At the June 15th stop on Neil Young and Promise of The Real‘s current European Tour, the legendary rocker treated fans in Lyon, France to his first “Cortez The Killer” encore in three years. A few days later, while in Spain on June 20th, Neil Young and the band whose membership includes Lukas Nelson and Micah Nelson delivered another scorching “Cortez The Killer” encore. High quality, audience-shot footage of the 17-minute “Cortez” finale has surfaced.
Like other tour stops, Young’s appearance at Poble Espanyol in Barcelona, Spain began with a solo acoustic set during which he played “After The Gold Rush,” “Heart Of Gold,” “Comes A Time,” “The Needle And The Damage Done” and “Mother Earth.” After being joined by Promise Of The Real for “Out On The Weekend,” the rest of the main set showcased favorites such as “Alabama,” “Words (Between the Lines of Age),” and the set closing “Rockin’ In The Free World” as well as lesser-played selections like “Revolution Blues” and “Vampire Blues.”
And then you have Cortez The Killer.
The summation and conclusion to all of this; a song about a man who was “not able to sleep well” (Neil’s description) due to the crimes he committed. We see flashbacks of all these other varied antagonists who carelessly allowed greed to control them, to destroy their own peace of mind and the world around them. Cortez represents them all. He takes off his mask and reveals more than one face; and a mirror.
It’s a proper cinematic climax, the type Neil Young has so obviously been enamoured with for so most of his career.
As so often happens, Neil tells us a story with this tour, and Cortez brings this particular story to a befitting conclusion.
“Cortez the Killer” hails from the album Zuma, one of Neil Young’s most overlooked albums, often lost in the shuffle of its predecessor, the much-praised Tonight’s the Night, which came out just five months prior. But there’s really a very simple explanation for the song’s high rating. Just take it from Young himself, who once proclaimed that, “ ‘Cortez’ is some of my best guitar playing ever!”
Remarkably, the song’s structure was largely shaped by an accident—a power failure which occurred in the midst of recording a perfect, transcendent take of the song. Rather than recut the tune, Neil Young just plowed forward and later he and producer David Briggs went back and did some creative editing, which required the lopping off of several verses. “They missed a whole verse, a whole section!” Young says. “You can hear the splice on the recording where we stop and start again. It’s a messy edit…incredible! It was a total accident. But that’s how I see my best art, as one magical accident after another. That’s what is so incredible.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-b76yiqO1E
“Cortez the Killer,” about the Spanish explorer who conquered Mexico with bloody success, is also a prime example of Young’s physical style of lead playing. Also check out the beauty of this acoustic version.
“I am a naturally very destructive person,” he says. “And that really comes out in my guitar playing. Man, if you think of guitar playing in terms of boxing…well let’s just say I’m not the kind of guitarist you’d want to play against. I’m just scarred by life. Nothing in particular. No more scarred than anyone else. Only other people often don’t let themselves know how damaged they are, like I do and deal with it.”
The Fat Angel Sings 