Rust Never Sleeps
Rust Never Sleeps | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Live album with studio recordings by Neil Young with Crazy Horse | ||||
Released | June 22, 1979[1] | |||
Recorded | 1976–78[2] | |||
Venue | The Boarding House, San Francisco, McNichols Arena, Denver, St. Paul Civic Center, Cow Palace, San Francisco | |||
Studio | Indigo Ranch, Malibu, Triad Studios, Ft. Lauderdale, Woodland Studios, Nashville | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 38:16 | |||
Label | Reprise | |||
Producer | Neil Young, David Briggs, Tim Mulligan | |||
Neil Young chronology | ||||
| ||||
Crazy Horse chronology | ||||
|
Rust Never Sleeps is the eleventh album by Canadian American singer-songwriter Neil Young and American band Crazy Horse. It was released on June 22, 1979, by Reprise Records and features both studio and live tracks.[5] Most of the album was recorded live, then overdubbed in the studio, while others originated in the studio. Young used the phrase "rust never sleeps" as a concept for his tour with Crazy Horse to avoid artistic complacency and try more progressive, theatrical approaches to performing live.[6]
The album peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 album chart and spawned the hit single "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" that peaked at No. 79 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.[7] It also included one of Young's most popular and critically acclaimed songs, the enigmatic "Powderfinger".[8][9] The album, along with Young's 1990 release Ragged Glory, has widely been considered a precursor of grunge music with the bands Nirvana and Pearl Jam having cited Young's heavily distorted and abrasive guitar style on the B side to this album as an inspiration.[10]
Background and recording
The album was recorded in 1978 during the lengthy "Rust Never Sleeps" tour, in which Young played a wealth of new material. The concert tour was divided into a solo acoustic set and an electric set with Crazy Horse. Two new songs, the acoustic "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" and electric "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" were the centerpiece of the new material.
The acoustic portions of the album including, "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)", "Thrasher" and "Ride My Llama" were recorded live in San Francisco at the Boarding House between May 24 and 28, 1978. Two songs from the album were not recorded live: "Sail Away" was recorded without Crazy Horse during or after the Comes a Time recording sessions,[11] and "Pocahontas" had been recorded solo in 1976[11] (original recording without overdubs was released in 2017 on archival release Hitchhiker).
The B side opens with "Powderfinger," whose enigmatic and evocative lyrics about a family's confrontation with authorities have never fully been explained by Young, and ends with the anthemic "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" with the defiant lyrics, "Rock and Roll can never die." After his final performance at the Boarding House on May 28, Young collaborated with the art punk band Devo on a cacophonous version of "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" at the Different Fur studio in San Francisco.[12] During the Different Fur studio session, Devo vocalist Mark Mothersbaugh added the lyrics "Rust never sleeps", a slogan he remembered from his graphic arts career promoting the automobile rust proofing product Rust-Oleum.[13] Young recalls in a 1981 Rockline interview:
I think Mark had the idea in the first place. We were doing this version of 'Out of the Blue' together and we were in the studio playing and Booji Boy was there and he was singing Hey Hey, My My and he just had a lyric sheet and it said It's better to burn out than to rust and he just said Well it's better to burn out 'cause rust never sleeps and I thought, well all right that makes a lot of sense to me.[14]
Young adopted Mothersbaugh's lyrics and created a new version of the song with Crazy Horse. He also adopted Mothersbaugh's lyrics for the title of his album as a metaphor about the hazards of complacency on his music career and the need to keep moving forward. Young explained in a June 1988 interview for Spin Magazine how the lyrics resonated with him, and how he felt both the record industry should be shaken up at the time, and how he applies the sentiment of the song to his style of recording:
"I never met Johnny Rotten, but I like what he did to people. He pissed off a lot of people who I think needed waking up. Rock 'n' roll people, who in the Seventies were asleep and thinking they were just so fucking cool and they knew what had to happen. They were telling me why don’t you make a real record. People became aware that there was more to it than perfection and overdubs, and fucking equipment and limousines back and forth to Studio B, and the other group down the hall and getting high in the bathroom with the other group that's going in and singing on their record. That's not intense enough for me. I think art is a private thing. I'm not sharing my creative moment with whoever's in the hallway. Rust implies you're not using anything, that you're sitting there and letting the elements eat you. Burning up means you're cruising through the elements so fucking fast that you're actually burning, and your circuits, instead of corroding, are fucking disintegrating. You're going so fast you're actually fucking the elements, becoming one with the elements, turning to gas. That's why it's better to burn out."[15]
[13] The lyrics, "It's better to burn out than fade away", were widely quoted by his peers and by critics.[12][16] In a 1980 interview with David Sheff from Playboy magazine, John Lennon was dismissive of the lyric and the song's reference to Johnny Rotten for what he interpreted as worship for the dead saying, "No, thank you. I’ll take the living and the healthy."[17][18] In 1994, Kurt Cobain quoted the lyric in his suicide note.[19]
The electric sets were recorded during the Neil Young/Crazy Horse tour in late 1978, with overdubs added later.[20] Audience noise is removed as much as possible, although it is clearly audible at certain points, most noticeably on the opening and closing songs. The 1978 tour featured an abrasive style of guitar playing influenced by the punk rock zeitgeist of the late 1970s that Young saw as a wake up call for a rock music world which, in his opinion had become predictable and overdone.[21] The electric sets provided a reenergized response to the punk rock revolution and, were in stark contrast from Young's previous, folk-inspired album Comes a Time.[22][23]
In a 1995 interview with Nick Kent for Mojo magazine, Young discusses the album and denies any influence of U.K. punk rock on the album: "I wasn't really influenced by that scene. Most of the songs on that album had been written well before the Sex Pistols were ever heard of. The "Thrasher" was pretty much me writing about me experiences with Crosby, Stills & Nash in the mid-'70s. Do you know Lynyrd Skynyrd almost ended up recording "Powderfinger" before my version came out? We sent them an early demo of it because they wanted to do one of my songs."[24]
Critical reception
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Chicago Tribune | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Christgau's Record Guide | A+[27] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Great Rock Discography | 9/10[28] |
Music Story | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
MusicHound Rock | 4.5/5[28] |
Q | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Spin Alternative Record Guide | 10/10[28] |
Consequence | A[30] |
Reviewing for The Village Voice in 1979, Robert Christgau called Rust Never Sleeps Young's best album yet and said although his melodies are unsurprisingly simple and original, his lyrics are surprisingly and offhandedly complex. "He's wiser but not wearier", Christgau wrote, "victor so far over the slow burnout his title warns of".[31] Paul Nelson, writing in Rolling Stone magazine, found its first side virtuosic because of how Young transcends the songs' acoustic settings with his commanding performance and was impressed by its themes of personal escape and exhaustion, the role of rock music, and American violence: "Rust Never Sleeps tells me more about my life, my country and rock & roll than any music I've heard in years."[32]
Rust Never Sleeps was voted the second best album of 1979 in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll.[33] Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it second on his own list for the poll, as did fellow critic Greil Marcus.[34] The album also won Rolling Stone magazine's 1979 critics poll for Album of the Year.[35] In a decade-end list for The Village Voice, Christgau named it the ninth best album of the 1970s.[36]
In 2000, Rust Never Sleeps was voted number 240 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums book.[37] In 2003, it was ranked number 350 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[38] Rolling Stone re-ranked the album at 351 in the list's 2012 edition, and later at number 296 in the 2020 edition.[39][40] In a retrospective review, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said that the acoustic and electric sides were both astounding.[26] AllMusic's William Ruhlmann viewed that Young reinvigorated himself artistically by being imaginative and bold, and in the process created an exemplary album that "encapsulated his many styles on a single disc with great songs — in particular the remarkable 'Powderfinger' — unlike any he had written before."[25] Rob Sheffield, writing in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), felt that "Powderfinger", "Pocahontas", "Thrasher", and "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" were among Young's greatest songs.[29]
Track listing
All tracks written by Neil Young except where noted.[41]
Side one
- "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" (Neil Young, Jeff Blackburn) (3:45)
- Neil Young – guitar, vocal, harmonica
- Recorded at The Boarding House, San Francisco, May 26, 1978
- "Thrasher" (5:38)
- Neil Young – guitar, vocal, harmonica
- Recorded at The Boarding House, San Francisco, May 26, 1978
- "Ride My Llama (2:29)
- Neil Young – guitar, vocal, harmonica
- Recorded at The Boarding House, San Francisco, May 26, 1978
- "Pocahontas" (3:22)
- Neil Young – guitar, vocal, backing vocals
- Recorded at Indigo Ranch Studio, Malibu, November 8, 1976, with overdubs at Triiad Recording Studios, Ft. Lauderdale, April 9, 1977
- "Sail Away" (3:46)
- Neil Young – guitar, vocal, harmonica; Joe Osborn – bass; Karl T. Himmel – drums; Nicolette Larson – vocals
- Recorded at Triiad Recording Studios, Ft. Lauderdale, December 9, 1977, with overdubs at Woodland Studio, Nashville, 11/1977
Side two
- "Powderfinger" (5:30)
- Neil Young – guitar, vocals; Frank “Poncho” Sampedro – guitar, vocals; Billy Talbot – bass, vocals; Ralph Molina – drums, vocals
- Recorded at McNichols Arena, Denver, October 19, 1978.
- "Welfare Mothers" (3:48)
- Neil Young – guitar, vocals, percussion; Frank “Poncho” Sampedro – guitar, vocals; Billy Talbot – bass, vocals; Ralph Molina – drums, vocals
- Recorded at St. Paul Civic Center, October 15, 1978.
- "Sedan Delivery" (4:40)
- Neil Young – guitar, vocals; Frank “Poncho” Sampedro – guitar, vocals; Billy Talbot – bass, vocals; Ralph Molina – drums, vocals
- Recorded at St. Paul Civic Center, October 15, 1978.
- "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" (5:18)
- Neil Young – guitar, vocals; Frank “Poncho” Sampedro – guitar, vocals; Billy Talbot – bass, vocals; Ralph Molina – drums, vocals
- Recorded at The Cow Palace, San Francisco, October 22, 1978.
Personnel
- with (on "Sail Away")
- Nicolette Larson – vocals
- Joe Osborn – bass
- Karl T. Himmel – drums
- Crazy Horse (on side two)
- Frank "Poncho" Sampedro – electric guitar, backing vocals
- Billy Talbot – bass, backing vocals
- Ralph Molina – drums, backing vocals
Charts
Chart (1979–1980) | Peak
position |
---|---|
Australia (Kent Music Report)[42] | 8 |
US Billboard Top LPs & Tape[43] | 8 |
UK Album Charts[44] | 13 |
Canadian RPM 100 Albums[45] | 28 |
Dutch Album Charts[46] | 19 |
German Album Charts[47] | 59 |
Finnish Album Charts[48] | 9 |
New Zealand Album Charts[49] | 7 |
US Cash Box Top 100 Albums[50] | 9 |
US Record World Album Chart[51] | 13 |
Singles
Year | Single | Chart | Position |
---|---|---|---|
1979 | "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" | Billboard Pop Singles[52] | 79 |
US Cashbox Singles[53] | 94 | ||
US Record World Singles[54] | 72 |
Year End Chart
Year | Chart | Position |
---|---|---|
1980 | Billboard Year End Chart[55] | 78 |
1979 | Cashbox Year End Chart[56] | 43 |
Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA)[57] | Gold | 7,500^ |
United Kingdom (BPI)[58] | Silver | 60,000^ |
United States (RIAA)[59] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Concert film of the same name
A film of the same name was released on August 15, 1979, in the US, featuring the October 22, 1978, concert performance at the Cow Palace.
Track listing:
- Sugar Mountain
- I Am A Child
- Comes A Time
- After The Gold Rush
- Thrasher
- My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
- When You Dance I Can Really Love
- The Loner
- Welfare Mothers
- The Needle And The Damage Done
- Lotta Love
- Sedan Delivery
- Powderfinger
- Cortez The Killer
- Cinnamon Girl
- Like A Hurricane
- Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
- Tonight's The Night [not present in the theatrical release, only in Video/DVD releases]
References
- ^ "Neil Young Archives". Neilyoungarchives.com. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
- ^ a b "Crazy Horse – Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps CD Album". CD Universe. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
- ^ Schinder, Scott; Schwartz, Andy, eds. (2007). Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever. ABC-CLIO. p. 460. ISBN 978-0-313-33845-8. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
...Rust Never Sleeps mixed acoustic material with squalling, feedback-laden hard rock.
- ^ "50 Greatest Grunge Albums". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
- ^ Mendelsohn, Jason (June 14, 2013). "Counterbalance No. 133: Neil Young's 'Rust Never Sleeps'". PopMatters. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
- ^ Daniel Durchholz, Gary Graff (2012). Neil Young: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, Updated Edition. Voyageur Press. pp. 112–13. ISBN 978-0-7603-4411-8. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
- ^ "Billboard 200 December 21, 1979". Billboard. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ "Rolling Stone Readers Poll; The Best Neil Young Songs". rollingstone.com. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ "Neil Young Releases a Never-Before-Heard Version of His 1979 Classic, "Powderfinger"". openculture.com. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ "This is why Neil Young is called the 'Godfather of Grunge'". faroutmagazine.co.uk. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ a b "HyperRust chronology". Retrieved May 7, 2008.
- ^ a b McDonough 2002, pp. 531–532.
- ^ a b McDonough 2002, pp. 531.
- ^ "The Neil Young 'phone-in' [transcript]" (PDF). Broken Arrow. No. 5. April 1982. p. 6 – via Sugar Mountain: Neil Young Set Lists.
- ^ Spin Staff. 1988. Neil Young: Our 1988 Interview: Forever Young. Spin.com. Spin Magazine. June 1988. https://www.spin.com/2019/09/neil-young-june-1988-interview-forever-young/.
- ^ "Neil Young Powderfinger". americansongwriter.com. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
- ^ "Rust Never Sleeps by Neil Young". classicrockreview.com. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
- ^ "Neil and The Beatles". HyperRust.org. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
- ^ "Kurt Cobain and Neil Young". thrasherswheat.org. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
- ^ McDonough 2002, pp. 538.
- ^ McDonough 2002, pp. 522.
- ^ McDonough 2002, pp. 529–537.
- ^ "Neil Young at the Encyclopedia Britannica". britannica.com. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
- ^ Kent, Nick (December 1995). "I Build Something Up, I Tear It Right Down: Neil Young at 50". Mojo. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
- ^ a b Ruhlmann, William. Rust Never Sleeps at AllMusic. Retrieved May 8, 2005.
- ^ a b Kot, Greg (October 21, 1990). "From Rock To Country And Back Again". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
- ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: Y". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 23, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
- ^ a b c d e "Rust Never Sleeps". Acclaimed Music. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
- ^ a b "Neil Young: Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
- ^ Garrett Gravley (July 20, 2019). "A New Neil Young & Crazy Horse Awaken on Rust Never Sleeps". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
- ^ Christgau, Robert (July 30, 1979). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
- ^ Nelson, Paul (October 18, 1979). "Neil Young Rust Never Sleeps > Album Review". Rolling Stone. No. 302. Archived from the original on August 24, 2007. Retrieved January 12, 2007.
- ^ "The 1979 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
- ^ Christgau, Robert (January 28, 1980). "The Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll (Almost) Grows Up". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
- ^ "Albums Of The Year And End Of Year Critic Lists". Rocklist.net. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
- ^ Christgau, Robert (December 17, 1979). "Decade Personal Best: '70s". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved June 23, 2013.
- ^ Colin Larkin, ed. (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 110. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.
- ^ "Rust Never Sleeps ranked 350". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on September 2, 2011. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
- ^ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time". Rolling Stone. 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
- ^ "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. September 22, 2020. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
- ^ Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Rust Never Sleeps (Reprise Records, 1979).
- ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 295. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ "Stephen Stills". Billboard. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
- ^ "STEPHEN STILLS | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
- ^ Canada, Library and Archives (April 16, 2013). "The RPM story". www.bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
- ^ "Dutch Albums". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
- ^ "Suche – Offizielle Deutsche Charts". www.offiziellecharts.de. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
- ^ Sisältää hitin: Levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1961.
- ^ Hung, Steffen. "The Stills-Young Band – Long May You Run". hitparade.ch. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
- ^ "CASH BOX MAGAZINE: Music and coin machine magazine 1942 to 1996". worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
- ^ "RECORD WORLD MAGAZINE: 1942 to 1982". worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
- ^ Comes a Time – Neil Young > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles at AllMusic. Retrieved January 2, 2005.
- ^ "CASH BOX MAGAZINE: Music and coin machine magazine 1942 to 1996". worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
- ^ "RECORD WORLD MAGAZINE: 1942 to 1982". worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
- ^ "BILLBOARD MAGAZINE: American music magazine 1920's to 2017". worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
- ^ "Cashbox Year End Chart 1978" (PDF).
- ^ "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2010 DVDs" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
- ^ "British album certifications – Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
- ^ "American album certifications – Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
Sources
- McDonough, Jimmy (2002). Shakey: Neil Young's Biography. New York City, NY: Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-42772-8. OCLC 47844513.
External links
- Rust Never Sleeps at Discogs (list of releases)
- Film: Soundtrack of Rust Never Sleeps at IMDb