Canada's Neil Young is many things to many people: the archetypal singer/songwriter; the moral straight-shooting loner; the punkadelic hippie; and, perhaps most of all, the rock 'n' roll renegade who operates far outside music industry convention.
In the '90's, as he meets with renewed artistic and commercial success, Michael Roth and Gary Furniss, producers of Sony Music Canada's tribute "Borrowed Tunes" (consisting of the companion albums "Into The Black" and "Out Of The Blue"), also contend that Young is one of rock 'n' roll's most important composers.
Recording the majority of tracks for "Borrowed Tunes" at Sony's in-house 24-track studio in Toronto, and unravelling the scheduling knots of some 35 Canadian acts was challenging and exhausting, but the two Sony executives still regard the Young project as a godsend.
"Gary and I would be sitting in the studio and we'd start to laugh, 'Like is this a job?'," says Roth. "We're making a Neil Young record without Neil Young."
Part of the fascinating thing about Toronto-born Neil Young is that, from his days with the pioneering '60's country-rock band Buffalo Springfield, to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, to working with Crazy Horse (which greatly influenced such contemporary bands as Green on Red, the Beat Farmers and Dinosaur Jr.), to such groups as the Stray Gators, Bluenotes, and the Shocking Pinks, is that the singer/songwriter has repeatedly aimed for borders in his music over 35 albums – something hard to attain and dead easy to overshoot.
As Young himself said about "Heart Of Gold" in the liner notes of his 1977 retrospective "Decade": "This song put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there."
In picking songs for "Borrowed Tunes" – the acts overseen by Roth and Furniss steered clear of such legendary Young chestnuts as "Sugar Mountain", "I Am A Child", "Cowgirl In The Sand", "Powderfinger", "Ohio", "A Man Needs A Maid" and "Rockin' In The Free World".
Explains Roth, "A lot of people after hearing about the project phoned and asked 'is anybody doing this or that song?' Often, if I contacted the act, I told them to pick three Neil Young songs and, hopefully, one of them won't be chosen by someone else. Maybe, in only three or four instances, we had people say 'I wish I could have done that song.'"
Choosing the repertoire was only the beginning of the project: there was also the style of their representation. Working with an attitude similar to Young, who has often taken pride in technical recording imperfections, Roth and Furniss tried to capture a spontaneity and a rawness in their sessions. There was no obsession to strive for the perfect take during the recording process.
"Every track we did at the Sony studio was done in a day," says Roth. "they were all done in the spirit of how Neil records...very spontaneous."
For those who admire the plaintiveness and haunting emotionality of Young's music, "Out Of The Blue" offers that in full measure. Much of the music has the lean, austere quality of rock music recordings made 15 years ago.
There's a simplicity, a clarity, and a straightforwardness about such tracks as "Harvest" by the Jeff Healey Band, "Pardon My Heart" by Malcolm Burn, "Comes A Time" by Prescott Brown, "Tell Me Why" by Hemingway Corner, and "Don't Let It Bring You Down", Young's bleak version of London, England, performed by Toronto-based singer Amanda Marshall.
Not only were all of those acts contacted enthusiastic about being involved with a Neil Young tribute project, but the majority, including several who weren't born when Young started recording with Buffalo Springfield, consider him to have had a major influence on their music. Listening to "Borrowed Tunes", it's very evident that the project provided many of them with immense artistic satisfaction.
"It's been very exciting hearing the different bands' interpretations," says Roth. "For some it was a chance to record a song which they might not do on their own albums. Many of the tracks sound as if the band wrote them. It's as if the songs were tailor-made for them"
There are numerous examples of this suitability including: The Cowboy Junkies' spooky version of "Tired Eyes", Young's straight-forward account of a dope dealing vendetta that ends in bloodshed; Jann Ardens' remarkable version of "Birds", in which the protagonist offers comfort to someone he has rejected; and "Human Highway" by country artists Cassandra Vasik and Jim Witter. As recorded originally by Young, it was a shock song about coming out of wounded privacy into the mean eye of the outside world. Here, it's a bleak look back at a troubled relationship.
Also superbly reworked are four of Young's best-known songs, "Heart Of Gold" by Lawrence Gowan; "Old Man" by Rose Chronicles; "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" by the Waltons; and the descriptive "Helpless", recalling Young's childhood days in Omemee, Ontario, performed by Lori Yates.
"The Breits' version of "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing" really blew my mind," notes Roth, referring to Young's 1965 song which is loosely based on someone he knew in Kelvin High School in Winnipeg. "If you go back to the Buffalo Springfield version and listen to it today, it sounds awfully rough. The Breits' version really captured the melody and the flavour [of the original]. That happened a lot."
Profits of "Borrowed Tunes" (consisting of the companion albums "Into The Black" and "Out Of The Blue") are being donated to the Bridge School, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, California; and the Safehaven Project for Community Living in Toronto, Canada.
Soon after his birth in November, 1978, Neil and Pegi Young's son Ben was diagnosed as having cerebral palsy. For the couple, it was an appalling coincidence; Neil's oldest song Zeke, from an earlier relationship, had been born with a mild form of cerebral palsy.
The Bridge School was founded in 1986 by Pegi, and Jim Forderer, another parent of a child with severe speech and physical impairments, and Dr. Marilyn Buzolich.
"The impact of disability in your life is such a personal thing", says Pegi. "Ben had been in public school for a while; his needs just weren't being met."
The Bridge's mission is to enable children with severe speech and physical impairments to reach their educational potentials using augmentative/alternative communication and adapted technology.
The Safehaven Project for Community Living provides respite and day programs for children and young adults facing severe physical, mental and health challenges. Since 1991, the parent-run charitable organization has operated three residential homes in the Toronto area. Speech and language therapists, physical and occupational therapists, psychologists and physicians are utilized in each of the homes to assure the children's life time well-being and to provide appropriate programming.
By Larry Leblanc, Canadian editor, Billboard Magazine
Borrowed Tunes 1 artists:
Colin Linden, "Intro" Hemingway Corner, Jann Arden, Crash Vegas, Lawrence Gowan, Jim Witter and Cassandra Vasik, Jeff Healey, The Breits, Lori Yates, The Waltons, Amanda Marshall, Prescott/Brown, Malcolm Burn, Rose Chronicles, Cowboy Junkies, Rheostatics and Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, David Wilcox, Stephen Fearing, Marc Jordan, Skydiggers, Barney Bentall and the Legendary Hearts, Our Lady Peace, Junkhouse, Blue Rodeo, Big Sugar, Colin Linden, Treble Charger, 54-40, Chocolatey, Philosopher Kings, hHead, Andy Curran, Wild T and the Spirit, Randy Bachman, Mystery Machine, Art Bergmann and One Free Fall.
Copyright 2011