Neil Young and Crazy Horse-Re·ac·tor (1981)

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that can be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference”. With this Latin prayer, Neil Young’s eleventh album begins, flanked by his inseparable band Crazy Horse. If its title weren’t already taken by Bob Dylan, instead of “Re·ac·tor”, “Blood On The Tracks” would have been more fitting, because it’s hard to find an album as combative and courageous as this one. With allusions to topics rarely addressed in the eighties, such as the Vietnam War, “Re·ac·tor” was released in late 1981 on the Reprise label, his last with that record company before signing a new contract with Geffen Records, with whom he would spend much of the eighties, thus beginning his darkest and most mediocre period. “Opera Star”, a clear rock manifesto perfectly in continuity with “Rust Never Sleeps”, is the track that opens this album with an overwhelming force, while in “Surfer Joe And Moe The Sleaze”, Young’s highly distinctive guitar plays over a background of vocals to tell us stories of drunkenness, waste, and obscene excesses in a calmer, more melodic tone. “T-Bone” and “Get Back On It” are obsessive, rhythmic homages to the black roots of rock, the former in a hysterical tone and the latter closer to boogie blues, with which they bring the first side of the album to a close. The B-side is the rock 'n' roll mayhem of Neil Young and his band, starting with the killer “Rapid Transit”, followed by the pounding “Southern Pacific”, the southern-tinged “Motor City”, and that visceral nightmare titled “Shots”. Pure and simple rock, that's the best way to define this album, the last great work of the Canadian until his musical resurgence at the end of the eighties with the superb "Freedom", after his strange musical meanderings that occupied his entire journey under the aforementioned and controversial record label headed by David Geffen.