1978: l’onda lunga del punk è devastante, si appresta a modificare per sempre il panorama musicale confluendo nella new wave, e quasi tutte le rockstar appaiono ormai tronfie e giurassiche. Tranne ovviamente Neil Young. Egli del punk è stato tra i padri putativi, e nel magma creato dalla rivoluzione del '77 sguazza felice, pronto a far risplendere la sua inimitabile cifra stilistica.
Detto fatto. Young torna sulla strada coi fedeli Crazy Horse e mette in scena uno dei più leggendari tour di sempre, estraendo da quella serie di concerti nove inediti che usciranno nel disco in questione. “Rust Never Sleeps” è probabilmente l’opera più significativa del canadese. Diviso in una facciata acustica e una elettrica, codifica alla perfezione i due lati musicali quintessenziali di Neil, tra spettrali ballate e assalti elettrici al fulmicotone. Concepito appunto in un periodo irripetibile, è quindi l’ occasione giusta per far venire al pettine i nodi dell’estetica younghiana, riordinarli formalmente in musica autentica e senza compromessi per renderli infine Arte nella forma più pura.
“La ruggine non dorme mai”: già il titolo centra in pieno una delle ossessioni del buon Neil: successo e declino, e capacità di esorcizzare la decadenza anche fisica tramite la musica. “It’s easy to get buried in the past / when you try to make a good thing last” aveva ammonito Neil in uno dei versi più significativi del capolavoro “On The Beach”.
La prima facciata di “Rust Never Sleeps” riprende e dilata con lucidità questo tema. Il primo pezzo è "My My, Hey Hey (Into The Black)". Mitizzato da Kurt Cobain, che citò il verso “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” nel suo messaggio d’addio, sintetizza mirabilmente il circolo vizioso dello show business. Quasi blasfemo nell’accostare Elvis ai Sex Pistols ("The King is gone but he’s not forgotten / Is this the story of Johnny Rotten?"), Neil riconosce nel punk la forza vitale che manderà avanti il canovaccio rock and roll. Logico passo successivo è “Thrasher”. Su una melodia cristallina, l’uomo dell’Ontario forgia il suo testo più intenso e descrive in un crescendo poetico da brividi la nascita dell’ispirazione artistica e il suo percorso in tal senso in mezzo alle rovine dei sogni della generazione di Woodstock, sinonimo di morte creativa (“where the vultures glides descending” ). Omaggia i caduti (“I searched out my companions / Who were lost in crystal canyons / When the aimless blade of science / slashed the pearly gates” oppure “I burned my credit card for fuel / heading out to where the pavement turns to sand / with a one way ticket to the land of truth and a suitcase in my hand / how I lost my friends I still don’t understand“), satireggia amaramente gli ormai imbolsiti protagonisti di quell’epopea (“They were lost in rock formations or became park bench mutations”, dedicato ai suoi ex sodali Crosby, Stills e Nash) per trovare infine salvezza nella musica ("When the thrasher comes I’ll be stuck in the sun / like the dinosaurs in shrines / But I’ll know that time has come to give what’s mine").
“Ride My Llama” e “Pocahontas” riprendono poi un altro celebre archetipo younghiano, quello degli indigeni americani. Specialmente “Pocahontas” lambisce lidi quasi letterari, ed è forse la ballata per eccellenza nel repertorio di Neil. Struggente e vivido ritratto di un’America autentica e tradita, è la conferma che la chiave per combattere i fantasmi evocati dall’album risiede nell’immaginazione e nella sua traduzione in Arte. Dopo la deliziosa “Sail away”, scheggia impazzita proveniente dal mondo di "Harvest", arriva impetuosa la seconda facciata.
Sono 4 brani soltanto, ma così devastanti da giustificare la co-intestazione del disco a Ralph Molina e soci. La copertina di “Rust Never Sleeps” è del resto eloquente, con quegli enormi amplificatori sullo sfondo. Con la rivoluzione punk in atto, non poteva che esserci un delirio da feedback. Apre le danze “Powderfinger” e qui Neil riesce nell’impresa di superare il suo maestro Dylan, creando un’epopea più memorabile di “Like a rolling stone” . Un lirismo sublime detta legge, dipingendo uno scenario di gioventù violentemente strappata in una società isterica e malata. Eccellenti sono anche “Welfare Mothers” e “Sedan Delivery”, allucinati e corrosivi ritratti dell’America post-Vietnam.
La chiusura spetta alla infernale reprise elettrica di “Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)”.
Probabilmente è questo il brano più influente - via Sonic Youth e Dinosaur Jr – sulla generazione grunge. La sezione ritmica di Molina e Talbot martella come le è consueto, mentre le chitarre di Sampedro e Young mitragliano inesorabili al grido di “Rock and Roll will never die” .
Epocale è ancora oggi la parola idonea a definire “Rust never sleeps”.
Elenco tracce e testi
02 Thrasher (05:40)
They were hiding behind hay bales,
They were planting in the full moon
They had given all they had for something new
But the light of day was on them,
They could see the thrashers coming
And the water shone like diamonds in the dew.
And I was just getting up, hit the road before it's light
Trying to catch an hour on the sun
When I saw those thrashers rolling by,
Looking more than two lanes wide
I was feelin' like my day had just begun.
Where the eagle glides descending
There's an ancient river bending
Through the timeless gorge of changes
Where sleeplessness awaits
I searched out my companions,
Who were lost in crystal canyons
When the aimless blade of science
Slashed the pearly gates.
It was then I knew I'd had enough,
Burned my credit card for fuel
Headed out to where the pavement turns to sand
With a one-way ticket to the land of truth
And my suitcase in my hand
How I lost my friends I still don't understand.
They had the best selection,
They were poisoned with protection
There was nothing that they needed,
Nothing left to find
They were lost in rock formations
Or became park bench mutations
On the sidewalks and in the stations
They were waiting, waiting.
So I got bored and left them there,
They were just deadweight to me
Better down the road without that load
Brings back the time when I was eight or nine
I was watchin' my mama's T.V.,
It was that great Grand Canyon rescue episode.
Where the vulture glides descending
On an asphalt highway bending
Thru libraries and museums, galaxies and stars
Down the windy halls of friendship
To the rose clipped by the bullwhip
The motel of lost companions
Waits with heated pool and bar.
But me I'm not stopping there,
Got my own row left to hoe
Just another line in the field of time
When the thrasher comes, I'll be stuck in the sun
Like the dinosaurs in shrines
But I'll know the time has come
To give what's mine.
07 Welfare Mothers (03:49)
People, pick up
on what I'm puttin' down now
Welfare mothers
make better lovers
Down at every
Laundromat in town now
Welfare mothers
make better lovers
While they're washin'
you can hear this sound now
Welfare mothers
make better lovers
Divorcee!
Hard to believe
that love is free now
Welfare mothers
make better lovers
Out on the street
with the whole family now
Welfare mothers
make better lovers
Hard to believe
that love is free now
Welfare mothers
make better lovers
Divorcee!
People, pick up
on what I'm puttin' down now
Welfare mothers
make better lovers
Down in every
Laundromat in town now
Welfare mothers
make better lovers
While they're washin'
you can hear this sound now
Welfare mothers
make better lovers
Divorcee!
08 Sedan Delivery (04:39)
Last night I was cool at the pool hall
Held the table for eleven games
Nothing was easier than the first seven
I beat a woman with varicose veins.
She stopped to see herself in the mirror
Fix her hair and hide heir veins
And she lost the game.
Next day I went to the dentist
He pulled some teeth and I lost some blood
We'd like to thank you for the cards you sent us
My wives and I were all choked up.
I recall how Caesar and Cleo
Made love in the Milky Way
They needed boats and armies to get there
I know there's a better way.
I saw the movie and I read the book
But when it happened to me
I sure was glad I had what it took
To get away.
Gotta get away, gotta get away
Gotta get away, gotta get away
I'm making another delivery
Of chemicals and sacred roots
I'll hold what you have to give me
But I'll use what I have to use.
The lasers are in the lab
The old man is dressed in white clothes
Everybody says he's mad
No one knows the things that he knows.
No one knows, no one knows
No one knows, no one knows
I'm sleepin' in every hallway
I just can't accept the stares
I'm using too many covers
I'm warm now so I don't care.
I'm thinkin' of no one in my mind
Sedan delivery is a job I know I'll keep
It sure was hard to find.
Hard to find. hard to find
Hard to find. hard to find
09 Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) (05:12)
Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There's more to the picture
Than meets the eye.
Hey hey, my my.
Out of the blue and into the black
You pay for this, but they give you that
And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black.
The king is gone but he's not forgotten
Is this the story of Johnny Rotten?
It's better to burn out 'cause rust never sleeps
The king is gone but he's not forgotten.
Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There's more to the picture
Than meets the eye.
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