Ragged Glory - Smell the Horse: A Masterpiece Expanded

The outer art work for Ragged Glory - Smell the Horse.  1990/2023.

Avery gifted me Ragged Glory - Smell the Horse by Neil Young and Crazy Horse as part of my Christmas.  I have had it on my amazon wishlist since before it was released in 2023.  But I never bought it.  I have the original CD of Ragged Glory (about 60 minutes of music) from 1990.  I have really enjoyed listening to it for decades, especially "Country Home" and "Love and Only Love."  Both are awesome songs.  

Neil re-released the album complete with some outstanding bonus material included as a two disc set as part of his massive, on-going Archives project.  I was in no particular hurry to get it.  It made sense to give it as a list option for my daughter to "surprise" me with during the holidays.  As it turned out, the "surprise" was she got me everything on my list.  

My interest in it was greatly heightened when I discovered the song "Interstate" on Volume 3 of his boxed Archives.   Since the acoustic version of that fantastic song was included on Smell the Horse, I had decided I would buy it for myself if Avery didn't gift it to me.  So my loving daughter saved me the trouble.  Bless her.

If nothing else, Smell the Horse offers a superbly remastered quality of the original Ragged Glory.  It sounds great.  The four bonus songs offer an additional 29 minutes of music that apparently was not enough to warrant a double album in 1990 but is enough to justify its addition now to my collection.  There is not a weak song on Smell the Horse.  Even the stuff Neil chose not use is exceptional to me.

Central to the album's sound is Neil's famous guitar, "Old Black" - a 1953 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop that he's played since the late 1960s. Modified extensively over the years, Old Black appears on every song except the acoustic "Interstate." (Interesting enough, Neil is playing Old Black on the Volume 3 version that I like better.)  Long, feedback-drenched notes often hang in the air as thick as smoke.  The guitar's distinctive tone - simultaneously warm and aggressive, with a unique capacity for controlled feedback - is the bedrock of the album's sound. The instrument's idiosyncrasies, including its sometimes unpredictable behavior, perfectly match the album's aesthetic of controlled chaos.

Ragged Glory has long been considered a raw, powerful statement of unfiltered rock and roll, a testament to Neil's deep connection with Crazy Horse and their ability to channel ragged, electrified energy into something both chaotic and transcendent. Now, in 2023, after multiple listenings, I can confidently say this is the best Neil Young & Crazy Horse album, it is a rare thing, close to being a perfect garage band album when taken as a whole.

Following his success with 1989's Freedom album, Ragged Glory completed the reboot of his career after his experimental 1980s period - which included electronic explorations like Trans (1980) and genre exercises like the country album Old Ways (1984) - with his role as "godfather" to the emerging grunge movement. The lineage between Neil's work and the grunge movement runs deep and flows both ways. With 1979's Rust Never Sleeps and 1980's Live Rust, Neil and Crazy Horse effectively birthed the sonic template that would later be called grunge. A decade later, Ragged Glory and 1991's Weld weren't simply returns to that territory - they were powerful reaffirmations of this sound's continuing vitality and relevance. The impact on the emerging Seattle scene was profound and direct.

Soundgarden's Kim Thayil frequently cited (see here and here) Neil's guitar work as influential, Pearl Jam would later collaborate with Young on the album Mirror Ball (1995), and even Kurt Cobain quoted Neil's famous line "it's better to burn out than to fade away" [from the Rust Never Sleeps song "My, My, Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue)"] in his suicide note. (Neil tried to reach Cobain by phone just before he committed suicide but Cobain had already blocked out the world.  Neil wrote a 14+ minute lament about the youthful death on Sleeps With Angels [1994] called "Change Your Mind.")  Rather than trying to catch up with a movement, Ragged Glory demonstrated that Neil and the Horse were still exploring the very sound they had helped create.

Neil and Crazy Horse remained vital and contemporary in this context. While other veteran artists of the era might have seemed like opportunists trying to capitalize on a trending sound, Neil was simply continuing to explore and expand upon territory he had long inhabited. Ragged Glory wasn't following a trend - it was showing the kids how it was done while simultaneously learning from and encouraging their innovations. This mutual exchange between Neil and the grunge movement would continue throughout the 1990s, creating a feedback loop of influence that enriched both sides.

The original Ragged Glory was known for its relentless, full-throttle guitar jams, a wall of distortion and feedback that at times felt like Neil was harnessing the very essence of rock itself. The 2023 remaster sharpens that energy without losing an ounce of its rawness. The guitars are heavier, the drums hit harder, and Neil's voice—world-weary yet defiant—cuts through with greater clarity.  The Crazy Horse vocal harmonies are at their best.

The remastering work particularly shines in how it handles the dense layers of guitar overdubs and feedback. Where the original mix could sometimes become murky in its most intense moments, Smell the Horse achieves a remarkable clarity while maintaining the essential rawness. The low end has been enhanced, giving Billy Talbot's bass lines more prominence in the mix, while Ralph Molina's drums have gained additional punch and presence. This technical improvement highlights just how tight Crazy Horse was as a unit, even in their most seemingly chaotic moments.

The album opens with "Country Home," a perfect mission statement for what's to follow. The track establishes the overall upbeat but basic and unpolished tone of the record through its fusion of country-rock accessibility and grunge-adjacent noise. Neil's guitar work here sets up the sonic palette that will define the album: loud, rough, sharp, precise, weaving in and out of Crazy Horse's characteristically loose but locked-in rhythm section. This is a great standard Neil country rocker.

"White Line" follows, originally written in 1975 but finding its electric version here. The quick-driving rhythm creates an urgent momentum, with Old Black's distinctive tone cutting through the mix like a switchblade. While a beautiful acoustic version exists of Neil playing with Robbie Robertson of The Band (later released on Archives Vol. 2), this electric interpretation with Crazy Horse takes the song in a completely different direction. The interplay between Neil and Frank Sampedro's guitars creates a dense wall of sound that the remaster reveals to be full of subtle details and harmonics previously buried in the mix. Though the Ragged Glory version is powerful, there's something particularly special about that earlier, acoustic recording with Robertson.

"F*!#in' Up" represents the essence of the harsh, raw garage band calibration of the album. I did not care of this tune when I first heard it.  It was too much, over the top.  Today I see it as a masterclass in controlled chaos. Actually one of the best songs on the album.  Neil absolutely shreds on Old Black here, with the song's seemingly simple structure belying its sophisticated use of dynamics. The band builds and releases tension throughout its duration, with Molina's drums and Talbot's bass providing a rock-solid foundation for the guitar pyrotechnics above. The call-and-response vocals between Neil and the band add an element of flippant humor that prevents the intensity from becoming overwhelming.

"Over and Over" offers a strategic change of pace. While not as immediately striking as its surroundings, the song's relatively conventional structure provides a necessary breathing space, allowing listeners to reset before the album's next sonic assault. The remaster really brings out the Crazy Horse harmony vocals which often gets overlooked in discussions of their sound. Another steady country rocker.

"Love to Burn" is a revelation to me on the reissue. Clocking in at over ten minutes, it's a masterclass in sustained intensity. The song builds from a grooving introduction to a ferocious jam, with Neil and the Horse demonstrating their unique ability to find new angles within a relatively simple chord progression. The remaster particularly benefits the song's dense layers of guitars, allowing listeners to better appreciate how Neil and Sampedro's parts interlock and separate throughout the extended instrumental passages.  Old Black sounds fantastic.  I had listened selectively to this album for many years, overlooking this gem, so I forgot about it.  What a rediscovery!

"Farmer John," the album's sole cover, transforms a 1959 doo-wop song by Don and Dewey into a primal rock and roll explosion. The slower yet relentless beat provides a foundation for some of Neil's most aggressive playing on the record, with Old Black tearing through the mix while Neil sings about Farmer John's daughter having champagne eyes. This version demonstrates the raw power of Neil and Crazy Horse, it's a simple song infused with their unique chemistry and energy.

"Mansion on the Hill" provides another strategic respite, though it's far from filler. The song demonstrates Neil's ability to write in a more conventional rock structure while maintaining the album's overall aesthetic. The vocal harmonies and subtle guitar interplay never sounded better than on this remastered release.

"Days That Used to Be" continues the standard country-rock vibe that runs through the album, bringing us back to how the record starts.  It doesn't try to reach the ferocious heights of the album's more aggressive moments.  Rather, it maintains the thematic threads of nostalgia and reflection that give Ragged Glory its emotional depth. Neil's solos here are more melodic and restrained.

"Love and Only Love" is a towering achievement and is the definitive Neil Young & Crazy Horse track off this album. The interplay between Neil's lead guitar and Poncho Sampedro's rhythm work reaches its apex here, creating a tapestry of interweaving guitar lines that defines not just the album's aesthetic but the band's entire approach to rock and roll.  The song's structure allows for extended improvisation. Neil's work on Old Black here is particularly inspired, ranging from delicate melodic phrases to sheets of controlled feedback that are grungy as hell.

The album maintains a thematic tension throughout, balancing between Neil's country-rock roots and his avant-garde noise explorations. This duality reaches its ultimate expression in the closing track, "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)," which embodies one of the album's most striking ironies. While the lyrics present a heartfelt environmental message, Neil delivers this supposedly sentimental anthem through some of the most aggressive and confrontational guitar work on the album. His use of Old Black here is deliberately harsh and abrasive, likely inspired by Jimi Hendrix's deconstruction of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock. 

The contradiction between the song's sentimental ecological message and its scorched-earth delivery creates a fascinating tension - as if Neil is suggesting that sometimes the most heartfelt sentiments require the most violent expression.  Neil loves to be lyrically and musically contradictory in many of his songs.  This nod to Hendrix connects Neil intimately with his youth and the counterculture of America at that time. I did not care for this at all when I first heard it, but I enjoy the hell out of it now, particularly for how it uses this jarring juxtaposition to make its point even more forcefully.  The group's vocal harmonies are spot-on here.

The real treat comes with the inclusion of four bonus tracks. These aren't just throwaway studio leftovers—they expand the album's sonic universe and reinforce its place as Neil's most consistent and electrifying work with Crazy Horse. "Interstate" is completely acoustic, an outlier for the album but, nevertheless, one of Neil's best songs ever (though I prefer the version on Archives Volume 3).  It is astonishing that he chose not to release it initially on Ragged Glory, but that would have necessitated a double-album format.  It's acoustic nature probably did not fit into what he was originally trying to do with the album anyway.  Such a solid, comfortable tune.

"Don't Spook the Horse" is a fun, twangy, ridiculous song that carries the same ragged intensity and sprawling, loose-limbed jamming that define "F*!#in' Up," and "Farmer John."  It's like a jalopy rattling down the road.  Not a lot of effort but it's moving.  The most basic song on the album.  This one is purely for laughs and it feels earthy good.  A slow country rocker for sure.

"Boxcar" is another bonus, in every sense of the word.  It is actually one of the album's most distinctive songs. Nothing else sounds like it, though the band sounds splendid performing its kinda bluesy nostalgic style. Nice reverb.  I guess Neil thought it was so different from the rest of the album that he left it off in the end. Being included on Smell the Horse is a real treat. Though comparatively simple, I like this tune.  Neil put out a different version on Chrome Dreams II (2007) but I prefer the one offered here.

The 12+ minute "Born to Run" is a terrific song. It is hard to believe this one was not released on the original album or on some following record during the 1990's. This bonus track, along with "Interstate," are genuinely strong contributions not just to Smell the Horse but to Neil's prodigious, historic catalog.  The final four or five minutes of Neil playing Old Black here is totally Hendrix-esque, with its elongated extensions of wailing notes and a lot of what I call its "crunchy, crackling" sound. Absolutely marvelous, and doubly so when you consider that this song was not released on the original Ragged Glory but brings Smell the Horse to an outstanding, satisfying finish.

While it's tempting to file it under the convenient label of "country-rock," the album is actually a complex amalgamation of multiple genres and approaches. Neil and the Horse weave together elements of garage rock's primitive energy, grunge's distorted aggression, folk music's storytelling traditions, and country's earnest twang into something entirely their own. Songs regularly start in one genre space before morphing into another - a country melody might dissolve into feedback-drenched noise, or a garage rock stomper might suddenly reveal a folk music heart. 

This genre-fluid approach feels completely natural, never forced or self-conscious, because Neil and the Horse had spent decades developing their distinctive musical vocabulary. There's no polished production, no concern for mainstream accessibility—just the band locked into a groove, playing for the pure love of noise and melody. It captures the spirit of a band that thrives on imperfection, where missed notes and stretched-out solos aren't mistakes but essential elements of the experience.

The synergy between Neil and Crazy Horse is undeniable here, their chemistry peaking in sprawling, feedback-drenched jams like "Love and Only Love" and "Born to Run." "Love and Only Love" deserves special mention, one of the best rocking tunes Neil ever wrote. While the guitar work is raw, forceful, and emotive with plenty of Old Black's classic sharp, angular sound, the actual vocal harmonies (on the entire release) are probably the smoothest and most lyrical ever by Neil and the Horse.

For Rusties, Smell the Horse is a gift—a chance to hear Ragged Glory in its most fully realized form. This is Neil Young & Crazy Horse at their peak, and there's not a single moment of weakness in this ferocious, audacious, beautifully ragged masterpiece. The reissue not only preserves the original album's raw power but enhances it, bringing new clarity to the dense sonic landscapes while adding valuable context through its bonus material. It stands as a testament to the enduring power of uncompromising rock and roll, played with conviction and captured in all its glorious imperfection.

I added this album to the mix of things I did to cope with the recent arctic weather we've endured.  The album's tone and consistency, combined with the other stuff I was doing to address my anxiety, surprisingly helped me.  Connecting with the attitude of it all really helped me see my anxiety as inapplicable.  There's nothing anxious about the, at times, loud and raucous music offered here.  It did not sooth me so much a reassure me and I needed one just as much as the other.  There's nothing soothing here, not even during "Interstate."  There's a sturdy confidence, however.

This might be Crazy Horse's best studio album with Neil.  If not, it is a close second behind Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969).  The former offers the incredible songs "Down By the River," "Cinnamon Girl," and "Cowgirl in the Sand."  These are all absolute non-negotiable staples of Neil's repertoire so you have to rank that one highly.  He was still playing all of these with the appropriate spirit when I saw him in 2010 and 2024.  That's long-lasting, relevant rock music.

Ragged Glory - Smell the Horse offers "Love and Only Love" as the only song really comparable with the others I just named.  Nevertheless, what Smell the Horse may lack in stellar quality it makes up for with consistency.  It is a more even effort than the 1969 album.  While the former varies widely in the quality of the tunes, Smell the Horse is steadier and just as strong.  As I've said, there's not a weak song on the effort, including all the bonus material.  For the overall vibe and steadiness I think I'd give the latter album the edge.

This is a fantastic and influential studio album.  It is one of the best remastering jobs I've ever heard in my collection and makes you feel more than a little loud and proud, youngish and brash.  A great combination to help summon the energy to fight any bad vibe.  Bring it on!  I'm gonna immerse myself in some blistering Old Black and perhaps the best garage band rock album ever!  

[Insert mighty bird finger to the world right here.]

 

(Written with assistance by Claude.)

Late Note 2/15/25:  I'm still listening to and enjoying this music.  I would rank Neil's guitar work on "Born to Run" up there with almost anything he's ever done.  Certainly top 10 material in his catalog.  I discovered that it was released in Volume Two of his boxed set Archives.  I went back and listened to it again but it is really just a 3+ minute sketch on there, presented as a "previously unreleased song" recorded in 1975.  That same year, Bruce Springsteen released a hit song by the same name, but there is no relation between them.  It was a coincidence.  What is remarkable is that Neil recorded this extended version in 1990 but decided not to use it and that recording was not released until 2023.  Some of his best, most Hendrix-like guitar work ever and no one heard it until recently.  Amazing!