Most rockers did their best work when they were younger. But Neil Young is as good as he ever was.

Neil is the embodiment of the rock ‘n’ roll renegade. He does his job without seeking the limelight and operates far outside music industry convention.

If there’s anything that remains consistent over his career it has been his desire to push musical boundaries while looking at life from various, direct, and unapologetic angles. He has recorded some of the best albums of all time and a few of the quirkiest.

With each new release, fans brace themselves for what it might contain. Even if it isn’t exceptional, it is never less than intriguing, representing where he is at the time.

Neil addressed his restlessness in the liner notes of his 1977 retrospective “Decade.” He wrote, “(’Heart of Gold’) put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there.”

The two-CD “Borrowed Tunes II,” produced by Mike Roth, graphically shows that, as well as being a great singer and guitarist, Neil is also one of rock’s most important composers. He's written a phenomenal number of perfect songs and even his lesser songs have an unmistakably magical quality.

In 1977, New York Times writer John Rockwell wrote,

"Young is still about as individual, talented and touching a musical poet as American popular music has produced, worthy of comparison with Bob Dylan.”

While “Borrowed Tunes II” captures the plaintiveness and haunting emotionality of Neil’s music, it also stands on it own: An obvious perspective of his music from a new generation of original Canadian acts.

Four decades following his departure from Canada, Neil’s ties to his homeland remain visible.

Neil still sings Ian Tyson’s Canadian folk anthem “Four Strong Winds” in his concerts. Jam sessions with musicians in Canada almost always end with a Neil Young song.

Fittingly so.
Larry L

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