Customer Reviews

Ragged Glory

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With Neil Young's 1989 solo effort Freedom, I like many others was warming up to his music again, after the numerous and sometimes alienating stylistic changes he was making in the 1980's. On Freedom, I tended to favor the harder cuts on the album such as "Don't Cry" "Rocking In The Free World" his driving cover of "On Broadway". At the same time I was heavily listening to some of his work with Crazy Horse; Live Rust and Rust Never Sleeps. All though this I was thinking, "Why doesn't he just make another kick-a**, all electric album from beginning to end?" "And at the same time why not just get back together With Crazy Horse?"

Well less than a year later in 1990, both prayers were answered. Neil Young finally reunited With Crazy horse for Ragged Glory. And the music matched my expectations and anticipation. I was totally blown away with their resulting effort. Raw, honest, intense and most importantly, excellent songs. Truckloads of guitars and solos. Short, terse rockers are mixed with their trademark eight to ten minute jams and loads of feedback in the right places. Most importantly this album matches all of his 70's work, with and without Crazy Horse.

Ragged Glory is also the essential album to listen to on a long country drive, disturbing the cattle and the small towns on the way! The leadoff track on the CD "Country Home" is obviously well-suited for the aforementioned type of drive. "White Line" has an excellent driving riff and is a very concise song, almost ending prematurely, kind of like Stone Temple Pilots "Interstate Love Song" four years later.

"F*!#in' UP" is my favorite track on Ragged Glory. It is the most aggressive song on the album lyrically and musically. It's an understatement, but this song kicks serious a**. The title itself prevented it from major airplay, but changing or editing that would be a grave injustice. "Over And Over" has a killer melody, a great chorus and the guitars keep on rocking.

"Love to Burn" is a ten-minute long opus that seriously rocks. It will hold your attention the entire duration and at the same time may cause to you look deep inside yourself on what you want and need out of love and out of life.

The bouncy "Farmer John" snaps you out of that, I think of a comely, natural, well built county girl almost every time I listen to it. "Mansion on the Hill" is the track that garnered the most radio airplay at the time. The second ten-minute opus is "Love And Only Love".

The only downer is "Mother Earth" I respect the message Neil is trying to make with this track, but it is completely subpar and totally out of place on the CD, unfortunately, it practically rescues the CD from near perfection. It is a totally expendible track.

This album may have prepared me somewhat for 1991-92 grunge explosion. I was beginning to gravitate towards rawer, grungier rock at the time, not to replace the more polished hard rock or progressive rock that I was listening to but to compliment it. While Neil Young's "Godfather Of Grunge" title is obvious and a little overused now, Ragged Glory helped me welcome the sounds of Nirvana, Soundgarden & Pearl Jam with open arms.

The songs on this album are outstanding, the writing is direct, the themes are the same ones Neil has always sung about, making relationships last over time, country living, the road. But the way this album was recorded is probably the main reason I keep coming back. Obviously the guitars are all melting and the amps are overdriven and the songs are free-form, but the vocals are right where I want them, and the guitars are so warm that the album never agitates me (and believe me, I've listened to some agitating music - Teengenerate anyone?). I guess the fifth star is gained by the fact that the songs and the band are still more important than the medium, this album isn't noteworthy for its use of feedback and hot guitars, but because everything fits, in a smooth and soulful way. Never gimmick. Always authentic. Neil transcends the genre again.

Neil Young stands as one of the great "anti-heroes" of rock. For over 3 decades, he's played pretty much what he wanted, with very little regard for whether or not it was "commerical". Despite their attitude, Neil Young and Crazy Horse managed to rack up a huge string of hits, and a large fan following anyhow. While Neil and his band are grateful for the support (and the 'counrty homes' and all that comes with success in rock and roll), they still refuse to "sell out" and do comfortable pop tunes. Instead, from time to time, they unleash a thunderbolt. This CD is one such thunderbolt.

This one captures Neil Young and Crazy Horse at what they do best-- grunge. Released almost a year before Nirvana's (equally stellar) major label debut CD, this CD makes the recent material from so called heavy rock bands like Aerosmith and Van Halen sound almost wimpy by comparison.*

Perhaps the reason Neil Young and Crazy horse don't do "battles of the bands" is that their firepower is so overwhelming, it would simply destroy most of the competition after they played the first few bars.

Suffice to say, this is an awesome piece of hard rock, done by one of that genre's true masters of the art. While Neil & Crazy Horse have done grungy metal for decades (on Everyone Knows This is Nowhere, Rust Never Sleeps, and several other CD's), they've never quite captured their live energy and intensity as well as they did here.

After you hear the new grunge guys (Alice in Chains, The Cult, and possibly Soundgarden), listen to the old man, and he'll teach you how this music should really be played. Except for Nirvana (who are tragically, gone) none of the newer grunge artists have equalled this CD for sheer songwriting, musicianship, intensity, and edginess.

* Just for the record, I like a lot of Aerosmith & Van Halen's works.

Ragged Glory is Neil Young's best album since "Rust Never Sleeps," and not coincidentially the most rockin'. That a bunch of forty-ish hippies who should have followed Young's advice and burned out long ago could produce a guitar dominated album of such intensity is simply astonishing. Most surprisingly, tucked amid the walls of guitar fury are some of the prettiest melodies Young has ever written. Standout tracks include "Over and Over," "Country Home," and "Days That Used to Be" An absolute classic.

I was only 20 years old when this record came out. At the time, I was trying to be the best punk rocker I could be. Comming out of my Cure phase and into the early years of 90's sludge, I was wholly caught up in bands like Primus, Rollins Band, and the Pixies. One of my buddies scored some tickets to the Ragged Glory Tour show at the Capital Center in DC. Also on the ticket were Social Distortion and Sonic Youth...two of my favorite bands at the time, so I gladdly tagged along. Sure, I was somewhat familiar with Neil Young, heard some of his songs, etc. But at that time, he was nothing more than a legendary figure of classic rock in my mind.

I watched gleefully while Social D belted out a quick set of punkabilly and Sonic Youth reduced the place to pure baffled silence. My expectations for Neil Young were low, and I can remember talking to my buddy about leaving early. Suddenly dozens of giant dummy speakers were lowered down to the stage and the lights brightened. The band emerged with Neil front and center. His appearance looked like something out of a Tim Burton movie - Levi's barely hanging on to his skinny legs, a tattered oversized flannel shirt, shoulders slumped forward, and hair that looked like a giant silver cobweb. He picked up his guitar, gave a quick wave to the crowd, then ripped the place to shreds. There's really no better way to describe it.

I can still remember standing there in the middle of a giant steaming pile of rubble that was once the stadium, my jaw on the floor, feeling like I'd just witnessed the second coming of the Messiah, or who knows what else...and that I needed to pick myself up off the floor and learn how to walk all over again.

I've been hooked ever since.

Having gotten his magic songwriting touch back with Freedom, Neil finds the mystic of his avalanching guitar sound with Ragged Glory. The album is awesome and fits perfectly alongside Neil's best work with the Horse.

Released prior to the inchoate stage of the "grunge" movement, Neil Young and Crazy Horse's "Ragged Glory" stands alone as a work of exemplary garage-rock. As a devout admirer of Young's entire catalog, I must say that "Ragged Glory" remains my unequivocal favorite. The album represents the epitome of songcraft and sheer power; Neil's lyrics make seemingly mundane (yet archetypal) human experiences seem positively transcendent. From the absolutely epic soundscapes of "Country Home" to the nearly utopian idealizations of "Love and Only Love," Crazy Horse has created an extraordinarily affective portrait of life, love, loss, and apprehension. "Over and Over" contains one of the most memorable hooks I've ever heard in my life. "F*!#in' Up" is a gloriously relentless, self-effacing study of self-doubt that to this day remains a staple during Pearl Jam concerts.

Structurally, "Ragged Glory" is relatively consistent: several songs are in the key of G, accompanied by warm, lush, tubes-are-about-to-blow guitars. While there is a fair share of Neil's erratic soloing, the album's use of single-note themes over layers of fuzzy Les Pauls render the songs incredibly memorable.

Ultimately, "Ragged Glory" makes one hell of a first impression and only manages to get better after repeated listens. Neil Young has always possessed a proclivity for surrealism in his work; to an extent, "Ragged Glory" is no exception. Lyrically the album is relatively straightforward; when coupled with masterful arrangements and towering walls of sound, the lyrics evoke thoughts of people, places, and experiences that we believed to be long forgotten. Words fail to express the brilliance exemplified by Neil and Crazy Horse on this album: it is a work of musical genius that easily belongs in the pantheon of rock classics.

I don't know if "Ragged Glory" is glorious, excactly, but it is certainly ragged, with lots of gritty power chords and Neil Young's smouldering guitar solos screaming with overdrive.
The tempo is generally brisk, and the tunes are melodic with catchy choruses. They are long, too, clocking in at over an hour for ten tracks, with two closely related ten-minute epics, "Love To Burn" and "Love And Only Love".

"Ragged Glory" is not as varied or as original as some of Young's classic albums, but it has plenty of highlights, and the songwriting is generally strong. The warm, melodic "Country Home" is one of Neil Young's best latter-day songs, as is the grand "Love To Burn". "Farmer John" is another great, tough riff-rocker, and other highlights include the guitar-fest "Love And Only Love" and the driving "Mansion On The Hill" (which has nothing to do with the Springsteen-song of the same name).
In short...this is a great record. Not a transcendent masterpiece, but a really fine listen, and Neil Young-fans should not be disappointed.

Being a big Neil Young fan, I picked up this album. I had heard that it is some of his best work, and arguably his heaviest. When I heard the album, it turned out that everything I heard about it was true.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse have always been the best garage band imaginable since their first album together, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. This album is full of raw songs, many extending past the 5-minute mark. Some of Neil's best lead guitar-playing ever can be found here. Ragged Glory is chock full of great songs and garage jams.

The album's opener, "Country Home," could have worked very well as a country song, likewise "White Line," the song that follows. But here, they are transformed into rocking, raw, grunge tunes with everyone in the band, especially Neil, kicking serious butt. "Mansion On the Hill" is sure to be included on the next Neil Young retrospective. Only these guys can take a simple 3-chord riff and do something with it. This was the single release from the album, and it's easy to see why, as it is easily the catchiest tune on the record. "F*!#in' Up" is pure Neil Young angst, with all four boys rocking hard and playing their hearts out. The two songs that pass the 10-minute mark, "Love To Burn" and "Love And Only Love" are classic epic Neil Young, much like "Down By The River" and "Cowgirl In the Sand" from Everybody Knows..., and "Cortez the Killer" and "Dangerbird" from Zuma. "Love to Burn" is based on a chord progression somewhat reminiscent of his recent hit "Rocking In the Free World," though not a blatant copy. Both "Love" songs contain awesome guitar playing from Neil. The album's closer, "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)" is taken from a live recording, and recalls Jimi Hendrix's classic treatment of "The Star Spangled Banner" from Woodstock. Though I have never heard the original "Farmer John," I am willing to bet my bottom dollar that the cover found here blows the original out of the water.

Ragged Glory is one of the few albums I know that lives up to its title. Recorded in a barn on Neil's ranch, mostly live with very few overdubs, There are definitely some ragged sounds here, but Neil & the Horse definitely achieve glory here. The album is true ragged glory. Recommended to any Neil Young fan, any grunge fan, or any rock fan. There is no doubt that everyone who hears it will enjoy a great deal. It will stand the test of time, just as Neil's earlier work has, and will be loved and enjoyed for a long time to come.

5/5

Having just reviewed the so-mellow-you-may-not-find-a-pulse _Comes a Time_ (and given it five stars), I'm now switching to the other end of the Neil Young spectrum and reviewing this blast of sound from 1990.

Neil's albums with Crazy Horse are one and all good, but some are better than others. I think this is one of their best to date.

But don't even bother with it if the _only_ Neil Young you like is his acoustic stuff. I'm second to none in my love of that material. But unless you (also) like getting your ears shredded by raw, screaming, industrial-strength guitars, you will not like this release.

In fact, though, it's just as gorgeous as _Comes a Time_. Oh, you have to listen your way in, but it's like all the rest of Neil's stuff: put your head where his is, and it makes sense.

Why _does_ he keep f*!#in' up? I don't know, but long may he run.