In his cocky bars on JT’s “Okay” remix, Jeezy bragged that a rocky divorce wouldn’t stop from enjoying the summer months. But the “Super Hero” rapper’s now ex-wife, Emmy Award-winning TV host, Jeannie Mai claims that he still has a list of things to do before he can act out his “single as a dollar bill” line.
In an exclusive report published by TMZ, Jeannie Mai accused Jeezy of failing to comply with the stipulations outlined in their divorce settlement.
Jeannie claimed that Jeezy did not make good on his coverage of daycare costs and school tuition for their daughter Monaco reportedly amounting to $4,000. The court document also stated that Jeezy hasn’t provided Jeannie with access to an investment account (supposedly in the amount of $500,000) for their daughter.
Outside of his parental obligations, Jeannie stated that she is still waiting for Jeezy to reimburse her for four months of her rent (allegedly totaling $92,417.39). Lastly, Jeannie argued that Jeezy hasn’t yet transferred the titles of a 2021 Range Rover and a 2022 Ford Bronco into her name. His supposed lack of action has allegedly prevented her from securing insurance or from having one of the vehicles shipped from their former martial residence in Atlanta to her newly established residence in Los Angeles.
Jeezy has not yet issued a legal response or public statement regarding Jeannie Mai’s claims.
Prolific book-based sagas involving intrigue, spies, detectives, and ex- military men are having an extended moment on streaming services. From Slow Horses to Jack Ryan, The Night Agent, and Reacher, subscribers are enjoying both straightforward and off-kilter adaptations of best-selling novels with multi-season success and viewers reaping the benefits of these literary inspirations.
On subject of that last “detective” (an amateur, since he’s now civilian and no longer a “Special Investigator”), even the biggest Reacher devotees can admit that his power of deduction can be silly to behold. That’s a rough realization to admit since Jack Reacher’s mind is supposed to be as powerful as his body, but we can’t have perfection, or can we? The upcoming Alex Cross TV show starring Aldis Hodge could deliver that seemingly impossible combination but in a less showy way. Amazon certainly has confidence in the show while renewing for a second season before first-season premiere day. Let’s talk about what we can expect from Amazon’s Cross.
This series follows Tyler Perry’s 2012 Alex Cross movie and Morgan Freeman’s version of the character in Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider in 1997 and 2001, respectively. Due to Amazon’s commitment to read its audiences’ minds in the Dad TV realm, however, Cross is promising to be the next long-running, great-detective bingewatch. The show is, of course, based upon James Patterson’s long-running book series, in which the Washington, D.C.-based forensic psychologist and detective is known to climb inside the heads of a wide variety of criminals from serial killers to bank robbers.
Amazon’s series description pounces on Cross’ unique, laser-focused abilities that make him “uniquely capable of digging into the psyches of killers and their victims, in order to identify—and ultimately capture—the murderers.” A teaser trailer has shown a defendant refusing to believe that Cross can climb inside his head, only to be told that Cross is “living rent free” there, regardless of what the defendant does. And what of due process? Don’t worry, that will happen, but let’s just trust the storytelling process here.
What might be unexpected with Cross, however, is that the show (the first season at least) will not be based upon a specific Patterson novel.
In a new interview with TV Insider Aldis Hodge has dropped some hints about the show’s practical set up, which (at least with the first season) isn’t based on any particular book but, instead, “is based on the foundation of Alex Cross” with creator Ben Watkins “tak[ing] the bone structure of that world and fill[ing] it up with a beautiful story.” As a result, the TV series will stand separately from the movies as “something completely unique.”
The show will begin with the death of Cross’ wife, after which a year will pass, and the the PD pulls him back from family leave because he’s the only guy who can work this serial killer case. Hodge told TV Insider how these two separate developments will fuel his character through the first season:
“He is absolutely looking for his wife’s killer and we explore that through the season. The greatest failure of his life is the fact that he was not able to protect his wife. It affects every facet of his life, it’s what motivates him. You get to see what love means to him after his loss … He wanted to take some time away, but instead, he gets pulled into a very serious and sinister case with a new serial killer moving narcotics and they need him to handle it.”
Hodge added of this serial killer, “Without saying too much, he is definitely a formidable opponent for Cross. He has a very specific and unique ambition that drives what he does and why he does it.”
For his part, Patterson has called the series “a little edgier” than his books, “which I really like.” And here’s the first-season synopis:
Cross is a crime thriller that follows the investigations of brilliant forensic psychologist and DC Metro Detective Alex Cross. Together with his best friend and partner Detective John Sampson, Cross delves into the psyches of America’s most insidious killers while fighting to protect his family from the dangers of the criminal world.
On a seemingly unrelated note but still relevant, Aldis Hodge is no slouch in the “being ripped” department. Yet it seems unlikely that his sex appeal will figure prominently into Cross during the first season, given his character’s grieving period. And whether or not future Cross seasons will take him there, or further adapt specific Patterson books remains a mystery (please do not draw from Patterson’s sex-prose, Amazon), but there are 30+ possibilities to draw from if the show’s writers choose to do so.
Cast
A new Alex Cross is truly upon us with Aldis Hodge. He will be joined in the first season by Isaiah Mustafa (as Cross’ best friend, John Sampson), Caleb Elijah and Melody Hurd (as Cross’ children), and Juanita Jennings (as Cross’ grandmother), along with Eloise Mumford, Samantha Walkes, Jennifer Wigmore, Alona Tal, Ryan Eggold, and Johnny Ray Gill. For the second season, Matthew Lillard, Jeanine Mason, and Wes Chatham will join the cast.
Release Date
On November 14, 2024, audiences will be able to compare Hodge’s Cross with that of Tyler Perry and Morgan Freeman. The second-season release date likely won’t be revealed until a year or so from now, so enjoy that ride.
Trailer
The aforementioned one-liner goes a long way here to stoke audience interest:
Remember the movie Pleasantville, the 1998 fantasy dramedy with Reese Witherspoon and Tobey Maguire, where the two modern teens get transported into their favorite 1950s black-and-white sitcom, bringing color and chaos into the lives of the characters in the titular small town?
That’s basically the plot of Pharrell‘s latest Doodles video, “Can’t Hold Me Down” with Kyle Ricch, Lil Wayne, and Lil Yachty, only sort of in reverse. Most of the video takes place in the greyscale Dullsville, but the three rappers invade the airwaves via the denizens’ TV sets, blasting them with color and brainwashing them into dancing to Pharrell’s boisterous beat.
“Can’t Hold Me Down” is the second single from Pharrell’s ongoing project with Doodles, the next-gen entertainment company that spun off from the NFT craze a couple of years ago and now looks to, apparently, get into the animation and film businesses with the Dullsville And The Doodleverse movie. The movie will debut at The Toronto International Film Festival featuring the vocal talents of Lil Wayne, Lil Yachty, Coi Leray, and Swae Lee, with a soundtrack produced by Pharrell. The movie was announced in July, with the Coi Leray-led single “Not In The Store” following in August.
You can watch the video for “Can’t Hold Me Down” above.
The 2024 NFL season kicked off on Thursday night with the Chiefs beating the Ravens by a toe (literally), as NBC got the league’s first broadcast of the year underway with Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, and Melissa Stark on the call from Kansas City.
While we didn’t see any major changes to the three primetime announce teams this season, there is one massive addition to the world of NFL broadcasting this year, as Tom Brady makes his long-awaited debut in the booth for FOX on Sunday afternoon when the Cowboys take on the Browns. Along with Brady’s addition, there are some shakeups to booth pairings at both FOX and CBS down the line, and on the studio side, both CBS and ESPN shuffled their pregame show lineups. Here, you can find the announce teams and studio show crews for each major network, as we get ready for another season of NFL action.
FOX
Brady’s arrival at FOX is the biggest news in the world of football broadcasting in some time, and he’ll join Kevin Burkhardt in the top booth, with Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi on sidelines. That also shuffled the rest of the FOX crews, as Greg Olsen moved back to the No. 2 booth with Joe Davis and Pam Oliver, setting off a domino effect down the line. The studio crew, however, remains unchanged as FOX NFL Sunday remains the gold standard for NFL pregame shows.
Announce Teams
Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady, Erin Andrews, and Tom Rinaldi
Joe Davis, Greg Olsen, and Pam Oliver
Adam Amin, Mark Sanchez, and Kristina Pink
Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma, and Megan Olivi
Kevin Kugler, Daryl Johnston, and Laura Okmin
Chris Myers, Mark Schlereth, and Jen Hale
FOX NFL Sunday
Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Michael Strahan, Jimmy Johnson, Jay Glazer, and Rob Gronkowski
CBS
CBS once again features Jim Nantz, Tony Romo, and Tracy Wolfson in their top booth, with most of their announce teams sticking together from last year. The biggest change at CBS is on the studio side, where Matt Ryan is in on the NFL Today, leaving the booth for the New York studio, and Phil Simms and Boomer Esiason are out.
Announce Teams
Jim Nantz, Tony Romo, and Tracy Wolfson
Ian Eagle, Charles Davis, and Evan Washburn
Kevin Harlan, Trent Green, and Melanie Collins
Andrew Catalon, Tiki Barber, Jason McCourty, and AJ Ross
Spero Dedes, Adam Archuleta, and Aditi Kinkhabwala
Tom McCarthy, Ross Tucker, Jay Feely, and Tiffany Blackmon
NFL Today
James Brown, Bill Cowher, JJ Watt, Nate Burleson, Matt Ryan, and Jonathan Jones
NBC
NBC hasn’t made any major changes to their booth or studio lineups this year, as Tirico, Collinsworth, and Stark are back together in the lead booth. They’ll take their top college football team and use them for Peacock games, like the Packers-Eagles game from Brazil on Friday night, and get Kaylee Hartung on loan from Amazon for sideline duty.
Announce Teams
Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, and Melissa Stark
Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge, and Kaylee Hartung
Football Night in America
Maria Taylor, Jason Garrett, Devin McCourty, Chris Simms, Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison, Mike Florio, and Jac Collinsworth
ESPN
Now that ESPN has its Monday Night Football booth set in stone, the only changes being made to their NFL broadcast teams comes in the form of some studio show shakeups. Mike Greenberg joins Sunday NFL Countdown after they let Sam Ponder go, while Jason Kelce joins Monday Night Countdown in place of Robert Griffin III. On the ManningCast, Bill Belichick is now the permanent first half guest with Peyton and Eli.
Announce Teams
Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, and Lisa Salters (and sometimes Laura Rutledge)
Chris Fowler, Dan Orlovsky, Louis Riddick, and Laura Rutledge
ManningCast
Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, and Bill Belichick (first half)
Monday Night Countdown
Scott Van Pelt, Jason Kelce, Marcus Spears, Ryan Clark, Michelle Beisner-Buck, and Adam Schefter
Sunday NFL Countdown
Mike Greenberg, Tedy Bruschi, Randy Moss, Rex Ryan, Alex Smith, and Adam Schefter
Charissa Thompson, Tony Gonzalez, Richard Sherman, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Andrew Whitworth, and Taylor Rooks
NFL Network
NFL Network will carry seven games this year, as they’ll broadcast three games from London and one from Germany, as well as a Week 17 tripleheader with announce crews TBD. For three of those games, Rich Eisen and Kurt Warner will be on the call, with a different sideline tandem for each.
Announce Teams
Rich Eisen, Kurt Warner, and either Stacey Dales/Jamie Erdahl, Stacey Dales/Steve Wyche, or Jamie Erdahl/Sara Walsh
Chris Rose, Joe Thomas, and Steve Wyche
Since the Bayou Barbie became one of the hottest players in women’s basketball, everyone has been trying to get a piece of Angel Reese. Fortunately for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, she’s all theirs (at least until her contract is up). But on the romantic court, Angel Reese hasn’t appeared to publicly draft anyone to her roster.
However, that hasn’t stopped fans from tying the WNBA star to another prominent Chicago figure, which would make her “Hip-hop’s favorite rookie” title stick. Users online are convinced that Angel Reese and “No Guts, No Glory” rapper G Herbo are secretly dating. Now, Angel Reese has opened up about the ongoing rumors. Continue below for more information.
Are Angel Reese & G Herbo Dating?
Yesterday (September 5), during the premiere episode of her new podcast, Unapologetically Angel, Angel Reese addressed those pesky G Herbo dating rumors.
Around the episode’s 31-minute mark, Angel Reese brushed off the public’s speculation. According to Angel, her relationship with G Herbo is more sibling than lover. In fact, she called out users online for pushing it further than that based on dull video footage circulated online.
“You didn’t see me in the car kissing this man,” she said. “So, where did y’all get [dating] from?”
Angel’s comments were in response to co-host Maya Reese’s mentioning of the pair being spotted riding around Chicago together (viewable here) in late June. Angel revealed that the night in question, she, Herbo and two friends, who were seated in the back seats but obscured by the tinted windows, were leaving popular nightclub Bevy. Earlier in the month, Angel Reese and friends attended Herbo’s concert at the United Center, where the pair then connected backstage (viewable here).
Angel went on to say that G Herbo has been like a big brother to her since getting drafted to the team. He’s helped her navigate the city and is a go-to support system with any help she needs securing anything locally.
But for those who doubt her story, Angel added why she wouldn’t date G Herbo. “That man has three kids,” she said. “I don’t do kids.”
Watch the full episode of Unapologetically Angel above.
Even with Bill Skarsgard’s smeared eyeliner and the film’s giggle-filled promotion, The Crow did not live up to studio hopes, ad expectations were already pretty low, so it’s not looking good for Lionsgate on this title.
After years of pushback and delays, the remake hit theaters on August 23rd, and The Crow has made only $18 million worldwide so far, which would be a different reality it was a student film or shot by an iPhone, but it actually had a budget of $50 million, which it will almost certainly not make back even after VOD.
On average, the box office total boils down to about $59 per theater, as highlighted by Collider. Considering that the average movie ticket is $12-15 (unless you’re AMC A-list like Nicole Kidman) that’s about four people seeing it at 2,700 domestic locations. And those three or four people are probably Skarsgard relatives.
The movie was already in hot water before it hit theaters. Even Alex Proyas, who directed the 1994 classic, slammed the remake for existing in the first place, “THE CROW is not just a movie. Brandon Lee died making it, and it was finished as a testament to his lost brilliance and tragic loss. It is his legacy. That’s how it should remain.”
The Crow is currently out in theaters, but who knows how long it will stay there.
The Baltimore Ravens were one 2-point conversion away from knocking off the Kansas City Chiefs on the road to kick off the NFL season, as Lamar Jackson found Isaiah Likely in the back of the end zone for a touchdown as time expired. Instant replay, however, had other ideas, as it was determined that Likely’s toe was out of bounds, thereby giving Kansas City a 27-20 win as they start their quest for a third Super Bowl in a row.
It was a heartbreaker for Baltimore, which had the Chiefs on the ropes but could not land the knockout blow in the game’s waning moments — making matters worse was that Jackson missed two throws in the two plays preceding the final play of the game that would have been touchdowns. And in the immediate aftermath of the game, a team that knows better than anyone else in all of sports about how a toe can change your fortunes responded to the way things ended.
The Bucks, of course, won an NBA championship in 2021 in large part because Kevin Durant’s sneaker was a little too big. Durant and the Nets nearly took down the Bucks in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals in Brooklyn that year, but KD’s jumper in the waning moments of regulation tied the game because his toe was on the line — Durant famously likes to wear his sneakers up a size. As for whether he sees similarities between that moment and Likely’s near-touchdown, well, he hasn’t tweeted anything, so we don’t know for sure.
The last five Palme d’Or winners at the Cannes Film Festival have gone to Neon movies: Parasite (which also won Best Picture at the Oscars), Titane, Triangle of Sadness, Anatomy of a Fall, and most recently, Anora.
The film has been praised by critics for its remarkable performance from Mikey Madison, who you know from FX’s Better Things and as one of the Manson Family followers in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and writer and director Sean Baker’s funny-yet-earnest script. (This should not be a surprise to anyone who has seen his other movies, like Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket.)
Here’s everything to know about Anora, one of the must-see films of the fall, including plot details and when it’s coming to theaters.
Plot
Let’s begin with the official plot synopsis, courtesy of Neon: “Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.” Based on the trailer, you will be charmed.
Mikey Madison was offered the lead role as Anora without even auditioning. That’s how much Sean Baker loved her performances in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Scream. “I said ‘yes’ even before I read the script,” she told The Cut. “I knew whatever he created was something I would want to be a part of.” Her preparation to play Anora included talking to “multiple consultants, sex workers, read memoirs, anything that I could do. I went to strip clubs and watched women in Los Angeles… That sounds creepy.”
Sex work is a common theme in Baker’s films, and Anora is no exception. “There’s a million stories to be told in the world of sex workers… It’s livelihood, it’s a career, it’s a job and it’s one that should be respected,” he shared to The Hollywood Reporter. “In my opinion, it should be decriminalized and not in any way regulated because it is a sex worker’s body and it is up to them to decide how they will use it in their livelihood.”
Cast
Outside of Mikey Madison, Anora also stars Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, and Aleksei Serebryakov.
Eydelshteyn, the 22-year-old actor who plays Ivan, the son of a Russian oligarch who impulsively marries Anora, has apparently been dubbed the “Russian Timothée Chalamet” (I can see it). “For me, it’s a mind-blowing situation, because in Russian people are saying I’m a Russian Timothée Chalamet and now you’re saying it in English. It’s crazy, it’s like a joke that has gone out of control,” he told Variety about the comparison. “It did become a little annoying, but then I watched Dune, and now I think he’s probably one of the best actors of my generation. Him and Barry Keoghan.”
Release Date
Anora hits theaters on October 18, the same weekend as Flight Risk. Please go see Anora instead of the Mel Gibson movie.
Sabrina Carpenter’s album Short N’ Sweet barely managed to edge out Travis Scott’s tape Days Before Rodeo on this week’s edition of the Billboard 200 chart, earning the approval of Nicki Minaj.
The recording industry can be a competitive business, but no one takes that competition more seriously than Nicki and her minions. And while she’s usually the one in the lead on any given release week, she apparently still considers her No. 2 debut for Queen in 2018 a black spot on her record because of Travis Scott’s Astroworld. Nicki has clearly been out for revenge ever since, and this past week, she finally got it, in a way, thanks to Sabrina Carpenter. Nicki thanked Carpenter for avenging her by sending her a massive bouquet of white roses. Carpenter posted a photo of the bouquet on her Instagram Story with a caption reading, “I adore u + the barbz :’) this is so thoughtful!!!! and these are so beautiful.”
Sabrina Carpenter reveals Nicki Minaj sent her flowers:
“I adore u + the barbz :’) this is so thoughtful!!!! and these are so beautiful” pic.twitter.com/BxpkChgNmF
Carpenter took up the challenge of putting Travis in his place when the release dates for their respective projects — her album Short N’ Sweet and his mixtape Days Before Rodeo — fell on the same day. “This one’s for Nicki,” she wrote on Twitter, reminding fans of Nicki’s 2018 feud with the Houston rapper for outselling her by skirting Billboard‘s counting rules (she did the same, but that’s neither here nor there for Nicki. If she wins, it’s because she’s the best; if she loses, there was a conspiracy rife with chicanery to keep her from her deserved success). Nicki clearly appreciates the thought.
In the parlance of Neil Young albums, “Ditch” refers to the trilogy of records he put out in the mid-1970s after the success of 1972’s Harvest and Neil’s star-making turn in Crosby, Stills, Nash, And Young. According to well-worn legend, these albums — 1973’s Time Fades Away, 1974’s On The Beach, and 1975’s Tonight’s The Night — represent Young’s rebellion against fame and mark an aggressive turn away from mainstream accessibility.
Here’s the problem: In the parlance of public esteem, those records endure as some of the most beloved music in Neil Young’s discography. You would have to look long and hard to find any Neil fan who believes that On The Beach and Tonight’s The Night are provocative or alienating. If anything, they are now considered entry points for newcomers into the man’s work.
I would argue that if we are talking about the actual “Ditch” in Neil Young’s career, you have to look one decade later, to the mid-’80s. At that time, Neil was battling crises on multiple fronts. He was pushing 40. His record sales had fallen off a cliff. The head of his label, David Geffen, was openly hostile to his new material. Not even music critics — usually a reliable base of support — could make sense of his idiosyncratic artistic whims. He appeared to be flailing, moving from one misbegotten experiment to the next. Synth-rocker one year, country traditionalist the next, rockabilly cat the year after that.
With the benefit of historical hindsight, we know that Neil Young pulled out of this tailspin by the end of the ’80s, and in the ’90s he enjoyed renewed popularity and cultural relevance. But in the moment, it must have seemed as though the icon had, well, lost his damn mind.
The most intriguing aspect of Neil Young Archives, Vol. III: 1976-1987 — a massive box set composed of 17 CDs (plus five Blu-Rays containing 11 films in the deluxe edition) — is that it’s not necessarily designed to dissuade you from questioning the sanity of ’80s Neil. On the contrary, it takes a warts and all approach to his most polarizing era, encouraging fans to revisit albums they might have dismissed years ago without quite making the case that they’re “secretly great.” There are gems buried in the mix, but there’s also plenty of misfires that will register as either fascinating or tedious, depending on your level of Neil fandom. (Who are we kidding — if you care about this box set, you are definitely a fanatic.)
To be sure, there are also some unequivocal triumphs contained here: The box covers the making of American Stars N’ Bars, Comes A Time, and the monumental Rust Never Sleeps. And it also has glimmers of the comeback that commenced with Freedom in 1989. But for the most part, Archives, Vol. III covers the stretch of time in Neil’s artistic life — ages 31 to 42 — when he teetered on the brink of permanent has-been-ism.
As always, Neil’s lack of vanity sets him apart from his peers. Unlike Bob Dylan, who seems utterly uninterested in his own voluminous vaults and leaves the reissue business to his dedicated team, Neil has always been hands-on with his archives. And that seems doubly true of Archives, Vol. III, which is accented with brief “raps” where Neil gives sparse details about the sessions compiled on each disc. (It sounds like he’s talking into a tape recorder in a remote log cabin.) But the biggest revelation of the box are the films, directed by Young under the “Bernard Shakey” pseudonym. Some of these movies have been fitfully available before going out of print, while others have never been distributed. Together they form a portrait of a great man losing his grip on greatness right before he regained it.
With a box this large, it might be hard to know where to start. With that in mind, I’ve created a listening and viewing guide with three tiers. Of course, Neil would likely disparage this approach. Why stay on the road someone made for you when you can just head for the ditch?
Tier 1: The Essentials
A lot of the music on Archives, Vol. III is either an acquired taste or of interest only to the most serious (or perverse) Neil heads. Across The Water is the exception. The double album and corresponding concert film document Neil’s world tour with Crazy Horse in 1976, with stops in London, Glasgow, and Tokyo. Can I interest you in live versions of “Cortez The Killer” and “Down By The River” culled from the mid-’70s, when this all-time world-class badass rock band was at the zenith of their powers? I thought so. (If Neil were only about showcasing his greatest music, we would have an entire box set focused solely on this tour by now.)
As for the film, it surely is the best-looking live footage of the Horse from this era in general circulation. The music is interspersed with fly-on-the-wall, cinema verité clips that emphasize the dullness of backstage life, as was the norm for “on tour” rock docs post-Don’t Look Back. And yet, for diehards, there might be something mesmerizing about watching Eliot Roberts take what feels like 20 minutes to order an elegantly extravagant breakfast from hotel room service. And it is definitely a blast watching the guys enjoy a post-show joint after blazing through an epic “Like A Hurricane” for a room full of reverent Scottish hippies.
In 1978, Neil commenced another legendary series of shows at San Francisco’s Boarding House, a tiny club with a capacity fewer than 300 people. Unlike the iconic stoner persona he adopted for the ’76 tour — and revived off and on countless times after — he cut a relatively clean-cut figure at these solo gigs. His short hair was a sign of allegiance with punk-rock, as was his emerging partnership with Ohio social deconstructionists Devo, who snuck off with Neil to record an anarchic version of one of his latest songs, “Hey, Hey, My, My (Into The Black).” You hear that take on the second of two Boarding House discs, which otherwise concentrate on Neil’s uniformly stunning acoustic performances. (The accompanying film is somewhat static as a cinematic experience, but still required viewing as an adjunct to the albums.)
In the late ’70s, Neil worked on two movies — the first was Rust Never Sleeps, rightly regarded as one of the great concert films, capturing Neil by himself and with Crazy Horse. The second was Human Highway, which was one of the oddest projects of his career — a largely improvised slapstick comedy about the downsides of capitalism and the dangers of nuclear apocalypse featuring a shockingly committed performance by Young as a Jerry Lewis-esque auto mechanic. Co-starring the members of Devo and some of Neil’s old running mates from the Laurel Canyon days — Dean Stockwell (credited as co-director), Dennis Hopper, and Russ Tamblyn — Human Highway hangs together surprisingly well and benefits greatly from the cinematography of David Myers, an Oscar winner for shooting Woodstock whose other credits include The Last Waltz and Wattstax as well as George Lucas’ feature-length debut, THX-138. The final result feels like a precursor to ’80s “outsider” cult classics like Repo Man, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, and Blue Velvet.
Human Highway was not released in theaters until 1982, a truly bonkers year for Neil Young and one of the craziest years ever for any major rock star. Neil’s original plan that year was to put out Island In The Sun, a collection of breezy, synth-accented love songs recorded in Hawaii with members of Crazy Horse, Buffalo Springfield, and long-time buddies like Ben Keith and Joe Lala. But when David Geffen heard the record, he insisted that Neil go back to the drawing board and come up with something better.
If only Geffen knew what Neil had up his sleeve. Taken on its own terms, Island In The Sun (rechristened here as Johnny’s Island) is a charming (if also inconsequential) record. It’s not Neil’s best work by any means, but in 2024 it sounds more contemporary than any of the records he actually put out in this period. A yacht-rock pastiche made with acoustic guitars and cheap keyboards, it resembles any number of indie singer-songwriter records coming out of Brooklyn or Philadelphia in the past 10 years.
Instead, 1982 became the year of Trans, Young’s heartfelt attempt to merge his music with synthesizers as an allegory for the communication struggles he was experiencing with his young son Ben, who was recently diagnosed with cerebral palsy. While it was eventually reassessed in later years as an artistically brave detour, at the time Trans rankled critics and mystified fans. On the road, Young tried awkwardly to integrate the new material into a setlist still rounded out by the likes of “Heart Of Gold” and “Helpless.” Hopped up with ambition after seeing The Rolling Stones on the Tattoo You tour, he aspired to a similarly large-scale show and poured a fortune into tour production. But unlike the Stones, he wasn’t just sticking with the hits, he was also playing some of the least Neil Young-like music of his career. The hostile crowds drove the members of his backing band to pre-show drinking and drugging just to gin up the courage to get on stage. This naturally further incensed Neil, who wound up losing $750,000 on the shows.
Two films from Archives, Vol. III depict this era: Berlin finds Neil and his band performing in the titular city with something approaching professionalism. Highlights include a deeply strange and theatrical take on “Transformer Man,” in which Neil stalks the stage sans guitar while Nils Lofgren (who more than earned his paychecks for this tour) does what can only be described as an interpretive dance in the background; and the rarely performed song “Berlin,” which was abandoned after this era but nonetheless stands out as a spooky, noirish rocker. And then there’s the Hal Ashby-directed Solo Trans, a missive from the stateside tour that includes a mock TV reporter doing backstage athlete-style interviews throughout the show. It culminates with a preview of Neil’s Elvis-inspired Everybody’s Rockin’ guise with yet another backing band, The Shocking Pinks, which must have confused the already befuddled audience even more.
The multi-media elements of Solo Trans carried over to In A Rusted Out Garage, a concert film that originated as a pay-per-view simulcast from the close of Neil’s 1986 tour with Crazy Horse. Once again, the on-stage action is interrupted by a smarmy newscaster, this time dubbed Dan Clear. More importantly, Young was sounding more like himself than he had in years. These shows eventually produced 1987’s Life, Young’s most underrated album of the decade, which bridged the experimentation of the Trans period with the mid-career comeback signaled by Freedom. On In A Rusted Out Garage, this results in some bizarre juxtapositions — on one song, Neil storms the stage decked out in sleeveless flannel while stomping through “Cinnamon Girl,” and on the next tune Billy Talbot rolls up with a keytar.
The dark underbelly of In A Rusted Out Garage is Muddy Track, a truly singular gonzo document of the 1986-87 European leg of the Crazy Horse tour. Shot in part by Young himself on a video camera — he calls his handheld device “Otto” — Muddy Track unfurls one “bad vibes” vignette after another, with shows plagued by bad weather, low ticket sales, and the creeping sense that Neil is over the hill and past his prime. When the band screws up a song — given this is Crazy Horse, the screw ups are plentiful — we see an irate Neil cursing out the musicians. Whether this is real or staged is open to question; Neil seems predetermined to show the tour in a bad light. (As he gleefully instructs one camera operator, “Anything that’s bad happens, keep rolling.”) It’s a rough but riveting watch, playing like a cathartic, self-imposed bottoming-out at the heart of the Reagan era.
In that context, Summer Songs feels like a ray of light. Recorded in 1987, these demos were later reworked as album tracks for the so-so Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young comeback record American Dream as well as Freedom. In the case of the latter record, songs like “Someday” and “Wrecking Ball” actually sound better in stripped-back form on Summer Songs, positively sparkling as spare piano ballads. In the seeds of these tracks lie the next great artistic outburst of Young’s career.
Tier 2: Worthy Listens
Of all Neil Young’s musical collaborators, Nicolette Larson ranks among the most unjustly overlooked. In the late ’70s, she was Neil’s duet partner on American Stars N’ Bars and Comes A Time, and she even brought him back into the U.S. Top 10 with her cover of “Lotta Love.” But Larson drifted from Young’s orbit after that, and later died at the tragically young age of 45 in 1997.
Fortunately, Larson is well represented on Archives, Vol. III. She first appears on Snapshot In Time, an extraordinarily intimate live album from 1977 literally recorded at Linda Ronstadt’s kitchen table in Malibu. Ronstadt was among the people who recommended Larson to Young, and on this album you can hear him introducing songs like “Hold Back The Tears” and “Star Of Bethlehem” and the spontaneous harmonies they contribute. Later on, Larson returns on Union Hall, another circa ’77 live release covering rehearsals with a battalion of Nashville studio musicians dubbed The Gone With The Wind Orchestra. Highlights include lovably ragged versions of classics and deep cuts like “Are You Ready For The Country?” and “The Losing End (When You’re On).” The trifecta of Neil Young country records from 1977 is completed with Oceanside Countryside, culled from sessions in which Neil ran through songs mostly by himself that ended up on Comes A Time and Rust Never Sleeps.
Let’s pivot from the sublime to the ridiculous: Evolution charts Neil’s ’83-’84 years, with a sizeable (too big?) chunk reserved for previously released material from Everybody’s Rockin’. As for the unreleased songs, many of them utilize soon-to-be-obsolete technology, in mostly clunky but nonetheless compelling fashion. “Razor Love,” officially released 20 years later as a gentle country-folk number on 2004’s Silver & Gold, is presented here in a radically different form as a synth-rock ballad.
Neil treads more familiar ground on Touch The Night, which samples live selections from a brief run with Crazy Horse at the Catalyst nightclub in Santa Cruz. (The corresponding concert film Catalyst is appropriately ragged and grainy.) In the set, Neil and the Horse capably perform crowd-pleasers like “Barstool Blues” and “Welfare Mothers” but mostly stick to dunderheaded new material that strains to keep up with the era’s hard-rockin’ headbangers. (The first song is literally called “Rock.”) A more satisfying sample of live Neil from this period is Grey Riders, a document of his Old Ways era band The International Harvesters, with songs previously released on the archive LP A Treasure mixed with more Old Ways live material and country standards. (Meanwhile the concert film A Treasure relies on fleeting, choppy, and mostly incomplete live clips, and is largely unwatchable.)
Tier 3: Take Your Time
Followers of the Archives series are aware that Neil likes to repackage previously released material with music from the vaults. The positive way to spin this is that Neil is “remixing” his albums and creating something new. (I would argue he did this with the Dume disc from Vol. II, which remakes one of my favorite Neil albums, Zuma, and possibly improves upon it.) The negative spin is that Neil is making you repurchase music you already own.
Either way, there is a fair amount of this on Archives, Vol. III, which may or may not be a problem depending on how closely you keep up with past archival releases. (Some of the music is pretty great, but this designation is based on volume of familiar material, not quality.) This applies to Hitchhikin’ Judy (which draws largely from Hitchhiker and Songs For Judy), Windward Passage (composed mostly of songs from the live LP High Flyin,’ with his side project band The Ducks), Sedan Delivery (Live Rust and Rust Never Sleeps), Coastline (Hawks & Doves and RE-AC-TOR), and Road Of Plenty (Landing On Water).
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