Neil Young - Under the Covers

 

The title gives away the obvious theme of this mixed-bag collection - not a bad concept but not all of the songs are really rendered all that well, to be blunt. Nothing is terrible, of course - this is Neil Young, after all - but some were certainly done simply for fun and I'd be surprised if they were meant to be anything more.

Right off the bat, "Do You Wanna Dance" is surely an early fave of Neil's, but it is not a standout - not bad, fairly traditional, in fact, but not particularly interesting, other than Young's insanely (wasted?) over-the-top farewell to the audience on this live recording. More successful is the country-ish Canadian number from 1959, Joe London's "It Might Have Been", apparently a Canadian Top Forty hit so, again, surely a remembrance from his youth. I was also not familiar with Nils Lofgren's "Beggars Day", here given a noisy, live treatment, I assume with Crazy Horse, sounding like some of Neil's best crunchy tunes. "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" is an intriguing idea, especially since I believe that the MG's are backing him on this live show, but Neil's vocals aren't really up to this task, but how can he compete with Otis? He does do a fine job on a newer Dylan number called "Everything Is Broken", with off-kilter piano'n'harmonica, followed by another one of Dylan's, the heartfelt "Forever Young" (funny, considering Neil's last name!), from his grunge-y period, there's a trashy take on "Farmer John" (done on his Ragged Glory album), then yet another Dylan cover, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" with some excellent, patented Neil Young electric guitar solos, shifting back to acoustic for a nice cover of Ian and Sylvia's "Four Strong Winds", which absolutely sounds like it could have been a Young original. Springsteen's "Hungry Heart" is done with the Boss, there's an odd, quiet instrumental take on "Greensleeves", yet another tune that I thought was Neil's - Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me", his take on "All Along the Watchtower" that kinda blends Dylan's and Hendrix's, another oddity is "Stranger In Paradise", from the musical Kismet - definitely not what you would expect from Young - that then jumps into his rockabilly roots for Arthur Crudups' "That's Alright Mama" and this set closes out with another unusual one, a unique take on "On Broadway" - not sure that this one actually works, either, but it is different, especially the blasts of insanely overdriven guitar!

I got this one from the library so I don't have the liner note details, although I think that most, if not all, of these cuts are live with special guests appearing with Neil, but as I said, some work better than others and you probably won't need to hear some of these multiple times, but it is interesting to hear his wildly varied influences!