Liner Notes for Head Like a Rock (Japanese Release)
Ian McNabb relaxes and reads the paper during a photo shoot in the desert.

First thing first.This is an album about the power of dreaming. The greatest dream of one man has come true. Making a dream come true is not a matter of romanticism, it is a truly realistic barometer of the seriousness of life.

It is well known that Ian McNabb adores Neil Young as his mentor, along with Lennon and Dylan, and has often covered Young's songs in his live shows. The adoring dream of a boy who thought, "Gee, I wish I could play with a great band like this someday," has been finally realized after nearly 20 years.

However, it was realized so casually that there is no obstinate air, such as "Patience wins out in the end," with this album.

It is more appropriate to say that in his third year after having started over as a solo artist, good luck and aid came around to McNabb.

When you are prepared, fortune will naturally come your way. It is an absolute truth. If you can share this almost too naïve-sounding belief, you will see the quiet fire Head Like a Rock contains.

After the release of Truth and Beauty last year, McNabb gathered the musicians at hand and set off to tour. On this tour he could remember the excitement of "rocking with a band," which he hadn't had for a while. It was a fire starter. If he was going to rock with a band, it should be the best one. It must be Crazy Horse, so he waved the magic wand, and bass player Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina appeared.

Quite surprisingly, McNabb is the only artist whom they have ever played with as a backing band, except the originator Neil Young.

The results of the "McNabb version of Crazy Horse," featuring Talbot, Molina, and Mike Hamilton on rhythm guitar, who used to play with the Smithereens and now forming another band with the former two, can be heard on the first three and ending tracks. "Fire Inside My Soul" is an eight and a half minute simple yet passionate autobiography. "You Must Be Prepared To Dream" conveys his present state of mind in full volume. "Child Inside A Father" had originally been a quiet ballad, but Crazy Horse broke in there, resulting in such a magnificent and heavy sound. McNabb wrote this number having David Crosby in mind. "Though the flesh and bone are aging, we survive in the soul"-- the theme is consistent from one of the key phrases from last album, "Spirit does not die" ("These Are The Days"). When he says "Spirit does not die," he means that the soul will not age, a man never changes essentially, and a man can yearn and seek forever with the excitement of a child. "Keep as many dreams as you can, and live every day to the full"-- this simplest message is flowing all the way through the album, confirming that it is the conviction of himself as the one concerned. "Still Got The Fever," "Go Into The Light," and "As Life Goes By." Every expression used here is intentionally plain and straight. Ian says, "I used to say things in poetic metaphor or hide the true meanings behind the vague nuances, but this time I tried to say everything straight to the limit, so that it can reach as many people as possible. In the world like this, it's so easy to be cynical. There are a lot out there making music leaning toward that direction. I just wanted to say, "But you'll find a lot of good things too in your life."

Looking back on the collaboration with Crazy Horse and the short tour with them in June, he now says, "This was the realization of the best of my dreams. They brought really many things into the music. On stage, sometimes our eyes meet and--wow, Crazy Horse is playing with me! I couldn't believe it was real. Then they are gone. They are not here anymore. Did it really happen? Yeah, probably it did." It seems a bit nonchalant for the one who stole the band he had adored for so long and combined it with himself, but it is so much like McNabb. More than anything, the fact that this is not specifically an album by "Ian McNabb And Crazy Horse" shows the uniqueness of this artist's career and his creative idiosyncrasy. He extremely dislikes to stick to one pattern, as he explains, "If I can hear Crazy Horse music for the first 25 minutes, then I myself want to go on to hear other types of music as well." Therefore, this has turned out to be an album also with soul, sugar pop, and ballad. After all, he is doing what he used to do in Icicle Works. It is true that a man never changes. A man only becomes more and more like what he really is.

This theory is crystallized in the form of the last track of the album "May You Always." One can recognize at once that Dylan's "Forever Young" has a strong influence on this song, but McNabb created the whole original world with a gentle ballad tune and the serene resonance of his voice . The last line "May you always be like you" is corresponding with the message on the inner sleeve "Just be you!"

We all wish and pursue to be something different from ourselves. However, the true nature of the person emerges in the process and procedure he takes in the course of the pursuit. I declare this is one of the true masterpieces he's ever made. I can't help smiling to think how clearly this song reveals what he is like. Please read the lyrics through, and see it for yourself.

Most of the album was recorded in the studio in California, in the short span of three weeks from November to December last year. I regret that there isn't enough space to introduce the musicians individually except the members of Crazy Horse. The musicians I'd like to mention especially though, are the trio of Mona Lisa Young, Maxi Anderson, and Terry Young, which provides soulful backing vocals everywhere on the album, and also Scarlet Rivera on violin and her husband Tommy Eyre on keyboards. All 15 musicians including the ones I mentioned above are veterans who have participated in the recordings of artists like Dylan, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, U2, k.d. Lang, the Rolling Stones, Matthew Sweet, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Petty, Tracy Chapman etc. Of course, I should also mention Nick Warren, who is Ian's right-hand man, devoted guitar roadie and keyboard player, and Roy Corkill, who's been the fellow bass player since the Icicle Works' final album "Permanent Damage."

Truth and Beauty was the album that, in its creation and touring altered Ian's own life to something completely positive, into the road to the future. I couldn't help but describe it "the prescription called music." It seems this prescription is still in full effect for Ian McNabb this year. Not many musicians can reconfirm their own position, aim, and indispensable love for music when they are well into thirties, believing they can start over, saying "I'm beginning here." With Head Like a Rock, Ian McNabb has materialized one of his greatest dreams ever. But who can tell what this man is going to do next? I'm waiting to find out with a huge expectation for the future and endless dreams of the purest musical fool in the world.

July 12, 1994
Erica Yamashita

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Liner notes translated from Japanese by Noriko Haritani. Edited by Erica Yamashita and Carl Seiler. Copyright © 1994, 1999 Erica Yamashita. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission. Posted 5 May 1998. Minor editing and HTML updating on 7 August 2001. Photo coloration by Carl Seiler, 22 January 1999.