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Chrome Dreams II, Linc/Volt, and Fork in the Road
In addition to the release of the monumental Archives Volume 1 1963–1972, the first decade of the new century ended with a flurry of other new activity from Neil Young. The fall of 2007 brought the release of Chrome Dreams II and yet another round of touring that continued well into the following year.
With the Archives prompting Young’s personal journey into the past, much of that same spirit carried over to the “new” album as well. The title Chrome Dreams II is itself a reference to one of his mythical, unreleased lost albums, and certainly seems to position itself as a sequel.
Beyond its title, however, an actual and direct connection to that famously missing album from the mid-seventies isn’t made entirely clear. A number of the songs from the original Chrome Dreams eventually made their way to other seventies Neil Young albums, including “Will to Love” and “Like a Hurricane” (American Stars and Bars) as well as “Pocahontas” and “Powderfinger” (Rust Never Sleeps).
Some Are Saints, and Some Are Jerks, Everyday People
But while some of the songs on 2007’s Chrome Dreams II are drawn from past sources, many of them appear to be of a relatively more recent vintage. The blazing, eighteen-minute guitar-driven track “Ordinary People,” for example, was already well known to fans as a high point from Young’s concerts with the Bluenotes during the late eighties. Along with the equally lengthy “Sixty to Zero” from the same period, “Ordinary People” had become somewhat legendary among tape traders and bootleggers as a lost Neil Young classic, prior to showing up years later in 2007 on his then new album.
As was the case then, his blistering guitar work is supported by the Bluenotes horn section in the version heard on Chrome Dreams II, and is reportedly taken from a source recorded at one of those eighties shows. Like its soul mate “Sixty to Zero,” the lyrics of “Ordinary People” go on for nearly as long as the guitar solos do, telling a sordid tale set in a seedy world populated by drug lords, gun runners and other “ordinary people.” As Young himself says in the lyrics, “some are saints and some are jerks.”
Together, “Ordinary People” and another extended guitar freakout, the fourteen-minute “No Hidden Path,” form the centerpieces of the album. Both of these proved themselves to be crowd-pleasers on the 2007–08 Chrome Dreams II tour as well.
These two more guitar-driven pieces are balanced out by a solid collection of tunes that draw equally from Young’s fresh mining of the vaults and more recently written songs. The result is a satisfying album, even if it seems a bit all over the place at times.
In the Great Spirit I Place My Trust
“Dirty Old Man” is one of those goofy-ass songs in the tradition of Ragged Glory’s “Fuckin’ Up” or “Piece of Crap” from Sleeps with Angels that Neil comes up with from time to time. This one is about a “Dirty Old Man” who likes to get hammered and fool around with the boss’s wife. This track is actually a lot of fun, and hearkens back to the loving, sloppily executed rock sound that fans of Crazy Horse swear by.
“Boxcar” starts out with a banjo sound that would have been right at home on Prairie Wind, and maintains a lovely sort of country vibe as the lyrics weave a plaintive tale of a vagabond on a freight train.
Meanwhile, other tracks explore spiritual themes, or what some observers have labeled as Young’s “eco-spirituality.” The borderline gospel of “Shining Light” never makes it quite clear whether the “shining light” that he has found here comes in the form of carnal desire or something more divine. Either way, the song is one of his prettiest. “The Believer” is likewise another song that hints at a nebulous spirituality divined from sources that are never made quite clear, and features a quiet, simple arrangement of piano, guitar, and drums.
“Spirit Road” mines similar lyrical territory, but this time with a full-band arrangement where Young once again straps on the electric guitar. This track finds him “headed out on the long highway in your mind” in search of the “spirit road you had to find” where “getting home to peace again” await the traveler at road’s end.
On Chrome Dreams II, there are pieces of every ingredient that make up the so-called Neil Young sound—from grungy Crazy Horse–styled rock to the softer, more introspective stuff. Unlike some of his past work, here he doesn’t stick to any one of these stylistic elements, making Chrome Dreams II one of his more stylistically varied (and some would say all over the place) releases.
In the end, what makes this one a keeper, though, are the two extended showcases for his blazing guitar, “Ordinary People” and “No Hidden Path.” The album, which once again reunites the production team of the Volume Dealers (Neil Young and Niko Bolas), made a very decent showing of #11 on Billboard’s Album Chart.
Neil Young captured live during the Chrome Dreams II tour at Hop Farm, Kent, UK, on July 6, 2008.
Photo by Chris Greenwood
Neil Young performing in Europe during the Chrome Dreams II tour.
Photo by Constanze Metzner
Spirit Road
For what was initially billed as the Chrome Dreams Continental tour, Neil Young assembled a band made up of familiar faces like Ralph “Crazy Horse” Molina, Ben “Long Grain” Keith, Rick “the Bass Player” Rosas, and Pegi “the Wife” Young.
When the jaunt began in the fall of 2007, a mere seven weeks’ worth of shows were booked. But the tour eventually wound up continuing on for a year, encompassing dates across North America, Europe, and beyond. Support acts for the shows included Young disciples like Wilco in a number of cities, while Pegi Young (who had just released her own solo album) appeared in the opening slot for nearly all of the shows.
For the concerts, Young performed both solo acoustic and with the full band each night, on a stage adorned with props like Christmas tree lights and the obligatory wooden Indian. Each new song was also announced on a painted placard with original art illustrating its title, carnival style. Although the set lists changed little from night to night, they did include a number of rarely played songs, including a stunning acoustic rendition of On the Beach’s “Ambulance Blues” that proved to be a nightly standout.
Two particularly great shows from Philadelphia are captured as the second of director Jonathan Demme’s trilogy of Neil Young concert documentary films, Neil Young Trunk Show. Like its predecessor Heart of Gold, Trunk Show is a great documentary that puts you right in the front row of an equally great Neil Young show. But it is especially notable for including a performance of “The Sultan” (Young’s very first single as part of the Squires), as well as other rarities like “Mellow My Mind,” “Mexico” and “Kansas.”
Following its brief theatrical run, Trunk Show seems to have disappeared completely, promting more than one fan to ask: “Where is the DVD and Blu-ray release, Neil?”
Get Behind the Wheel
In a scene that could have been taken from the comedy film Planes Trains and Automobiles, Young’s next move was a nonmusical one, more closely resembling his work with Lionel Trains than with Crazy Horse or the Stray Gators. But unlike John Candy’s movie, Young was dead serious about the Linc/Volt.
As with his obsession with the model trains, Young has always had a thing for big cars, dating clear back to the days of his beloved hearse Mortimer in Canada. But besides being a gear head, he is also a tech head—an environmentally conscious tech head. Understanding the need for a fuel-efficient, low-emissions vehicle, while also sharing the love affair that most Americans have for their cars, he came up with the idea of converting a classic gas-guzzling 1959 Lincoln Continental into an energy-efficient vehicle powered by alternative fuel sources.
Working with people like Jonathan Goodwin of Wichita’s H-Line Conversions and Uli Kruger of Australia’s Alternative Energy Technologies, Young unveiled his Linc/Volt in 2008, bringing it to the South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, and to Sun Microsystems in California, among other events.
The Linc/Volt was also entered to win the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE, given to new automobiles able to reach the 100 miles per gallon standard. Unfortunately, it had to subsequently withdraw from the competition due to a conflict with Progressive over the lack of a more commercially oriented business plan for the car.
On November 9, 2010, the Linc/Volt caught fire in a garage at Young’s Broken Arrow ranch, where he also had been storing valuable memorabilia related to his music career. Both the car and much of the historically priceless collection—valued at $850,000—were damaged. Young, however, still stands by his Linc/Volt.
“The wall charging system was not completely tested and had never been left unattended. A mistake was made. It was not the fault of the car,” he said after the fire. The Linc/Volt is in the process of being restored.
Fuel Line
Many of the songs on 2009’s Fork in the Road are either directly about, or influenced by, Young’s work on the Linc/Volt project, including titles like “Johnny Magic” (written in tribute to Linc/Volt designer Jonathan Goodwin), “Fuel Line,” “Get Behind the Wheel,” “Hit the Road,” and “Off the Road.” You’d be quite correct in thinking there are a lot of road songs on Fork in the Road.
While this is not one of the more memorable entries in Neil Young’s vast catalog, it does contain at least one great song in “Just Singin’ a Song (Won’t Change the World).” Like Fork in the Road’s other songs, the lyrics on this one also veer off into stuff about cars and roads, but ties them in with a call for environmental activism, reflecting Young’s renewed commitment to eco-friendly causes. Besides, “Just Singin’ a Song (Won’t Change the World)” also boasts a killer Neil Young guitar riff.
Other songs on the album could best be described as falling into the goofball category of songs like “Fuckin’ Up,” “Piece of Crap” and “Dirty Old Man.” “Get Behind the Wheel” even dredges up the long-thought-buried rockabilly corpse of 1983’s positively dreadful Everybody’s Rockin’ album.
Even so, Fork in the Road joined other new millennium Neil Young albums in the top twenty spot that Billboard seems to have reserved just for him.
It peaked at #19.
Baseball cap promoting the eco-friendly, energy-efficient Linc-Volt automobile, signed “with love” by Neil Young.
Photo by Elisabeth Piontek