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Neil Young’s had a busy year in terms of recordings. In addition to releasing Paradox (Original Music from the Film), he plumbed the depths of his archives for Roxy:Tonight’s the Night Live and now he’s issued Songs For Judy, its year-end release now something of a tradition for the Canadian rock icon (see The Visitor and Peace Trail, among others).
This latest title was recorded during a 1976 tour apart from Crazy Horse with whom he had spent much of the year on the road. Filmmaker Cameron Crowe and photographer/archivist Joel Bernstein, who contributed notes to this inaugural issue on the Canadian icon’s own label Shakey Pictures Records, compiled twenty-two tracks for the album, including an intro that, in its own inimitably rambling fashion, might stand as a statement of purpose regarding Young’s restless and iconoclastic approach to his craft.
Even if not all the songs on Songs For Judy sound overtly autobiographical, Young’s performances of them in this setting reveal the kernel(s) of personal truth that sparked their original composition and inclusion here. For instance, the author’s cryptic sentiment during “Campaigner” –‘….even Richard Nixon has got soul….–may carry more weight now than when Neil wrote it and is ostensibly the main reason for its selection. The purity of the acoustic guitar on “Heart of Gold” reveals the yearning at its heart, a sensation that cuts as deep as the pain of loss in the similarly sparse “The Needle and the Damage Done.”
Meanwhile, another solo gem of Young’s, “Tell Me Why,” resides right next to “Mr. Soul;” a highlight of his time with Buffalo Springfield, the oblique introspection of which in this context becomes a connection with “Journey Through the Past:” Neil’s grand piano accompaniment renders the tune even more directly reflective outside the context of the film of the same name. A similarly unsettling effect arises from “After The Gold Rush,” which despite its seemingly dated frame of reference to the Seventies, sounds particularly relevant today. As does “Here We Are in the Years.” to say the least, dedicated as it is to the newly-elected president of that era.
And, as self-deprecating as Neil sounds on the opening number “Too Far Gone,” there’s also an abiding combination of pride and confidence permeating its rendition and that of “No One Seems To Know” a composition that, apart from these shows, has not seen the light of day in any other iteration, prior to this LP. Juxtaposed with such a rarity are other novel choices from Young’s canon, such as “Love Is A Rose” and “Mellow My Mind,” the assembly of which, along with the aforementioned familiar songs that have helped define the man’s career, turns Songs For Judy distinctly relevant, an entry into the discography almost as idiosyncratic as the artist himself.
