Neil Young + Crazy Horse – Ragged Glory (1990)

A quick pop into the local charity shop last week saw an addition to the Neil Young shelf (now at 21 albums - as said before, more due to his longevity, prolific output, and the frequency his CDs are given to charity shops, than any devotion to the great Canadian).

This one is a real, no nonsense rock album. No histrionics, no profound masterworks, just rocker after rocker, with Young's love of a good jam with Crazy Horse (Frank Sampedro, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina) indulged to the full.

Kicking off with the catchy Country Home, after seven minutes you know what you're in for. White Line is a simple short driving song, and it's followed by, probably the best known song on the album (certainly well received at Young's 2025 Glastonbury set), the fantastic F*!#in' Up, - Young's spelling, not mine.

And the rocking continues, with Over And Over, Love to Burn, taking a bit of a nose dive with the limp Don Harris/Dewey Terry cover Farmer John. But after this, the rocking songs just keep on coming to the end, including the epic Love And Only Love, before the final track, a live recording of Mother Earth, starting with a guitar riff, before the hymnal verses, perhaps a little incongruous at the end, but that dirty guitar saves it.

Was this a return to form? I'm not sure, like any artist of such longevity, Young's output has its ups and downs, but this certainly confirmed he still had it. And he still does.

Link to album tracks

4* - Neil Young and Crazy Horse in their rock and roll pomp with the volume turned up to eleven.