Did you ever play a CD over and over until it finally just gives up the ghost? I've done it a few times. Just replaced my copy of Neil Young and Crazy Horses' "Ragged Glory." I have really played the be-jesus out of this disc ever since it came out in 1990. And the new CD sounds great. Blasted it out over and over yesterday afternoon...
I wonder why it's so good? Neil and the band are in peak form. It is a raggedly glorious sound. I suspect the X factor was the Producer David Briggs. It's no accident that some of my favorite Neil Young music was produced by Briggs. Whatever he brought to the sessions, whatever he did when collaborating with Neil worked out to the max. He brought some kind of special hoodoo mojo factor. Kind of mysterious... and his track record with Young is seriously great, some of the best music ever recorded... David Briggs was the secret sauce!