Neil Young’s “Reactor”: Kicking Against the Pricks
When you’re talking about an artist like Neil Young, whose muse suffers from the most acute schizophrenia any songwriter’s ever experienced—a countrified Pantera one minute and Tim Hardin the next–you don’t have to look too hard to find the criticism of pot-bellied goobers who tolerate only what they hear on one of those “classic rock” stations they turn up in their rusted trucks on the way to a beer pong tournament.
Take this poor bastard’s attempt at criticism of Neil Young’s Reactor, the greatly misunderstood garage rock tutorial he put out with Crazy Horse in 1981, in an amazon.com customer review—typos preserved. “There is one song on it ‘T-Bone’ where he repeats the same lines over and over. That ain’t song writng,” he says, supporting it with the equally misguided assertion that you “Never see Bob Dylan write something like that. You know it stinks becasue I’ve never seen Neil play any of the songs from this album live,” he continues. The problem, of course, is that “Southern Pacific,” Reactor’s most recognizable single, is actually a mainstay in Neil Young’s live shows (I’ve got the bootlegs to prove it.) And when he does perform it live, the crowd always responds with a roar of familiarity.
This is just more of the entirely unfounded pretense with which so many close-minded fans fuel misinformed criticism. Reactor, like 2003’s brilliant Greendale, only asks that his audience expands their minds and tastes just enough to accommodate a muse whose range continues to widen despite age. While many of Neil’s peers languish in the dust of past triumphs, Neil is not afraid to indulge newer visions and look forward–both as an artist and as a man (For once, Rolling Stone got it right when they voted Greendale the #2 album of 2003 just behind Warren Zevon’s highly emotional swan-song, The Wind. At least someone still knows the sound of art when they hear it.)
Those who express disappointment in albums like Reactor or Greendale because they didn’t mail in yet another collection of “Neil Young-ish” singles the way Silver & Gold or Prairie Wind did were never fans in the first place. They crave merely a single patch in the quilt of Neil’s total artistic range. They are the morons shouting “Judas” at Dylan in 1965 whose hopeless anonymity is a fitting fate.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Southern Pacific
“That ain’t songwriting,” some say about tunes like Reactor’s epic “T-Bone” in which, yes, Neil howls “ain’t got no t-bone” for nearly 10 minutes, “Never see Bob Dylan write something like that.” Really? Let’s take these lines from Dylan’s song, “Wiggle Wiggle,” the opening track from his 1991 album, Under The Red Sky.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like satin and silk,
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a pail of milk,
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, rattle and shake,
Wiggle like a big fat snake.
Now, call me crazy, but I’m fairly certain that this fails to meet the aforementioned reviewer’s standards for “songwriting”. That is exactly the point: Neil Young’s Reactor is much-maligned for applying an aesthetic fraught with ruthless feedback and distortion to a weak selection of songs, but to object to Reactor on those grounds completely misses the point.
If this album’s flaws are more of the same-old Neil Young “flakiness”, it is the same “flakiness” that characterizes rock ‘n roll’s legacy–a legacy Neil Young defines as accurately on Reactor as on any other record. Reactor’s snotty abandon and feedback-laden indifference constitute the kind of temperament that great rock ‘n roll thrives on, and if it fails to conjure greatness on Reactor, then it is, at worst, a powerful tribute to the soul of rock music.
A boundless ambition pervades Reactor that is at once charming and confounding: the frenzied wail and shriek of “Shots“, the thumping, deceptively political railroad anthem, “Southern Pacific”, the 10 minutes of Neil Young shouting “ain’t got no t-bone!” amid Crazy Horse’s famous thrash-and-grind sound. These performances exemplify what is great about rock ‘n roll far more powerfully than any of those contrived classic rock anthems poisoning FM radio every day.
Neil Young: “Be The Rain,” Greendale
Reactor and, later, Greendale, are miraculous examples of a musical and lyrical ambition that refuses to give in to the ravages of time and age. If people would get a grip on their attention spans for long enough to engage with a story that lasts longer than the 3-minute FM radio single, the rewards are great. People who don’t have the capacity to do so need to toss their Neil records and listen to more chick-rock.
Take a chance on Reactor. Listen to something different, something that refuses to make friends, something too sincere to earn air time on any of America’s thousand shitty classic rock stations. Few experiences are more gratifying than getting weird looks from other drivers when you crank up this album on your car stereo at a red light with the windows down. It proves you’re listening to something that’s true. Reactor is the real thing: are you?
Special Treat: The excellent blog known as That’s Fucking Dynamite recently posted an mp3 for this killer and extremely rare Neil Young tune called “Sea of Madness,” which appears to be a live take from Neil’s appearance with CSN at the original Woodstock. Check it out here.
UPDATE (6-2-08): Here is yet another special treat, courtesy of Andrew Ronan–a live, solo acoustic performance of “Shots”–the song that would later appear on the Reactor album–performed here in a live set from 1978. It is an absolute must-hear. Download it here.
152 Responses to “Neil Young’s “Reactor”: Kicking Against the Pricks”
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May 31st, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I tend to agree with your treatment of Re-ac-tor. While those who dismiss it solely for not being in the style of say, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere or Harvest, are missing a large part of his catalog and don’t understand the depth or his work.
On the other hand, I disagree with your assertion that this album is one of Neil’s best simply because it’s ambitious and different. It’s certainly not trash as many have labeled it. Shots (the acoustic version is my preference) and Southern Pacific are noteworthy and powerful songs, however the rest of the album, to me anyway, is pretty mediocre.
Regardless, thanks for the articles you’ve posted. They’ve been interesting reads.
June 1st, 2008 at 7:41 am
Hmmm . . . I do not think that this was one of his best albums, which is why I concede–admittedly through gritted teeth–that the album’s ambitions “fail to conjure greatness on Reactor.” I agree with you. There are too many Neil albums I would take before this one for it to be one of his best. I wrote the piece, though, because I do believe that Reactor is a criminally underrated gem–though not a “great” Neil Young album–and that it is an absolutely fascinating experience for those willing to meet Neil halfway.
At a time when Radio has been almost completely hijacked by corporate gluttons, it seems especially important to me that we revisit the albums that challenge us; lord knows radio’s too terrified and conservative to give that kind of music a chance anymore. I’m increasingly concerned that records like Reactor are becoming tombstones–it’s up to us to keep that from happening.
Thanks so much for reading; I really appreciate your feedback–and I hope you’ll come around again!
P.S. If you have an acoustic version of “Shots” that I can listen to, I would really love to hear it! If you can pass it on, drop me a line at gmanzione@culturespill.com. I bet it’s a really great listen.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:08 am
It’s all one song!
June 9th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Amen, Tim. Amen!
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May 1st, 2009 at 4:22 am
I have reactor on LP & its one of my faves. Unfortunately I’m too stingy to pay to download it. However for all the nay sayers about this work, it was different and it worked. He is an artist & an absolute living legend. only Neil Young himself has the right to criticise his work.
ps. anyone know where I can download reactor for free (just joking?)
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