#neil young and crazy horse

[ewanmcgregorforcemasc]

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

"Peace Of Mind" - Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Community Theater, Berkeley, California, November 2, 1976

More Neil Young & Crazy Horse! Sorry, not sorry. Neil's recent Archives Vol. III box included two versions of the semi-deep-cut "Peace of Mind" — a lo-fi/informal acoustic run-through with Linda Ronstadt and Nicolette Larson, and a stripped-down Oceanside/Countryside mix. Both are lovely!

However! Vol. III does not have a Crazy Horse "Peace of Mind;" the band played it several times during their barnstorming fall '76 tour. Maybe we can convince Neil to release it on the live album he teased a while back but then shelved, entitled Electric Judy Presents Chaos and the Horse it Rode In On. "The best record Crazy Horse ever made," Neil says. So ... let's hear it?

Until then! Here's my pick for the best "Peace of Mind" from 1976. The Chicago recording is a higher-quality SBD, but this Berkeley performance from 50 years ago this week has the edge in its pure windswept melancholy, those Zuma-esque guitars slicing through the night (and the murk of the somewhat blown-out audience tape). It's hard to find peace of mind ... but here it is.

[raiseyourgoblet-of-rock]

Neil Young with his shirt open compilation post

[neilyoungshearse]

Rust Never Sleeps screen grabs. I like the one where he’s holding his head because the Road Eyes hit him with the big mic backstage 😂

[justaearthboundmisfit]

I can watch this man stumble around with his instruments for hours

[agirlnamedbone]

one of my forms of self harm is to rewind the part in "keep on rockin' in the free world" when neil sings "there's one more kid that'll never go to school, never get to fall in love, never get to be cool" over and over

it hurts

me

so

bad

[dollarbin]

Shakey Sunday #31:

Zuma, Part 4

Thanks for putting up with the piecemeal approach I'm taking for one of Neil's all time great records this week. Shakey often collages his records together from different eras, different bands and different moods so I feel justified in taking the same approach here. Zuma is loud, lovely and runs the gamut from hopeful to harrowing. And that's just Side 1!

Today let's flip the record and drop the needle on the album's two most problematic - but still awesome - tracks: Stupid Girl and Drive Back...

At some point in college my graduation requirements dictated that I take Sociology 101. I was a good boyfriend and an equally good student - always on time and meeting my obligations - but I was also a bit of a pretentious jerk, alternatively focused on vital topics such as E.M. Forster's colonial biases and the campus-wide compost program. Intro to Soc struck me as soft, beneath my level. Like I said, I was a bit of jerk.

Anyway, the course asked for a final paper on a topic of your choice. Other students spent weeks doing research into houselessness, mental illness and the human condition. I did no research whatsoever and wrote my 15+ page paper in one sitting, starting at 10pm the night before it was due. My thesis: classic rock is a hotbed for misogyny.

No research was needed because I played records all night while I wrote and every new album contained yet another topic for discussion. A young George Harrison, who'd go on to be a serial adulterer, pronounced his lady friend dead if she so much as looked at another man; Van Morrison considered every female he encountered as both a sex object and as a "little girl". Creepy stuff.

The paper wrote itself and I got a big fat A which I surely did not deserve. Art has - so far! - almost always served as a vehicle for patriarchy; the teacher should have given me a C- and said thank you for your contribution Captain Obvious.

Stupid Girl may be Shakey's greatest contribution to the whole hateful genre of man hate towards other genders. Not only does Neil spend the entire song telling the lady in question that she is dumb over and over again, he does it - thanks again in large part to David Briggs' menacing production approach - with venom and conviction.

Just listen to Neil's double tracked vocals. He hates ladies in every possible octave:

I am tempted to defend my musical hero by pointing out all the songs in which he sings with earnest praise for women of all kinds and by arguing that Stupid Girl is an aberration in his art. But then I remember a long ago NPR interview with his poor second wife Pegi, whom he summarily dumped not long before she died of cancer, and I feel that defending him here may be a well, stupid, move.

Neil's complicated, that's for sure. I'm glad I'm not married to him, and I'm glad my sister isn't either. But meanwhile, Stupid Girl freakin' rocks.

And so does Drive Back.

I long considered this song problematic only in the sense that it was not as incredibly awesome as the rest of Zuma. Why include this workmanlike track instead of any of the other essential songs Young had on hand at that point; we're talking Powderfinger (or Big Waves as it was known as way back in the After the Goldrush era), Sedan Delivery, White Line, not to mention the rest of Homegrown...

My entire attitude shifted, however, as soon as I heard Neil's Odeon/Budokan record in official release; there Drive Back sounds like a song David Briggs, Neil, you and me can get behind. It's frantic; it's taut; it cooks. It's on fire.

It's Neil Young.

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Nils Lofgren feat. Ringo Starr - “Ain’t the Truth Enough”

Nils Lofgren takes the macro of MAGA and thrusts it into the micro of a marriage on “Ain’t the Truth Enough.”

Lofgren, who plays lap steel, organ and vibes and has Ringo Starr on drums, sings the mid-tempo rock ballad from the perspective of a woman whose husband was a Jan. 6 insurrectionist.

We built this dream together/don’t tell me what I know/don’t tell me what is real/my mind and heart are whole/ … ain’t the truth enough

The song is a success in that it’s the rare piece of modern political commentary whose lyrics are never wince-inducing. Musically, however, the lead single from Mountains (July 21) is generic stuff - even Starr sounds like 1,000 other drummers - a song that is vaguely familiar despite being brand new.

But solo records are good for Lofgren, given he still spends most of his musical time playing alongside Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young as a member of both the E Street Band and Crazy Horse.

Grade card: Nils Lofgren feat. Ringo Starr - “Ain’t the Truth Enough” - C+

5/4/23

[ninetimesbluedemo]

happy psychedelic pilliversary

[gerogerigaogaigar]

Shania Twain - Come On Over

A prototype Taylor Swift who isn't even half as interesting. Music for a generation that would genuinely find 'gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss' a feminist anthem. The ties to country music so tenuous that I can only assume it was the only market that would have her. Needless to say this album don't impress me much.

B.B. King - Live At The Regal

By 65 when this album was released the blues were over. Rock bands were stealing blues riffs and calling them their own while most of the original bluesman had either died or faded into obscurity. B.B. King on the other hand was a maniac whose career could only be stopped by his own death. So while the blues was dead, B.B. King was still going strong. This live album shows what over a decade of practice does for a performer.

Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever

You wouldn't think that Tom Petty, an artist who managed two pretty good records in the late 70s would manage another pretty good album in 89 but here we are. Full Moon Fever isn't a masterpiece, Petty just isn't capable of a masterpiece, but it has twelve good rock and roll songs with above average lyricism. If you want more from an aging 70s rocker in 89 then I don't know what to tell you. Actually I do, it's Neil young's Freedom but idk, Tom Petty is good too.

Peter Gabriel - So

Why can Peter Gabriel write a song about his penis and it's one of his biggest hits, but if I go around telling people about my penis it's all "ma'am this is a Wendy's" huh? Also why is there just a straight up penis song on an album that otherwise want to be all smart and worldly? It's a fine album, but it kinda pales in comparison to other art rockers of the time and, in the end, the penis song is the best one anyway.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps

Rust Never Sleeps is a litany against stagnation. Fight all you want but eventually you will rust so isn't it better to burn out than to fade away? The Sex Pistols must have been a harrowing thing for Young to experience. A band that changed the face of music permanently but who rose tompromonence and fell apart during what amounted to a lull in Young's own career. No other band burned as bright but burned out as hard as the Sex Pistols. With this in mind it is clear why his litany against stagnation hinges on a tribute to Sex Pistols leader Johnny Rotten. How could Neil Young say it's better to burn out than fade away when his own career had been so long and successful? Maybe he saw the difference between success and impact. Either way the album is a masterpiece. Starting soft and growing in intensity until the the opener is reprised with the acoustic tenderness replaced by ragged electric guitars and wild solos. Young himself never burnt out. He experimented a lot in the 80s and 89 even saw him put out one of his best records, but by this point in his career he must have known that he'd faded out. Still one must imagine Sisyphus happy.

[thekylemeredith]

You know her from #Insecure and #TheWhiteLotus and tonight Natasha Rothwell will be hanging out to talk about #HowToDieAlone on Hulu!

Nils Lofgren, Nilüfer Yanya, and Trashcan Sinatras will also be dropping by & we'll head back to #Charmed for TV In The Radio.

6p ET on 91.9 WFPK

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, Ontario, October 31, 1996

According to the ever-rigorous Sugar Mountain site, Neil Young has only played three shows on Halloween — one with the Squires back in 1964, one solo Bridge performance in 1999 ... and one massive gig in south Ontario with Crazy Horse. The gang isn't terribly spooky here; they sound more like they want to provide the soundtrack for a great Halloween party. Mission accomplished!

The Horse is loose and rowdy and passionate throughout, playing some tunes that wouldn't be played all that much during the Year of the Horse — "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere," "Cowgirl In The Sand," "The Loner," etc. Neil is particularly relaxed and into it ... check out the moment in-between "Needle & The Damage Done" and "Helpless" where he appears to be writing an entirely new song onstage. "That's how they start, ya know — you're just standing there and suddenly you're playing it," he says. "I'll see if I can remember that later!"

Rarest of all is the one-and-only electric rendition of the Harvest Moon eco-epic "Natural Beauty," which is quite an amazing trip, Old Black ringing out over the arena, Ralph Molina only adding bare accents on drums, the whole group coming in on harmonies. "Natural Beauty" is rumored to have been recorded in this fashion during the Ragged Glory sessions — until Archives Vol. IV hits shelves in 2032, this is as close as we can get.

This Halloween in Hamilton gig is long, but stick around after the encore for some bonus treats/tricks from that fall. And for EVEN MORE, go straight to the Spooking the Horse comp, which mops up a bunch of rarities and one-offs from 1996-97. Boo!

[raiseyourgoblet-of-rock]

Ah shit we wrote your boyfriend into a Neil Young song. Yeah he’s… he’s… actually we don’t know what he’s doing…

[neilyoungshearse]

[greensparty]

Concert Review: Pearl Jam

9/17/24 @ Fenway Park (Boston, MA)

Just last week I got to see Jane's Addiction literally implode onstage. This week I got to see their alt-rock peers in Pearl Jam play a lot nicer. This was PJ's second night at Fenway Park of this tour. Let me just say at the onset of this review that there is a reason Pearl Jam is considered one of the greatest live bands on the planet! I was lucky enough to see them in Aug. 2000 at Great Woods in Mansfield, MA. I, then, had the pleasure of seeing them in 2018 at Fenway Park (read my review here) and was struck by how they had actually gotten better since the first time I saw them 18 years earlier. I also got to review their 2017 live CD / DVD Let's Play Two, which covered their 2016 shows at Chicago's Wrigley Field, and it showed the sheer fandom that singer Eddie Vedder had for the Chicago Cubs. Which is why it was classy to hear him speak so respectfully about Fenway Park and its history and place in baseball history. Bassist Jeff Ament wore a Larry Bird t-shirt and guitarist Mike McCready wore a shirt of the band Boston. So the fact that PJ are returning to Fenway Park was something super special!

PJ onstage

Going into this concert, I knew it was going to be an epic show, but I was speechless by where I was watching from. I was on the turf at Fenway Park, easily the best seats I've ever had for a concert at Fenway Park! I felt like I was at the center of the universe - unbelievable! I missed opening act Glen Hansard, who performed with Olivia Vedder (yes - the daughter of some guy in PJ). I was a fan of the 2021 Flag Day soundtrack that featured Glen, Olivia and her dad, so it's too bad I missed it, but fortunately Glen Hansard came out in the middle of PJ's set and sat with Eddie Vedder for a cover of "Falling Slowly", Glen's famous song from Once.

One of the many cool visuals during PJ's performance

PJ brought their A-Game to Fenway. Not just Eddie, but Guitarists McCready and Stone Gossard, bassist Ament, drummer Matt Cameron and touring keyboardist Boom Gaspar and multi-instrumentalist Josh Klinghoffer (he appeared on Eddie's 2022 solo album Earthling) were all in top form. They did a ton of hits off of Ten, Vs., and Vitology, and some songs off of albums they've released since (although surprisingly nothing off of Binaural, Pearl Jam, or Lightning Bolt), but what I was most excited to see in this concert was hearing them do songs off of their most recent albums Gigaton and Dark Matter. Sadly for everyone Gigaton had the misfortune of being released in March 2020 shortly after lockdowns and we didn't get a proper Gigaton tour. At this show, the only song they did off that album was "Superblood Wolfmoon". It would've been cool to get some of the other songs off that album like "Retrograde", but beggars can't be choosers. But since Dark Matter is the newer album, that overshadowed Gigaton and they played five of the 11 songs off the new album.

Vedder takes center stage

Gossard's solo

no this wasn't taken during "Red Mosquito"

McCready's solo

nothing like playing Fenway Park

Highlights of the show for me were "Daughter", "Untitled", "F***in' Up" (a Neil Young and Crazy Horse cover they've been doing for decades now), "Why Go", and "Yellow Ledbetter". Earlier this year, Eddie hinted in the press that the band may only be around for another album or two. While I hope that's not the case, this particular show is very much a tough act to follow. But if anyone can top themselves it's PJ!

For info on Pearl Jam

[sylvaindt]