Rust Never Sleeps.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse (Reprise)

Neil Young must be the only personality who appeared at Woodstock to still be in full control of his creative powers a decade later. At Woodstock Young was with those wimps of West Coast schmaltz Crosby, Stills and Nash. It was this association that first brought Young international recognition.

The decade since Woodstock saw Young rise to superstardom with albums like After the Goldrush and Harvest. Young found the pressures of stardom too great for him. He thus committed, either intentionally or by accident, virtual commercial suicide with albums like Journey Through the Past (a film sound track composed of live recordings and rehearsal tapes) and Time Fades A way (a poorly recorded live album composed entirely of new material.)

Freed of the pressures of an audience who expected him to play smooth country music, Young proceeded to put out a series of raw dark records that attained various heights of brilliance. The last album, Comes a Time, marked a return to something of the style of Harvest, and also to commercial success.

Neil Young has taught his audience to expect the unexpected from him. No doubt Rust Never Sleeps will come as something of a shock to those who thought that Comes a Time was the last word in country sentimentality. It is typical of Young that while Comes a Time was storming the airways with its' gentle orchestral sound, he was embarking on a tour described in Rolling Stone as a "heavy metal tour de force."