 | |
List Price: $33.98 | | Label: Universal Japan
Salesrank: 1010856
Released: September 2, 2002 |
| Our Price: $49.99 |
| Used Price: $29.21 |
|
| Media: Audio CD |
|
Lucky Thirteen Track Listing:
1. Sample and Hold
2. Transformer Man
3. Depression Blues
4. Get Gone
5. Don't Take Your Love Away from Me
6. Once an Angel
7. Where Is the Highway Tonight?
8. Hippie Dream
9. Pressure
10. Around the World
11. Mideast Vacation
12. Ain't It the Truth
13. This Note's for You
Editorial Review:
Originally released in 1993 this album features notable guest artists including Gail Davies, Rufus Thibodeaux, Waylon Jennings and Crazy Horse to name a few. The album is subtitled Excursions Into Alien Territory, Lucky Thirteen is a compilation of material young recorded during the 80's, a time when he was roaming all over the musical map in search of inspiration. Some of the more unusual byways traveled by Young included Gary Numan-flavored electro-pop ('Pressure'), traditional country ('Once An Angel') and rockabilly ('Get Done'). Import only!
Description of Lucky Thirteen:
Strange to say, this retrospective of '80s recordings from Neil Young's lamentable stretch with Geffen Records is a must-own for true fans of the man. Though it's riddled with failed experiments in everything from proto-techno to rockabilly to blues-rock (thanks to a few tracks from Young's return-to-Reprise effort, This Note's for You), and offers up the most diluted rock of Young's remarkable career, Lucky 13 is fascinating on its own skewed terms--if for no other reason than it provides a perspective on a brilliant artist struggling to find his footing on alien terrain. The opener sets the scene: Young and Crazy Horse make like Kraftwerk as Young's drastically processed voice robotically intones, "I need a unit to sample and hold." One can imagine the response it and other techno-pop Trans (as in "transgression"?) tracks had on the "Heart of Gold" crowd. From there, Young and various groups ping-pong hither and yon, coming up with mostly head-scratchers in the process. Just look at Lucky 13 as a shortcut through a bad patch for Young, and be prepared for some hairpin curves along the route. --Steven Stolder
Lucky Thirteen Reviews:
Neil, laughing all the way to the bank 
2009-04-15 - The single most frustrating aspect of Neil Young's career is the degree of loathing he has for his fans, his closest friends, and himself (read Shakey: Neil Young's Biography if you have no idea of what I'm talking about, and pay particular attention to the "Tonight's The Night" tour, plus his relationships with Stephen Stills and the late Nicolette Larson).
Amazon nailed it in their product description: Lucky Thirteen captures a "lamentable stretch with Geffen Records" and is "a must-own for true fans of the man." This is Neil's Metal Machine Music, an unbelievable act of contempt toward the fans who bankrolled the purchase of that sprawling ranch in Redwood City. Bravo, Neil...bravo.
David Geffen later sued Young for producing a 10-year stretch of flops that "didn't sound like Neil Young." Young, of course, found this to be hilarious.
Without question, the Geffen records encapsulate the worst of Young's 4 decade-plus career. Big joke to Neil, bigger rip-off to his fans.
Neil Young - The Experimental Years Compiled 
2008-08-13 - "Lucky 13" is a compilation album of tracks from albums that Young recorded for Geffen in the early to mid 80's. Ever the chameleon, Young signed with Geffen records in 1981 after having a huge career during the 70's. Instead of sticking with the status quo Young put out a series of experimental albums that eventually got him sued by his own record company for not being commercial enough! These albums included "Trans" which was mostly electronic music, "Old Ways" which was basically a country album, "Everybody's Rocking" which was a rockabilly album, "Landing On Water" which was a new wavish pop rock album, "Life" which was a rather average recording with Crazy Horse, and "This Notes For You" an album of blues. None of these albums did that well at the cash registers and it did not help that as soon as Young left Geffen he released his big comeback album "Ragged Glory". A lot of people missed out on the Geffen releases but there was some nice stuff to be found on them and I personally thought "Trans" was great. In fact "Trans" is the album that first turned me on to Neil Young which most people find very strange considering the album is so different from anything else he has done before or since. The tracks on "Lucky 13" are a mix of the original album tracks and some live stuff, but it all comes from the Geffen years. The only real hit to be found here is a live version of "This Notes For You", Neil's protest song about classic rock being used in advertisements that managed to get quite a bit of radio play at the time. Although most Young fans look at the Geffen years as a low point in his career I think this compilation is packed with solid songs. "Sample And Hold", "Transformer Man", "Depression Blues", "Hippie Dream", "Around The World" and "Mideast Vacation" are all great. The rest of the tracks are decent too and the whole thing shows what an incredibly diverse artist Young really is. If you are a Young fan and looked over the Geffen albums this little compilation is worth checking out. I always enjoy it when I pull it out from time to time.
Best way to enjoy Neil's 80's work....seriously....
2007-12-09 - Neil Young went through a turbulent (some have suggested using the word sucky) period in the 80's, like Bob Dylan. Whereas Bob put out regular albums that were mostly garbage, Neil experimented a lot and tried new things, but it still ended up being mostly garbage. He was even sued by David Geffen for putting out substandard product. This album is actually a good pickup for the hardcore Young fans out there, as it has the best songs from that period on it. It was compiled by Young himself, and it's better than buying all the 80's albums you can, because, quite frankly, most aren't worth picking up by themselves. This album has the lovely Once an Angel, the best song off of Old Ways, a failed, overblown country experiment by Neil. But Once an Angel is one of the more straightforward songs on that album, and works beautifully. I actually like Sample and Hold (probably because it's long) and Transformer Man. Young sounds a little like Jethro Tull in their Under Wraps/A phase, which wasn't welcomed by the fans either (for the record, A and Under Wraps are good albums). I like This Note's For You, one of Neil's underrated songs. So, instead of picking up all the 80's albums, pick this one up at a used CD shop. Save yourself time, money, and aggravation.
A very good album 
2007-06-05 - It tooks me some times to love this album because it's not the usual Neil Young's stuff. But compiled by Neil himself, it not only sumarised his lost period but reinvented it. As a whole, it's a very diverse and solid album.
It began's by two electronics tracks wich are both very good (Sample and hold and Tranformer man) and melodic. Than you have a wonderful Old ways outake (depression blues), wich is contry Neil Young at his best. The two unrealesed live cuts from 83 (Get Gone and Don't take your love away from me) are revelatory, especialy the second one wich should be an all time Neil's classic.
The two country tracks (Once an angel, Were is the highway) from Old ways are well chosen, as are the tracks from Landing the water and Life wich were not very good albums (80's production). The compilation ends with two more good unrealesed live cuts from 88, including a very lively version of the classic This not for You !
But this compilation is for us to appreciate ! As a whole this is a very diverse and solid album wich ranks among the good ones from Neil.
for avid fans and the insanely curious only 
2004-06-21 - Neil Young put together this compilation album in 1993 as a buy-out from Geffen Records. To Neil's credit, he did some manuevering to create a salable product, at least for his own loyal fan base. Unfortunately, the Geffen years were Neil's least prodigious, and some of Neil's choices for this project are wide open for second-guessers like me and you.
The Geffen years included Young songs copyrighted between 1982 and 1988, one year shy of the landmark 'Freedom' CD (Geffen must not be living right). 'Lucky Thirteen' opens with two songs from his 1983 release 'Trans', 'Sample and Hold' and 'Transformer Man'. While the extended version of 'Sample and Hold' (originally offered on the European import version of the album) is nice to have, 'Transformer Man' can be found on three other Young discs and two video releases. An unreleased composition from the 'Old Ways' sessions, 'Depression Blues' follows, a nice but unspectacular acoustic track. Two tracks from the officially released 'Old Ways' disc are also included, 'Once An Angel' and 'Where Is the Highway Tonight'. 'Once An Angel' is easily the better track chosen from this collection of acoustic country compositions.
Twice on this CD Neil wisely dips into some live material that wouldn't otherwise see the light of day. The 'Old Ways' tracks are split by two live recordings of Neil and The Shocking Pinks on their 1983 tour. Captured live in Dayton, Young offers two unreleased compositions, the rockabilly 'Get Gone', which fits in well with other retro-rockers from the 'Everybody's Rockin' disc, and 'Don't Take Your Love Away From Me', a pure blues-rock number in the same vein as 'After Berlin' from this same time period.
Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come. In the mid-1980's, Young produced two of his weakest efforts. From 'Landing On Water', released in 1986, we get the synthesizer driven 'Hippie Dream', which ironically lowballs the era and mindset that spawned Young's own career, with 'Wooden Ships' taking an undeserved broadside, and 'Pressure', which sounds like an adrenalin-laced bad Devo imitation. Young barfed on 'Landing On Water' with 'Life', and despite returning Crazy Horse to the studio, Young remained in songwriting misery. 'Around the World' and 'Mideast Vacation' are only mediocre by Young standards.
Numbers 12 and 13 return to the live recording strategy, and work well. Neil's last official production with Geffen was 'This Note's For You', a quality work that signaled Young's return to form. We're caught by two catchy tunes from the road, the first being the unreleased 'Ain't It the Truth', a song Neil first performed with his band The Squires in 1964. It's a nice little rocker with obvious historical interest for Young fans. We also get a live version of the title track from 'This Notes For You', an energetic protest number skewering commercialism, recorded in the World Headquarters for Commercialism, Hollywood, California and ending up on this all-too-commercial disc for entirely commercial reasons.
If you're into creating your own CD's, it's nice to have these unreleased and live recordings to add to other period pieces. For instance, try tacking the live Shocking Pink's tracks onto the end of 'Everybody's Rockin' to fill out that sparse disc. And if you wisely have not slapped good money down for some of Neil's misguided 1980's products ('Old Ways', 'Landing On Water' and 'Life'), here's your chance to possess proof of your wisdom. It's almost comical to compare this 'greatest hits' package with other Neil Young compilations such as 'Decade' or 'Live Rust', but at the same time Young has found ways to fire up the interest of his followers. Lyrics are included in this, one of the strangest compilations you'll ever come across.
