Re·ac·tor

''Re·ac·tor'' is the twelfth studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young, and his fourth with American rock band Crazy Horse, released on November 2, 1981. It was his last album released through Reprise Records before he moved to Geffen for his next five albums.

Background

''Reactor'' sees Young reunited with longtime collaborators Crazy Horse, their first album together since ''Rust Never Sleeps'' in 1979 and their first full studio album since 1975's '' Zuma''. The album is notable for its driving rhythms and long jams with repetitive lyrics. Young was involved in an intensive therapy program for his young son who had cerebral palsy, and biographer Jimmy McDonough suggests that the repetition of the therapy sessions influenced the structure of the songs on the album. The album was Young's last album for Reprise Records until 1988. His next five records would be released under a new contract with Geffen Records.

Writing and Recording

"Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze" tells a satirical tale supposedly inspired by Reprise executives Joe Smith and Mo Ostin. Poncho Sampedro recalls recording the song and the difficulty the band had maintaining a consistent tempo, which the band remedied through overdubbing tambourines and other percussion. "'Surfer Joe' sped up, slowed down, so we would spend time hittin' everything we could find in there to play the groove through it: banging tambourine, banging pieces of metal together, doing handclaps." The original 1981 album gave Neil Young sole writing credit on every track; however, the 2021 live release ''Way Down in the Rust Bucket'' added Frank Sampedro's name as a co-writer on "Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze".

The song "T-Bone" has been singled out for ridicule for its simplistic lyrics. In a 1981 Rockline interview, Young recalled the recording of the song fondly:

"Southern Pacific" launches an album side largely devoted to lyrics about transportation. "Southern Pacific" finds Young imagining life as a train conductor nearing retirement. In the 1980s, Young enjoyed sharing a model trainset with his son, would later acquire a share in Lionel, and would help invent a remote control model train operating system. "Southern Pacific" would feature prominently in Young's country setlists in 1984 and 1985 during his tour with the International Harvesters, and again during Young's 1999 solo acoustic tour.

In "Motor City" Young addresses the malaise era of automobile manufacturing in Detroit, and the recent success of Toyota and Datsun in the American market. Young would continue to play the song throughout the early 1980s, and, like "Southern Pacific," feature the song in his country setlists during the '' Old Ways'' era.

The album closes with the war song "Shots". It was first performed live in May 1978 at the Boarding House in San Francisco during the sessions for ''Rust Never Sleeps'' in a plaintive, solo acoustic performance. On ''Re-ac-tor'', it appears as a driving, full band performance with additional machine gun sound effects overdubbed. The song also features Young's first use of the Synclavier, which he would use more extensively on ''Trans'' and '' Landing on Water''.Durchholz, Daniel, and Gary Graff. 2012. Neil Young : Long May You Run : The Illustrated History. Minneapolis, Mn: Voyageur Press.

Packaging

The cover of the album displays the title separated by syllable. In the 1981 Rockline interview, Young explains, "I wanted to know what the word meant before I used it as a title so I looked it up in the dictionary and that's the way it was broken up and it made sense to me like that; that's the vision I had when I looked at it. It looked right. There's no reason behind it, no cosmic reason."

The album features a Latin translation of the Serenity Prayer on its back cover ("'Deus dona mihi serenitatem accipere res quae non possum mutare fortitudinem mutare res quae possum atque sapientiam differentiam cognoscere'" – "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference"). Young explains in the 1981 Rockline interview: The year and a half likely corresponds to the eighteen month period Young and his wife devoted to an intensive therapy program for their special-needs child, Ben. Young had not yet shared publicly details about his family situation at the time. Young would further explain in a 1995 interview with Nick Kent for '' Mojo'' magazine:

Release

It was unavailable on compact disc until it was released as a HDCD-encoded remastered version on August 19, 2003, as part of the Neil Young Archives Digital Masterpiece Series.

The lackluster sales of the album upon its initial release led Young to feel his record company, Reprise, did not put forth enough effort in promoting the record. This contributed to Young's decision to sign with Geffen Records for his next five albums, a decision he would later regret.

Critical reception

William Ruhlmann of AllMusic is largely dismissive of ''Re·ac·tor'' in his retrospective review, but praises "Shots" as "a more substantive and threatening song given a riveting performance". He deemed the album "a guitar-drenched hard rock set made up of thrown-together material."

In 2003, Greg Kot of the ''Chicago Tribune'' proclaimed that ''Re·ac·tor'' "works up a punk-blues racket ..that sounds as shaggy and disheveled as anything the Replacements recorded". ''Salon'' described the album as a proto-grunge effort. ''The Harvard Crimson'' described it retrospectively in 1985 as "gritty post-punk".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Neil Young, except "Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze", written by Young and Frank Sampedro.

Personnel

*Neil Young – vocals, guitar, Synclavier, piano, handclaps, production

Crazy Horse
* Frank Sampedro – guitar, synthesizer, vocals, handclaps
* Billy Talbot – bass, vocals, handclaps
* Ralph Molina – drums, percussion, vocals, handclaps

Additional roles
* David Briggs – production
*Tim Mulligan – production, recording, mastering
*Jerry Napier – production, recording
*Simon Levy – art direction
*Richard Keyes – art design (CD packaging)
* Gary Burden, Jenice Heo – art design (CD repackaging)
*David Gold – mastering

Charts

References

External links

Lyrics
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HyperRust.org

{{DEFAULTSORT:Re ac tor
1981 albums
Neil Young albums
Albums produced by David Briggs (producer)
Reprise Records albums
Albums produced by Neil Young
Hard rock albums by Canadian artists
Crazy Horse (band) albums
Punk blues albums
Punk rock albums by Canadian artists
Punk rock albums by American artists
Blues rock albums by American artists
Blues rock albums by Canadian artists
Krautrock albums