Tracking Neil Young’s Zigzag Course Through the ‘80s

Neil Young is that rare musician highly regarded by both baby boomers and younger punk and alt-rock fans. His artistic stock is as high as ever thanks to a series of relentlessly probing four-star albums in the ‘90s that equaled the best of his ‘60s and ‘70s work.

For much of the ‘80s, however, critics and fans alike were wondering whether the singer-songwriter-guitarist had simply lost it as he made one stylistic about-face after another.

Following a long association with Reprise Records, where he launched his solo career in 1968 after leaving Buffalo Springfield, Young signed with Geffen Records in 1982 and went on to make five albums for the company. Not long after he joined the label, Geffen sued him for submitting music the company felt was “unrepresentative of Neil Young.”

“A lot of people seem to think I made a lot of those records as a joke or something--just to be different,” Young told The Times in 1989. “But the truth is, you go where the music takes you.”

Where music took him was deep into electronica with “Trans” (1983), neo-rockabilly (“Everybody’s Rockin’ ” in 1983), country (“Old Ways” in 1985) and hybrid rock (“Landing on Water” in 1986 and “Life” in 1987).

The shifts may have left listeners feeling whiplashed, but they succeeded in reinvigorating Young. After one more diversion--the big-band blues workout “This Note’s for You,” his first album after re-upping with Reprise in 1988--Young returned to a driving rock sound in 1989 with “Freedom,” a watershed album that marked an artistic resurgence that continued through the ‘90s.

Now part of the Universal Music Group conglomerate, Geffen has reissued four of the ‘80s albums, with “Trans” still to be scheduled. Collectively, they provide a fascinating look at an artist following his muse regardless of how far afield it led him.

*** 1/2 Neil Young, “Trans,” Geffen. Despite Young’s track record for experimentation in the ‘70s, it’s safe to say no one expected the left-field turn he took with this mostly electronic concept album that asked whether the human touch would be lost in an increasingly technological culture.

Young even masked his all-too-human voice by running it through a Vocorder, a device that made it sound as if a computer were doing all the singing. The mechanized beats of programmed sequencers and synthesized musical textures gave sonic manifestation to his lyrics of humanity being subsumed by machines.

But Young demonstrated in the likes “Transformer Man,” “Computer Cowboy (AKA Syscrusher)” and “Computer Age” one trait even the most advanced technology doesn’t have: the ability to write haunting melodies. In the closing “Like an Inca,” he abandoned the synths for old-fashioned electric guitars, bass and drums and sang “If you want to get high, build a strong foundation / Sink those pylons deep now and reach for the sky,” as good a summation as any for his attitude toward exploring new territory.

** Neil Young, “Everybody’s Rockin’,” Geffen. The slightest of his Geffen albums, this 26-minute roots-rock experiment fell flat more often than it clicked as the quintessential barnstorming electric rocker attempted to recapture the earthy joy of stripped-down early rock. His versions of vintage songs didn’t add up to much, but one original, “Payola Blues,” outlined his frustration with creativity-draining expectations imposed on artists by the commerce side of the music business.

** 1/2 “Old Ways,” Neil Young, Geffen. The cover photo shows Young walking away from the camera down a rural road, in effect turning his back--whether it was on fans, the music industry or both was anybody’s guess. The song “Once an Angel,” about seeking forgiveness from a loved one, also could be read as an apology to fans: “There’ve been times when I treated you so badly / I done things I know you’ll never understand.”

This hit-and-miss country-flavored outing espousing the importance of getting back to one’s roots wasn’t as big a departure as the previous two, given the strong country and folk component in his earlier music. In “Bound For Glory” he came up with the kind of questing ode that Kris Kristofferson might have written and Waylon Jennings might have sung in the ‘70s. His pal Willie Nelson joined him for a salute to the working men and women of the West, “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?”

*** Neil Young, “Landing on Water,” Geffen. The synthesizers returned big-time here, but this time they merged with his signature scorching garage rock in an album that also took a stab at fusing funk and metal. Highlights included his Woodstock rebuff in “Hippie Dream” (with its killer opening line: “Take my advice / Don’t listen to me”), the Crazy Horse-worthy crunching rock number “Touch the Night” and the pulsating “Pressure.” His hybrid of raw rock with electronic sheen might be received better today than it was 15 years ago.

** 1/2 Neil Young & Crazy Horse, “Life,” Geffen. The synths were still prevalent here, but the rock drive grew even more intense thanks to the return of Crazy Horse. The viewpoint was scattered--a couple of strong political songs (“Mideast Vacation,” “Long Walk Home”) and one mythological folk-rock epic (“Inca Queen”) share the disc with several minimalist love songs more notable for Young’s jamming with Crazy Horse than for any insights. The concluding ballads “When Your Lonely Heart Breaks” and “We Never Danced,” however, cast lost love in achingly elegiac terms.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.