Tag Archives: rock

Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts at Deer Lake Park

16 Replies

All along the Navajo Trail
burnouts stub their toes on garbage pails

Ambulance Blues

Frankly, I was wondering which Neil would turn up. Would it be grumpy Neil? Would he decide to sing the whole first side of one of his lesser-known albums? Would his voice be up to it? So, when he opened with Ambulance Blues, I was relieved, I immediately forget the hassle to find parking, the draconian security check (apparently my backpack was too big and not the right shape),and the maze -like journey to get a beer because: ………

Ambulance Blues, a relatively obscure track from the “On the Beach” album is one of my favourite Neil songs never mind that it is almost 10 verses long , doesn’t really have a chorus, just alternating verses with different chord structures and he then follows it with “Cow Girl in The Sand” and he continues that way all night the old and the new and the sometimes forgotten and when he hits the chorus of Harvest Moon the guy beside me who knows all the words to every song and also likes to play air guitar, he joins in and so does his partner/girl friend who sings harmony along with the rest of the crowd and just then a yellow moon rises above the trees, no big birds flying but still…. and I’m thinking Neil has super powers and later when he hits the opening riff of My, My, Hey, Hey, I’m transported back to Pine Knob Michigan 1978 and Star Wars has been released the year before so Neil’s roadies are dressed as Ewoks and there are two giant speakers on each side of the stage and when the roadies are finished and the stage is empty, there is silence, then we hear the opening chords of Sugar Mountain and Neil’s voice and we can’t tell where it is coming from until there is movement on top of one of the giant speakers and yes it’s Neil shaking off a blanket and how he got down from there I don’t know but here he is now many year’s later and he hasn’t lost the magic and I know that this is a run on sentence because Copilot keeps telling me but I’m thinking and I know it’s a tad puerile but I’m thinking “bugger off Copilot, stop bothering me, I can work it out myself and AI and all that other crap we don’t need will never write anything close to what Neil can write”

and he hasn’t burnt out,

he hasn’t faded away.

Taking part in Open Link over at dverse

(not sure if this qualifies as a poem, a haibun maybe?)

B. Ramble And The Hedgerows

14 Replies

B. Ramble And The Hedgerows

Proud purveyors of country music
to the English public,
English country music, that is:
no wide open prairies
no dogies that git along
no bucking broncs
no honky tonks
no pick-up trucks;
the occasional encounter
with a fox, a badger, a stoat….
perhaps,
but that’s as wild as it gets.

Why, you must all recall,
“Round Here, All the Cows are Called Daisy”,
the Hedgerows’ greatest hit,
written by Mr. Ramble himself
or Bert, as his friends call him.
Bert collects all the royalties
and the Hedgerows seem to be okay with that
except for Eric, the bass player
(why is it always the bass player?).
“What’s up with him?” Bert often asks,
“All he has to do is stand there hitting C”.

Bert’s not a man for rules,
he has one rule and one rule only –
no cheating songs,
just not his style,
he’s a happily married man.
There are rumors though,
sightings of Bert hanging around the backdoor of the rectory
while Vicar Derek is conducting a service;
glances exchanged with Derek’s wife, Cynthia,
while passing in the street.
Just rumors, his friends say,
what could he do in the forty minutes
it takes Derek to complete the service
and shake hands at the door.
Au contraire, Bert’s detractors say
Plenty of time, Bert’s detractors say

for a man who has mastered
the art of the three minute song.

Taking part in Openlink over at dverse.