''This Note's for You'' is the 16th studio album by Canadian / American musician

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fur ...

, released April 11, 1988 on

Reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any repe ...

. It was originally credited to "Young and the Bluenotes." Part of the album's concept centered on the commercialism of rock and roll, and tours in particular (the title track, specifically, is a hostile social commentary on concert sponsorship). The music is marked by the use of a

horn section A horn section is a group of musicians playing horns. In an orchestra or concert band, it refers to the musicians who play the "French" horn, and in a British-style brass band it is the tenor horn players. In many popular music genres, the te ...

. It also marked Young's return to the recently reactivated Reprise Records after a rocky tenure with

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...

. In 2015, Young released a live album from the album's accompanying tour, which he titled '' Bluenote Café.''

Background and recording

During the 1987 tour with Crazy Horse, Young began playing a short "blues" set between the standard acoustic and electric sets, featuring Crazy Horse (with Poncho Sampedro playing organ instead of guitar),

Ben Keith Bennett Keith Schaeufele (March 6, 1937 – July 26, 2010), better known by his stage name Ben Keith, was an American musician and record producer. Known primarily for his work as a pedal steel guitarist with Neil Young, Keith was a fixture of ...

, and Young's guitar tech Larry Cragg on saxophones. The song "This Note's for You" was debuted at those shows. Young liked the results ("...

rowd ''Rowd'' (, ''Sunshine'') is a 2012 Indian Assamese romantic film directed by Gautam Baruah, with a screenplay by Ashim Krishna, Rupam Dutta, and Chirantan Mahanta, and produced by Mousumi Bordoloi. It stars Utpal Das, Diganta Hazarika, Moonmi ...

were going fucking nuts and no one was shouting for " Southern Man" like they've done throughout my whole fucking career"), and following the tour conclusion he further expanded the horn section, dubbing the new band The Bluenotes. The band made its live debut in November 1987 with a 10-date California club tour, playing mostly new material, influenced by classic R&B and

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

sound, mixed with several old numbers dating back to Young's earliest band,

The Squires The Squires or Neil Young & The Squires were a Canadian band formed in 1963 in Winnipeg. It was one of the first bands of singer-songwriter Neil Young. Recordings Young formed the Squires in 1963, and the group played at community clubs, high ...

(such as "Ain't It the Truth"). The Bluenotes then entered the studio to start recording, however Young became dissatisfied with the performances of the Crazy Horse rhythm section; bassist Billy Talbot was fired first, temporarily replaced by George Whitsell before Rick Rosas was finally brought in, while drummer Ralph Molina was replaced by Rosas's bandmate

Chad Cromwell Chad Cromwell (born June 14, 1957) is an American rock drummer whose music career has spanned more than 30 years. He is the founding member of a band called Fortunate Sons, which released a self-titled album in 2004. Cromwell has worked with m ...

. Most of the songs were then either overdubbed or redone from scratch with Rosas and Cromwell; only "One Thing" and rarity "Ain't It the Truth" still feature Whitsell and Molina's playing. ''This Note's for You'' was originally attributed to Neil Young and the Bluenotes (as can be seen on the early editions of the album), however, after musician Harold Melvin took legal action against Young over use of the Bluenotes name, it became credited as a Young solo album. Thus, the band was renamed Ten Men Working.

"This Note's for You" video

The

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

for the title track – directed by Julien Temple and written by Charlie Coffey – included a

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

lookalike whose hair catches fire. The video parodied corporate rock and the pretensions of advertising, and was patterned after a series of

Michelob Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, is the largest brewing company in the United States, with a market share of 45 percent in 2016. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and nearly 20 in othe ...

ads that featured contemporary rock artists such as Eric Clapton, Genesis and Steve Winwood. The video also featured parodic inserts from commercials featuring impersonators of Jackson and

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed " The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston i ...

, as well as popular characters such as a Spuds McKenzie lookalike. The title itself mocks Budweiser's "This Bud's for You" ad campaign. It was initially banned by MTV after legal threats from Michael Jackson's attorneys, although Canadian music channel MuchMusic ran it immediately. After it was a hit on MuchMusic, MTV reconsidered their decision and put it into heavy rotation, finally giving it the MTV Video Music Award for Best Video of the Year for 1989. It was nominated for a Grammy in the category of "Best Concept Video" of 1989 but lost to "Weird Al" Yankovic's spoof of

's " Bad", "

Fat In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple est ...

". When ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' challenged David Lee Roth about his own corporate sponsorship (by

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...

), citing "This Note's for You", the singer responded: "That's just hippy bullshit from the '60s. If your message is not strong enough to transcend a soda-pop commercial, you got problems!"

Artwork

The cover of this album is reportedly a photo taken in the back lane of the 200 block of Main Street

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

, which housed the Blue Note Cafe. Neil was known to play unannounced in the Blue Note Cafe while in Winnipeg.

Other recordings with the Bluenotes

Young toured with the Bluenotes band (later renamed to Ten Men Workin' for the legal reasons noted above) throughout 1988, playing predominantly new material, including a number of unreleased songs. A live album from the tour, titled '' Bluenote Café'', was planned at the time as a follow-up to the studio album but got shelved, although two songs appeared on compilation '' Lucky Thirteen'' in 1993; it was eventually released in 2015 as volume 11 of Young's Archive Performance Series. Young also did more studio sessions with the band in 1988; three known songs that were recorded are "Crime in the City (Sixty to Zero Part I)", "Someday" (both songs would be included on next year's '' Freedom'') and "Ordinary People", an 18-minute song described as "'

Cortez the Killer "Cortez the Killer" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young from his 1975 album, '' Zuma''. It was recorded with the band Crazy Horse. It has since been ranked No. 39 on '' Guitar World's'' 100 Greatest Guitar Solos and No. 329 on '' Ro ...

' with horns", which finally saw its release on Young's 2007 studio album, ''

Chrome Dreams II ''Chrome Dreams II'' is the 28th studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young. The album was released on October 23, 2007 as a double LP and as a single CD. The album name references ''Chrome Dreams'', a legendary Neil Young album from 1 ...

''. The horn section from the Bluenotes also plays on the Stephen Stills song "That Girl" from the

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member ...

album '' American Dream'' (1988).

Track listing

B-sides

Personnel

*Neil Young – vocals, guitar The Bluenotes *

– drums * Rick "The Bass Player" Rosas – bass * Frank "Poncho" Sampedro – keyboards *Steve Lawrence – lead tenor saxophone *

– alto saxophone *Larry Cragg – baritone saxophone *Claude Cailliet – trombone * John Fumo – trumpet on "Can't Believe Your Lyin'" *Tom Bray – trumpet on "Coupe de Ville" with: *George Whitsell – bass on "One Thing" * Ralph Molina – drums on "One Thing" *Steve Onuska – tambourine on "One Thing"

Charts

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:This Note's For You 1988 albums Neil Young albums Reprise Records albums Albums produced by Neil Young Albums produced by Niko Bolas