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Neil Young
There are a precious few artist/musicians who can claim to have remained valid for forty years. Bob Dylan is one, Van Morrison another. Perhaps the same can be said for Paul McCartney, but of this list, it is arguable that Neil Young did the best job of remaining relevant for most of that time. His music has accompanied me throughout my life, and with “Prairie Wind,” it appears as though that journey is bound to continue.
“Prairie Wind” is about reflecting on old times, and acknowledging the importance of good friends, family, and time well spent. Listening to this album is like getting a letter from an old friend who you haven’t heard from in a few years. The reminiscent tone is immediately familiar and deeply touching, especially as he discusses old memories from the perspective of a person who wants to communicate thoughts that may have gone unspoken, as in “Falling Off the Face of the Earth”; “It’s such a precious thing, the time we share together. I must apologize for all the troubled times.” Philosophically speaking, it is pretty much true that most of us do not get to really know many people - In a lifetime, we might claim a few family members and a handful of friends as truly close. Young suggests this himself in the song “The Painter,” when he sings “I have my friends eternally, we left our tracks in the sound. Some of them are with me now, some of them can’t be found.”
Over the course of his career, Neil has often confounded the public by constantly changing directions, including a few chameleonic shifts in style. However far he wanders, though, he eventually returns to his roots as a reflective country-folk artist. In that sense, “Prairie Wind” was inevitable, and it is welcome because it allows Neil Young to be extremely honest with himself and with his audience, at a time when honesty is a very rare commodity. “Prairie Wind” is the most reflective album in Neil Young’s entire catalogue, with many songs that are culled from old memories and which then evaluate how well his time has been spent. Perhaps the album’s centerpiece is a track entitled “It’s a Dream.” It starts with Young comforting a loved one after a bad dream, and then drifts into a dreamlike vision of a young boy fishing by a river piling. The next verse conjures an old man who watches as a train pulls away from the station and vanishes in the distance. Each time, he concludes with a chorus that states “It’s a dream. It’s only a dream, and it’s fading now, fading away…just a memory without anywhere to stay.” The emotional effect of these words is deeply sad, and yet it is simultaneously comforting, telling us that in the end, we are left with our memories, and even these fade away from us, so it is good to acknowledge those who have shared their time with us.
The great illusion of pop culture is how it deceives us into believing that we actually know the artist. Unless it’s abused, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. We listen closely while they share their innermost thoughts in an eloquent, artistically appealing song. We interpret their words, relate to them, and develop a sense of familiarity that in some ways transcends many ‘flesh and blood’ relationships. Over the course of four decades, I have come to feel as though I genuinely know Neil Young, and “Prairie Wind” does nothing to dispel that notion.
Grade: 
 
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