Mirror Ball

by Neil Young

Albums In Order Review Series by Mike "Expecting 2 Fly" Cordova

In 2004 Rustie, Mike "Expecting 2 Fly" Cordova posted a series of articles on his experience listening to all of Neil Young's albums in chronological order. Here is one in the series. For a complete listing, see Albums in Order reviews.

Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:51:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Mike Cordova
To: rust@rustlist.org
Subject: Albums in order: Mirror Ball

In late '94, I was living in the DC area. I heard through a local radio station that in January there would be a benefit concert for Voters For Choice that would feature, among others, Pearl Jam and Neil Young and Crazy Horse. It was in a relatively small place (Constitution Hall) and PJ was a huge act at the time, so they were selling tickets only to lottery winners. Individuals had to send in postcards to enter the lottery. I sent in 5 postcards. I should have sent more. I was shut out. I found out later that a future friend had sent in 30; he got in. Anyway, I missed this concert.

I mention all of this, because these shows provided part of the genesis for what would be Neil's next album. Neil stated in an interview around the time that Mirror Ball came out that members of PJ had taped the performance the first night of Act Of Love and then learned the song from the tape and played the song with him on the second night. Neil had already played a few times with PJ (R&R HOF, MTV awards) so they already had a bit of a relationship and mutual respect. Neil and members of PJ made arrangements for some studio time in Seattle with PJ's producer Brendan O'Brien. Neil, motivated by this, quickly wrote most of the songs for the album. They recorded it in only 5 days of studio time. Thus the loose and raw Mirror Ball was born.

Jack Irons, PJ's drummer at the time, along with Jeff Ament on bass and the guitars of Stone Gossard and Mike McCready brought out an urgency in the music that was only intensified by the tight recording schedule. The overall sound of the album has a sort of unfinished feel to it, which really isn't an altogether bad thing. My introduction to most of the tracks was via a radio interview in which Neil talked about the making of the album while the new tracks were made which was a unique way for me to experience a new album and helped me learn about the genesis thereof.

Song X and Act Of Love seem like they were made for the Voters For Choice concert; Song X has a theme about killings outside an abortion clinic and Act Of Love is about the conflicting ethics of the subject. I'm The Ocean is a word-rich avalanche of rock poetry. Big Green Country has one of my fave "what was that???" lyrics: Sometimes I feel like a piece of paper, sometimes I feel like my own name, sometimes I feel different later, sometimes I feel just the same." Cool.

Truth Be Known is just a great Neil Young song. Downtown got some radio airplay. Peace and Love is a song I've loved since I've heard it and it has a couple of verses written and sung by Eddie Vedder. I think Scenery paints a convincing picture of the price of fame. There are a couple of short pump organ songs which are really extra verses to other songs in the album; What Happened Yesterday has the same melody as Big Green Country and clocks in at less than a minute and Fallen Angel has the same melody as I'm The Ocean and is a 1:14 track.

One of the ways Neil keeps his edge, stays relevant, is to work with different musicians. He had toured in '93 with 60's icons Booker T and the MG's and here he was making music with 90's phenoms Pearl Jam. Mirror Ball is an album I've enjoyed very much and I liked it from the start.

I very much enjoyed listening to Mirror Ball today.

Mike - Expecting To Fly

For more of Expecting To Fly's reviews, see the Albums in Order series.