@@bassplayer2011ify - I mean look Lynyrd Skynyrd fuckin shreds and Street Survivors is an all-time favorite but Sweet Home Alabama is an absolute shit song that is way overrated and way way way overplayed.
God damn it, I hate when I'm trying to write an email at my computer but I suddenly get blindsided by the fabric of reality tearing apart for the harrowing shriek of the reaper of souls to blast me out of my chair screaming "THIS OLD HOUSE OF OURS"
CSNY's albums are now back on Spotify, but without the songs written by Neil as he's continuing with his boycott. The one exception is American Dream, where all the songs are available, Neil's included. I think the only conclusion we can draw from this is that they all forgot this album existed
I don't even get why Joe Rogan bothers them so much for a boycott. Dont keep up with Rogan that much but he doesnt come off as a man to go after people. At least the albums existence got Crosby clean and enough for him to live past the 20th century
It turns out that Crosby had sold the rights to the music at the time of the boycott.. So he admitted he was (I hate this phrase) virtue signalling.. He came out a few weeks back and said 'I couldn't tour cos of Covid.. I had to feed my family" I get that. You'd be crazy not too. But the fact he put out a statement when it had literally NOTHING to do with him is a very Crosby move I guess!
@@Thomasmemoryscentral I think the issue that people have with Rogan is about misinformation (especially in relation to covid and vaccines). He also has an exclusivity deal with spotify, so they're paying him regardless of the number of listens - a lot of artists have criticised spotify's payments, so that probably contributes to their anger about the Rogan podcast.
@@Thomasmemoryscentral Neil Young had polio as a kid, so Joe Rogan letting people on his show spread vaccine misinformation understandably angered him.
@@Thomasmemoryscentral the problem a lot of artists had with Spotify and Rogan aside from vaccine/Covid misinformation was the unfair pay gap between artists and Rogan where he gets paid millions to look like a douchebag while they make little to nothing from Spotify listens leading to the boycott by so many artists.
@@RedXiongmao It does. Please find healthier solutions to your problems, whatever they may be. Subjecting oneself to "Life in prison as a ladies' man" is no light topic, and is never the solution.
Reasons for Trainwreckords thus far: * Trendchasing that went nowhere (0304, The Funky Headhunter) * Strange, if not ill-advised new directions (Kilroy Was Here, Cyberpunk, Crash, Passage, Witness) * Ego (Be Here Now (the Gallaghers), American Life (Madonna), Cut the Crap (Bernie Rhodes), Summer in Paradise (Mike Love)) * Band drama (Van Halen III, Mardi Gras, St. Anger, American Dream) * Personal drama (MTV Unplugged No. 2.0, Lost and Found) * Made poor life decisions (Paula, Two the Hard Way, Mission Earth) * Serious case of sophomore slump (Fairweather Johnson, Zingalamaduni, Turn It Upside Down) * ... whatever the hell that is (Funstyle)
While this idea is something to consider, some of these albums I’d argue are more a mix of what you’re pointing out over one specific thing. Like for Kilroy Was Here, that seems to be a mix of Band Drama (since the band didn’t agree with DeYoung’s ideas for the album), Ego (since DeYoung wanted to make this big epic rock opera to prove the critics wrong), and the strange new direction categories. And for Mission Earth, that was a mix of Poor Life Decisions (for Winter joining Scientology and collaborating with Hubbard on this album) and Hubbard’s Ego that an album based on his bloated, widely despised, unreadable book series would do well.
I think think Zingalamaduni was more a result of Ego than being a sophomore slump. Hootie and Spin Doctors had massive acclaim with their first album only to fall flat with the followup (One hit wonders but of the album variety). Arrested Development were making waves for years but their genre was on the verge of death in 1992 and by 1994 it was completely dead.
It’s still remarkable David got clean. We got 30+ more years of David Crosby. And while this album may be trash, it symbolizes something better. It symbolizes life. RIP David Crosby.
I don't think it sounds that bad to be honest. It's not all that interesting, DEFINITELY not compared to some of their other stuff, but it doesn't sound terrible
Fun Fact: In the 80s, Graham Nash's mullet and Bono's mullet had a three year-long feud where both refused to acknowledge each other at award shows and press conferences. Ireland now refers to this period as "The Not-So-Much Troubles."
Just put it together that The Simpsons joke where Barney says he is a huge fan of David Crosby and then reveals he didn’t know he was a musician is referencing Crosby’s drug use.
11:16 Audio engineer here. It's a combination of the 80's cliché of "shitload of reverb on everything" and the vocals just being *waaaaaaaaaay* too high up in the mix. There's at least 4 different "mixing" credits on the album, but considering CSNY themselves are listed in there as well, this was almost certainly a band decision saying "vocals louder".
@@DeadpoolX9That didn’t start until the early 90’s when CD’s were getting more popular and the production normalcy allowed for artists to push the bigger dynamic range for loudness to make the song sound more “exciting” and “irresistible”
@@DeadpoolX9Nah, there was room to spare enough to mash the "chorus louder" vocals and still not peak out. But if this CD was rereleased anytime in the past 25 years, we would definitely see waveforms top out unless it was completely remixed from the master tapes or something.
For the running list of most ridiculous lyrics of each Trainwreckords episode, I submit: "Here's another corner baby, let me demonstrate my slide rule (sliiiiide ruuuuuuuuuuule!)"
I still think the lyric that tops that list is “In a word to (yeah!) the wisdom tooth…open up, SAY AAAHHHHHMEN! Rinse cup, and spit again!” from the VH III episode, but man is it hanging on to that top spot by a thread.
He tried to make a pun combining drift racing with a slide ruler. A slide ruler. Who was still using slide rulers in 1988? And even if slide rulers were still in common use, this is like John Parr's "Love Grammar" (yes, that's from One Hit Wonderland, but the point still stands).
They used to play 'American Dream' all the time on Wal Mart radio when I worked there twenty years ago. Never knew what it was, never had the urge to find out, but as soon as those flutes hit in this, it was like PTSD.
American Dream was the only song from Crosby Still Nash And Young that ever recived any radio play when I was a young lad. I had nonidea the band even existed if it weren't for this song. American Dream would pop up once every 2 years or so, be played on classic rock radio and shopping malls, only to disapear back into radio single obscurity. My dumbass adolescent mind thought the song sounded too much like a shittier version of the theme from the TV show Wishbone. To this day, the rare times I do hear this song, all I can think of when they are singing the chorus and those flutes hit is *"what's the story Wishbone"...* Seriously, I don't even dislike pan flutes. But this song has something about it that makes me never want to ever hear pan flutes again.
Came back here after finding out David Crosby passed away today at the age of 81. Despite how bad this album is and it showing that it was made by Neil and the others as a promise if Crosby could get sober, Crosby sure did leave a legacy with his time in The Byrds and Crosby Stills Nash and Young and lived a pretty long life. Rest in Peace David.
There is a Todd-specific phenomenon in my life where I rewatch these Trainwreckords videos so much that these terrible songs start to take up a lot of real estate in my brain, and sometimes on my playlists. The hold that certain songs (or the snippets Todd plays) from this album and Witness have over me now cannot be overstated.
Happens to me too. I really dig Jewel's _Yes U Can._ Some of her lyrics are shallow, but compared to the rest of the album it's a very fun song, in a "you _still_ kinda wanna go to an Euphoria party, don't you" way.
"Do it in the name of love" could have worked as political satire if it was handled differently. "Drop bombs in the name of love" could have been a very cutting critique of things like "Operation Iraqi Freedom:" putting a superficially positive spin on heinous actions.
@@jeevithrai7994 and people still totally miss the point of that one, even though it has crunchy dissonant guitars and dark lyrics about things like a drug addicted mother abandoning an infant in a dumpster while society does nothing to help her, only congratulating itself on being 'free'.
Tbh after hearing that story at the start about Neil promising Crosby that if he got sober he’d make another album with him, I couldn’t care less if it’s actually good or not. Dave Crosby (was) alive and well (at the release of this video and comment) and I think that’s way cooler, and more important, than any song they could’ve made back together. RIP
@@LazyFreak07 Night Song isnt a bad closer song. Sure Todd jokes about the song having a Miami Vice intro sound but it's fine for me. Heck you could technically throw some nighttime footage of Thomas And Friends over the song and can work fine
One childhood memory I have is my mother winning this album in a raffle at some convention we were at. She had never won anything before so we were pumped went home and played this at a decent volume. We were both really confused at what the heck we were listening to but dared not say anything bad about it. It was really bad. Really really bad.
Glad this one is back. Of all the trainwreckords to be copyright claimed, i expected the Scientology one to go down first, not the one about a band of Hippies.
@@timmy841212 the musicians usually couldn't care less (although there are a few notable exceptions). It's the record labels making billions off their back catalogs who care
"Albums made out of emotional obligation to people you can't stand anymore...." Oh boy, I can just feel that Trainwreckords of Pink Floyd - The Final Cut pulling into the station after that prophetic ending statement. At least in a "How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?" kind of way.
Pink Floyd's history is so full of interpersonal drama Todd would have a shitload of material with that band alone. Not only The Final Cut, where Roger ruined his relationship with the other band members forever; but also A Momentary Lapse of Reason, where a burned-out Dave basically shat out a contractual obligation with every session musician he could find while Nick slept it off. Hell, if you think about it The Wall could count too - the band members were already not getting along, but The Wall was when the bomb really blew up.
Let’s not forget A Saucerful of Secrets which marked beginning of the end for their psychedelic-era with Syd Barrett’s downward spiral and subsequent ousting from the band. Hell, the album ends with Barrett telling off the rest of band, like it was his last moment of lucidity among them before he contemplates his own delusions and sense of alienation. It’s one of the most haunting pieces of music I’ve ever listened to and eerie in how it foreshadows the direction Pink Floyd would go in.
I think I realize what this album is for each of the guys. Crosby: a rehab/sobriety journal set to music. Stills: a midlife crisis spent at beachfront resorts and casinos (probably ones Mike Love is banned from), while still hoping he has the same charm he had in his youth. Nash: an attempt to reclaim the glory days by sticking to what he knows best (and trying to update it for the times), not realizing it’s pretty much out-of-date. Young: the efforts of a student who’s forced into a project with the kids with the worst grades in the class, so he’s only putting in 50% effort because the others have to do the work too, and he has better stuff to focus on.
I said this during the last upload, but one TrainWreckords episode I think many would love to see is Forever by the Spice Girls. Like this, it’s a case of one of the biggest, most popular groups in the world trying to come together and put something new out, especially in the mix of personal turmoil (firing Simon Fuller, Geri “Ginger Spice” Halliwell quitting). That plus a change in sound from pop to a more R&B thing, creating some forgettable songs that sounded nothing like them, pretty much ended the Spice Girls dominion.
Whitney Houston’s Just Whitney would probably be the biggest train wreck in the history of Trainwreckords and really live up to the name of the show more than any other before it. 💀 There would be so much juicy material to dissect - a lead single that was a big FU to the media which ended up becoming her biggest flop ever, her Diane Sawyer and Wendy Williams interviews that brought her public image down to catastrophic levels. Bobby Brown… need I say more?
@Perverted Alchemist He would be responsible for Mariah’s Emancipation of Mimi comeback in 2005 though I believe? I know she’s not an Artista artist but still a veteran act.
Hooray! So glad this is back. I was lucky enough to catch it before it got taken down and was eager to see it again for Todd's 🎵You're a bunch of washed-up hippie burnouts and I'm Neil fucking Young...🎵
I literally finished watching the first upload, scrolled down to see the comments....and they were gone. I scrolled back up and the video was gone. I was just sitting there for a solid minute refreshing, assuming my internet had dropped.
I don't disagree that "I Can't Drive 55" has the vibe of a young man's song, so I was surprised to find out that Sammy Hagar was 37 when he released it. Stephen Stills was 43 when they did this album. I think it speaks to the vibes and personas they're able to project more so than their age
Also it help that Sammy Hagar had a supe up Trans Am, his song Trans Am Highway Wonderland is just him bragging about how cool it is, like 2 decades before that became a thing in Hip Hop
The big difference is that Hagar was able to sell the youthful energy and rebellious spirit that a younger audience could relate to in 55. He may have been in his mid 30’s, but you could buy it being written and performed by someone 10-15 years younger. Stills, meanwhile, is practically strutting around with his beer gut and drunk-father-of-the-bride energy, and so he isn’t close to selling the same spirit and vibe as Hagar.
@@Pikachu2Ash I'm not saying artists can't have successful comebacks, plenty have. I'm just saying there has to be a reason why they're coming back beyond they just want to. Either they need to have something new to offer or tastes must have swung back round to what they were already doing.
It can really depend on genre and expectations of the era though. Great artists in more avant-garde or exploratory spaces seem to be able to pull it off from time to time.
@@hericiumcoralloides5025 True, if you were weird before and people got tired of it then simply being away for a while then coming back can make your brand of weird interesting again.
Yesterday I watched this video and when I went to the music store I work at I was talking to my coworker about how amazing it is that Crosby is still alive after everything he’s been through! And I go back today to pick up my check and he tells me that he died! R.I.P. David Crosby
I woke up in the middle of the night, watched this episode the first time it released, and fell back to sleep. When I woke up, it wasn't there, and I seriously thought I'd just dreamed it up.
Watching this again, it feels like a companion piece to the "Summer in Paradise" video on several levels. The main difference is that CSNY at least had the good fortune to not have anyone quite like Mike Love in their lineup.
It has the elements of Mardigras of each member contributing a song despite tension between members and heck, much like St Anger in 2003, this album existing helped at least one person out
I’d actually say this episode is actually almost the exact inverse of Summer in Paradise. Whereas for that album, a member previously seen as more secondary wanted to prove himself capable in his own right in the absence of the primary songwriter, American Dream was the return of the member widely considered the most talented after a long absence, and yet still ended up a total flop.
The key word here is "obligation." Every decision made for this album was an obligation: friends' personal obligations to each other, long-running music act's obligation to their fans, commercial artists' obligations to keep their "brand" up to date with changing fashions. All jokes aside, it does actually sound like everyone involved would rather be doing something else, like when you're at work and your brain is back home doing something fun (in my case, drawing or playing music). Everyone is doing what's expected of them, not what they, personally, want to do, and you can tell. There are things that were made under obligation that I like, mind you: both Linkin Park's "Meteora" and Monty Python's "Contractual Obligations Album" were both made out of obligation, and they're two of my favorite albums. Idk exactly what was happening behind the scenes on either because I wasn't there, but they at least sound like everyone's trying to make something they're happy with under the circumstances. I get the impression that everyone here just wants to do their job and go home (or in Neil's case, get everyone out of his home lol).
Yeah even the "best" songs on this album just sound... underwhelming, as if the band collectively said "we could have made this song better but ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
I agree about albums made for obligation, and weirdly "Metors" is the only Linkin Park album I like. But, yes, most "Contractual and Personal obligation" albums are complete.... poo. Might I suggest two more that aren't poo? The Bonzo's "Let's Make Up And Be Friendly" and The Association's "Waterbeds In Trinidad".
I'll add another example of an "obligation album" that turned out well: Atheist's third album Elements. It was written and recorded and mixed in 40 days purely to fulfill their contract. It's actually a great album if you're into progressive/technical death metal. Their 2nd album Unquesrionable Presence will always be their classic album but Elements has a lot more of the jazz and Latin music influences that were introduced on Unquestionable Presence.
This album is the musical equivalent of trying to reconnect as adults with friends you never particularly got along with as kids. it never works out and it becomes almost immediately clear that time itself can't fix the dysfunction from all those years ago.
I think the difference between the 80s version of CSNY and The Traveling Wilburys who debuted soon after was that The Traveling Wilburys just sort of happened. There was no great plan to make an album together, they were just a bunch of friends who came together to work on what was meant to be a b-side for George's latest single. It turned out far better than expected and they ended up making an album which, based on the studio footage, was basically just 1 long party/jam session. CSNY were forcing it. None of them were having a good time, they didn't enjoy each other's company anymore and the whole thing just seems uncomfortable.
What a blessing The Travelling Willburys was. That project reinvigorated Bob Dylan who had a terrible time in late 80s and inspired him to record Oh Mercy, his best album of the decade, with producer Daniel Lanois. That partnership would then create Time Out Of Mind and started the late Dylan renaissance
Missing lyrics 14:05 Oh mighty lord, whose that girl I wanna go cruise that girl I tried to amuse that girl Fell down and I snooze that girl Seemed like I confuse that girl Cops like to accuse that girl Nice guys just abuse that girl Don't chu dare come and bruise that girl She wants her name, "Hughes that girl" Sing sad songs like "Blues that girl" So damn hard to ruse that girl I'm the one who screws that girl
Revisiting this after hearing about David Crosbys passing and the effective end of CSNY. This was a great video, and still valid and worthwhile after the recent passing of Crosby. RIP David
There's something about Graham Nash's moving from writing protest songs to playing yuppie 80's music like this that reminds me of how Oliver Stone made Platoon after fighting in Vietnam himself, and then called Wall Street "the greatest jungle of them all" in the trailer for Wall Street.
Growing up in Canada, I actually heard "American Dream" somewhat regularly on local radio over like a 5 year time period when I was a kid. That pan flute riff is burned in the back of my brain. Neverrrrrr knew it was Neil Goddamn Young!
@@ilikebags8385 I saw it somewhere on Todd's video comments that Canadian radios have a quota of locallly-made music to fill and, for that reason, people had to listen to Nickelback stuff back-to-back on multiple radios at the same time. As a Brazillian, i wonder if that's true and, if being the case, it had anything to do with this "American Dream" situation
"There were boomer icons all over the place, still making big hits and everyone just pretending they were still vital and relevant in their puffy middle age" pretty much just summed up Mike Love
The fact that every great band from the 60's ended up realise the worst shit ever in the 80s, I'm really starting to think that smoking weed all day and living in a van half the year was the only thing that kept them writing good tunes
I think most every generation has older acts that linger around the periphery, not as good as they were in their heyday but still making albums. The difference with the 80s is that there was so much money getting flung around the music industry that these lesser albums that would otherwise disappear into the aether were instead given a disproportionate amount of publicity and sales. If Eddie Murphy could have *multiple* albums in that decade, anything is possible.
It's somewhat ironic that "American Dream" was actually a decently big (and if my local classic rock station is anything to go by, surprisingly long-lived) hit in Canada. Cancon makes thing a bit weird sometimes...
I call this phenomenon "Canadian myopia". Was this song ACTUALLY a giant hit, or do we only think of it as a hit because it's Canadian (and therefore music stations can safely play it as Cancon)?
@@Alfredo-oh8xb I was surprised to find out April Wine and Chilliwack actually had a few top 40 hits apiece in the US. Corey Hart had way more Billboard top 40 hits than people remember, too (though "Sunglasses at Night" and "Never Surrender" were his only top tens). It's rare for a Canadian who's a one hit wonder in the States to also be a one hit wonder in Canada. Can-con requirements can usually push a few other singles across the finish line. One exception: Jane Child, whose only hit on both sides of the border was "Don't Wanna Fall In Love" in 1990.
I attended a CSNY concert at Red Rock Stadium with my Dad back in '06 and I do remember they brought a lot of energy to that show. Probably because they played none of the songs from this album. Also, pretty amazing that not only is David Crosby still alive at the time of this posting but also very active on Twitter. EDIT 1/19/2023: RIP Crosby you legend
It’s back baby! Fuck copyright strikes fr. Especially on this video which has some of Todd’s all time zingers, from his spot on Neil Young impression to his inspired comparison of David Crosby and ODB to his hatred of Stephen Stilles’s 80s bad guy mullet everything.
🤣 *Best Line* "Hey, guys, I've just written a song about how the American Dream is a failure and a lie, and I think it should sound like a commercial for a water park." 8:15 🤣
I happened upon this video earlier today, before I heard of David Crosby’s passing. How appropriate that this album gave him the gift of extended life. May he rest in peace 🙏
Have you ever thought about doing Duran Duran, "Thank You"? Unlike a lot 1980s New Wave acts, Duran Duran actually had a legit 1990s comeback with "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone" that wasn't some nostalgia pity party. Then they tanked it with one of the most ill-conceived covers album ever done. I mean, have you ever heard them attempt Public Enemy's "911 Is A Joke"?
Even Duran Duran have pretty much disowned that album but you've not been paying attention because they've put out seven albums since that disaster, three of them reaching the top ten albums in the UK, and five of them reaching the top forty albums in the US. So that's two comebacks: Thank You did not sink Birmingham's finest.
Future episode suggestion: Limp Bizkit's _Results May Vary._ Not only is it their relatively unsuccessful follow-up to _Chocolate Starfish,_ the first rock record to go platinum in it's first week and as far as I know it's still the fastest-selling rock record ever... but _Results_ is also the album that blessed us with their cover of "Behind Blue Eyes," it's their first and only without the OG Wes Borland (so nearly every other track is performed with a different guitarist, including Fred Durst), and MTV Album Launch did a full 5 episodes documenting the 2 years they put into it, so you'd have a ton of material to work with, lol. It's a god damn mess, both the journey and the (ahem) result. Not to mention, they've recently spiked in popularity, so... Just a thought.
Let’s not forget that “Results May Vary” was one of the two albums that killed the Nu Metal genre once and for all (alongside KoRn’s “Take a Look in the Mirror”). When Nu Metal became irrelevant after 2003/04, the rise of the Emo movement came along with bands such as Panic! At the Disco, Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance.
@@K.J.S.est1994 I've heard that before but, imo, the genre peaking both artistically and in popularity around 2001 is what ultimately killed it... oversaturation, the cheesy rip-offs, etc. But those were definitely the two big releases that _confirmed_ it was dead. Or at least in a long coma, anyway, lol. Kinda funny that _Meteora_ was released that same year. But your point about the rise of emo is hella on point, not to mention metalcore and bands like Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin kinda bridging the gap on rock radio. That's something worth noting actually, Fred and LB were going for that nü grunge sound on certain tracks here... Now I'm genuinely curious to hear Todd's opinion on which factor contributed more to this failure, the shitshow record or the general hatred for the band, lol
"You're a bunch of washed-up hippy burnouts, and I'm Neil Fucking Young." This impression made me laugh hysterically in a moment when I really needed it.
Didn't get to write it the previous time, but reunions like this were summed up pretty well by a sketch I know. "Y'know, when artists who were in a band that split get back together, is it possible that it may be for the money?" "...Are you crazy? It's only for the fun of getting back together as good buddies! ...and then brutally remember, minutes later, the reasons why they had split in the first place."
As an audio engineer I can tell you what's wrong with the songs. They are in fact as you have suggested... mixed bad. Levels are all over the place, and it seems like they wanted to create an atmosphere? Or something? I'm not sure with the direction they were going for. I think a big part of it is the fact that CSNY is pretty much the anthesis of what the 80s was about, and they tried to follow the trends instead of just being the folk group that they were good at.
Another engineer here, at least for the part where Todd shows the waveform it looks an awful like they pulled all the tracks down to fix the levels, evened out all the backing vocals so they blended well, then forgot to bring the rest of the mix back up. And yeah on my headphones the backing vocals sound like a train hitting you.
...also an audio engineer... I wonder if it's a production choice reflecting the egos in the room? You know how when you want to make vocals blend nice, you sometimes round the edges off 'em and make them all a bit less distinct so they blur and mesh nicely? Wouldn't surprise me if theses guys all got mad at not being able to hear their own parts clearly, and that drove an "everything louder than everything else" spiral.
@@HughDingwall Hi Hugh. Do any of you 3 audio engineers able to identify another arrists CSNY sounded like? Todd says Nighttime For The Generals sounded similar to Don Henley but for some of the others, I could identify: 1. Glad That You Got It Made: Fleetwood Mac, Cyndi Lauper. Specifically the music has a resemblance to Time After Time for me 2. Rolling Thunder: ZZ Top, Sammy Hagar 3. Dont Say Goodbye: Richard Marx 4. Soldiers Of Peace: Peter Cetera I only identified these artists in order bit which would count as a 7th artist or group they sounded like?
Audio engineer in training here (aka an intern)- I have no idea what the fuck everyone else is talking about can someone explain it to me like I’m five
@@malegria9641 Same here. That chorus on "This Old House" does hit pretty hard, but I wouldn't call it unbalanced to the point of incompetence. There was much worse than this in the 80s.
Calling your album “American Dream” is just inviting the “half the band isn’t American” jokes. This album is so bad in its execution, it’s making my brain melt! Also, some of these lyrics (political and romantic) sound written by teenagers, not men who just turned 40. I’ll pretend that “Déjà Vu” is the only album that Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young made together! I do like that the inspiration for the album is someone getting sober; that’s admirable, especially after Young and what happened to Danny Whitten. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Whitten Also, I’m surprised “Smells Like Teen Spirit” *didn’t* make an appearance in this episode! I credit Neil Young’s career revival in the 1990s due to the “grunge” movement (Young being an OG of what could be considered grunge). Neil Young was very heartbroken by Kurt Cobain’s death, wrote an album devoted to Cobain (“Sleeps with Angels”) in 1994, and thanked Cobain in his Rock Hall of Fame Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame speech the next year. Thanks, Todd in the Shadows!
Kind of sounds to what Metallicas St Anger in 2003 did in keeping the band together. An album that had at least one good thing come out of it. I'd say American Dream the album getting David Crosby sober and St Anger keeping Metallica together during their early 2000's fights are 2 reasons each album can have great for them for existing. One album got created as the result of one member getting clean and another became a sort of necessary bad to stop another band from breaking up.
Non-American bands seeming fixated with America isn't a new thing. Heck, several Neil Young albums have titles that directly reference the U.S. And then there's the band 54-40, a Canadian band.
Honestly, the lyric "this old house of ours is built on dreams" really hits. My wife and I bought a house a year ago, and that song plays in my head whenever I think of the plans we have for it.
It wasn't intended to be their last album. They had plans for the future. But the reaction and disappointing sales to "Calling All Stations" pretty much killed off the seemingly unstoppable Genesis. If you want a future Trainwreckords idea. Your presentation might make it more fun than the album was. But bring an oxygen tank or twelve!
Cause they wanted Phil. Something they don’t wanna say out loud. I understand Genesis wanted to move on but it’s like what happened when Van Halen after they hired Gary Cherone. They never really tried again besides that one reunion album with David that never went anywhere.
I would be uber curious to hear what Todd would have to say about a song like the title track from a Genesis song, and then what he would have to say about something as half-baked as Shipwrecked.
@@colefitzpatrick8431 The song "Calling All Stations" is a difficult one to process. The first impression (after the pretty solid guitar riff) will always be a shocked and generally negative one if you've ever heard a Genesis song any time ever. (Some people still hate on Phil for "taking the band away from heady prog-rock to mainstream radio pop", but at least 80's Genesis made some solid bangers.) But after about the 4th or 5th attempt to listen, you start to realize the song really is not as bad as that first impression ... but then you notice the lyrics are clunky, and it's not that great of a song either ... but it's also not bad enough to hate ... but the song is worse off for being part of a (once) much better band. Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford were probably much better off retiring the Genesis name and doing the Calling All Stations album under a different band name.
As a huge Peter Gabriel fan, I feel the lyrics of many Genesis songs after his era aren't up to par. Then again, Gabriel has such a unique style of writing and delivering lyrics that it isn't much of a surprise. What an innovative group of musicians though. Regardless of era or style.
@@timmy841212 It also didn't help that tattoo was basically superglued together from ancient unfinished demos and scrapped ideas from the 1984 sessions that would've sounded amazing in 1987 but were way past their prime by 2010.
The next Trainwreckord should be the king of albums that were hellish to make: Chinese Democracy. I don't know if it's technically a Trainwreckord but I think it would be interesting to discuss.
I am in the minority of people who like that album, not more than their classic stuff obviously, but on its own there are some songs I like a lot. That being said I can 100% understand why someone wouldn’t like it.
He might, considering his enthusiasm in the Van Halen III review. I don't imagine Guns N' Roses have been near as relevant ever since Chinese Democracy released. Scooped Mids did a review/retrospective of it on his channel, which is primarily how I know about that album, but I'm interested in Todd potentially having hot takes of his own on it.
Still waiting for a trainwreckord on either X Factor and Virtual XI from Iron Maiden. I enjoy a few songs from both albums, but they are the nadir of the band.
Producer and audio nerd here: When you have a sprawling 80s production like this, with a ton of separate elements coming together, some of them artificial, the thing that separates professional sheen from instantly dated cheese, is Gain Staging. What is Gain Staging? It's making sure each of the elements are the right volume. Y'know, the bread and butter of the job of a producer? the thing that people think of when they hear "Mixing"? Yeah they screwed that up.
Do you remember when in Spongebob, Squiward says "If we play loud enough, people will think we're good?" (or something like that), well... that's why the harmonies sounds SO FUCKING LOUD.
Someone should edit that! Squid: And a one, and a two, and a 1 2 3 4. THIS OLD HOUSE OF OURS IS BUILT ON DREAMS!!! Squid: Okay, new plan. Maybe we should play so quiet, no one can hear us.
1988-1991 (until release of Nirvana's 'Nevermind') was a weird transition time for music. A lot of it sounded like movie soundtrack background music. I mean, c'mon....that was the rise of Kenny G.
In his worst songs of 1991 video, Todd says it was a really weird "aborted experiment" year. Not necessarily *bad*, but the rise of grunge, alt-rock and gangsta rap would abruptly make almost everyone else look hopelessly out of date.
Speaking of Summer In Paradise Barry, a friend of mine notes the sound of American Dream kind of sounds similar to that beach boys album. Btw I think American Dream the album stares similarities with 2 other bad albums Todd covered previously: 1. Tension in the band and everyone contributes a song? Mardigras by Creedance Clearwater Revival got that 2. An album who's existence helped one or more band member out? David Crosby getting clean and this album being created as a result reminds me of what Todd said about St Anger helping keep Metallica together. In both cases, each album being born have those going for them.
It's interesting how this whole album feels like the band taking a wild, unsure stab at trying to sound contemporary by poking at different styles and sounds. Thing is, this kind of experiment sounds like an early 80's album, when everyone was still getting into the groove of what was the style of the decade. In 1988, this feels about 5 years late. I like to think, had this record come out about 7 years later, there would have been a song with some grunge elements in there, and probably a 90's ballad in there for good measure. Also, the production on the song "American Dream" (especially with those synth flutes) really sounds like the intro to some 90's PBS Kids show.
They actually were extremely close friends before forming. The story goes that when roy was recording his vocal parts, everyone else stopped everything they were doing and went into the studio just to listen to him sing.
I saw them, sans Neil, right after David got clean. At a small setting in Cleveland, and they were incredible and the first time I realized that they were actual musicians and I was lucky to hear them live. Maybe, better live than trying to make a album.
That's probably the album from them that I revisit the least. They never really found their footing again after "Tougher Than Leather." Even "Down With the King" sounded more like a Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth album than it did a Run DMC one.
Oh. Huh. It actually never occurred to me that this album might be bad. My mother used to love it, and played it all the time when I was a baby. I got into CSNY when I was a teenager, and while nothing on American Dream ever hit the heights of, say, Ohio, I certainly never hated listening to it. I guess that's probably because I didn't go into American Dream as a fan of the older work, expecting them to rekindle the magic, but rather went into the older work having been bottle-fed American Dream, and was blown away by it. Context matters, I suppose.
I don't know if you do requests, Todd, but I'd love to see you cover DEVO's Shout. The album that turned the pioneers of the 80's sound into an act that sounded like every cheesy 80's act. The album flopped hard and was hated by critics. It made Warner Bros drop them as an act, it made their drummer leave the band, and it destroyed their planned tour for the album. There's a reason why DEVO regrets this album and barely ever plays songs from it on tour.
I actually recently ordered and played New Traditionalists; the album has some of their best songs......and is also where you can start hearing them *try too hard* . Most of their albums before this, even if the songs weren't hits, there was a really nice consistency to them. That ends with New Traditionalists. I still want the Shout album for "Here To Go", but am honestly afraid to check out anything beyond that from them.
@@KingRandor82 They never really get consistently good again but Smooth Noodle Maps has a hysterical, mean and ridiculously catchy song about a dude in a wheelchair who's a total prick. It's called "Jimmy" and it's amazing.
@@KingRandor82 I dunno, I love New Traditionalists for every song on it, definitely their darkest album overall, I love it. Oh No, It’s Devo is to me the beginning of the end, a decent beginning of a mediocre end though
@@alexandertijerina1658 I'm not saying New Traditionalists is bad, it's just *inconsistent* . Oh No, It's Devo I absolutely love, and in part because even the songs that aren't hits have a consistency next to the ones that do. The inconsistency in New Traditionalists is where I think the problems started.
I love how Neil went from making an absolute proto-alt rock classic with Rust Never Sleeps to 10 years of failed experiments and then right back where he had left off. It's like he was swapped with a double in 1980 and returned in 1990.
The experiments didn't necessarily fail. Most of them weren't "experiments" at all to begin with. They just weren't commercial successes. The "Freedom" album was released in 1989, the famous SNL performance of "Rockin' In The Free World", too. As a live rock concert act he had been going strong again since 1986 with the "In A Rusted Out Garage" Tour that took the "Rust Never Sleeps/Live Rust" concept and turned it up to eleven. Neil and Pegi Young's son Ben was born in 1978. If you know Ben's story and Neil's problems with Geffen Records, you understand everything Neil did in the 1980s. He needed to be somebody else artistically or rely on reworked old material to survive emotionally. Neil played a total of one live show between October 1978 and mid-1982. His pre-Geffen albums in the 80s weren't experiments, they were just pieced together from old mid-70s material. The first Geffen album, "Trans", was assembled from three "conventional" tracks of an album Geffen had rejected and six electronic tracks that reflected Neil's attempts at communicating through technological means with his son who can't speak. The "Transformer Man" in the eponymous song is Ben. It's one of his best and most emotionally intense songs ever. Geffen absolutely hated the album, rejected Neil's next project, an excellent traditional country album, and demanded a "Rock 'n' Roll record". Neil's reaction to that was to morph into a 1950's Rocker pastiche and make a Rockabilly album. At that point he got sued by Geffen, basically for "refusing to be Neil Young". Since he had a contract that gave him creative control over his own work and public persona he filed a massive countersuit. After that Geffen had to apologise to him and had to release a reworked updated version of his country music project - and CSNY reunited for their performance at Live Aid, the real origin for the project that ended with "American Dream" album. A few months later Crosby turned himself in, went to prison in Texas, and got on his long road to recovery. Neil then cobbled an album with reworked older ideas and a terrible 80s "radio rock" production together. It has some really good songs on it (like "Violent side" and "Touch The Night"), but the production just doesn't work. The next album took live recordings from the amazing "In A Rusted Out Garage" tour and mutilated them with another terrible 80s production. Live bootlegs from that tour are eye-opening as to what that album could haven been. Great songs strangled by a terrible sound and mix. Neil's last album for Geffen records and the end of his missteps as a producer on his own records. After that he made the lovely "This Note's for You" R&B album with one of the most culturally relevant MTV videos ever (when MTV actually was culturally relevant...), got into the mess that "American Dream" and had his commercially successful comeback with "Freedom". Of course Todd, as usual, mentions or explains absolutely nothing of this in any significant way, just like he completely ignores the failed attempt at a new CSNY album after the 1974 stadium tour. He just parrots the old narratives from the first page of Google results plus a paragraph from a questionable biography, as per his established MO. That tour was the first modern concert tour of exclusively nothing but bigger baseball stadiums and football stadiums. It set the precedent for everything acts like the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, U2, Metallica did later. Attendances were between 32k and 90k, average attendance was over 62k, which was absolutely insane for the time. It cannot be overstated how dramatic the failure to make a new album at that particular point in the band's history was. They were pretty much the biggest live act in the world in the summer of 1974. Not even Neil in his most popular years has ever drawn average attendances as big as those for regular concerts. If they had followed that up with a good album with new material, instead of becoming completely dysfunctional and imploding, they could have been "bigger than the Beatles".
@@henrygvidonas9573 If you're dissatisfied with Todd's video, why don't you try making a video of your own on the downfall of CSNY? It seems to be a hyperfixation of yours.
@@henrygvidonas9573while people might feel that you seem a little harsh on todd, hopefully we can all appreciate the further detail and clear history you provide of this band, thanks for the added context!
19:28 This may have been said as a gag, but given his litigious attitude regarding copyright law (to the point that even this video was briefly blocked just for this snippet), Don Henley may as well _actually be_ that dark specter.
“Rocker” reminds me of that one time they had Japanese hardcore pro wrestling legend Terry Funk make an over-produced early 80’s pop album despite the fact that his voice can barely go above a decibel and the lyrics were 100% written for a singer minimum 20-30 years younger than Funk. Shit sounds straight out of a Tim and Eric sketch and I love it
Good to see this back. Since this episode is one I had stated interest in through a past comment, my top five for a possible future episode: * Union - Yes (Arista Records brings the two Yeses together for an album. In what should be a cool union, this is more like 2/3 of a ABWH album and the remaining third Yes West, and some of the musicians' parts were replaced by session musicians. The tour was a resounding success, but nobody in the band liked the album) * The (Byrne-less) Heads - No Talking, Just Head (the latter two Talking Heads albums were disappointing, and David Byrne pretty much ended the band. The Tom Tom Club thought they could go on without him... things get ugly) * Black Sabbath - Born Again (jeez that album cover is hideous! In theory it should work; Ian Gillan was a standout Deep Purple vocalist and should be a good substitute for Ozzy and Dio... it just didn't work out. Also obvious Spinal Tap reference possibility.) * Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Love Beach (another major supergroup with a notorious flop; Atlantic Records made them record a new album while they were tax exiles. 1978 was a tough year for prog, and even by that standard this is pretty bad) * Happy Mondays - ...Yes Please! (one of the craziest and most chaotic moments in recording history; when weeks spent in Barbados only got to produce one finished song and *LOTS* of crack, and it wound up bankrupting Factory Records, you know you have a Trainwreckord)
The story behind Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's Love Beach is fascinating, because Lake & Palmer were pissed off about Emerson bankrupting the band by doing these money-losing tours with symphony orchestras and multiple semi-trucks full of expensive gear. The band made Love Beach, because their money problems gave them no choice.
I’m going to also add other voices by the doors. The doors after Jim Morrison’s death go into the studio with whatever ideas they can string together. The golden age of grotesque by Marilyn Manson. Marilyn Manson still trying to be shocking despite the fact that now we have 9/11 & the Iraq war to worry about. Sorry, we don’t care about a pale guy with make up saying “look at me! Look at me!” NKOTB new kids on the block. I think I heard that this one only sold like 50 copies. The greatest hits of Chris gaines by Garth brooks. Kind of a double standard that only female country singers can cross over the park nowadays. From male country singers, all the public wants is a guy in a cowboy hat. (Old town road is a rare exception) Like him to review the Final Cut if nothing else to see what the comment section would look like. I’m ready with my popcorn!
Todd chose songs and videos from some of Neil's most maligned records to discuss his 80s flops. He did not include anything from Trans because Neil Young pretending to be a Decepticon is the best thing that's ever happened to this planet.
"Got It Made" is an effort to connect with first-generation CSNY fans who've become BMW-driving yuppies and urge them not to forget their idealism, but it didn't work out, and Stills has said so.
Even though the song is very embarrassing just from the sound clips. In fact, it's like Stephen Stills was trying to go all "Sweet Hitch-Hiker" there but failing miserably.
Didn't even notice the original upload got taken down, but here I am, watching and liking all over again. Rock on, Todd. You just keep getting better and better at what you do, and I love to see it.
My older sister was into CSN, back in the day she was 15-18 years old... When American Dream came out, she heard it in the radio. I happened to be there. She looked at me and laughed about a minute in and said, "Oh no! They got old" I said yea they sound like crap.
im gonna repeat my comment from before the vid got taken down This is one of the definitive Trainwreckords on here. Everything about it went wrong and fits with the ideal definition of a trainwreckord -Production -Songwriting -Promotion -Motivation -Band Chemistry -Reviews -Effort -Album art -Even the title sucks -Everything is a phone in This album should not have happened. This is akin to writing something like Nostalgia Critic's "The Wall" or freaking "Grandpa Metal" by Brian Posehn
I just checked. It wasn't there. Closest I can see is a CSN compilation. Then again, it's just me, a paying American subscriber, so not sure what it's like elsewhere.
I was a live sound engineer for many years and got to mix David and his band in 2013 at a beautiful venue in San Francisco. He was a joy to work with, and the performance was just excellent.
I know I'm a million years late to the party as usual here, but you are dead-ass correct about the old friends saying "hey, let's go do whatever that thing we used to do back in the day" thing. I just tried that a few weeks ago with an acoustic guitar camping trip thing we did back then, and it was nothing short of awkward, uncomfortable, and you could just tell that everyone was more or less praying for something to happen, causing us to have to pack up and go home. We made it 2.5 days out of ten, and by noonish of the third day it was thirty-seven different kinds of over for all of us.
@@moviemaestro800 my point is I should have known before I went and tried getting us all back together, and to be honest with you, I kinda did know it wouldn't go very well at all. I guess I was just being stupidly optimistic. We've all grown up, grown apart, and just aren't quite the same people we used to be. A couple of them haven't changed very much, but it's definitely not a good idea for me to hang with them given they will make it incredibly difficult to stay clean and sober. Meh, it is what it is. I've got my wife, 5 cats and a pit bull. That's good enough for me. I really don't need more people than that in my life anyway. More people brings more drama and such.
@@DeathMetalDerf Don't worry. I was more laughing with you than at you. It's admittedly hard to convey that in text form. I also know that feeling, and I am not even in my 30s yet.
So oddly enough the quote about Sammy Hagar's "I cant drive 55" being a young man's song is hilarious because Sammy Hagar was around the same age as the members of Crosby Stills Nash and Young.