Sometimes it’s easy to forget that legends make odd moves too. In 1982, Neil Young released Trans, a synth and vocoder heavy album inspired by his son who had cerebal palsy. Young found that the vocoder elicited a better response than talking when communicating with his son. Check out the awesome live video from Berlin of ‘Sample and Hold’. The audience look scared. At least Young and the guitarist are enjoying themselves.
Incidentially, you may have heard this track on the recent Neon Neon mixtape which you should probably get as it contains another legendary musical detour/mishap which is actually amazing. Download the mixtape.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
Trans is a great album, although it is bookended by two of the worst NY songs I’ve ever heard – “Fly like an Inca” and “Little Thing Called Love”. The cover of “Mr Soul” sounds like it shouldn’t work but I actually prefer it to the Buffalo Springfield version. And Computer Cowboy with the line “Come a ky ky yippee yi yippee yi ay” through a vocoder sounds ridiculous, but it works… maybe…
Sonic Youth do a mean cover of Computer Age.
That’s actually a pretty good tune. I’ve always had a guilty pleasure with the vocoder.
I didn’t know Trans was inspired, as such, by his son’s condition.
It seemed from the ‘Shakey’ biography (which is fantastic) that he was producing awful (author’s description) albums in the 80’s because he was so stressed out about a hugely time-consuming method used in treating his son.
Innarestin’
he knew EXACTLY what he was doing. awesome
The lyrics are awesome!!::
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Weight: 110
Disposition: Even
Mood Code: Rotary Adjustable
I need a unit to sample and hold
But not the angry one
A new design, new design.
I need a unit to sample and hold
But not the lonely one
A new design, new design.
I need a unit to sample and hold
But not the lonely one
A new design, new design.
Sample and hold.
We’ll send it out right away
Satisfaction guaranteed.
Please specify
The color of skin and eye
We know you’ll be happy.
Don’t hesitate to give us a call
We know you’ll be satisfied
When you energize
And see your unit come alive
We know you’ll be happy.
I need a unit to sample and hold
But not the lonely one,
the lonely one,
the lonely one
Sample and hold.
Weight: 110.
Perfection in every details
Fabricated from
the curl of the hair
To the tip of the nail
Because our units never fail
We know you’ll be happy.
I need a unit to sample and hold.
Don’t hesitate to give us a call
We know you’ll be satisfied
When you energize
And see your unit come alive
We know you’ll be happy.
I need a unit to sample and hold.
We know you’ll be happy 110
We know you’ll be happy
We know you’ll be happy.
But not the lonely one
A new design, new design
Perfection in every detail,
new design
Sample and hold.
Wow, this is pretty amazing. And weird. But mostly amazing. It’s a great track alright, I’m gonna have to check out this Trans album…