NEIL YOUNG – FORK IN THE ROAD
The handwritten title and credits, the soft (out-of focus) picture of the artist ought to provide a clue; particularly when you look at the name. Neil Young may be 63, but he remains a curious mix of the new and the old. Recognising that the days of recording budgets the size of Zambia’s GDP are gone, he is happy recording and releasing albums the way others blog or twit – on a whim and with a short writing/recording time-frame. Hence Fork in the Road, Neil’s response to the crisis in the American auto industry. Cars have always been important to Neil Young, he converted a 1959 Lincoln Continental into his own green-machine with an electric engine – driving the car to Washington and now writing an album about it. Like the Lincvolt, Young’s album has a classic body – all chunky guitars and saccharine harmonies – with a new engine – Young’s passion for reinventing a green future for a car-loving and dependant nation. Laughing at himself along the way: “Big rock star/My sales have tanked/I still got you/Thanks!”, Young embraces his inner grumpy old man and enjoys himself. There are not many classic Young moments here though, Cough Up the Bucks and the bar room boogie Get Behind the Wheel sounding hastily conceived and recorded. But somehow, long after America’s auto industry has died or re-invented itself, when we are cruising about in enviro-friendly hover-crafts, someone will have the top down and be blasting Johnny Magic at full volume and we will all be smiling.
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