Vault Release: Neil Young/Crazy Horse Expand 1990 LP With 4 New Tracks, ‘Ragged Glory – Smell The Horse’

“There’s a mansion on the hill, Psychedelic music fills the air…” – “Mansion On The Hill,” Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Neil Young & Crazy Horse have released an expanded version of their 1990 album, Ragged Glory. The new version is expanded by four songs and has been rechristened, Ragged Glory – Smell The Horse. The new configuration unearths four tracks recorded during the sessions that produced Ragged Glory and include “Interstate,” “Don’t Spook The Horse,” “Boxcar” and an over 12 minute extended work out on “Born To Run” (not the Springsteen song). Neil being Neil, you can only get the Smell The Horse tracks by buying the album from his website in a package of 4 LPs, or you can download the MP3’s, which is what I did… I already own Ragged Glory…I just wanted the “bonus” tracks.

It was tough to be a Neil Young fan in the 80s, which was sadly the decade I discovered him. I spent most my time collecting his older records from the 70s: Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere (with the original line-up of Crazy Horse), After The Goldrush, Harvest, Tonight’s The Night and I actually bought his 3-LP career retrospective Decade. It was my roommate Drew who really deserves the credit for turning me onto Neil. But if you wanted to get into new, then-current Neil Young music, the 80s were pretty tough. After 1980’s Hawks And Doves it was pretty rough sledding. Which is surprising because Neil finished the 70s so strong – Rust Never Sleeps, strongly influenced by what the punks were doing, was such a landmark album.

In the 80s, even teaming with his on again/off again backing band Crazy Horse didn’t work. I owned 81’s Re*ac*tor for a little while but ended up selling it. Neil also did a rockabilly album and then – in an act of high treason for us rock n roll fans – he did a country album. David Geffen, the head of his record company actually sued him during this stretch for purposely making “non commercial” music that was “unrepresentative” of Young’s music. I was actually such a Neil Young fan I actually bought the grim and harsh sounding Landing On Water. It’s not a record that even I can recommend.

Finally, in 1987 Young began to show signs of life. He re-teamed, for only the second time in the decade, with Crazy Horse (Frank Sampedro, guitar; Billy Talbot, bass; Ralph Molina, drums) for the album Life. I liked that record but I can’t say it was one of his best. It was the next album when I got right back on the bandwagon, 1988’s This Note’s For You, a bluesy rave up of an album complete with a horn section… although I realize that album may be one of those records only I like. This Note’s For You was Neil’s first album back on Reprise records, a Warner imprint, and away from Geffen which was probably good. There are theories that he recorded an eccentric blues album as a way to test the waters on exactly how much creative freedom he actually had on his new label. He actually wrote some killer songs for that album so that helped. It just felt at that point, to me… at the time sitting in exile in Arkansas, that Neil was poised for a comeback.

And comeback he did! Neil ended up closing out the 80s in the same way he did the 70s, with an incredible album. 1989’s Freedom was an amazing rock n roll resurrection. “Rockin’ In The Free World” (which came in an electric and acoustic version like “My My, Hey Hey” on Rust) was a true rock n roll anthem that ranks up there with “Ohio” amongst Neil’s greatest songs. Freedom was one of the first albums I purchased on that at the time, new-fangled format, CD. At that point the only question for us Neil fans was – is this going to be a 1 album comeback or will he be able to sustain this thing? Will he continue to make great records again? We all had our hopes up.

Neil reconvened Crazy Horse again and went up to his ranch and jammed. The resulting album Ragged Glory is one of his all time greatest with Crazy Horse, and that’s saying something. These guys rocked with a reckless abandon. The album opens with two of my favorites “Country Home” and “White Line.” “White Line” started off as an acoustic strummer in it’s original version, but Neil and Crazy Horse turn it up to 11. The song “Fuckin’ Up” has been covered by everyone from Pearl Jam on down. There’s so much joy in this music. I remember going to Chicago at the time to see my friends Doug and RK and Doug kept singing the lyrics to “Farmer John,” the only cover song here. Two of the tracks “Love To Burn” and “Love And Only Love” were over 10-minutes long! I don’t live in a mansion, I’ve never been in a mansion, but the chorus to “Mansion On The Hill,” quoted above, could describe the B&V lab… psychedelic music blaring at all hours. 

Here we are 33 years down the road and Neil has discovered four tracks from those sessions that didn’t make the original masterpiece album and has decided to share them with us. I was really looking forward to Ragged Glory II as it was known on the inter-web. I thought it might be a whole extra album worth of music. With those 1990 sessions producing such high caliber music, I knew that there had to be some good stuff on tape. Alas, it wasn’t a whole album of new stuff but it’s damn close at 40-minutes of new music. As I suspected, these are four great songs.

The first track is “Interstate.” It is simply put, one of Neil’s most beautiful acoustic songs. I get why it didn’t make the cut as it’s counter to the electric guitar forward tracks on the original album. I believe it might have been previously released as a b-side. If so, it needs to be added to my list of favorite b-sides. The acoustic playing on the song is mesmerizing. It’s a late night, whiskey track. It’s a haunting track about the life of a musician on the road. The lyric “I can hear a soft voice calling, Calling me to bring my guitar home…” gives me chills. As a traveling salesman… I know that feeling…well, not about the guitar, I don’t play any instruments.

The next track, “Don’t Spook The Horse,” was also purportedly released back in 1990 as another B-side. It’s a good ol’ down home rocker. Yes, the lyrics are bit… vulgar, but only in a minor way. It’s kind of a funny song. I had heard the original title of this expanded set was to have taken it’s name from this song but Neil felt “Don’t Smell The Horse” was more appropriate. “Don’t Spook The Horse” is an almost 8-minute tune that would have fit perfectly on the original album. If you like Ragged Glory you’ll like this track.

“Boxcar” is a track that was released on 2007’s Chrome Dreams II in a completely different arrangement. That version was a country song complete with a banjo. This version has a plaintive, almost spooky, under water-like guitar sound. It’s only slightly over 3 minutes long but it leaves a mark. It sounds like a train. The final track, “Born To Run,” not to be confused with the famous Springsteen track of the same name, is a Neil original that dates back – if I’m not wrong – to the Zuma sessions. There’s a version on his Archives Volume 2 but it’s much more “compact.” This version is an all out jam of over 12 minutes. It’s great to hear the Horse slip the chain, so to speak, and rock for a quarter of an hour. It’s another track that would have fit perfectly on the original album. If you like guitar, you’ll like this song.

You never know what bonus tracks, or tracks left over from an album’s sessions are going to bring. Often times with an artist the caliber of a Neil Young, or Bob Dylan, or heck, Stevie Nicks (whose career we just looked at) these “leftover” songs are better than some artist’s regular output. These four songs not only do not tarnish the original album they actually expand on it’s brilliance. If you’re a Neil Young fan, I urge you to seek these tracks out post haste! They don’t make ’em like this anymore…

Turn this one up to 11. Cheers!