360 records from 2000: 60. Neil Young - Silver & gold

60. Neil Young: Silver & gold

Country: Canada
Artist: Male solo artist
Career: recording since 1966
Language: English
Genre: Neil Young

Hell, if Neil Young's 20th best album ends up in the top 100 records from 2000, there must be something wrong with the year, you may conclude. It’s not the best year – I think I covered that in the first post on this topic -, but I still think you’re wrong. Artists can get better or worse as their career advances, some go off the deep end, some soar (though not many). Neil Young isn’t as great as he was in the ‘60s and the ‘70s, but he didn’t go off the deep end (maybe since 2000 he did, but that’s neither here or there). You can’t just rank the records in an oeuvre from best to worst as if the artist who made them remains a fixed point, never wavering in intent or execution. This is the best record Neil Young made in 2000 (actually, mostly in 1998, I think), just like ‘Tonight’s the night’ is the best record Neil Young made when everyone around him died (though ‘Sleeps with angels’ comes in at a respectable 2nd place). It doesn’t make ‘Silver and gold’ as good as ‘Tonight’s the night’ or ‘Sleeps with angels’, but it does set it apart in the artist’s oeuvre. There’s hardly any point in reaching for ‘Tonight’s the night’ when I’m in the mood for ‘Silver and gold’, nor even ‘Harvest’ though it’s a little closer still. Of course, you might say, it makes critical value judgement all but impossible – maybe, my argument here is only valid for a select number of great artists with large oeuvres anyway. But it’s my reason why I need more than 60 Bob Dylan albums (and I do need them).

But back to the record (it’s so ephemeral you’d start to talk about anything before the album, but that’s part of the appeal), for some reason I’m stuck in my head with a line from a contemporary review of this record by Mojo’s own human advertisement for hats and tractors, Sylvie Simmons: ‘With an artist as extreme as Neil Young, when he goes mellow, you have to accept it’s going to be extremely mellow’ (I paraphrase). It’ that dreaded word, ‘mellow’. Maybe she didn’t listen further than the first four songs, which are indeed jolly and mellow, but after his public announcement that he’d like to give it one more shot with Buffalo Springfield just for the ‘fun we had’ (‘Buffalo Springfield again’) this gets considerably more confused, filled with doubts and, basically, sad. This is the heart of the record, ‘The great divide’, ‘Horseshoe man’, ‘Red sun’, ‘Distant camera’, ‘Razor love’ – not exactly songs grandpa sings to the children on his knee. Something’s on an old man’s mind. I’ll be damned if I can tell what it is, but in the light of these songs those comfortable songs at the start are more about comfort-seeking. ‘Good to see you’ – anyone to steer me away from my thoughts. ‘Silver & gold’ – remember how much we loved each other in the ‘80s. ‘Buffalo Springfield again’ – why don’t we get the old gang back together?

There’s more to the picture than meets the eye.

I didn’t even talk about the beautiful playing on this album by his country-rock regulars, effortlessly melodic.

At its best: The great divide, Horseshoe man, Razor blue