Monday, March 05, 2007

Wonderin' - Neil Young and The Shocking Pinks

As I progress through Jimmy McDonough's "Shakey", I learn more and more about Neil (Son of God) Young's 1980s, fuck-you-Geffen period, and I'm absolutely loving it.

Young released an album in 1983 called "Everybody's Rockin'" with a band he dubbed The Shocking Pinks, dedicated to 50s rockabilly and featuring the immortal track "Kinda Fonda Wanda". A horrid album that was cited, along with Trans, as being "not commercial" and "musically uncharacteristic" of his previous work in David Geffen's famed November '83 lawsuit (which R.E.M. later cited as a reason they didn't sign with Geffen when they left IRS).

But McDonough points to "Wonderin'" (especially the video) as the lone highlight. The video, which has a very scruffy looking Neil out of sync with the background, was directed by Tim Pope, an Englishman from the punk scene who had hardly ever heard of Neil before.

Not owning the album, and having never seen the video, I checked it out on YouTube. It's classic. I even used my iTunes gift card to download the song. Long live Shakey.

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