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ALBUM: Broken Arrow Lyrics

By: Neil Young

broken_arrow


Baby What You Want Me To Do
Big Time
Changing Highways
Loose Change
Music Arcade
Scattered
Slip Away
This Town



Broken Arrow Reviews

Arrow Through You
After recording an album with Crazy Horse devotees, Pearl Jam, Neil Young brings back the real deal on Broken Arrow. The album isn't made up so much of songs as loose jams. This isn't a bad thing as that's what Crazy Horse does best, jam. There are a couple of instrumentals, notably "Loose Change", that show off the brilliant musicianship of the group. Amid all the guitars, is one of Mr. Young's best acoustic numbers of the 90's, "Music Arcade". One complaint of Broken Arrow is that the vocals are low down in the mix and makes for a difficult listen in spots.

Young and Crazy.
It took me a few years to get this album, but once I did I was glad. It's not far off from most albums he released in the 90's. Any fan of "Freedom", "Sleeps With Angels", or "Mirror Ball" should get into it easily. The majority of the songs are long jams, and "Neil" and "Crazy Horse" rock as expected. "Music Arcade" is the only real softy, and would fit well on "Silver And Gold". Overall, casual fans might look elsewhere, but true "Neil Young" fans should like this "Big Time". I actually heard that song on the radio today.

A good, but inconsistent effort by NY and Crazy Horse
This CD opens with a great song, the 7-minute-plus Big Time, which is then followed by a couple more 8-9 minutes tunes that aren't as memorable. Neil then drops back into more familiar folk-rock territory and the CD regains some momentum. Overall, coming quickly as it did on the heels of Neil's "Mirror Ball" highly successful experiment with Pearl Jam taking the place of Crazy Horse as Neil's backup band, "Broken Arrow" holds its own. Yeah, Crazy Horse plays it loose and sloppy at times, but that's what we love about em, right? Think "Ragged Glory" and how great that CD is! "Broken Arrow" got a lot of negative criticism for it's closing tune, a low-fi recording of Neil doing Jimmy Reed's classic, "Baby What You Want Me to Do" (remember the Shocking Pinks?). Well, I kind of like the low-tech audience recording. Yeah, Neil jams for 8-plus minutes, and you can hear glasses clankin' and folks hollerin', but all that just serves to give this a "live and raw" feel that was missing on the sterile "Unplugged." I've found that more often than not, when playing "Broken Arroww," I tend to crank up my stereo when "Baby What You Want Me to Do" comes on and use it as an excuse to become an air guitar member of Crazy Horse for 8 minutes. So, it's either something you love (that's me), or you hate (most critics). This isn't a 5-star CD, like Ragged Glory, but it's not bad at all.

the return of the old ennui
I didn't realize how much I missed Neil's dark side until I picked this up. Sort of a cognate record to Zuma, in my opinion, with a more desperate and yearning singer/songwriter than I'd heard on Neil Young records after Trans. There's a couple curveballs in the presentation, such as the broken record effect on 'Loose Change' and the low fi Jimmy Reed tune at the end. But I was so happy to hear old Ralph back on the drums after the sledgehammer beat on Mirror Ball! And Neil seems to be singing from the heart on this one. Probably a tribute to the late David Briggs. If so, a very fine and fitting one!

Another Crazy Horse Jam
A lot of reviewers seem to be pointing out that this album seems uneven or half-baked, and, while it is definitely true that Neil didn't seem to put as much effort into making this album as he has some of his others, and the lyrics aren't the most drawn-out are well-developed that he has ever written; but, you must remember: this IS a Crazy Horse album - what do you expect? The beauty (nay; let us say, the ragged glory) of the Crazy Horse albums lies not in their songwriting, nor in their production, but in their sheer glee and fun in jamming. It's music that you can tell Neil and the band had fun making. It's just good ol' rock 'n' roll. If you are into Neil's mellower, more produced side (Harvest, Comes A Time, Harvest Moon) with the denser lyrics and more soothing melodies, then this album might not be your cup of meat (although it does contain one beautiful, excellent acoustic number, Music Arcade.) If you are into the long Crazy Horse jams on such as albums as Everybody Know This Is Nowhere, Zuma, and Ragged Glory, however, then this will be right up your alley. The first three songs are the highlights of the record - particularly Loose Change, which contains an absolutely pulverizing 4+ minute jam to close out the tune, featuring some crushing guitar work from Neil and devastating rhythm support from Poncho Sampedro. That said, the album does have some flaws, and there are some things that could have made it better. Aside from the excellent first three songs (and the acoustic Music Arcade), the rest of the album is more or less filler. Seeing as the album has only 8 tracks and a 40-odd minute running time in a decade when Neil had been filling his albums to the brim (tracks and running time), he seems to have deliberately left this album in its seemingly half-finished state. One may never know the reason for this (certainly one would not expect Neil, unlike most artists, of trying to follow up on his commercial hot streak), but that is Neil Young, after all: unpredictable, iconoclastic, and perverse to the extreme. Also, Neil's vocals are buried rather deep in the mix, and can be hard to make out at times. This is really a minor complaint, however, since the lyrics are not here the focus of the disc. My reccommendation: since this is not Neil's best album, although it is quite good and enjoyable, I reccommend, if you are a fan of the Crazy Horse side of Neil, getting some of their other, better albums first (Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Ragged Glory, Sleeps With Angels), and then getting this, if you want more.
The Youngian reaction principle--which dictates that our hero follow commercial monsters (After the Goldrush/Harvest, Rust Never Sleeps) with willfully difficult busts (Time Fades Away, Hawks & Doves)--finally kicks into effect after a long string of straightahead bestsellers. The man's unpredictability has been a major reason he's remained vital for nigh on 30 years, so it's good to see he's still cranky enough to serve up these raw, sloppy, and, for hardcore fans, invigorating jam sessions with his fave band. --Jeff Bateman
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