Oh no! It's another long review!

Neil Young. Five Stars.

Just a few months after Buffalo Springfield's demise (the band had died from ego: a rather common rock malady) Neil Young came out with his self-named solo debut. Because of comflicting information, I haven't been able to figure out whether it came out in late '68 or early '69. However, the record didn't go anywhere either way, and he changed tactics on the followup. As part of my continuous feud with AllMusic I noted that they don't think it necessary to hear this one. My expectations were quite low, but I found it surprisingly enjoyable.

It starts off with The Emperor of Wyoming, which I love for its sheer ridiculousness. You're alone on the world stage for the first time, and you're going to introduce yourself with a rosy instrumental? Seriously, it's one of the sunniest tunes I've heard from Neil, driven by acoustic guitar and some pleasantly wistful strings.

The Loner is a crunchy rock song, the hit on an album of non-hits. The lyric has some nice turns of phrase, though it's entirely straightforward. The musical bridge ties it back into The Emperor of Wyoming, and it is one of the few songs on here that sounds complete.

If I Could Have Her Tonight is two minutes of a lovely melody and Neil singing a heartwrendingly sincere little tune. And it's actually that sincerity that saves the album, turning it into a masterpiece of simple statements.

Crunchy electric guitars make a return on I've Been Waiting For You. Great little guitar solo. I used to be most familiar with it via David Bowie's cover some decades later; however, the sentiment sits far more easily here.

The Old Laughing Lady is a six minute acoustic ballad. It's actually rather ominous, though that might be because I can't make heads or tails of the lyric. It's one of the occasional abstruse works. Musically, it features a set of soul singers rising to crescendo (which is pretty neat) and it was arranged and produced with help from Jack Nitzsche.

Nitzsche actually wrote String Quartet from Whiskey Boot Hill, a positively surreal inclusion. It is exactly what it says. One minute of a string quartet. I love violins, and it makes for a nice intermission.

Also, it leads excellently into Here We Are in the Years. This is a song suite in three minutes, as it features several beautiful melodies that never repeat themselves and it never settles into a chorus. Wonderfully plaintive at points and featuring a nice piano.

What Did You Do To My Life? Well, here's a sad one for you. The production is odd. Very buzzy, and I'm not sure why. Terribly unfinished; it's mostly just a chorus.

I've Loved Her So Long takes up those soul singers again. It's all chorus, but rather more upbeat...in a wistful way.

That ends the thematic album, as the last track is nine minutes of spare, upfront acoustic guitar, with Neil singing a dark, hallucinatory lyric. It's dour and serious as anything, and on my first listen I hated it. "Like Dylan, only bad" I thought. Listening a second time, knowing what to expect, I found it so weird and bizarre a coda that it simply added to what is overall a rather eccentric record. So, if you start out thinking The Last Trip to Tulsa is pretentious rubbish, give it another chance.

The Neil Young album is only a little over half an hour in length. Most tracks are fragments, so they form a cohesive whole and don't really stand well alone. The overall flavour is rather countryish, and of course, it's just been remastered, so everyone's making a fuss over that. I don't know anything about it, so I can't really comment. I'm just endorsing the record, which I find immensely enjoyable. The rest I'll leave to the audiophiles.