Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Tuesday Tuneage
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - "Opera Star"
1981

Released at the start of the "Neil Young experiments with a new genre every year" era1, Reactor was the first Neil album I bought, and still my favorite - mostly because I got it when I was sixteen and didn't know what canonical Neil Young music quite was. Reactor is grungy, silly, serious, and kicks down doors like no other Neil album I have heard. Then again, I haven't heard all of 'em.

The leadoff track "Opera Star" is an underrated garage rock gem chock-full of goodies. It's a Neil song with an actual interesting rhythm, you can almost dance to it. Reactor also contains "T-Bone", which is Neil's attempt at an extended dance mix. It works, in fact, pairs quite well with any number of the "mashed potatoes" R&B songs from the early sixties.

And not to mention, "Opera Star" also has: class resentment, drugs, getting f*cked up, and ridiculous-but-fun backing vocals. In the chorus, Neil informs the protagonist - and by extension, the listener - that he/you will never be an opera star. I'm sure Neil Young fans continent-wide were crushed.


1 Garage-metal, electronic, rockabilly, country, return-with-Crazy Horse, big band, etc. etc.