Neil Young – ‘Rust Never Sleeps’
Neil Young doesn’t have a single artificial bone in his body. Throughout his work with Crosby, Stills, and Nash and his solo years, he was always looking to follow his muse, regardless of whether there was a market for it. Every song was about playing for the moment, and nothing captures ‘in-the-moment’ better than a live record.
In between his classics like After the Gold Rush and Harvest, Rust Never Sleeps is one of the first times fans heard Young and his backing band, Crazy Horse, completely uninhabited, bringing the kind of intimacy that songs like ‘The Needle and The Damage Done’ only hinted at. Recorded on the road that would eventually yield Live Rust, this album is a slew of contradictions, putting the acoustic and rock sides of Young’s sound on two sides of vinyl.
Opening with ‘Hey Hey My My (Out of the Blue)’, Young sings a lonesome ballad about the future of rock and roll. Since the punk movement was slowly sinking its teeth into people’s eardrums, this is a meditation by Young on the future of rock and roll, calling out the heroes of the past like Elvis Presley and comparing him to the rise of Johnny Rotten. The one infamous line comes in the verses in which Young sings that, in his mind, it’s better to burn out than it is to fade away. Although Young may have seen his fair share of rock stars fade away, he has a fair bit of cynicism in his delivery, as if the industry prefers to see people like him suffer rather than express themselves.
Outside of the state of rock and roll, ‘Thrasher’ takes aim at some of Young’s former bandmates. Although they might not be called out by name, it’s hard to see this as a jab at CSN, especially when he talks about leaving his friends because they felt like dead weight to him. As mellow as the music comes across, it’s almost like Young is using the musical tone to shield the listener from how dark the lyrical content can become.
While most of the record stays within the confines of rock and roll, the first half is drenched in Americana, relying heavily on acoustic guitars and the occasional slide part to give it a slightly country feel. On a track like ‘Pocahontas’, Young sets the scene with chilling sights of icy terrain, telling the story of Native Americans living in teepees and wanting to return to that rustic lifestyle when he can.
Then again, Young was never meant to play the old folkie for the rest of his days, and the album’s flip side shows the other side of that coin. Coming off of songs like ‘Sail Away’, ‘Powderfinger’ opens with blasts of distortion and some of the craziest guitar tones that have appeared on any Young record. Compared to the acoustic side, this feels like getting the full blast of what Young can do after his confessional side.
Carrying the dramatic tone from the first side of the record, ‘Powderfinger’ is a harrowing tale of a family carrying out illegal distillation during a war and being on the run. Since Young was balancing both sides of his sound, a tune about a family unsure of what to do and having nowhere to go describes his internal struggle to a tee.
Given that most of the first side of the record was Young solo, this is where Crazy Horse get to show their chops, as Billy Talbot and Frank Sampedro match Young note for note of savage tracks like ‘Sedan Delivery’. Since the tunes on this side of the album were recorded live in select shows on tour, the audience acts as an additional instrument in the final mix, constantly feeding off the band’s energy with every note they play.
The album ends just as it begins on the electrified version ‘Hey Hey My My (Into The Black)’, which features new lyrics with a more optimistic tone. As opposed to the sad lament for rock and roll, this is the triumph as rock and roll adapts to the changing times and keeps striving on in the face of darkness.
While most of Rust Never Sleeps seemed like a mixed bag on paper, Neil Young straddles both sides of his sound effortlessly. Throughout the album, there are subtle whiffs of the songwriter who wrote scathing songs like ‘Alabama’ and ‘Ohio’, but there’s also the slight hint of compassion poking through the cracks. After rock and roll had gone through Flower Power in the late ‘60s, this album is the cold shot to let everyone know they needed to move past their psychedelic dreams.
Rust might have been one of Young’s many masterpieces, but knowing him, it wasn’t a lane he would stay in for very long. Young was always looking to twist his sound into different directions, and it was entirely in his character to make something this close to perfect and then never do it again.
