bob Dylan will perform at Harbor Park in Norfolk this summer, and he’ll be bringing along a couple of friends – Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp.
The three musicians recently announced plans for a summer tour of minor-league baseball stadiums. Dates for the tour are expected to be announced soon.
A source in Norfolk confirmed that they would perform at Harbor Park on July 25. No ticket information was immediately available.
