Sleeps with Angels is the 22nd studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released on August 16, 1994, on Reprise as a double LP and as a single CD. The album is Young's seventh with Crazy Horse. Co-produced by David Briggs, the album is Young's last with his long-time producer, who died the following year. The title track was written and recorded as a tribute to Kurt Cobain in wake of his suicide. Although the rest of the album was recorded before that event, the album takes on a somber, subdued tone throughout. Musician and author Ken Viola described the album as one of Young's "top five records. It examines the nature of dreams — both the light and dark side — and how they fuel reality in the nineties. Dreams are the only thing that we've got left to hang on to."[7]
In contrast to his other albums, Young has been loath to discuss the album's content and the inspiration for the album's songs in interviews. In a 1995 interview for Mojo Magazine'sNick Kent, he says: "Sleeps With Angels has a lot of overtones to it, from different situations that were described in it – a lot of sad scenes. I've never really spoken about why I made that album. I don't want to start now. I just don't want to talk about that. That's my decision. I've made a choice not to talk about it and I'm sticking to it."[9] He repeats his stance in a 1995 interview for Spin Magazine: "I'm not doing anything with that album. It stands on its own. That's why I made the record. Too sensitive of a subject to isolate comments on. When you speak to someone who can write things down, you have to remember that they only write what they select. And it appears next to something that they can't control, like an ad. And then that article can be quoted, and over time...I've seen the way things happen."[10]
The lengthy "Change Your Mind" was debuted during the 1993 tour with Booker T. & the M.G.'s. The other songs on the album were written during the recording sessions.[11] The album features a variety of unique instruments, including bass marimbas, vibes, synthesizers and a tack piano on "My Heart" and "A Dream That Can Last". "Prime of Life" and "Safeway Cart" feature Young playing flute; Sleeps with Angels is the only Neil Young album on which he plays that instrument.[12] The songs "Western Hero" and "Train of Love" feature the same music with different lyrics, "like identical twins. The same song with two completely different stories. But it brings you back to this theme. It's almost like a Broadway play."[13] "Safeway Cart" is featured on the soundtrack during a marching sequence in Claire Denis's 1999 film Beau Travail.
The title track was inspired by the death of Kurt Cobain, who quoted Young in his suicide note.[14] "When he died and left that note, it struck a deep chord inside of me. It fucked with me. I wrote some music for that feeling: "Sleeps with Angels"," Young remembers in his memoir, Waging Heavy Peace.[15] He continues in Shakey: "What that suicide has done is return me to my roots. Makes me go back and investigate where I started. Where I came from. Why am I here and why is he not here? Does my music suffer because I survived?"[16] Young wrote the first lyrics to the song on a matchbook during a charity golf tournament hosted by Eddie Van Halen. The song was the last to be recorded for the album.[17]
A thirty-minute documentary was filmed by L.A. Johnson during the album's sessions. Promotional videos were later shot for the songs "My Heart," "Prime Of Life," "Change Your Mind," and "Piece Of Crap" by director Jonathan Demme. The videos feature the group returning to The Complex on October 3-4, 1994 to perform the songs live.
The group performed three concerts in October 1994 featuring songs from the album, all charity events. On October 1-2, the group played acoustic sets at the annual Bridge School Benefit concerts featuring seven of the album's songs. On October 22, the group played a similar setlist in Sedona, Arizona at the Verde Valley scholarship benefit festival.
Neil Young – guitar on all tracks except 1 and 12, tack piano on tracks 1 and 12, accordion on track 5, flute on tracks 2 and 8, harmonica on track 8 and 12, vocals
Crazy Horse
Frank "Poncho" Sampedro – guitar on tracks 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, and 11, grand piano on tracks 5 and 9, piano on tracks 3 and 12, bass marimba on track 1, oberheim on tracks 3 and 8, Wurlitzer piano on track 8, vocals
Billy Talbot – bass on all tracks except 1 and 12, vibes on track 1, bass marimba on track 12, vocals
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