Young’s “Thirteen” Paints a Suitably Odd Portrait

NEIL YOUNG

“Lucky Thirteen”

Geffen

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“Lucky” may not be quite the word Geffen executives would use to describe their position in their often-testy mid-’80s association with Young, which just happened to coincide with the five-year period many fans consider the most negligible in his mercurial career. In any case, there wouldn’t be much point in the charade of a “greatest hits” package covering the Geffen years, so Young and the label have put aside differences long enough to come up with a more suitably oddball 1983-88 retrospective, half of which is outtakes or alternate versions.

This sideways approach has pluses and minuses: While some of Young’s work from the era has been underrated, this collection doesn’t really make a great case for a critical reassessment, since it blithely skips over many of the best (and/or most popular) tunes from the albums under review. But it is representative in its spotty way, and the rarities would make it a must for any fan even withstanding that most of Young’s Geffen catalogue remains unavailable on CD.

These were his most severely chameleonic years, so fasten in for a bumpy ride--from the Vocoder-voiced “Trans” stuff (ambitious and badly dated) to the lilting country of “Old Ways” (laconic and sweetly aged), and from a new-wave-sidled Crazy Horse to the retro-rockin’ Shocking Pinks and Blue Notes crews. None of the vault tracks are major discoveries, but aficionados will feel lucky to have ‘em just the same.