Neil Young

Chrome Dreams II (Reprise)

Around the time of Harvest Moon, 1992, a long-lost Neil Young acetate surfaced, 1977’s Chrome Dreams, shiny with linchpins from Comes a Time (“Look Out for My Love”), Rust Never Sleeps (“Pocahontas”), American Stars ‘n’ Bars (“Like a Hurricane”), and Freedom (“Too Far Gone”). Seven new songs polish Chrome Dreams II, which glides past Young’s well-meaning but flaccid new millennial output – Are You Passionate? (2002), Greendale (2003), and Living With War (2006) – in pulling alongside 2005’s Prairie Wind, and near some aforementioned career peaks. The Harvest harp of opener “Beautiful Bluebird” sets a Sunday morning tone, followed by “Boxcar” and “The Believer” in bucolic warmth, but it’s the 18-minute “Ordinary People” and slightly shorter “No Hidden Path” that hail CDII as gold-plated Young. The former’s horn-born Ragged Glory – verse after inspired verse of declining Americana – and the latter’s slow-burning melodicism should never cease. Long may they run.

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This article appears in Richard Suttle.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.