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 Neil
Young:
Prairie Wind (REPRISE)
How would you react to the loss of a parent as well
as a life-threatening brain aneurysm? Well, many would
cleave to sentiment and roam in the fields of memory
where the sun is golden, the family intact and time
stretches ahead in all innocence. That's exactly what
Neil Young has done on Prairie Wind, his new acoustic
album, billed as a successor to his earlier Harvest
and Harvest Moon.
'The Painter' strikes the album's autumnal keynote:
"It's a long road behind me/it's a long road ahead/if
you follow every dream/you might get lost." This
is followed by 'No Wonder', another shot of Southern
comfort, with that familiar plaintive voice backed by
Nashville guitars.
'Falling Off The Face of the Earth' and 'It's A Dream'
have Shakey saying his goodbyes and making peace with
the remains of the day; on the latter song, his voice
whispers and fades evocatively, but the strings render
it more sentimental than it ought to have been. The
same passing-of-the-baton theme emerges in 'This Old
Guitar' - "This old guitar ain't mine to keep/it's
mine to play for awhile"-with clear musical echoes
of 'Harvest Moon'.
Among the somewhat sprightlier tracks are 'Far From
Home', a paean to Canadian boyhood-again, a trifle too
maudlin-and 'He Was the King', a tribute to Elvis, as
a symbol of lost, easier time. That the title track,
with its unnecessarily falsetto chorus, remains moving
is tribute to Young's prowess.
This album of long, meditative songs ends with the mock-gospel
'When God Made Me' which, with its earnest message of
assimilation, is a bit too obvious. Circumstances do
alter cases, but Prairie Wind, for all its strengths,
would have been much better with some more bite. - Sanjay
Sipahimalani
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