I saw Neil Young (with Crazy Horse) for the first time on 2 June 1987 in the Birmingham NEC aircraft hangar. I wanted to hear him do new songs, and was disheartened that, each time he started up one of the boring old warhorses like Sugar Mountain or Heart of Gold, the rest of the audience made it clear that that's what they wanted to hear. I wrote a letter to the Neil Young Appreciation Society to say so, and caused a bit of a storm on the letters page — or as much of a storm as is possible when there are three months between each issue.
Neil played one unreleased song that night: American Dream, done as a solo acoustic ballad.
On this album a version of the same song, recorded March 1988, crops up with '80s pop synths and handclaps all over it.
You wake up in the middle of the night.
Your sheets are wet and your face is white,
You tried to make a good thing last,
How could something so good, go bad, so fast?
Irony? Intended, or not? By one, or all? Apparently Neil had said, as a kind of carrot, that if Crosby ever kicked his coke habit, he would record with them again as CSNY. Years later, Crosby finally managed it, and this album was the fulfilment of that 'contractual' obligation. (I'm not making this up, but I may be trading in gossip, rumour and Chinese whispers.)
Tucked inside the booklet for this CD is a yellowing clipping from a music paper, which I stowed away many years ago, quoting Graham Nash: "Nash says the band's current American Dream album is even more timely now than it was when it was recorded. He says the critics didn't give the album the credit it was due. 'They didn't read the (album) title. They didn't look at the album cover,' Nash says. 'It was a well-conceived project. One side of the album cover is paradise, the other is hell and the American Dream is in between."
Oh, suddenly it all clicks into place, doesn't it? Listen, Ben, I know you like CSN, but, really, this is a struggle. The album is actually under an hour long, but it feels like it goes on forever, especially in the middle where there's a long gap between Neil Young songs. What can you say? You can say that the backing vocal harmonies are 'nice', and I'd agree with that. The end.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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