If you, like me, were a member of Team Coco, then you were there when Neil Young serenaded young Conan with a stirring rendition of "Long May You Run" as a part of Conan's final Tonight Show. (I would love to link to a video, but NBC has taken down all videos relating to Conan. They will reap what they sow.) My dad and I are two of the worlds biggest Neil Young fans, and when we each saw that performance, even though we were separated by two state lines and 202 miles, we both thought, "I wonder who Neil Young originally wrote that song for?" and "Is the original release on dad's shelf?"

And of course Dad had the record, although it was pretty dust-free; almost untouched. I was very excited to see it, since I had never even heard of the Stills-Young band, instantly removing me from the echelon of 'world's biggest Neil Young fan,' and placing me among 'Neil Young Enthusiasts.'

Well, as my dad explained to me, the song Long May You Run actually debuted as the lead-off track to the only album from the short lived Stills-Young Band, an ephemeral union of Stephen Stills and Neil Young pragmatically thrown together in response to the success of Wind on the Water, an album by former CSN&Y'ers David Crosby and Graham Nash. While the album did make some dough (it went gold), Long May You Run is kind of uneven. Mainly because the two split it right down the middle - it's a Young song, then a Stills song, then another Young song...ad infinitum. And those Stills songs can get pretty mind-numbing. Check out track two:

[ mp3 ]: Stephen Stills - Make Love to You

Um, gross. I'll stick with Barry White if I'm looking for that kind of music, especially these days.

Neil's songs are not great, barring the title track. But songs like Midnight On the Bay still have some charm, while the Stills tunes kind of ruin the album. It's like filling a cup with half Pepsi and half Diet Pepsi; it will taste kind of weird, and you're going to get diabetes and have all the calcium sucked from your bones. (I think that's what PepsiMax is trying to accomplish anyway.)

[ mp3 ]: Neil Young - Long May You Run
[ mp3 ]: Neil Young - Midnight On the Bay

Long May You Run is a classic, undeniably bright eyed yet nostalgic, the perfect send-off to any old friend.  Midnight On the Bay is uncharacteristically funky for Neil, dare I say it's his version of Rupert Holmes' Escape (The Pina Colada Song.) Fun.

Oh yeah - so who did Neil write the song Long May You Run for? Was Conan's plight similar to an old friend, lover, or historical character? Turns out, it was written as an ode to his 1948 Buick Roadmaster, which, as I'm sure you know, is a hearse.

-N.W.

PS - lala has mis-credited this record as a Neil Young solo joint. They are mistaken.

Growing up, my friend Ethan and I had a running joke that went like this:

Me: Hey Ethan, what's the best band in the world?
Ethan: I don't know, but it sure as hell isn't The Moody Blues.

No wonder we're both famous comedians and professional music critics. (Neither one of us is either of those things.)

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour is neither Bluesy, nor Moody (though this could be argued). It's, at first listen, a prog-rock album. I think the first word that comes to mind is "lush." For a band that I always thought was a blues band, it's downright surprising. In fact, when my dad first played it for me, I admit that I did not enjoy it. Maybe it was the fact that they were at one point simply a punchline, but I had a hard time taking them seriously. I mean, listen to the first track, Procession, in which nominalizations are eerily shouted, General Zod-like, over an ominous, building orchestration....

[ mp3 ]: The Moody Blues - Procession

But, as Rod Stewart never sang, the first cut is the weirdest, and right after that bizarre opener, The Moody Blues hit you with what might be their best song, The Story In Your Eyes.

[ mp3 ]: The Moody Blues - The Story In Your Eyes

I feel like this song is the true litmus test. If you like it, if you allow yourself to like it, then you're going to like The Moody Blues. It's like that movie Avatar. If you allow yourself to get emotionally attached to blue aliens, you're going to end up getting a lot more out of it than a skeptical friend. Every Good Boy Deserves Favour is anything but casual. You need to really listen to it, and if you make the choice to, parts of it will blow your mind. Take the closer, My Song, which makes the Elton John number by the same title seem like a commercial jingle.

[ mp3 ]: The Moody Blues - My Song

It's powerful stuff, but only if you've already downed the Kool-Aid. It's impossible to say that The Moody Blues aren't good songwriters, especially on this record. The orchestrations are incredibly dense, guitar layered on pianos, sprinkles of organ, flute, and ambient sounds. And the middle of this album is full of great tunes as well. Check out Emily's Song and After You Came, both perfect.

Ethan and I may have been right - The Moody Blues may not have been the best band in the world. But not for lack of trying.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

- N.W.

My dad does not have that many country records. Only the essentials - Cash, Haggard, Williams and the like. So I was a bit surprised when I found a couple Bobby Bare albums stuck together among the B's. Bare is not as famous as those I just mentioned, but is a country music icon; his songs deceptively complex, his voice clear and true. Bare was probably country's first 'cross-over' artist, penning songs that appealed to lovers of both Waylon Jennings and Bobby Darin. He championed traditional country songwriters, like Ian Tyson and Billy Barton, but also incorporated sixties rock'n'roll into his songs. One of his biggest hits, Shame On Me, is the perfect example - a country tune with a horn section!

[ mp3 ]: Bobby Bare - Shame On Me

Bare sounds a bit like Johnny Cash to me - an apt comparison since Cash was also popular outside of the country circuit. But Bare is a little more sunny than Cash. I feel like if you gave them each a handle of bourbon, Bare would end up being the life of the party, and Cash would go all dark. Like Deer Hunter dark. Ugh. If you watched that, here, take a soul shower:

[ mp3 ]: Bobby Bare - Miller's Cave
[ mp3 ]: Bobby Bare - Four Strong Winds

Okay. So the stories Bare is telling aren't necessarily the sunniest. Miller's Cave is a vengeful murder story, and the singer of Four Strong Winds is abandoning a lover. It's not Kid's Bop. But it's clean, straight-forward, story-based country music. To me, listening to Bobby Bare is like reading a Kazuo Ishiguro novel after wading through Infinite Jest. It just feels nice.

Supposedly, Bobby Bare collaborated with Shel Silverstein quite a bit later in his career, and had a few hits geared towards children. My dad doesn't have any of these records, but if you do, let me know what they're like. I think I'm interested.

- N.W.

Okay, it's time for me to come clean about my relationship with Tom Waits. Yes, he is a cool dude. Yes, he has a certain je ne sais quoi that makes him popular with the literati. Yes, he toes the line of self parody on occasion. And yes, the first time I heard a Tom Waits song was when I saw Shrek.

Now before you get all judgmental about how I could be in my twenties and not have heard a Tom Waits song, remember: There was a time when you didn't know things either. There was a time before we all loved Du Champ and his toilet. There was a time before we all knew Kurosawa directed films, and instead confused his name with a popular Japanese method of suicide. And there was a time when Hari Kiri wasn't eviscerating yourself with a sword, but instead was the Chicago Cubs play-by-play guy that Will Ferrel impersonated from time to time. Now he's dead (Harry Caray, not Will Ferrell), we're all well-cultured, and hopefully you've forgotten about how I came across Tom Waits.

But by the time my dad pulled out this Tom Waits album from 1974 and handed it to me for the site, not only had I heard plenty of Tom Waits, I had become a big fan. Strangely enough, the first album I fell in love with was Swordfishtrombones, perhaps his least-accessible record. His voice on that record was what got me. He took the snarl of Captain Beefheart and deepened it into a bluesy growl, the perfect choice for the malcontents he sang about.

So The Heart of Saturday Night was somewhat surprising. It's still Tom Waits, but was only his second record, and the ten year patina of cigarettes and bourbon hadn't yet accumulated. So the songs sound a little less aggressive, and some are downright beautiful. My favorite is Shiver Me Timbers, a gorgeous gem in which Waits sounds as commercial as Bob Carlisle singing "Christmas Shoes." (I know that disgusts you, and it should, but listen.) The piano playing on Shiver Me Timbers cannot go unnoticed either.

Sure, there are a few misses here (Diamonds On My Windshield seems like it's making fun of itself) but this album's title says it all. You throw this record on this weekend, have some erudite buddies over, and smoke a thousand cigarettes. Eventually, you'll find it - The Heart of Saturday Night.

[ mp3 ]: Tom Waits - Shiver Me Timbers
[ mp3 ]: Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night

-N.W.

This is one of the first records my dad selected for me as part of this project. This and David Ackles, I think. So I've had it on my computer, ready to go for quite some time. Thing is, I don't really know what to say about it.

I'm not a big fan of Traffic. I do respect their greatness, but they're just not my shizz. I can't explain it. But I think you know what I mean. That's not to say this Dave Mason album is exactly like Traffic, which he joined and then left  before starting his solo career. It's something a bit different, and I think more interesting; imagine Traffic singing John Barleycorn, but with the touchstone being more blues, country, and modern Americana, rather than British folk.

The highlight is definitely Only You and I Know, the only certifiable chart-topper of Mason's solo career. It's easy to hear why - it starts with an insanely catchy riff, has a great chorus, and the pre-verse stanzas could even be described as 'groovy.' And the rest of the songs, while not big hits, are all expertly crafted. My dad used the word masterpiece when he showed me this record, and it's hard to argue with. It seemed like everything went right for Dave Mason on this one.

Also, he's rocking the Mad Hatter look on the cover, which you've got to respect.

-N.W.

[ mp3 ]: Dave Mason - Only You and I Know
[ mp3 ]: Dave Mason - Just a Song

And the rest of the album:

Randy Newman is one of those guys you've heard before, but you just don't know it. Seen Toy Story? Ever caught an episode of Monk? Heard this Three Dog Night song a thousand times?

Guess what? You're listening to Randy Newman. Born in New Orleans, but raised in LA, Randy has a fairly impressive musical pedigree. He can count David, Thomas, and Alfred Newman as relatives, all of whom have IMDB pages long enough to keep you from reading them. The Newmans are a family of composers for film and television, and Randy is no exception. Although, he also releases pop records.

This is his second full length record, and while his self-titled debut was by no means a bad album, this is widely considered his first classic. The big 'hit' of the album is Mama Told Me (Not To Come), covered by many, perhaps most famously by Three Dog Night (see above). Here's the Newman version:

[ mp3 ]: Randy Newman - Mama Told Me (Not To Come)

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