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The second release in NEIL YOUNG’s concert archive series is a solo acoustic show where Young accompanies himself on guitar and piano, quite a contrast to the earlier album’s loud and rowdy CRAZY HORSE electricity. Here there are solo versions of BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD (“On the Way Home” and “I Am a Child” open and close the show) and CSNY (“Helpless,” “Ohio”) material, and some of these songs are otherwise unavailable: “Journey Through the Past” and “Love in Mind” because he still hasn’t let his albums Time Fades Away and Journey Through the Past come out on CD, the legendarily elusive “Bad Fog of Loneliness” because he never put it on an album. And though you can find the stomping “Dance Dance Dance” on Crazy Horse’s first album, it’s not Young singing it there. We also get to hear the more revealing early lyrics of “A Man Needs a Maid.”
Discographical considerations aside, this concert is great listening. Young’s in good voice (he’d learned to keep his high vocals from being too wayward, but hard living hadn’t frayed his tone yet) and his acoustic guitar skills shine. Hearing these songs in their most basic forms is wonderfully intimate, one notable example being “See the Sky About to Rain” (three years before he recorded it for On the Beach). Even prototypical Crazy Horse rockers “Cowgirl in the Sand” and “Down by the River” sound great, even more chilling actually, and the rich guitar harmonies and full sound in the latter are gorgeous.
Young’s producer DAVID BRIGGS wanted this concert to come out before Harvest (the sound is perfect), but Neil vetoed that. It took 36 years to be officially released; it’s worth the wait.
