Neil Young - Ragged But Right
Compilation - Various - lun - TBA
Comments:
Ragged but Right - (?) - reviewed by David Bromberg
Ragged But Right is a haphazardly
put together disc, in both packaging and contents. Nonetheless, it's got some excellent
material and has very fine sound quality. The packaging is ultra-cheap, with no liner
notes and only a thin, unevenly cut picture in the sleeve. However, the back of the CD
indicates the sources of the disc's eleven tracks.
Six of the tracks come from 1990 rehearsals for either the Ragged Glory album or
subsequent tour: "Love and Only Love," "Love to Burn," "Mansion
on the Hill," "White Line," "Days That Used to Be," and
"Don't Spook the Horse." The sound quality of these tracks is very clear and the
performances are all very good. They are not all that different than the album versions,
but are generally less polished and more passionate. "Don't Spook the Horse" is
the real treat among these cuts, since it's only available as the bonus track on the
hard-to-find "Mansion on the Hill" CD single.
The other five tracks are all live performances from
different tours during the seventies. All are of good sound quality without noticeable
hiss
and minimal crowd noise. "Last Dance" and "Yonder
Comes the Sinner" are listed as being performed with the Stray Gators at the
Winterland, March 18, 1993. Neither is Neil's greatest song, but they are good
performances with some solid guitar/pedal steel interplay on "Last Dance."
"Bite the Bullet" is with Crazy Horse at the Palladium, NYC, Nov. 20, 1976,
early show. It's a decent performance of a sub-standard song. "Revolution Blues"
is with CSNY in Seattle, July 1974. It's a real treat to hear CSNY sound as dark and
intense as on this performance. Finally, "Windward Passage" is with the Ducks
from the Catalyst Club in Santa Cruz, August 27, 1977. This is a fantastic find, since
neither the song nor anything performed with the short-lived Ducks has ever been
officially released. An instrumental written by Neil, it features a magnificent soaring
guitar. Unlike anything he's released, "Windward Passage" suggests that it's
a shame he hasn't explored this type of composition at other times.
Overall, the album contains solid material with clear sound quality. There isn't much
reason behind the contents, but it's all worth having. The real treats are the closing
tracks, "Windward Passage"
and "Don't Spook the Horse." (B+)