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Neil Young: Back to country-rock roots
Freedom completed the return to form, a mixture of acoustic and electric rock dealing with the state of the U.S. and the world in 1989, alongside Young's best love songs for some time and a version of the standard "On Broadway". "Rockin' in the Free World", two versions of which bookended the album, again caught the mood (becoming a
de facto anthem during the fall of the Berlin Wall, a few months after the record's release). Like Springsteen's "Born in the USA", the anthemic use of this song was based on largely ignoring the verses, which evoke social problems and implicitly criticize American government policies. By 1990 grunge music was beginning to make its first inroads in the charts and many of its prime movers, including Nirvana's
Kurt Cobain, were citing Young as an influence, which led elements of the press to dub him somewhat dubiously "The Godfather of Grunge".
Using a barn on his Northern California ranch as a studio, he rapidly recorded the aptly titled
Ragged Glory with Crazy Horse, whose guitar riffs and feedback driven sound showed his new admirers that he could still cut it, though again the music was not quite as intense as the actual grunge bands themselves - no one could mistake Young's "Country Home" for "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Young then headed back out on the road with alternative rock elder statesmen Sonic Youth as support and their influence could be clearly heard on the accompanying home video and live album,
Weld, which included a bonus CD (also sold separately), Arc, 35 minutes of nothing but feedback and guitar noise.
Typically, Young's next move was another return to country music.
Harvest Moon (1992) was the long awaited sequel to Harvest and reunited him with some of the musicians from that session, including Linda Ronstadt. Despite being out of step with fashion again, the title track was a minor hit and the record was reviewed well, and sold equally well, containing fine songs such as "From Hank to Hendrix" and "Unknown Legend", a tribute to his wife, and his resurgent popularity saw him booked on MTV Unplugged in 1993. That year, he contributed music to the soundtrack of the
Jonathan Demme movie Philadelphia, and his song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song, losing out to
Bruce Springsteen's contribution to the same film. A summer tour covering both Europe and North America with Booker T. and the MGs was widely praised as a triumph. On a few of these dates the show ended with a rendition of "Rockin' in the Free World" played with Pearl Jam.
He was back with Crazy Horse for 1994's
Sleeps with Angels, a much darker record. The title track told the story of
Kurt Cobain's suicide, after Young had tried to contact the singer prior to his death. Cobain had quoted Young's "It's better to burn out than fade away" in his suicide note. Others dealt with drive-by killings ("Driveby"), environmentalism ("Piece of Crap") and Young's own vision of America (the archetypal car metaphor of "Trans Am"). Still admired by the prime movers of grunge, Young jammed with Pearl Jam at the MTV Music Awards, which led to a joint tour, with the band and producer Brendan O'Brien backing Young. The accompanying album, Mirror Ball (1995), recorded as live in the studio captured their loose rock sound.
After composing an abstract, distorted feedback-led guitar instrumental soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch film Dead Man
he recorded a series of loose jams with Crazy Horse, that eventually appeared as the disappointing Broken Arrow. This return to Crazy Horse was prompted by the death of mentor, friend and long time producer David Briggs in late 1995. The subsequent tours of Europe and North America in 1996 resulted in both a live album and a tour documentary directed by Jim Jarmusch. Both releases took the name "Year of the Horse".
The decade ended with
Looking Forward, another reunion with Crosby, Stills and Nash, that only occasionally rose above the perfunctory. The subsequent tour of the United States and Canada with the reformed super quartet was a huge success and brought in earnings of 42.1 million dollars, making it the 8th best grossing tour of 2000.
Neil's next album, the subtle, understated, acoustic
Silver & Gold (2000), was a marked improvement. It was also his most personal record for a long time, a trend which continued on Are You Passionate? (2002), an album of love songs dedicated to his wife, Pegi.
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