Album: Zuma
Recorded: June 1974, May-June 1975 and August 1975
Released: November 1975
The 18 months from On the Beach to Zuma, including the release of Tonight's The Night, was arguably the optimum time to be a Neil Young fan. This highly productive period also includes an unreleased album, Homegrown (due for release as part of Archives Vol. II), and recordings with CSNY in summer 1974, from which sprung Zuma's closing song, Through My Sails. The bulk of Zuma was recorded in May and June 1975, a fresh start for Young with a reassembled Crazy Horse including guitarist Frank Sampedro (aka Poncho), and the resulting energy and optimism that characterise this album make for a noticeable change compared to previous LPs.
At the time, a recently divorced Young was living in Malibu's Zuma Beach, just a few miles north of producer David Briggs' rented home in Point Dume, where Zuma was recorded. In Young's autobiography, he talks about how Bob Dylan popped into the sessions one day and sang a blues number with the band, and how he and Dylan went for a walk around the local neighbourhood discussing their similar musical trajectories. I'm deeply excited to be there when they cross paths again this summer (July 2019) in Hyde Park.
Cortez The Killer is the fundamental song on Zuma in many ways, not least because it was the first of the album's new material to be written and recorded in May 1975, but also because it's such a towering achievement. Mixing the historical (Spanish conquest of the New World) with the personal (lost love), the lyrics evoke a perfect state of nature (peacetime among the Aztecs, marital bliss) before a cataclysmic event. Apparently, the song was supposed to stretch even further than its current 7 and a half minutes, including a lost final verse, but Briggs' recording console blew.
Zuma's distinctive guitar sound is one of its most notable attributes, especially the heavy sound of Billy Talbot's bass that comes and goes in waves mixed with Young's fuzzy, dreamy guitar solos. Soaring guitars and feedback are also a feature of another of the album's standout tracks, Danger Bird, which has one of my favourite openings of any Young song. The slow, stately pace of its atmospheric opening echoes the lack of movement evoked in the lyrics ("wings have turned to stone") but as the Danger Bird starts to sense a new beginning ("I can fly, fly, fly away") – Young's reference to moving on from his relationship with Carrie – the music intensifies in sound and speed.
One criticism that can be fairly levelled at Zuma, and other Young albums like Harvest, is its uneven tone. Opening song Don't Cry No Tears sounds like an early Beatles number, and doesn't fit with the expansive mood of Zuma's heavy guitar tracks. I think Young's intention here is to signal to his listeners that this album is a fresh start, a return to the optimism of his youth (Don’t Cry No Tears reworks the melody of I Wonder, one of his early recordings as The Squires). Lyrically, Lookin' For A Love is a bit lame despite its nice straightforward honesty, while the melody-free Drive Back is only redeemed somewhat by its crunching guitar riffs.
Beyond Cortez and Danger Bird, two of my personal favourites on Zuma are Pardon My Heart and Barstool Blues. I really think Pardon My Heart is one of Young's underrated gems, its mournful melody and heartfelt singing providing an honest account of the complexities of the human heart. At the other end of the spectrum is Barstool Blues, about being so drunk you can't think straight – the music and lyrics summon up this state of confused ecstasy perfectly. Stupid Girl doesn't really work for me, but I do love the California bliss of Through My Sails, even though the lovely CSNY harmonies aren't the obvious follow-up to the fuzzy Crazy Horse sound of Cortez The Killer. All in all, Zuma is a great record despite its inconsistencies and sounds to me like a career retrospective before the actual one (1977's Decade).
Recorded: June 1974, May-June 1975 and August 1975
Released: November 1975
Songs / length: 9 / 36:34
The 18 months from On the Beach to Zuma, including the release of Tonight's The Night, was arguably the optimum time to be a Neil Young fan. This highly productive period also includes an unreleased album, Homegrown (due for release as part of Archives Vol. II), and recordings with CSNY in summer 1974, from which sprung Zuma's closing song, Through My Sails. The bulk of Zuma was recorded in May and June 1975, a fresh start for Young with a reassembled Crazy Horse including guitarist Frank Sampedro (aka Poncho), and the resulting energy and optimism that characterise this album make for a noticeable change compared to previous LPs.
At the time, a recently divorced Young was living in Malibu's Zuma Beach, just a few miles north of producer David Briggs' rented home in Point Dume, where Zuma was recorded. In Young's autobiography, he talks about how Bob Dylan popped into the sessions one day and sang a blues number with the band, and how he and Dylan went for a walk around the local neighbourhood discussing their similar musical trajectories. I'm deeply excited to be there when they cross paths again this summer (July 2019) in Hyde Park.
Cortez The Killer is the fundamental song on Zuma in many ways, not least because it was the first of the album's new material to be written and recorded in May 1975, but also because it's such a towering achievement. Mixing the historical (Spanish conquest of the New World) with the personal (lost love), the lyrics evoke a perfect state of nature (peacetime among the Aztecs, marital bliss) before a cataclysmic event. Apparently, the song was supposed to stretch even further than its current 7 and a half minutes, including a lost final verse, but Briggs' recording console blew.
Zuma's distinctive guitar sound is one of its most notable attributes, especially the heavy sound of Billy Talbot's bass that comes and goes in waves mixed with Young's fuzzy, dreamy guitar solos. Soaring guitars and feedback are also a feature of another of the album's standout tracks, Danger Bird, which has one of my favourite openings of any Young song. The slow, stately pace of its atmospheric opening echoes the lack of movement evoked in the lyrics ("wings have turned to stone") but as the Danger Bird starts to sense a new beginning ("I can fly, fly, fly away") – Young's reference to moving on from his relationship with Carrie – the music intensifies in sound and speed.
One criticism that can be fairly levelled at Zuma, and other Young albums like Harvest, is its uneven tone. Opening song Don't Cry No Tears sounds like an early Beatles number, and doesn't fit with the expansive mood of Zuma's heavy guitar tracks. I think Young's intention here is to signal to his listeners that this album is a fresh start, a return to the optimism of his youth (Don’t Cry No Tears reworks the melody of I Wonder, one of his early recordings as The Squires). Lyrically, Lookin' For A Love is a bit lame despite its nice straightforward honesty, while the melody-free Drive Back is only redeemed somewhat by its crunching guitar riffs.
Beyond Cortez and Danger Bird, two of my personal favourites on Zuma are Pardon My Heart and Barstool Blues. I really think Pardon My Heart is one of Young's underrated gems, its mournful melody and heartfelt singing providing an honest account of the complexities of the human heart. At the other end of the spectrum is Barstool Blues, about being so drunk you can't think straight – the music and lyrics summon up this state of confused ecstasy perfectly. Stupid Girl doesn't really work for me, but I do love the California bliss of Through My Sails, even though the lovely CSNY harmonies aren't the obvious follow-up to the fuzzy Crazy Horse sound of Cortez The Killer. All in all, Zuma is a great record despite its inconsistencies and sounds to me like a career retrospective before the actual one (1977's Decade).
Highlights: Danger Bird, Pardon My Heart, Barstool Blues, Cortez The Killer
Album rating: A-
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