The Neil Young That Time Wants You To Forget

Neil Young is a contentious issue. He plays off key, he has an at times comical voice and wrote some really pissant folk songs. Yet he is also responsible for some of rock n roll's greatest ever albums. Put 'Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,' 'Zuma' and 'Tonight's the Night' into a battle to the death and you've got yourself a blood sport of unrivalled manliness. However there's a part of Neil Young that most retrospective's seem to conveniently brush over. 

Whilst at various times he was crowned as a folk god with Crosby, Stills and Nash, or credited with inspiring some of punk's finest, he also dabbled in some weird shit. Like some of the most bizarre head-scratchingly ridiculous music that has possibly ever been written. Like early day electro-pop on the 1982 album, 'Trans.' Check out the video below of 'We R in Control,' which despite being horrible, was actually quite ahead of its time. 

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In that same era, Young also dabbled in hillbilly and country, both of which were undoubtedly odd, but considering the variety of his catalogue prior to that, weren't really that much of a departure. What was though, was his time with the Bluetones, spawned out of his decision to leave his back catalogue behind for a 10 night tour fronting a blues act playing new blues-inspired originals and covers. With a horns section; which, thinking of tracks like 'Cortez the Killer' and 'Hey Hey, My My' is pretty hard to imagine. What came out of that tour was This Note's For You in 1988, featuring the anti-commercial title track accompanied by a music video that was banned by MTV in fear of sponsor backlash.

These are two forms of Neil Young which time wants you to forget. The next time Neil comes to Australia for a theatre tour and gets an interview with 60 Minutes, they won't play those tracks in their retrospective introductory footage...and they probably shouldn't, even though This Note's For You is actually quite a solid album. Neil Young has arguably meant as much to rock as a genre as anyone, so an aside about his electro days on Trans is irrelevant insomuch as what he has achieved in the genre that he dominated in. But that doesn't make it not worth talking about.

Ba ba bow ba, ba ba bow ba - "WE CONTROL TRAFFIC LIGHTS, WE CONTROL COMPUTER FLIGHTS" - boooowwwwww....baaa baa baa.