This Note's for You

This Note’s for You was released in 1988 on Reprise. Neil Young collaborated with the Bluenotes for the first time and the result distinguishes from his oeuvre. The album was produced by Neil Young and Niko Bolas.

This Note's for You cover

Songs

1. Ten Men Workin'
2. This Note's for You
3. Coupe De Ville
4. Life in the City
5. Twilight
6. Married Man
7. Sunny Inside
8. Can't Believe Your Lyin'
9. Hey Hey
10. One Thing

The album has ingredients of blues rock and R&B, which are partly manifested by the use of a horn section.

The first song is a resemblance of a Bruce Springsteen theme around the working man. It could also be categorized under the term Heartland rock. The attempt from Neil Young & the Bluenotes results in a somewhat turgid song. The theme is returning in other songs on the album, for example “Married Man”.

One of the main impressions of This Note’s for You are that it is a refreshing attempt after some less inspired albums in the eighties, but the album is far from the best Young accomplished in a whole, and the main impression is that Young are in the wrong genre. There are exceptions though in this aspect, the last song, "One Thing", for example sounds completely right. He would soon move on with the EP Eldorado.

The title song “This Note’s for You” was commercially well lifted by a video that was often shown at MTV. In the song Young is singing: “Ain't singin' for Pepsi / Ain't singin' for Coke (…) Ain't singin' for Miller / Don't sing for Bud”. This was at a time when some of the biggest artists in the music business had been contracted with big companies. Neil – of course – wasn’t.

 

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