Trans Transforming
Neil Young rounded out the 70’s with huge success, being voted Artist of the Year for 1979 by Rolling Stone Magazine and honored as Artist of the Decade by The Village Voice. Young was suddenly relevant again, the future looked bright and full of optimism. No one could foresee what transformations laid ahead on the 1980’s horizon - an album that would almost end the Shakey Deal’s career.
Trans was Neil Young’s fourteenth studio album, released in 1982, it left fans and critics baffled and confused. The album is half sounds of steven hawking full of synth sounds and heavily vocoderized, the other half full of folk melodies that are light and breezy.
The latter part of the album was remnants of Island in the Sun an album that the record label at the time had initially rejected. The controversial album has often been toted to be a satirical message on the direction that music was heading but perhaps there was something more to it.
“my son is severely handicapped, and at that time was simply trying to find a way to talk, to communicate with other people. That’s what Trans is all about. And that’s why, on that record, you know I’m saying something but you can’t understand what it is. Well, that’s the exact same feeling I was getting from my son.” - Neil Young interview for Mojo, 1995
Young recounts of that time that he and his wife were involved in an 18 month long program spending up to 15 hours a day trying to teach his young son, Ben to learn to crawl. The vocoder was used out of interest because the technology was something his son would respond to, having been born with cerebral palsy and unable to speak. The song Transformer Man is a dedication to Youngs son Ben.
Trans was like a teenager trying to figure out where it belonged in the world but after some thirty years later, after having gained live experiences and maturity the album’s purpose is more clear in that it is content, the insides and heart that really matter matters.
“The 80s were really good. The 80s were like, artistically, very strong for me, because I knew no boundaries and was experimenting with everything that I could come across, sometimes with great success, sometimes with terrible results, but nonetheless I was able to do this, and I was able to realise that I wasn’t in a box, and I wanted to establish that.” - Neil Young “Don’t be Denied” interview for BBC Four
This is Trans
