Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Zuma

If Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and Ragged Glory are the two finest studio albums Neil Young recorded with Crazy Horse, Zuma certainly qualifies as a close third. Recorded in 1975, Zuma exudes both a sense of focus and a tentative optimism, two qualities that were completely MIA from the bleak Time Fades Away/Tonight's the Night/On the Beach trilogy that preceded it. "Barstool Blues," "Don't Cry No Tears," and "Drive Back" are terse, punchy rockers, while "Danger Bird" and "Cortez the Killer" are extended guitar workouts in the grand Crazy Horse tradition. And the two acoustic entries--"Pardon My Heart" and "Through My Sails" (the latter was recorded with Crosby, Stills & Nash)--are absolutely gorgeous. Ignore the crappy cover art, and treat yourself to one of Young's most underrated records. --Dan Epstein Amazon.com

Zuma

Excellent, mellow, beautiful as only Mr. Young can do. I owned this album years ago. It was stolen when my home was burgled. So happy to have it again. It's worth buying again. September 11, 2008

JAPAN REMASTERED VERSION AVAILABLE

A while back, Warner Brothers Japan re-released 12 Neil Young titles. The surprise was that remastered content appeared for the first time on most of them.

The titles & WB-Japan catalog numbers are:

Neil Young WPCR-75086
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere WPCR-75087
After The Gold Rush WPCR-75088
Harvest WPCR-75089
On The Beach WPCR-75090
Tonight's The Night WPCR-75091
Zuma WPCR-75092
Long May You Run WPCR-75093
American Stars n' Bars WPCR-75094
Comes A Time WPCR-75095
Rust Never Sleeps WPCR-75096
Live Rust WPCR-75097

I picked up most of these, A/B'd them, and found them to be superior to the domestics. However, having purchased the domestic 2002 remasters of "Beach" and "Stars n Bars", I declined the Japan versions of those two titles.

Unfortunately, while the Japan version is remastered, Live Rust is not restored to the original LP's running form, and remains still the bastardized version.

If you own the U.S. versions, and you're a NY fan, I would seriously consider replacing them with these. June 18, 2008

Near Great

More of a polished effort than the preceeding Tonight's the Night and On the Beach, but, paradoxically or not, a lesser album than either of these masterpieces. "Don't Cry No Tears" is a fine, upbeat opener, and is followed by the accomplished but inessential Crazy Horse workout "Danger Bird." "Lookin' for a Love" is a pop song of the sort that Young has written reletively few, but has an edgier side, "I hope I treat her kind, and don't mess with her mind/ when she starts to see the darker side of me" that belies its pretty, poppy surface. It's also a fine tune. The album's center is "Barstool Blues" an excellent song which demonstrates clearly why Young is considered the godfather of grunge. Thematically, "Barstool Blues" would nestle well into Tonight's the Night litany of strung-out drug songs, but with a slightly more produced sheen it here is fits perfectly, and, arranged as it is, seems to point to a way out of the bar and into the light of the street. "Stupid Girl" is a bit low, but contains more notable guitar pyrotechnics that presage the late 70's goldern age of Crazy Horse with albums like Rust Never Sleeps and Live Rust. Of course, the standout track is "Cortez the Killer," a pivotal song in Young's career, and one of his very greatest. While highly suspect as historical interpretation, the slow burn guitar buildup, Young's obvious sincerity, and the frenzied soloing combine to form a masterpiece of songwriting and musicianship. March 29, 2008

Don't Cry No Tears and Cortez the Killer

Zuma is certainly one of the best Young/Crazy Horse studio recordings. "Don't Cry No Tears," is a great rock song, with lots of sting. "Cortez the Killer" contains some of Neil's best extended rifs, and the lyrics are among his best: poetic and political at the same time. This recording gets some of my most frequent IPOD replays, and I have most of Young's records on the hard drive. February 19, 2008

Quintessential Neil Young...

Heralded on its release in 1975 as a long awaited "return to form" by those yearning for another "Harvest", "Zuma" is a much richer and wilder album which, on the way, showcases Neil Young's music in all its mercurial, often brilliant but rambling glory. Veering from the heavy metal grunge of "Drive Back", through the searingly powerful, wonderfully controlled guitar-work on "Cortez the Killer", the bizarrely addled incantations of "Barstool Blues", the foot-tapping country of "Lookin' for a Love", to the perfect MOR harmonies of "Through My Sails", it exemplifies what's made him so good but so frustratingly difficult to follow. And, up there with any of his better recordings, it's not only essential for any Neil Young fan but an excellent "next step" for anyone wanting to explore beyond "After The Goldrush", "Harvest" or his "Greatest Hits" albums.

Four stars then? Well yes, but not enough, because in here is a hidden gem... an outstanding, perfectly formed track that sums up what makes Neil Young worth the effort. Rarely played and missing from virtually all of the "Best of" lists of his songs it is, for me at least, one of the most quietly beautiful, ecstatically reflective and unforgettable pieces of acoustic music ever made. "Pardon My Heart"... worth the price of the album on its own. July 25, 2007

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