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A Bigger Bang Tour 2007

Art Wood tribute gig
York House, Twickenham, London - 25 March 2007
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Topic: Neil Young's Second Volume Return to archive
12th March 2007 11:24 PM
time is on my side Hey, while some wet themselves dreaming of an Emotional Rescue, I, for one, am looking beyond all that to more substanial and rewarding fare at least from my perspective. Like Neil Young Live at Massey Hall. As the saying goes, to each their own. IT'S BEING RELEASED TOMORROW. There's a CD/DVD version you can get. As Dylan once said, Can't Wait.

Also, looking forward to seeing Lucinda Williams in concert this Saturday. I've been listening to Lucinda nonstop for the last week or so. Which brings me to a question, has anyone heard of the music of Blaze Foley or Townes Van Zandt??? Austin musicians. Have to admit I know little of their music though both of their life stories are interesting. Would anyone recommend looking into their music further???

Here's a review:

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
The second volume of Neil Young's long-promised, suddenly thriving Archives series is Live at Massey Hall, preserving a 1971 acoustic show at the Toronto venue. Where the first volume captured a portion of Neil's past that wasn't particularly well documented on record — namely, the rampaging original Crazy Horse lineup in its 1970 prime — this second installment may seem to cover familiar ground, at least to the outside observer who may assume that any solo acoustic Young must sound the same. That, of course, is not the case with an artist as mercurial and willful as Young, who inarguably on a roll in 1971, coming off successes with Crazy Horse, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and his own solo debut, 1970's After the Gold Rush. The concert chronicled on Live at Massey Hall finds Neil dipping into these recent successes for material, as he also airs material that would shortly find a home on 1972's Harvest in addition to playing songs that wouldn't surface until later in the decade — "Journey Through the Past" and "Love in Mind" wound up on 1973's Time Fades Away, "See the Sky About to Rain" showed up on 1974's On the Beach — and then there's two songs that never showed up on an official Neil Young album: the stomping hoedown "Dance Dance Dance," which he gave to Crazy Horse, and "Bad Fog of Loneliness," which gets its first release here. This is a remarkably rich set of songs, touching on nearly every aspect of Young's personality, whether it's his sweetness, his sensitivity, his loneliness, or even his often-neglected sense of fun. True, the latter only appears on "Dance Dance Dance," but that comes as a welcome contrast to the stark sadness of "See the Sky About to Rain." But even if "Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand" retain their intense sense of menace when stripped of the winding guitar workouts of Crazy Horse, this concert isn't dominated by melancholy: it's a warm, giving affair, built upon lovely readings of "Helpless," "Tell Me Why," "Old Man," and an early incarnation of "A Man Needs a Maid" (here played as a medley with "Heart of Gold") that removes the bombast of the Harvest arrangement, revealing the fragile, sweet song that lies underneath. While this concert isn't as freewheeling and rich as Young's studio albums of the early '70s — each record had a distinctive character different from its predecessor, thanks in part to producer David Briggs, arranger/pianist Jack Nitzsche, and Young's supporting musicians, including Crazy Horse or the Stray Gators — it nevertheless captures the essence of Neil Young the singer and songwriter at his artistic peak. That's the reason why this concert has been a legendary bootleg for nearly four decades and why its release 36 years after its recording is so special: it may not add an additional narrative to Neil Young's history, but it adds detail, color, and texture to a familiar chapter of his career, rendering it fresh once more. No wonder Briggs wanted to release this concert as an album between After the Gold Rush and Harvest: it not only holds its own against those classics, it enhances them. [Live at Massey Hall was also released as a two-disc set that contained a CD of the show and a DVD containing the same concert in high fidelity audio.]


Tracks




Title
Composer
Time

1 On the Way Home Young 3:42
2 Tell Me Why Young 2:29
3 Old Man Young 4:57
4 Journey Through the Past Young 4:15
5 Helpless Young 4:16
6 Love in Mind Young 2:47
7 A Man Needs a Maid/Heart of Gold Suite Young 6:39
8 Cowgirl in the Sand Young 3:45
9 Don't Let It Bring You Down Young 2:46
10 There's a World Young 3:33
11 Bad Fog of Loneliness Young 3:27
12 The Needle and the Damage Done Young 3:55
13 Ohio Young 3:40
14 See the Sky About to Rain Young 4:05
15 Down by the River Young 4:08
16 Dance Dance Dance Young 5:48
17 I Am a Child Young 3:19

indicates Track Pick




Releases Other Editions
Year
Type
Label
Catalog #

2007 CD Reprise / Wea 43328
Edition

CD/DVD




12th March 2007 11:40 PM
Zack I've had the audio on boot for a year or so. Great stuff. Neil's had a lot of ups and downs, but this was when he was in high spirits. Happy to be in Canada too I suspect.
13th March 2007 02:16 AM
sirmoonie Have a good time at Williams, I think I learned about her here. She just does it for me.
13th March 2007 06:14 AM
Prodigal Son Time Fades Away rules em all, but the Fillmore one and this Massey Hall one are outstanding too. Neil was so damn smokin in the 70s that even his lighter, more soft stuff was brilliant and back then his sentimentality could produce brilliance. Today he often stumbles when trying to be introspective and gentle (see some of Prairie Wind's old fart tunes). He was on such a roll from 1969-79; his prime.

Everybody Knows: A
After the Gold Rush: A+
Harvest: A-
Time Fades Away: A
On the Beach: A
Tonight's the Night: A+
Zuma: A
American stars n' Bars: B+
Decade: A
Comes a Time: A
Rust Never Sleeps: A+
Live Rust: A-


All my opinion of course. The Stones are one of those few artists who could match such an impressive streak.
13th March 2007 06:16 AM
glencar VH1 showed an old Neil Young concert yesterday. Not sure where it was from.
13th March 2007 07:18 AM
Zack
quote:
Prodigal Son wrote:

After the Gold Rush: A+
Rust Never Sleeps: A+




Concur. Two of the greatest albums by anyone, IMHO.

I have never come across Time Fades Away, ever.
13th March 2007 08:00 PM
Prodigal Son
quote:
Zack wrote:


Concur. Two of the greatest albums by anyone, IMHO.

I have never come across Time Fades Away, ever.



You can buy it all for like 90 cents or a dollar on the mp3.ru site. It's derived from the vinyl version so it's a bit muddy and lo-fi but clear enough for me. It's his Harvest tour but the music included on here foreshadows the grungey, sloppy country-rock heard on On the Beach, Tonight's the Night, Zuma and the unreleased bootleg album Homegrown. The piano ballads are special too, recalling the best moments from his earlier work and what would come later on in the decade. He's rarely done any good piano-based tunes since the early 70s ("Wrecking Ball," "My Heart,", "A Dream That Can Last" and "Quit [Don't Say You Love Me]" are the best ones while most others, like "Horshoe Man" and "It's a Dream", are really goopy).
[Edited by Prodigal Son]
13th March 2007 10:55 PM
Taptrick
I love Little Wing off Hawks and Doves - it's not the Hendrix song.

13th March 2007 11:10 PM
mojoman
quote:
Taptrick wrote:

I love Little Wing off Hawks and Doves - it's not the Hendrix song.





nice long moody rambler. liked captain kennedy off that disc too. certainly a underated album
14th March 2007 04:14 PM
Prodigal Son Hawks and Doves has some really throwaway country-rockers that make Neil sound like a country yahoo as he promotes Reagan ("Coastline," "Hawks and Doves" are pretty lame tunes; "Stayin' Power," "Union Man," and "Coming Apart at Every Nail" are ok). Side 1 is very good with some great songs ("Little Wing," "Captain Kennedy") some charming toss-offs ("Lost in Space") and some nearly great ("The Old Homestead"-it's a bit long and sounds like "New Mama" and a bunch of his other acoustic epics).

But Hawks and Doves marked a change in that starting with that LP, each one of Neil's seemed to get worse up until 1987's Life which improved upon the crappy Landing on Water. Reactor was ok, Trans was average, Everybody's Rockin lousy and Old Ways awful. 1989's Freedom was his first great album in ten years, no doubt.
14th March 2007 04:27 PM
Gazza
quote:
Prodigal Son wrote:
But Hawks and Doves marked a change in that starting with that LP, each one of Neil's seemed to get worse up until 1987's Life which improved upon the crappy Landing on Water. Reactor was ok, Trans was average, Everybody's Rockin lousy and Old Ways awful. 1989's Freedom was his first great album in ten years, no doubt.



I'm one of those contrary bastards that actually likes Trans.

I also think some of Old Ways is superb. Especially "Misfits".

Landing on Water is horrid, but contains two little gems in Violent Side (despite those fuckin' drums) and Touch The Night.

"Life" was pretty good however. That was the first tour I saw him on, and the new songs went down very well.

The Geffen years were however not a vintage era. No wonder David Geffen tried to sue him.

I actually think 'Freedom' is a little overrated by many, although its very good. "Ragged Glory" though is the dogs bollocks. Neil's best album post-Tonight's The Night.
[Edited by Gazza]
14th March 2007 06:02 PM
time is on my side Always thought "Life" was an underrated gem. It's one that get continually overlooked in the catalogue. Obviously, it's not a great album but it's one that I still listen to on a semi regular basis (grade B).

Freedom (grade A+) to me is one great album. It's actually my favorite Neil Young album since Rust Never Sleeps. A Masterpiece. Ragged Glory, the one that followed, is another great one (was listening to that one just a few weeks ago- grade A+). The whole album rocks & love the distorted feedback sound (caught Neil with Crazy Horse live on that tour- also saw Neil on the Life tour).

Since Ragged Glory, in my view, there has been a marked decline in quality. Though I will say, for some reason, I love the album Sleeps with Angels (grade B+ to maybe A-) which I look upon as a near great album. It's one of those albums that I personally keep playing over and over.

I still have the original vinyl version of Time Fades Away that I bought when it was first released but haven't played it in years as I no longer have a turntable to play it on (my LP collection is sitting in storage & I still fondly inspect it every now and then).
14th March 2007 08:01 PM
Left Shoe Shuffle
quote:
Prodigal Son wrote:
Old Ways awful.

To each their own.
I love Old Ways!

More precisely, Old Ways I, the 83 version that Geffen rejected.
Straight ahead C&W. Long live the International Harvesters!

RIP Rufus Thibodeaux.


14th March 2007 08:51 PM
Lazy Bones
quote:
Gazza wrote:
I'm one of those contrary bastards that actually likes Trans.



In my books, the 'contrary bastards' are the ones that dislike Trans. I, too, like Trans. It's probably in the top 5 Neil albums of mine that gets the most play.

Watched "Massey" last night and think it's great. There was some banter on RUST today about editing, but others pointed out the difference is 1st show vs 2nd show rather that editing. I've yet to compare myself but quite frankly, seeing it's talking in between songs that's in question rather than songs, imo, who cares!

It's great to see the images of Massey - still looks the same today.
15th March 2007 05:29 AM
Prodigal Son I'll talk about the records mentioned since my last post. Sorry, I still don't like Old Ways though "Once an Angel" and the Willie duet are cool. Landing on Water has three really cruddy songs in "Hard Luck Stories," "I Got a Problem," "People on the Street" while the others range from ok ("Touch the Night," "Violent Side" "Weight of the World") to pretty cool ("Pressure," except for the synth/sax solo-yuck- and the album's Crosby lament "Hippie Dream"). But just a C+ for that one for me. Hawks and Doves and Re-ac-tor get B's. Re-ac-tor has some repetive lyrics and riffs for sure, but only on some songs does it bother me ("T Bone" and "Opera Star" bore me to death) but on others it works ok ("Get Back on it," "Motor City" and "Rapid Transit").

The great ones here are "Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze" cause its rowdy and fun and "Southern Pacific" cause it just sounds really neat and hypnotic. The closer "Shots" could've been ok but the machine gun sound effects are distracting and Neil's whining here is a little less tolerable than usual. I give Trans a B-minus (some good cuts, some ruined a bit by techno-obsession), but I haven't listened to that one for a while (only clips since it's hard to find on CD anywhere). I found a garage sale priced Everybody's Rockin and saw why it was such a dud. I give it a C+ (besides Sha Na Na, I never thought rockabilly oldies could suck-but the half-assed arrangements and awful digital production sink this). The title track, "Betty Lou's Got a New Pair of Shoes" and "Kinda Fonda Wanda" all sound like throwaway unreleased Gene Vincent b-sides.

Most of the covers are good, but have been bested elsewhere. Only his own "Wonderin'" and "Payola Blues" work for me. Plus the backing vocalists, forget the name but Neil just slapped it on some guys as he usually does, were just too damn white and non doo-wop sounding for me.m But the tour with the Shocking pinks yielded some good stuff like "Get Gone" and "Don't Take Your Love Away from Me"). Old Ways to me is the epitome of slick, flakey mid-80s country and Neil has done better country by far. I don't like "Misfits" and "Wayward Wind" and "Bound for Glory" are corny to no end... and not the good kind of corny!

Crazy Horse's six-year hiatus was broken for Life which I give a B for its return to quality songwriting seen in "Mideast Vacation" (a good political song with a good techno rock arrangement for once), "Prisoners of Rock n' Roll" (a real nice slam at Geffen) and "When Your Lonely Heart Breaks" one of his top 80s love songs. Life does suffer from the 80s problems of maudlin sentimentalism heard in "Cryin' Eyes" and to a less mediocre extent "We Never Danced." "Long Walk Home" is a really good song, just not here where the synthesizers blare and the gun sound effects hurt my ears. Just poorly produced that one! "Inca Queen" is too long winding and dull to be great, "Too Lonely" is too average and "Around the World" tries a bit hard to be cool and modern.

This Note's for You is pretty ok but the bluesines gets kinda generic after a while and the horn charts are pretty standard (half the time they just come in for rhythmic chord shots and barely do any kind of melody). The title track here is 2 minutes for some reason, at least on mine. Why did he not put the live recording 5 minute version on here, which it eventually got release on the 1993 compilation Lucky Thirteen. Anyway, that compilation's "Ain't it the Truth" would've been the best thing here. As it is, only the haunting "Coupe de Ville" and "Twilight" work and the best up tempo one is "Ten Men Workin." That being said, this is a consistent B because it lacks any truly bad songs unlike all his albums since Hawks and Doves!

Freedom has nothing bad either and I give it an A. This record with lots of variety that doesn't wallow too much in current sounds or the past either. "Somewhere" comes close to sucking cause of the Casio keyboard goop but it's an alright song in spite of this and "Too Far Gone" is a decent country charmer that apparently is inferior to his 70s version recorded for the aborted Homegrown LP (or was it Chrome Dreams?). The best things here are of course the acoustic and electric "Rockin in the Free World," the narrative beauty of "Crime in the City" (I wish this version had the Crazy Horse touch like the live one from Weld), the creepy metal-esque "Don't Cry" (my vote for one of Neil's top 10 vocal performances!), the stark and pretty duet with Linda Rondstadt "Hangin' on a Limb," the Spanish exoticism of "El Dorado" (but the EP version has some excellent super-distortion/feedback guitar work edited out of Freedom) and the awesome ant-drug rocker "No More."

Neil got his soul back on this one and even the typical love tune "Wrecking Ball" doesn't suck for a change! His version of "On Broadway" ain't grand but it is original and genuine especially cause of his funny "rap" in the middle about "gimme some of that crack, gimme some of that CCCRRRRAAAAAACK!!!! BROOOOOAAAADWAY!" "Ways of Love" ain't too superb either, but is likeable. The rocker fans of Neil prefer Ragged Glory. Me, I give RG an A too, but a less stellar one than Freedom simply cause RG relies more on less innovation, ie. long guitar jams. This still doesn't hurt the amazing songs "Love to Burn," "Love and Only Love" while the shorter ones that rule, with those great Crazy Horse harmonies, are "Country Home," "White Line," "Fucking up," and "Mansion on the Hill."

"Over and Over" is too long and sappily nostalgic for me to call it really good and "Farmer John," though fun, is pedestrian. "Days That Used to Be," ANOTHER nostalgia ode, is ok but "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)" is a bit hippy-dippy and reminds me not of vintage Neil and/or Crazy Horse but CSNY... who ain't my thing to be honest. Despite some flaws, Ragged Glory is as good a guitar feedback record as you're gonna hear outside of Sonic Youth. It was a great career step for Neil to realize that young "grunge" bands were following in the footsteps he set up. Of all his work, the first real "grunge" sounding LP has to be Zuma. Zuma, IMO, is the godfather to all the Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam, etc. that was to come.
18th March 2007 02:05 AM
time is on my side Just got in from seeing Lucinda. Man what a show!!! I'm still blown away from the show. She was only a few feet from me. Here's what I remember what the setlist may look like:

Ventura
Fruits of My Labor
Pineola
Drunken Angel
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Lake Charles
Fancy Funeral
Crescent City
2 Kool 2 Be 4 Gotten
Where is My Love?
Righteously
Essence
Come On
Attonement
Unsuffer Me
Learning How to Live
Jackson
Bus to Baton Rouge
Get Right With God
Sweet Side
Everything Has Changed
Joy


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