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Neil Young and Crazy Horse performed their first gigs together in six years at the Catalyst in February 1984. Coming right after the Everybody's Rockin' debacle, where he countered David Geffen's request for "more rock and roll" by making a rockabilly record, it was his first foray into loud rock music since Re-ac-tor three years previously. Neil had been making solo, synth-based demos with his Synclavier at home throughout late 1983 and January 1984, showing he was still pretty much interested in electronic music after Trans. But now, he decided to play that material with Crazy Horse, giving the songs more guitar-based arrangements and adding Ben Keith on saxophone and synthesizer. Those Catalyst gigs were meant as a warm-up to upcoming recording sessions at the Power Station with producer Elliot Mazer, a way to make sure that the band was familiar with the songs. Once the sessions came about, working with a producer unsympathetic to the Horse (his work with Neil is mostly with the Harvest band) at an unfamiliar studio, Neil's obsession with a big drum sound and drummer Ralph Molina's inability to provide it meant that not a single usable performance was captured. Neil was at war with his label, his band wasn't playing well, and he was frustrated and angry. He then decided to abandon this material altogether, spending the next two years performing country music and recording the second version of Old Ways, leaving what could have been one of his strongest efforts of the 80s in the vault.
But what if Neil Young had released an album with Crazy Horse in 1984? The very good Catalyst material will obviously be the centerpiece of the album, but we will naturally have to find other material to fill it out, in order to turn it into an eight-song, roughly forty minutes long record just like Re-ac-tor. We will be operating under the assumption that once Neil saw that the Power Station sessions were a failure, he decided to pull a Rust Never Sleeps and release a live album of brand-new original material. They did perform a Billy Talbot-sung track at those gigs, but given that Neil didn't include it in the Archives, and wouldn't be likely to give Billy a spot on his album, we won't be considering it. Anything else recorded in 1984 is fair game, as long as it fits in stylistically and has a similar, electronic sound. Of course, that means none of his country material from the International Harvesters era can be considered, as they couldn't be further apart in terms of genre, but his solo Synclavier recordings from early '84 are a very good fit in both fronts. Later versions of the Synclavier songs performed by Crazy Horse and earlier Synclavier versions of the live tracks would be interesting inclusions, but I'll be focusing on stuff recorded in 1984, so they won't make it to this reconstruction. We will also be using a soundboard of the Catalyst gig, as the Archives Vol. III box set inexplicably has an inferior-quality audience tape instead. With all of that out of the way, here's what our reconstruction looks like:
So Tired (Live at the Catalyst)
Violent Side (Live at the Catalyst)
I've Got a Problem (Live at the Catalyst)
Your Love (Live at the Catalyst)
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Hard Luck Stories (Archives Vol. III)
Razor Love (Archives Vol. III)
Touch the Night (Live at the Catalyst)
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| Neil performing live with the Shocking Pinks, late 1983. |
Our first six inclusions are pretty self-explanatory, the six originals debuted at the Catalyst gigs: "Rock, Rock, Rock", "So Tired", "Violent Side", "I've Got a Problem", "Your Love" and "Touch the Night". Of course, studio recordings exist of "Violent Side", "I've Got a Problem" and "Touch the Night", but the fact that they don't feature the Horse in any capacity and were only recorded two years after the failed Power Station sessions makes me stay with the live recordings instead, in spite of their sound quality. We're still going to need at least two more songs to bring this to album length, however, and to do so we've selected "Hard Luck Stories" and "Razor Love", recorded at Broken Arrow Ranch in January 1984. These are solo Synclavier recordings, but the proximity in dates between them and the Catalyst gig, the sheer quality of the two songs, and the fact that they fit in pretty well with the Crazy Horse material even though their arrangements are wildly different makes their inclusion here pretty much inevitable. In terms of sequencing, they are placed in between "Your Love" and "Touch the Night", as the first five songs were performed in order and close together at the '84 gigs, and I thought it would make sense to preserve that. That way, it's also less jarring to hear the two solo tracks, as they are bundled together and have their own side with "Touch the Night" still closing out the album. That way, we can circumvent the jarring transition between them by using a convenient side break.
A 42-minute record with a slightly longer side one, this album is the unreleased sequel to Re-ac-tor we should have gotten in 1984. Angry, confused songs performed by an electronically-enhanced Crazy Horse, clearly uncomfortable with the eighties. Re-ac-tor is probably the strongest of the two, but songs like "Razor Love" and "Touch the Night" ensure that this is one of the highlights of Neil's eighties. Big dumb rock surrounded by heartfelt and emotional songs. The Happy House name was first used many years ago in a spoof article about fake unreleased Neil albums, but I liked the title so I decided to use it anyway as a joke. Why not? It fits the vibe of the album when used ironically. As this album is so similar to Re-ac-tor, I made a cover that was literally meant to signal that this was part two, with inverted colors and a similarly divided name. Who knows, maybe Landing on Water/Life could've been part three? This record is decidedly uncommercial even for Neil's 1980s standards, and so I don't think it would sell very much. It has no obvious singles, but I think "Razor Love" would be good more as a statement than anything else. This album would certainly fulfill David Geffen's request for more rock and roll, but would be unlikely to resolve their conflicts. It's a shame that we need a whole parallel discography to actually hear Neil's best work of the 1980s, searching for direction in a decade marred with personal issues, lawsuits, changes in direction, and hard luck stories.
Sources:
- Neil Young - Archives Vol. III (1976-1987)
- Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Live at the Catalyst [Bootleg]
- Jimmy McDonough - Shakey: Neil Young's Biography
