Neil Young's huge body of work looms over rock history like a craggy, awe-inspiring and potentially treacherous mountain range. For neophytes, it can be a daunting prospect: how to find a path through nearly 40 years of music, much of it monolithic and – at first – rather forbidding?
"Greatest Hits" seeks to provide a safe passage of sorts, being the first compilation released by Young since the epic "Decade" set in 1977. "Greatest Hits" is, of course, something of a misnomer. While it's easy to make a case for Young – alongside Dylan – as the most significant artist in North American rock, his catalogue isn't exactly bursting with pop smashes. Only "Heart Of Gold" (Number Ten in March 1972) even made the British Top 30.
Nevertheless, this is an uncharacteristically straightforward compilation, that selects Young's signature tunes ("Cinnamon Girl", "After The Goldrush", "Like A Hurricane") ahead of the more cantankerous, gnarly patches of his career. The accent is on the '70s, and Young's mellower periods, with Crazy Horse only making the occasional appearance – unforgivably, nothing from "On The Beach" makes the cut. Consequently, it's difficult to imagine the curmudgeonly genius having much to do with the selection, especially since it deigns to include only two songs recorded after 1980 ("Rockin' In The Free World" and "Harvest Moon"). Young, we can only hope, is more concerned with his long-promised archival box set to worry about such a lightweight release.
Obsessives will gripe about the tracklisting for years to come, naturally. "Cortez The Killer", for a start, is shamefully excluded. But fanboy caveats aside, this is an absolutely fantastic compilation: at once horny-handed and sensuous; composed and untethered; full of songs that can be delicate and momentous at will. And even on an endeavour like this, Young stubbornly resists sanitisation. Few "Greatest Hits" albums can have begun so expansively and uncompromisingly, with the 20-minute double whammy of "Down By The River" and "Cowgirl In The Sand".
For anyone coming to Neil Young for the first time, "Greatest Hits" will be a revelation. What comes next – a journey into one of rock's most thrilling and unpredictable back catalogues – is where the real adventure starts.
