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Greendale (album)

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Greendale
Studio album by
Neil Young and Crazy Horse
ReleasedAugust 19, 2003
RecordedJuly 11 – September 19, 2002
StudioPlywood Analog, Woodside, Redwood City, California
GenreRock
Length78:19
LabelWarner Bros.
Producer
Neil Young chronology
Are You Passionate?
(2002) 		Greendale
(2003) 		Greatest Hits
(2004)
Crazy Horse chronology
Year of the Horse
(1997) 		Greendale
(2003) 		Gone Dead Train: The Best of Crazy Horse 1971–1989
(2005)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Rolling Stone[2]

Greendale is the 27th studio album by Neil Young. Young and Crazy Horse's Greendale is a 10-song musical novel[3] set in a fictional California seaside town of the same name. Based on the saga of the Green family, Greendale combines numerous themes on corruption, observation of the passing of time, environmentalism and mass media consolidation.

Recording and writing

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Young recorded the album between July and September 2002 at his Broken Arrow Ranch. The sessions were produced by Young and filmmaker L.A. Johnson. The sessions feature Young on guitar, organ and harmonica backed only by drummer Ralph Molina and bassist Billy Talbot of longtime collaborators Crazy Horse. Unlike other works credited to the band, it does not feature a rhythm guitarist. Frank "Poncho" Sampedro does not appear on the album but did perform with the group during the album's tour. Young chose to record the songs with a stripped-down production team with minimal backing from other musicians to allow the song's stories and characters to be the focus. "There were fewer people, fewer things going on, less distraction. I just tried to focus right in on the core and get back to the roots of what we do. Simple form enables you to get complex with the actual muse. You're not distracted by technicalities. It was all about the content, and I just felt like with Crazy Horse the more simple it is, the better it is."[4]

Young recorded each song as he wrote it, beginning with "Devil's Sidewalk". "The songs started to unravel, I saw the story, what happened next. I wrote the songs one at a time and recorded each one before I'd write the next one. The songs just happened. First thing in the morning, I'd pick up a guitar, play two or three chords and go, 'That's the blueprint. That's what my soul told me, so that's what it is.' Then I'd go to the studio. I would write the words, without guitar, in my car. I'd keep stopping on the way – write two verses, go a hundred yards, stop, write some more. I kept moving, and writing, until I got to the studio. Whatever I had then, that was the song. "Devil's Sidewalk" – the recording is the first time I sang it, the first time the band had ever heard it."[5]

Young did not start with an overall premise and write the songs to fit the overall story, but rather wrote each song one by one, and the overall story emerged from the individual songs themselves.[3] "I simply started writing. I don't know exactly what happened. I've never written songs with characters in them before. I simply wrote a song and then thought: 'Hey, that's interesting.' And then I wrote another song. In the first song, I found it exciting that there were characters with names, that conversed. The next day I wrote a new song with the same characters."[6] "I just let it out. I never tried to make things fit together or anything. I just kept on going. Luckily I could jump from character to character and so continuity wasn't that important. And I found out later that the continuity was golden all the way through."[7] A contemporary review of the album by The Guardian succinctly rehashes the album's storyline as follows: "Grandpa Green is an ornery patriarch who finds himself in the media spotlight when his great-nephew Jed accidentally shoots a cop. Grandpa then suffers a fatal heart attack while fending off a reporter. The death somehow prompts his granddaughter Sun to become an eco-warrior, until FBI surveillance prompts her to leave Greendale for good."[8]

Release

[edit]

In 2004, the CD was released with a DVD containing Inside Greendale, a documentary featuring in-studio performances of the album being recorded.[9][10] A DVD-Audio version and box set vinyl LP version were also released, with both Advanced Resolution Stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes, and a video of "Devil's Sidewalk" from the film.

A map of the fictional town,[11] a gallery of Earl Green's art, a family tree diagram, and biographies of each character were provided on Young's website at the time.[12][13] Young filmed a movie on Super 8 to accompany the music.[14] Young cast friends and family members as the album's characters. Wife Pegi Young plays Edith and steel guitarist Ben Keith plays Grandpa.[15] Sun Green is played by Sarah White, a classmate of Young's daughter Amber. In the movie, the actors lip-synch Young's lyrics as he sings them.[3] The movie was played on stage during the full-band concerts in fall 2003 and a feature-length DVD of the movie was released in late 2004.

Tour

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Young performed the song cycle in a solo acoustic setting during a tour of Europe in April and May 2003. Young gave extended intros to each song and shared the story of the characters during the performances.[16] The concerts marked the first time Young played a setlist consisting of a song cycle of new material since introducing Tonight's the Night to audiences in 1973.[17] "There's a charge in doing all these new songs at once, all in a row. It's a big rebirth for me. I was apprehensive introducing this much new material at once, but it's something I looked forward to, because it's a challenge. A challenge for me, and a challenge for the audience: It's really one long song, and to get your money's worth, you have to pay attention."[18] A DVD of performances filmed at Vicar Street, Dublin was included with some editions of the album. An audio-only version has since been made available as a stand-alone live album on digital download and streaming services such as iTunes and Amazon.[19][20]

Between June and November 2003, Young toured the material with the support of Crazy Horse and background singers. In November 2020, a live album from a September performance from The Air Canada Centre in Toronto was released as Return to Greendale.

Reception

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Greendale has been compared to the literary classics of Thornton Wilder's Our Town[21] and Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio for its complexity and emotional depth in exploring a small town in America. The album, concert, film and DVDs have produced a vast divergence of critical opinion ranging from being called "amateur" to being voted as one of the best albums of 2003 by Rolling Stone magazine music critics.

Track listing

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All songs written by Neil Young.

No.TitleLength
1."Falling from Above"7:27
2."Double E"5:18
3."Devil's Sidewalk"5:18
4."Leave the Driving"7:14
5."Carmichael"10:20
6."Bandit"5:13
7."Grandpa's Interview"12:57
8."Bringin' Down Dinner"3:16
9."Sun Green"12:03
10."Be the Rain"9:13
Total length:78:19

Personnel

[edit]
  • Neil Young – guitar, organ, harmonica, vocal, production, mixing

Crazy Horse

with:

  • The Mountainettes:
    • Pegi Young – vocal
    • Nancy Hall – vocal
    • Twink Brewer – vocal
    • Sue Hall – vocal

Additional roles

  • John Hausmann – engineering, assistant mixing
  • Will Mitchell – engineering, audio effects, assistant mixing
  • Mark Humphreys – in-house music production
  • Tim Mulligan – mastering

Comics adaptation

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Vertigo Comics made the production of the comic book adaptation of the album with the same title.[22] Writer Joshua Dysart and Neil Young were involved in the project.[23] Greendale graphic novel (ISBN 1-4012-2698-1) was released in June 2010,[24] with Cliff Chiang providing the art.[25][26]

Charts

[edit]
Chart performance for Greendale
Chart (2003) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[27] 48
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[28] 10
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[29] 2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[30] 10
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[31] 5
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[32] 20
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[33] 12
French Albums (SNEP)[34] 32
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[35] 6
Irish Albums (IRMA)[36] 5
Italian Albums (FIMI)[37] 6
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[38] 41
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[39] 5
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[40] 5
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[41] 34
UK Albums (OCC)[42] 24
US Billboard 200[43] 22

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Greendale - Neil Young, Neil Young & Crazy Horse | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-06-03.
  2. ^ Miles, Milo (2003-08-04). "Neil Young Greendale Album Review". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2015-06-03.
  3. ^ a b c "Singer and Songwriter Neil Young". Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  4. ^ Pareles, Jon. The Latest From Neil Young. June 15, 2003. The New York Times.
  5. ^ Fricke, David (2003-09-04). "Q&A: The News According to Neil Young". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  6. ^ Neil Young Interview for German TV. Aspekte. Oslo. 2003.
  7. ^ Pareles, Jon. The Latest From Neil Young. June 15, 2003. The New York Times.
  8. ^ "Neil Young: Greendale". The Guardian. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  9. ^ "NEIL & CRAZY HORSE YOUNG - Greendale 2nd Edition - Amazon.com Music". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2017-01-01.
  10. ^ "Neil Young - Greendale Buy Page". www.neilyoung.com. Archived from the original on 2017-09-06. Retrieved 2017-01-01.
  11. ^ "Greendale, a Town Built by Neil Young". Big Think. 2010-07-23. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  12. ^ Greg Kot. Greendale in Europe: An Interview with icon Neil Young. Chicago Tribune. May 25, 2003.
  13. ^ Greenwald, Ted. "The Reinvention of Neil Young, Part 6". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  14. ^ Greg Kot. Greendale in Europe: An Interview with icon Neil Young. Chicago Tribune. May 25, 2003.
  15. ^ Pareles, Jon. The Latest From Neil Young. June 15, 2003. The New York Times.
  16. ^ Greenwald, Ted. "The Reinvention of Neil Young, Part 6". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  17. ^ Pareles, Jon. The Latest From Neil Young. June 15, 2003. The New York Times.
  18. ^ Greg Kot. Greendale in Europe: An Interview with icon Neil Young. Chicago Tribune. May 25, 2003.
  19. ^ "Greendale Live at Vicar St. (Live) by Neil Young on Apple Music". iTunes. 2 December 2003. Retrieved 2017-01-01.
  20. ^ "Amazon.com: Greendale Live At Vicar St.: Neil Young: MP3 Downloads". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2017-01-01.
  21. ^ Durchholz, Daniel; Graff, Gary (2012). "1997-Present". Neil Young: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History (Updated ed.). Voyageur Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-0760344118. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  22. ^ Reid, Calvin (July 28, 2007). "Vertigo Plans Neil Young Graphic Novel; New Minx Titles". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on January 2, 2014.
  23. ^ Ekstrom, Steve. "Joshua Dysart on Neil Young's Greendale at Vertigo". Newsarama. Archived from the original on August 27, 2007.
  24. ^ Lorah, Michael (June 8, 2010). "Touring NEIL YOUNG'S GREENDALE With Writer Josh Dysart". Newsarama. Retrieved June 13, 2010.
  25. ^ Arrant, Chris (June 9, 2010). "Artist Cliff Chiang Welcomes You to Vertigo's GREENDALE". Newsarama. Retrieved June 13, 2010.
  26. ^ Gustines, George Gene (June 15, 2010). "Neil Young's Greendale, Illustrated". New York Times. Retrieved June 15, 2010.
  27. ^ "Australiancharts.com – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  28. ^ "Austriancharts.at – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  29. ^ "Ultratop.be – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  30. ^ "Ultratop.be – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  31. ^ "Danishcharts.dk – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  32. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  33. ^ "Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Greendale" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  34. ^ "Lescharts.com – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  35. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  36. ^ "Irish-charts.com – Discography Neil Young". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  37. ^ "Italiancharts.com – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  38. ^ "Charts.nz – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  39. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  40. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  41. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  42. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  43. ^ "Neil Young Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
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