Next to Buddy Miles version of “Down By The River,” this is one of the stronger explorations of Neil Young’s work in the vein of soul/r&b. Culled from the 1971 album Givin’ It Back, the Brothers set the tone with a military drum cadence before sliding in nice and slow. Working up a medley between “Ohio” and Band of Gypsys’ “Machine Gun,” the track (at 9 minutes) morphs into an era-appropriate protest jam.
MP3: The Isley Brothers :: Ohio (Neil Young)
I was just listening to their 3 + 3 album this morning…
1 | mark March 1st, 2012 at 7:47 amsmoove
2 | ronald March 1st, 2012 at 1:35 pmThis is a record that i need, but i have stopped shopping because they are all out there now and it get expensive. great post
3 | Dr Phong March 1st, 2012 at 3:15 pmYeah – I recently got the 5 album mini box just to get ‘Givin It Back’ (less than £15 online) – great sounds and selections – the album also features a 10 minute jam on Carole King’s ‘It’s Too Late’. On top of that the other 4 albums in the set are killer too. Love them Isley’s……
4 | Andrew March 2nd, 2012 at 2:08 amWrong album for ‘It’s Too Late’ – dope – Brother, Brother, Brother – also in the set.
5 | Andrew March 2nd, 2012 at 2:46 amI have always loved this song and never knew it was covered by the Isley Brothers. Fact that song works so well when covered by another artist/group (even given their tremendous level of musicianship) speaks to the strength of the song.
6 | Joshua Sanders March 2nd, 2012 at 4:32 pmOna separate note…I think I hear a little bit of the Isley Brothers coming out in some of Springsteens songs…just a little…
Excellent post – great to see you surfacing such a great cover (even if Ron heads a bit too far into Buddy Miles territory with his, um, “psychedelic” scatting.
There’s actually almost nothing I love better in music than an early ’70s Isleys rock cover – I just gatherered all of the ones I could think of into a Spotify playlist that I semi-embedded in a blog post – Isley Brothers | Stephen Stills | Neil Young | Singer Songwriter Music, if anyone wants to check it out.
P.S. If anyone knows how to actually embed a Spotify/Rdio/MOG playlist, I’d love to hear it!
7 | Mike B March 2nd, 2012 at 10:14 pm