Exploring the story of Neil Young’s most controversial album, ‘Trans’
Of the countercultural generation, few can claim to be as storied as Neil Young. Hippie hero, the ‘Godfather of Grunge’ and the man who coined the line “it’s better to fade out than to fade away”, to say that the Toronto native has achieved a lot would be an understatement.
Best known as a poet and pioneering guitarist, musically, Young is hailed as one of the progenitors of alternative rock, with his efforts setting the scene for the likes of Sonic Youth, Nirvana and Radiohead. On his first record with Crazy Horse, 1969’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, some of the earliest hallmarks of the genre are laid down, from the dissonant solos to the reflective lyrics augmented by an anthemic vocal delivery.
Despite Young’s position as the forefather of all things alternative rock, commentators often forget that he has veered away from this path at different points across his storied career. Whilst most of his records tend to fit within the same general artistic template, one effort stands out – the 1983 effort Trans. A stylistic departure from every other Neil Young record, this is the most polarising work for his fans and a moment largely overlooked in the broader discussion.
Trans is the 12th studio album from Young. Upon release, fans could not believe what they were hearing, particularly considering that his previous record, 1981’s Re·ac·tor, is a gritty guitar-based album that touches on the post-punk and krautrock genres. However, apart from the title track, ‘Little Thing Called Love’ – a typical Young piece – Trans came to embody Young casting off any preconceptions about his work and looking to the future, with its ever-changing musical landscape.
Drawing heavily on the influence of Kraftwerk, the album has a chillingly dystopian feel, with the material containing his political edge but repackaged somewhat. This is due to the heavy use of electronic instruments such as the vocoder and Synclavier, with the former used on six of the nine tracks. Best categorised as an electronic or industrial album, Neil Young, the ‘Godfather of Grunge’, is barely recognisable here. Featuring pieces such as ‘Computer Age’, ‘We R In Control’ and ‘Transformer Man’, it’s not hard to imagine them soundtracking early 1980s sci-fi films like Escape from New York or Blade Runner.
Trans is also a significant point in Young’s career, given that it was his first on Geffen Records. In 1982, he left his longtime home, Reprise Records, which he’d been with since his debut solo album in 1968. Looking for something new, the head of his new record label, David Geffen, happened to be someone that Young already knew well. Geffen had been the manager of the hippie era’s most cherished act, the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. But more pointedly, the new contract secured Young $1 million per album and total creative control.
Although many have been quick to slam Trans because of either its dated nature or that it is such a stark departure from Young’s usual style, the reason for creating such an album is largely forgotten. This is a travesty, as contextually, it is very important. Through this lens, the record is better understood as a unique body of work than a purely cheesy Kraftwerk rip-off.
Between the end of 1980 to mid-1982, Young spent almost all of his time implementing a therapy program for his young son, Ben, who has cerebral palsy and is unable to speak. In a manner to be expected of the typically arcane musician, he told virtually no one at the time what he was going through. Duly, the repetitive nature of the tracks on both Re·ac·tor and Trans were configured to mirror the repetitive nature of carrying out the exercises for his child. However, it must be noted that this wasn’t a criticism from Young’s end but rather an interesting artistic exercise and a conduit for blowing off steam.
While Re·ac·tor and Trans are often regarded as two completely different bodies of work, they are not. There’s no surprise that the tracks were configured in the same way, as Trans began in late 1981 as a continuation of its predecessor. Featuring Crazy Horse again, this time, the band knew that Young had something different up his sleeve. He had acquired the vocoder and Synclavier, and they were to dominate his new songs, with the band taking more of a backseat role than ever before.
Later, Crazy Horse guitarist Frank Sampedro said: “Next thing we knew, Neil stripped all our music off, overdubbed all this stuff, the vocoder, weird sequencing, and put the synth shit on it.”
The use of the vocoder went much further than Young hoping to emulate Kraftwerk, and he used the distorted voice to reflect his attempts to communicate with Ben. He explained: “At that time, he was simply trying to find a way to talk, to communicate with other people. That’s what Trans is all about. And that’s why, on that record, you know I’m saying something, but you can’t understand what it is. Well, that’s exactly the same feeling I was getting from my son.”
Trans has its origins partially in the first effort Young made for Geffen, a completely separate project titled Island in the Sun, which he recorded in May 1982 in Hawaii. However, Young later said: “Geffen thought it was okay, but he didn’t think it was good enough.”
Electing not to write more material, the former Buffalo Springfield man revisited the pieces he’d made on his new electronic instruments, which were conceived towards the end of his time at Reprise. Duly, Trans picked featured songs from Island in the Sun, as well as his synthesiser-based efforts. He also suggested producing a clip to accompany the album to demonstrate its meaning. He said: “All of the electronic-voice people were working in a hospital, and the one thing they were trying to do is teach this little baby to push a button.”
Young worked on Trans for a year, but it was mixed in a hurry because he was eager to get back on the road. This rushed conclusion resulted in the song ‘If You Got Love’ being included in the track listing and lyric sheet, despite not being on the album. This has long perplexed fans, as Young is famed for the accuracy with which he executes projects. In 1995, Young reflected on the album and last-minute mixing, remaining steadfast in his opinion of it: “I don’t underrate Trans. I really like it, and think if anything is wrong, then it’s down to the mixing. We had a lot of technical problems on that record, but the content of the record is great.”
Around the time of release, Young also discussed his love of electronic music and opined that it had replaced guitar music in its political capacity. He told the now-defunct magazine Musician: “I feel electronic music has replaced the acoustic music that I used to do with my guitar. I can go a lot farther than I’ve gone… this is just the beginning… I love machines.”
As well as receiving mixed reviews, Trans and its follow-up, 1983’s Everybody’s Rockin’, would give Young another headache. In 1983, Geffen filed a lawsuit against him on the grounds that he had intentionally produced unrepresentative and uncommercial work. Young swiftly responded with a countersuit, but both were dropped within a year after proceedings reached an impasse. The issue was ultimately resolved, with Geffen apologising to Young.
Young reflected on the Trans chapter in his 2012 autobiography Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream. He admitted that his primary regret about the album was allowing Geffen to have too much of an influence on its writing and promotion. He also said that the record was based on “a very deep and inaccessible concept”, which was diluted by including the Island in the Sun material.
Trans is ultimately a very strange body of work, but this does not mean that it should be totally dismissed. Neil Young was trying to express himself in a way that he’d never done before, demonstrating his desire to think outside of the box despite the many pressures of his extra-musical life. Plus, it also ranks among his most political albums, with it sharply noting how the future was to pan out.
