Neil Young | Trans / This Is Why I Love Neil Young
Let me just start by saying I know I generally write about albums that I would recommend but…. this is not an album recommendation. It’s more of a ‘holy shit what the fuck is this, this is crazy‘ type of thing. I mean wow, this album is something else. In fact you should just skip to the bottom of this post, listen to the tracks and then read the rest of what I have to say…..
Alright, so that was pretty weird right? Trans is basically an electronic/synth album Young released in the early 80’s… and it’s certainly a departure from anything he had done before or since. Most of his vocals are Vocoded and it makes him sound like a coked up robot. I’m a die hard Neil fan but this album is way too crazy for me…. however that’s part of the reason why Neil Young is the man. Since the 60’s he’s made a career out of basically just doing whatever the fuck he wants, how he wants to do it. I can’t imagine that he thought Trans would be a commercial hit or that many of his long time fans would like it. He just didn’t give a shit, he wanted to put out a fucking crazy, space robot, 80’s synth album so he did it.
The best part is that he was under contract with Geffen when released this one. They paid him a million dollars expecting another classic Neil album, that they could peddle to the masses, and he gave them Trans. The folks over at Geffen were pretty pissed off about it and when he brought them a collection of Folk tunes for his next release they told him they wanted a Rock and Roll album. I imagine they were expecting a classic Neil and Crazy Horse type of joint… so he turned around and gave them this:
It’s basically and album very early rock tunes (Elvis, Jimmy Reed that type of thing). Now, I don’t know if his intention was to give Geffen a giant middle finger but it certainly seems that way…. and this is why I love Neil Young. Ya he’s put out some weird shit over the years but he’s put out a lot of classics as well. At the end of the day he’s always seemed to be able to do things his own way regardless of what the record company big wigs or music critics thought. That takes some balls, so bravo Neil, bravo.
The Tracks:
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