Lies, storytelling, self-mythologising and marketing erotic capital

...and yes, we buy it. It's pop music.

Let's begin by summing up some of the vital stats. It's 2009. I bet that I'm not the only schmock who hardly even noticed that the first decade of the 21st Century will end in about four months. It will be 40 years since After The Goldrush and Paranoid. It will be 45 years since Highway 61, Rubber Soul, Love Supreme. It will be 50 years since Joan Baez first time strummed her guitar on record, 50 years since Coltrane blew Giant Steps. 50 years, the average age of a baby boomer who is using his last efforts to support the record industry clenched inside the iron fist of web distribution.

Classic rock is not a dinosaur. It's not even a Fossil. It's a barrel of oil in a jumble sale of an Arab who is cleaning his semi-detached garage in Alamein to accommodate his new Toyota Prius and his emancipated son's drum kit so that he can become indie and street smart and cool and avoid being bullied at school.

Neil Young and Axl Rose propably both realized a long time ago, that their unreleased records people were starving for year after year, were more valuable unreleased than released. In music business where publicity is worth fighting for, a business were myths and legends are merchandisable goods of unlimited value, these unreached holy grail albums were hype raisers essential to their career. And while the decade finally reached its apex, they also realized that they weren't getting any younger. Neither the audience. The market value of Chinese Democracy and Archives would drastically drop if they wait another ten years.

Axl was certainly aware that releasing Chinese Democracy would determinate his career. For Neil, things are not that bad. Archives is not an item of passionate craving for the average nostalgic middle aged listener, or the randomly back catalog digging juvenile (awakened by indie cred rehabilitation). Archives is the product of Neil Young's mad scientists lab for a true grit hardcore fan. They are the only ones to purchase this humongous first volume of completism lunacy. Some of them shall praise it, some hate it. Maybe both.

I'm not diasappointed with the first part of Archives. I don't have a right to say that, since here is the average listener. The average halfhearted chump who has no real interest, nor shelf meters for Mr. Young's egotripping projects. No doubt about it, there are real gems here. And the very early stuff is truely interesting. What I Am disappointed for, is the fact that just like Chinese Democracy, Archives was way more fascinating before it materialized. A myth, a legend. And Neil Young killed it.

We all love stories. Don't we?

Neil Young: Archives Vol 1
(Reprise 2009)
Record rating: 7.0/10