Neil Young
Decade
Everybody complains about how Neil Young, an artist of considerable
stature even by today's standards, doesn't have a deluxe box set
on the shelves 30 years after his first recording. But in reality,
Young fashioned a box set for us before box sets were even in
fashion. It's called Decade, and it culls the artist's best material
up to 1977, the year it came out.
At the time of its release, Decade unfolded across three LPs,
three generous slabs of heavy black vinyl that hosted Young material
dating all the way back to his recording debut in 1966 with the
Buffalo Springfield. Early songs like "I Am a Child,"
"Expecting to Fly," and "Sugar Mountain" hint
at the tactile brilliance Young would return to on albums like
Harvest and After the Gold Rush, while brittle rockers like "Down
by the River," "Cowgirl in the Sand," and "Cinnamon
Girl" feature the "ragged glory" sound (compliments
of his frequent backing band Crazy Horse) Young would delve into
in 1988 and beyond, beginning with the Freedom album. In between
you'll find a plethora of fine early Young songs that helped define
the artist in the eyes of his original audience.
On Decade, Young proved he could communicate across a spectrum
of artistic expression and do so convincingly. His mastery and
confidence in the rock arena would eventually lead him to some
missteps in electronica and swing, for example, but those missteps
only served to bring Young back to the center and solidify his
conviction as one of America's hardiest, down-home musical offerings.
The much-ballyhooed anthology Young keeps threatening to release
may indeed be on the horizon. But his extant anthology, Decade,
is already on the shelves. You choose which you'd rather have.
Bob Gulla