In Praise of Powderfinger, Neil Young's Best Song

-
Image result for rust never sleeps
Rust Never Sleeps: Neil Young live. Courtesy Getty Images
"Powderfinger" may be Neil Young's best song. In a few short minutes, Young manages to paint an evocative picture that is cinematic in its scope- place, setting, theme, backstory- it's all there as Young tells the story (in first person) of a young man that encounters war, death, and violence admist the backdrop of a small town life, filled with family tragedy and everyday musings.

"Powderfinger" can be heard in two formats: first, there's the revved up electric version that Young cut with his band Crazy Horse. Of course, Young's got the heart-wrenching acoustic version in his back pocket as well. Both can be heard below.

Most impressive of all is Young's ability to communicate, deeply, the tragedy of an early death on a river town. While the song is filled with specifics, it manages to be general enough- and finds it place in the Vietnam War or perhaps the American Civil War in equal parts. There's really no tellin'. One thing, however, is for sure: Young's aching vocals expertly paired with chord changes, here, convey emotion that is resonates across time, space, and human hearts, rendering "Powderfinger" as one of his best moments.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

"Tangled Up In Blue": What's the Best Version?

-
Image
About the Song Alright, alright, we all know that "Tangled Up in Blue" is Bob Dylan's magnum opus. It tells a hell of a story, it's in the third person, first person, and zooms through the past, present, and future. It's a life simultaneously observed from the ground floor and from above, and perhaps, stands as the ultimate statement about Bob Dylan's romantic life. True to it's never ending and kaleidoscopic nature, there are dozens of versions of this tune available for listening. The genesis of this evolving song is the first cut off of 1975's Blood on the Tracks . It's not the best version of the song, but it does set a baseline standard of excellence in which all subsequent versions of this song are judged. Time to rank 'em: 1. "Tangled Up In Blue": Real Live , 1984 Somehow, burned out 1980's Bob pulled more emotion out of this song than ever before during his 1984 tour of Europe. Lucky for us, this version saw the li...
Read more! »

Monday Poem: "The Book of Hours: I, 59" by Rainer Maria Rilke

-
Image
The Book of Hours: I, 59 God speaks to each of us as we are made then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words, the numinous words, we hear before we begin: You, called forth by your senses, Reach to the edge of your Longing; Become my body. Grow like a fire behind things so their shadows spread and cover me completely Let everything into you: Beauty and Terror. Keep going: remember, no feeling is forever. Don't lose touch with me. Nearby is the land they call Life. You will recognize it by its intensity. Give me your hand.
Read more! »

Context: On Kendick Lamar's "How much a Dollar Cost"

-
Image
"How Much a Dollar Cost" is perhaps the emotional exclamation point to Kendrick Lamar's 2015 magnum opus  To Pimp A Butterfly . This gem of a track encapsulates nicely Kendrick's strengths as an artist.  Something about Kendrick's cadence is moving- the pitch of his voice and his phrasing carry a certain intensity. Here, that intensity is paired with  Kendrick's masterful flow (and poetic phrasing) -"deep water-powder blue skies that split open"- and narrative structure.  It is also worth noting that Kendrick has always had a sharply tuned ear for great samples. It's these samples that effectively set the mood and tone of the song as if it was an interactive short story.  First, few notes on the samples: "How Much a Dollar Cost" makes heavy use of a Sweedish Jazz trio's song "Seven Days of Falling", where sharp, simple drums meet a reflective piano that has a flair for the dramatic at all the right moment...
Read more! »

Preached on in the World: What Happened with Bob Dylan in Toronto (1980)?

-
Image
Below, there's clip of Bob playing live in Toronto, 1980, during the height of his gospel era. Here, the manner in which Bob leads the band into the song "Solid Rock" is truly mesmerizing. Black leather jacket Bob preaches from the mountaintops, proclaiming that he has a "solid rock to hang on to". This solid rock, or Jesus,  is "manifested in the flesh", "seen by angels", and "preached on in the world". Tambourines hiss in the background, and the band slowly roars like a lion cut loose by the Holy Spirit, as Bob make the seamless transition from preaching to singing. See it all below as Bob speaks of the supernatural: Looking for more gems from Bob's gospel era?  Check out this "forgotten" song.
Read more! »

Tracing J.Cole's Millennial Journey

-
Image
J. Cole's most recent album,  KOD , arrived at an interesting point in pop music: Lil' Pump and the other lil's are dominating the headphones of teenagers, filling in a cultural void with blue hair, Xanax, learn, and generally ignorant behavior. Such is the long-told story of youth. 50 years ago the Beatles were wearing their mops, smoking marijuana, and perfecting the devils music. They said they were bigger than Jesus. People burned their records. Old timers complained about the hippies. Those hippies grew up, and complained about the gen-X kids who were fed a steady diet of malaise, Beavis and Butthead , punk rock, and Mad Magazine . Those kids grew up and had millennial's- a generation of spoiled, but poor kids who whiz through life on apps, killed the traditional music business, elected Obama, and deferred their student loans. J. Cole, born in 1985, is a millennial, and perfectly typifies the general experience of a millennial in many ways. His first album,...
Read more! »

"Torch Songs" and "Cast Iron Ballads": Deep Cuts from the Planet Waves Era

-
Image
On his 1973 album Planet Waves , Bob Dylan seems to be caught in between two words: the domestic tranquility represented by New Morning  and the dark sad night of Blood on the Tracks . Songs like " On a Night Like This " represent that maybe the party with friends far and wide isn't quite over, while " Forever Young " serves as a touching tribute to his children, a truly moving and heartfelt song that uplifts the sacred duty of parenthood to the spiritual. We've got friends, children, and big dreams, but what else? The romance. There are four major songs of romantic involvement from this era that also are worth mentioning: "Nobody 'Cept You", "The Wedding Song", "Dirge", and "Going, Going, Gone". " Nobody 'Cept You ", a tune recorded for  Planet Waves that didn't see the light of day until the first Bootleg Series in 1991. Everything about the song, from the sound to the lyrical content, sug...
Read more! »

Review: Bob Dylan at the Oakdale Theatre

-
Image
It's hard to know what to say about a Bob Dylan show. Although he has a reputation to be a sporadic performer, every show I've seen of his has been at least good, with the best being his 2010 Charlottesville, VA gig (in which he threw his harmonica into the seats at the end). Dylan preformed at the Oakdale Theater-a venue that leaves much to be desired. The Oakdale's feel and structure seemed to be more suited for a corporate retreat, TED talk, or as a friend remarked, Sesame Street Live. Despite the Oakdale's placidity, Bob rode the strength of his band to deliver a solid set to the Father's Day crowd.   The Show: Following a brief acoustic "introduction in the dark", the lights went up and the band broke into "Things Have Changed". What a perfect opening song, honestly, and seeing Bob on stage banging on the piano in his suit, white boots, and bolo tie...it was hard to wipe the smile off my face. He preformed a fantastic, bluegrass s...
Read more! »

Along for the Ride with Tell Tale Signs

-
Image
Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan's been slinging out the alt-takes, b-sides, throwaways, covers, live versions, and other unreleased tunes on the Bootleg Series since 1991. Of course, a bootleg ain't a bootleg if it is released officially, but I digress. If there's one thing that the series has proven, it is that often Dylan's best versions of his songs are left off the albums. . . and sometimes even the best songs are scratched, left in the backyard as Bob turns the lights out (I'm looking at you, "Blind Willie McTell"). Point is, the Bootleg series is rich with material, and Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Volume 8 , is about as good as it gets. Chronicling the era between 1989's Oh Mercy and 2006's Modern Times , Tell Tale  affords listeners a front road seat next to Dylan on his journey away from the burned out- leather jacket 80s to the ultimate bluesman, the songsmith so steeped in Americana that the man and the characters that po...
Read more! »

Peace, Bullets, Schools, Chaos, Life, and The Drive by Truckers

-
Image
No one but our favorite big-hearted pal Patterson Hood could write a song like "Guns of Umpqua", a gem of a track off of the band's critically acclaimed 2016 album American Band.  "Guns of Umpqua"   discusses the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon (2015, killed 10, injured 7) over a steadily strummed acoustic guitar, clean piano, and a melodic, and overall confident band that settles in for the journey. Mike Cooley throws a few flares of sunlight on the track with his tasteful lead guitar licks, as images of the deep green forest, evergreen giants, salmon jumping in the river, sunlight, fog, and morning coffee fill in. Here, these images of a beautiful life lived sit side by side with sounds of shots in the hallway, bringing to life the real devastation of public shootings in the United States. We hear about how great life can be. Then we hear how life can be. The song is a testament to a life well lived, outside of chaos, and i...
Read more! »

Jeff Lynne's on the Phone

-
Image
By: Abe Orabi I’m just gonna come out and say it: Jeff Lynne may be one of the most u nderrated, underappreciated, underpublicized musicians of all time. Let me go one st ep further and use the ‘G’ word. Jeff Lynne is a genius, period—and you can forget the qualifiers. Jeff Lynne, member of the Traveling Wilburys. Most underrated musician of the 70s? The criteria for defining genius is simple yet elusive. If you had to put it into words you might say that genius is the violent mastery of complexity; or, put another way, genius makes the intricate seem infantile. How ever you frame it, there is one universal truth: to know it, is to see it—and it only takes a moment. “Telephone Line” by Jeff Lynne is one of those defining moments of genius. It is both tantalizing and deeply satisfying on a physiological level. We are greeted with a long string of boops and beeps akin to C3PO, which ultimately coalesce into coherent synthesizer/piano chords. Lynne’s voice comes throu...
Read more! »