How many fans were aghast over the weekend to hear via the American broadcaster NBC that Neil Young had just died and unknown to many of them had also been the first man to set foot on the moon? Neil has been many things down the years, of course, but his secret history as an astronaut would have been news to everyone, including him.
The first man on the moon, of course, was Neil Armstrong, in 1969, unless you subscribe to the view that the 1969 moon landing was an elaborate fabrication. But in their rush to break the news of his death, someone at NBC clearly had a rush of blood to the head and confused the two Neils, Armstrong and Young, and it was thus announced that the latter had passed away, briefly causing alarm in the Young community, even as they were looking forward to the release next month of Neil’s second album of 2012.
It’s called Psychedelic Pill, apparently, and like the recent Americana finds him again butting heads with Crazy Horse, on their first full outing together on an album of new material since Broken Arrow in 1996. John’s recently tracked down a terrific bootleg of a recent Neil and Crazy Horse show in Red Rocks that he’s been playing a lot in the office and six of the songs from the set are evidently on the new album, including the epic Walk Like A Giant”, which clocks in at the far end of 25 minutes, and the similarly expansive “Ramada Inn”, which runs to a slightly more modest 15 minutes.
We don’t have an actual release date yet for Psychedelic Pill, but as you may have heard it’ll be available as a double CD or triple vinyl album and will, like America, be preceded by online previews of full length videos for each of the tracks. With Dylan’s Tempest out on September 10 and Psychedelic Pill following pretty quickly, music fans of a certain age and disposition must be counting their blessings.
Sorry to be so brief, but I’m being beckoned even as I write this and will have to as they say dash. Have a good week!
Allan