My Top 2000 Songs #1075: Sample And Hold

With a massive, decades-long catalog of universally acclaimed masterpieces, it feels a little weird to turn to 1982's Trans, one of the strangest and most divisive records in Neil Young's storied history. Me, I've always been a fan of this weird electronica/rock hybrid, the silly computer themed songs with vocals run through a vocoder. Maybe not something I listen to with the same frequency as his 70s classics, but I admire his audacity, and some of the songs hold up even if the record is wholly of its moment.

"Sample And Hold" was the track that got my attention right off the bat, a tune that still rocks despite all the electronic gadgets--hey, it's Crazy Horse at full stomp--and its tale of the mail-order robotic love toy is fun (and not the first of its kind on this list). Though what really made the song stick for me was repeatedly watching the Live in Berlin VHS tape back in high school, a 1982 performance where Neil and Nils Lofgren bounce off each other making strange synthesized voices.

Annoyingly, that Berlin live performance has been repeatedly posted and removed from YouTube; not sure why Warner Bros. insists on going full-on copyright police on this particular gig. But here's the audio from another live performance:

Acoustic cover by June Panic:

Odd over by Joi Noir: