The originals are much darker, there’s more protest in them… Almost every one has to do with people getting killed, with life-or-death struggles.” They’re a little heavy for kindergarteners to be singing. “And those are the key verses, those are the things that make these songs live. “Every one of these songs has verses that have been ignored,” he told American Songwriter magazine. Yet Young as usual had a vision when choosing these tunes.
All due respect to the American folk canon, but none of these top my personal hit parade, either. “Oh Susannah,” “Clementine,” “She’ll Be Coming ’Round the Mountain,” “This Land Is Your Land…” no, this isn’t the index for a grammar school student’s book of sheet music circa 1950 it’s part of the track list on Americana.
This, you see, is an album of covers, which is not in itself the curve ball remember the brilliant take this crew had on “Farmer John” from Ragged Glory? The twist is what Young has chosen to cover on this 11-song set. Yet the long-may-he-run legend’s 34th studio effort, his first with the band that’s always been his ideal vehicle since the theatrical epic Greendale in 2003, is throwing some fans and critics for a loop. If you care at all about hard-driving guitar, bass and drums rock ’n’ roll in its most essential and elemental form, a new album by Neil Young and Crazy Horse can’t be anything but a gift.