Album Review: Homegrown released by Neil Young 45 years later
While I am not one to fall into regret, I do enjoy exploring the road less traveled. That turn you didn’t take, the zig when you should have zagged, the song no one else recorded, or the B-side the DJ never flipped. I love discovering “new old music” as exemplified on Neil Young’s record Homegrown which was released last week; 45 years after it was recorded.
In a time when everything in music seems to have already been done, redone and done to death, it often feels like yesterday’s music is the only hope for today’s world. I am not nostalgic by nature, nor am I one of those old guys who complain now and then about the superior days of yesteryear, but I hold a fondness for old cars, architecture, and historic music.
Young recorded Homegrown in late 1974 through early 1975. According to biographer Peter Doggett, some of the recording happened around the same time Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young were recording at Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch. The Homegrown recording release was delayed due to a big tour with the super group.
Young had already released On The Beach mid-1974 so it was a bit soon for a follow up. Once the dust settled, The Canadian rock legend is said to have decided Homegrown was a bit too dark, saying it was “a down album”. He decided to release Tonight’s The Night instead, which he had recorded and shelved in 1973. This wasn’t the first or last time Young made such decisions. A few tracks from Homegrown made their way onto other records, but it was not released until this year. The wait was worth it. But you have to wonder what else is locked away in those vaults.
Homegrown is in its perfect form, just what you’d expect from Neil Young. The recording is brilliant in its simplicity. It’s largely an acoustic recording. Several tracks feature Young solo with guitar and harmonica. It’s a deeply personal record. The material is overflowing with feelings bleeding from his own reflective views on his failed relationship with actress Carrie Snodgrass. He later told screenwriter and director Cameron Crowe about the record, “It was too personal, it scared me”.
Vintage music only gets better with age. Homegrown feels like it’s been aged in the oldest whiskey barrel ever rolled out into the daylight. The album feels fresh still, because it is fresh. Young isn’t trying to recreate or reconnect; this is Young at his arguably best and his worst. A deeply troubled time coupled with massive creativity. Young himself has said this time was the closest he “ever came to making art”. That is complete horseshit, of course. I know Neil Young is not only an artist but an accomplished one.
The record doesn’t feel dark to me but it is expressive of an ever-flowing passion and creative restlessness. Absent darkness I am not sure where creativity would be, as if anything worth expressing isn’t born of tragedy, sorry, and despair. There lies the beauty of the world, locked away in the venerable reaches of our soul; only to flow out through the silent cracks life creates in the dam we build around our hearts. That ability to embrace and reveal this beauty is Neil Young.
If you’re a fan of Neil Young, you do not need any help in deciding to purchase this recording, if you are on the fence about it, hop on over and thank me later. Neil Young’s importance can’t be overstated. He crossed all genres of music. He isn’t just rock, or enjoying a taste of country, he is a musician and a songwriter. He is nothing short of a creative genius.
One can never underestimate how influential Neil Young is to American music. 45 years later, the unreleased album is a treasure, reflecting some of Young’s most productive songwriting years. Take in Homegrown and let him influence you as well.
Track listing:
- Separate Ways
02. Try
03. Mexico
04. Love Is A Rose
05. Homegrown
06. Florida
07. Kansas
08. We Don’t Smoke It No More
09. White Line
10. Vacancy
11. Little Wing
12. Star of Bethlehem
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