Posts Tagged ‘Neil Young’

NEIL YOUNG – ” Live at Farm Aid 2016 ” With Promise of the Real

Posted: September 18, 2016 in FESTIVALS, MUSIC
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Neil Young and the Promise of the Real performs their seventh song at Farm Aid 2016 at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia, on September 17th.

“There’s a revolution starting!” Neil Young told the crowd early on in his set at the 31st annual Farm Aid. “It’s called eating good food that your neighbors made for you. … Let the earth bring us all together, back to the roots. Eat good food. You don’t need the drugs anymore. It took us a long time to get this far. We have a long way to go. But with people like you, we’re going to make it!”

Neil Young + Promise of the Real performs their second song at Farm Aid 2016 at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia, on September 17th.
Farm Aid was started by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp in 1985 to keep family farmers on the land and has worked since then to make sure everyone has access to good food from family farmers. Dave Matthews joined Farm Aid’s board of directors in 2001.

The packed bill featured a mixture of young acts (Insects vs. Robots, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats), country stars (Jamey Johnson, Margo Price) and, as always, the four members of the Farm Aid board (Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Willie Nelson.) It was a lot to cram into a single day,

Farm Aid was started by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp in 1985 to keep family farmers on the land and has worked since then to make sure everyone has access to good food from family farmers. Dave Matthews joined Farm Aid’s board of directors in 2001.

Neil Young is the one Farm Aid board member that always delivers an unpredictable set. Last year he tested the patience of the audience by playing unfamiliar new material like “Seed Justice” and “A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop.” (He also did “Alabama” for the first time since 1977.) In 2013, his set was mainly covers. This time around, he opened with “Heart of Gold” and largely stuck to songs everyone knew, including “Harvest Moon” and “Out on the Weekend.” He first played with Lukas and Micah Nelson at Farm Aid in 2014 and they’ve been his band ever since. Papa Willie came out for a duet of “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?” before Neil strapped on Old Black and led the band through ferocious renditions of “Powderfinger” and “Rockin’ in the Free World,” complete with three false endings. It was a mere tiny slice of the amazing shows they’ve been playing during the past couple of years. If they come anywhere near you, check them out. With the very large exception of Crazy Horse, this is one of the best bands he’s ever worked with.

Neil Young Goes With the Hits

NEIL YOUNG – ” On The Beach ” Released 16th July 1974

Posted: July 17, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Neil Young - on-the-beach

“On the Beach” is the fifth studio album by Neil Young, released in 1974. It was unavailable on compact disc until it was released as a HDCD-encoded remastered version on August 19, 2003 as part of his Archives Digital Masterpiece Series. Recorded after (but released before) Tonight’s the Night, On the Beach shares some of that album’s bleakness and crude production—which came as a shock to fans and critics alike, as this was the long-awaited studio follow-up to the commercially and critically successful Harvest—but also included hints pointing towards a more subtle outlook, particularly on the opener, “Walk On”.

While Rolling Stone described it as “One of the most despairing albums of the decade”, later critics used the benefit of hindsight to conclude that Young “[w]as saying goodbye to despair, not being overwhelmed by it”. The despair of Tonight’s the Night, communicated through intentional underproduction and lyrical pessimism, gives way to a more polished album that is still pessimistic but to a lesser degree. Much like Tonight’s the Night, On the Beach was not a commercial success at the time of its release but over time attained a high regard from fans and critics alike. The album was recorded in a haphazard manner, with Young utilizing a variety of session musicians, and often changing their instruments while offering only bare-bones arrangements for them to follow (in a similar style to Tonight’s the Night). He also would opt for rough, monitor mixes of songs rather than a more polished sound, alienating his sound engineers in the process.

“Ambulance Blues” closes the album. The melody ‘unintentionally’ quotes Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death”. In a 1992 interview for the French “Guitare & Claviers” magazine, Young discussed Jansch’ influence:

“As for acoustic guitar, Bert Jansch is on the same level as Jimi (Hendrix). That first record of his is epic. It came from England, and I was especially taken by “Needle of Death”, such a beautiful and angry song. That guy was so good. And years later, on On the Beach, I wrote the melody of “Ambulance Blues” by styling the guitar part completely on “Do You Hear Me Now?”. I wasn’t even aware of it, and someone else drew my attention to it.”

The song explores Young’s feelings about his critics, Richard Nixon and the state of CSNY. The line “You’re all just pissing in the wind” was a direct quote from Young’s manager regarding the inactivity of the quartet.

On the Beach was savage and, ultimately, triumphant. “I’m a vampire, babe,” Young sang, and he proceeded to take bites out of various subjects: threatening the lives of the stars who lived in L.A.’s Laurel Canyon (“Revolution Blues”); answering back to Lynyrd Skynyrd, whose “Sweet Home Alabama” had taken him to task for his criticisms of the South in “Southern Man” and “Alabama” (“Walk On”); and rejecting the critics (“Ambulance Blues”). But the barbs were mixed with humor and even affection, as Young seemed to be emerging from the grief and self-abuse that had plagued him for two years. But the album was so spare and under-produced, its lyrics so harrowing, that it was easy to miss Young’s conclusion: he was saying goodbye to despair,

Recorded November 30th, 1973 – April 7th, 1974 Arrow Ranch, Woodside, California;Sunset Sound Recorders,Hollywood

Track Listing:

All songs written by Neil Young.

Side one

  1. “Walk On” – 2:42
  2. “See the Sky About to Rain” – 5:02
  3. “Revolution Blues” – 4:03
  4. “For the Turnstiles” – 3:15
  5. “Vampire Blues” – 4:14

Side two

  1. “On the Beach” – 6:59
  2. “Motion Pictures” – 4:23
  3. “Ambulance Blues” – 8:56

“Good album. One side of it particularly—the side with ‘Ambulance Blues’, ‘Motion Pictures’ and ‘On the Beach’ — it’s out there. It’s a great take.”
~Neil Young

The second in Neil’s ditch trilogy, On the Beach was also disavowed by Young and unreleased on CD until 2003. It is weirder but sharper than Time Fades Away, with harrowing lows and amazing highs, including the off-the-cuff, eight-minute folk jam “Ambulance Blues.”
~rollingstone.com

NEIL YOUNG and CRAZY HORSE – ” Broken Arrow ” Released 2nd July 1996

Posted: July 3, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Like ‘Ragged Glory’ and ‘Sleeps With Angels,’ two other ’90s collaborations with Crazy Horse, ‘Broken Arrow’ is loose, free-form and muscular at times. But it’s not as fully formed as those other two records, instead juggling long jams with shorter, more structured songs. Still, it would be a decade before he made another album this interesting. Broken Arrow is the twenty-third studio album by Neil Young, and his eighth with Crazy Horse. The first three songs are in the form of long, structured jams. The final track is a live version of a Jimmy Reed song that was recorded on an audience microphone at a small “secret” gig in California, giving it a bootleg feel. A bonus track, “Interstate,” was included on the vinyl record release of the album and the CD single of “Big Time”, and is an outtake from the 1990’s RaggedGlory sessions. This record would be the last studio album by Neil Young for four years, and the last in a long string of rock albums broken only by Harvest Moon.

Unmoored creatively by the death of his long-time producer, Neil Young‘s ’90s-era career resurgence suddenly came apart. He turned to his old friends in Crazy Horse for Broken Arrow, released on July 2nd, 1996, and to a title that recalled his days in Buffalo Springfield. But something had changed, despite his recent recognition as a forefather for grunge and appearances on package tours where the average fan’s age was in the early 20s.
Young clearly didn’t know how to move forward without the late David Briggs. (In a telling moment, he sings “I’m a little bit here; I’m a little bit there,” during the song “Scattered.”) So, he looked back. The idea, Young said back then, was to follow advice he’d gotten from Briggs, just before his death on November. 26th, 1995.
“He told me to keep it simple and focused, have as much of my playing and singing as possible – and not to hide it with other things,” Young later said of Briggs, who died after producing 18 of his albums dating back to 1968. “Don’t embellish it with other people I don’t need or hide it in any way. Simple and focused. That’s what I took away. He didn’t exactly say that, but I got that message.”
And so the dark intensity that surrounds Broken Arrow is blanketed by this sloppy, sloggy spontaneity, a free-form lack of focus rekindled during a series of low-key gigs held before official sessions began – including a two-week stand at the 150-seat Old Princeton Landing near Young’s northern California ranch.

The albums starts like a jam session, with three extended pieces, before finally relenting with a few more structured pieces on side two. It’s clear, on one level, that Young had his heart in it. (“I’m still living in the dream we had,” Young sings in “Big Time,” seeming to reference Briggs directly. “For me, it’s not over.”) But, in the end, Broken Arrow can’t advance Young’s considerable legend. As loud as it is disjointed, this is the sound of his wheels spinning – and, at least to some degree, Young knew it.

“They’ll s— on this one,” Young confided to Jimmy McDonough, author of the biography Shakey. “I’ve given them a moving target. There’s enough weaknesses in this one for them to go for it. … It’s purposefully vulnerable and unfinished. I wanted to get one under my belt without David.”
He was right to worry. Critics, even those who’d recently all but sanctified Young, pounced. Spin magazine, for instance, had named Young its artist of the year just three years before. They said Broken Arrow “makes you wonder whether Young has grown so confident in his complacency that he could play out his career as solidly and unceremoniously as, say, Muddy Waters – never dismissed, but taken for granted.”
Neil Young pushed back, insisting that he was simply trying to find his way, and that the Buffalo Springfield-influenced title reflected that quest. “For years and years I tried to make records sounding unfinished, with the result of watering down the authentic and raw,” he said back then. “This time I left the songs as they are, but I couldn’t find a title. I asked myself: What does this album mean to me? To me it represents the fun, the frankness and the liberty of people who played together, like we did 30 years ago.”
Still seemingly at loose ends, Young then went largely quiet. He ended the ’90s ensconced once more with his old pals in Crosby Stills Nash and Young. Young’s next solo project didn’t arrive until 2000. He didn’t record another full length album with Crazy Horse until 2003’s Greendale.

“Some shine, some don’t, but the ones that don’t shine are just as cool,” Young mused in a 1998 interview with USA today . “As you go through life, you’ve got to see the valleys as well as the peaks. You appreciate your good stuff because of the other stuff.”

NEIL YOUNG – ” Old Man / Like An Inca ” Live At Bercy Paris Paris 23rd June 2016

Posted: June 26, 2016 in MUSIC
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Neil Young continued his current European tour with current backing band Promise of the Real on Thursday night with a performance at AccorHotels Arena in Paris, France. Promise of the Real, which includes Willie Nelson’s sons Lukas and Micha Nelson, has been touring with Neil Young since last year in support of their collaborative 2015 album The Monsanto Years, their third studio album and Young’s thirty-sixth.

While Young had performed his hit song “Old Man” a handful of times on this tour during the solo portion of the performances, Thursday’s show was highlighted by the first live rendition of the song by Neil Young with the full support of Promise of the Real. The band also tackled “Like An Inca” (from Young’s 1982 album Trans) in the encore slot, laying into the band with tight improv for just its second outing since 1982.

You can watch fan-shot video of “Old Man” and “Like An Inca” from the Paris show

NEIL YOUNG – ” Earth “

Posted: May 22, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Neil Young will release a new album, entitled EARTH, on June 17th via Reprise Records. The album features performances of songs from a range of Young’s albums, including last year’s The Monsanto Years, 1990’s Ragged Glory, and 1970’s After the Gold Rush. The audio was captured during Young’s 2015 tour with The Promise of the Real, fronted by Lukas Nelson (vocals/guitar) and Micah Nelson (guitar, vocals) – Willie Nelson’s sons. The tour Included Neil Young performing solo and with the band for a full electric show.
A new take on some of Young’s most beloved songs, EARTH features the live recordings, along with added musical overdubs, as well as sounds of the earth, such as city sounds like car horns, sounds of insects, and animal sounds from bears, birds, crickets, bees, horses, cows – creating a very strange, yet beautiful atmosphere.
“Ninety-eight uninterrupted minutes long, EARTH flows as a collection of 13 songs from throughout my life, songs I have written about living here on our planet together,” says Young. “Our animal kingdom is well represented in the audience as well, and the animals, insects, birds, and mammals actually take over the performances of the songs at times.”

CD 1
1. Mother Earth
2. Seed Justice
3. My Country Home
4. The Monsanto Years
5. Western Hero
6. Vampire Blues
7. Hippie Dream
8. After the Gold Rush
9. Human Highway

CD 2
1. Big Box
2. People Want to Hear About Love
3. Wolf Moon
4. Love and Only Love

LOWELL – ” My My Hey Hey ” (Neil Young Cover) Strombo Sessions

Posted: November 10, 2015 in MUSIC
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Lowell performs an acoustic rendition of Neil Young’s “My My, Hey Hey” as part of our NY70 festivities.

The Strombo Show celebrates Neil Young’s 70th birthday by welcoming various guests onto the program for intimate conversations and acoustic cover song performances. Guests include City And Colour, Basia Bulat, Joel Plaskett, Rah Rah, The Weather Station, Reuben and the Dark, Lowell, Barenaked Ladies, Jann Arden and more. The Strombo Show is celebrating 10 years on the radio dial in 2015, hosted by award-winning personality George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC Radio 2, Sunday nights 8 – 11 PM. It’s a program created by music lovers for music lovers, celebrating the conversation around song. There are no boundaries, with the gamut running from Aretha Franklin to Slayer and everything in between. We have welcomed many musical guests onto the program, including major international artists like Queens of the Stone Age, The National, Ani DiFranco, Vampire Weekend, Ghostface Killah, Steve Earle and Patti Smith to Canadian talent such as Neil Peart, Blue Rodeo, Gord Downie, Tegan & Sara, Death From Above 1979 and City & Colour.

CITY and COLOUR – ” Cowgirl In The Sand ” (Neil Young Cover) Strombo Sessions

Posted: November 10, 2015 in MUSIC
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City And Colour performs an acoustic rendition of Neil Young’s “Cowgirl in the Sand” as part of our NY70 festivities .

The Strombo Show celebrates Neil Young’s 70th birthday by welcoming various guests onto the program for intimate conversations and acoustic cover song performances. Guests include City And Colour, Basia Bulat, Joel Plaskett, Rah Rah, The Weather Station, Reuben and the Dark, Lowell, Barenaked Ladies, Jann Arden and more. The Strombo Show is celebrating 10 years on the radio dial in 2015, hosted by award-winning personality George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC Radio 2, Sunday nights 8 – 11 PM. It’s a program created by music lovers for music lovers, celebrating the conversation around song. There are no boundaries, with the gamut running from Aretha Franklin to Slayer and everything in between. We have welcomed many musical guests onto the program, including major international artists like Queens of the Stone Age, The National, Ani DiFranco, Vampire Weekend, Ghostface Killah, Steve Earle and Patti Smith to Canadian talent such as Neil Peart, Blue Rodeo, Gord Downie, Tegan & Sara, Death From Above 1979 and City & Colour.

BASIA BULAT – ” Tell Me Why ” (Neil Young Cover) Strombo Sessions

Posted: November 10, 2015 in MUSIC
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Basia Bulat performs an acoustic rendition of Neil Young’s “Tell Me Why” as part of our NY70 festivities.

The Strombo Show celebrates Neil Young’s 70th birthday by welcoming various guests onto the program for intimate conversations and acoustic cover song performances. Guests include City And Colour, Basia Bulat, Joel Plaskett, Rah Rah, The Weather Station, Reuben and the Dark, Lowell, Barenaked Ladies, Jann Arden and more. The Strombo Show is celebrating 10 years on the radio dial in 2015, hosted by award-winning personality George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC Radio 2, Sunday nights 8 – 11 PM. It’s a program created by music lovers for music lovers, celebrating the conversation around song. There are no boundaries, with the gamut running from Aretha Franklin to Slayer and everything in between. We have welcomed many musical guests onto the program, including major international artists like Queens of the Stone Age, The National, Ani DiFranco, Vampire Weekend, Ghostface Killah, Steve Earle and Patti Smith to Canadian talent such as Neil Peart, Blue Rodeo, Gord Downie, Tegan & Sara, Death From Above 1979 and City & Colour.

 

NEIL YOUNG – ” L.A. ” At the Forum Inglewood, CA – 14th October 2015

Posted: October 16, 2015 in MUSIC
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Neil Young and Promise of the Real’s Rebel Content tour rolled on with a stretch through the west coast that has seen some of Young’s deep cuts performed for the first time in decades. On Wednesday night in Los Angeles, Neil Young took some time in the middle of his set to also deliver “L.A.” for the first time since 1973.

Among them, then first “Vampire Blues” since 1974 which was played as the encore to Young’s Eugene, OR show and then again a few nights later at The Forum in Los Angeles. In Santa Barbara, the band also played “Time Fades Away” for the first time in seven years.

 

NEIL YOUNG – ” Live at Farm Aid 20th September 2008 “

Posted: September 20, 2015 in MUSIC
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Neil Young performs “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” live at the Farm Aid concert in Mansfield, Massachusetts on September 20, 2008.

“Just as rock & roll is loud and proud, so is Farm Aid. Farm Aid’s greatest accomplishment, I believe, is in the spirit. It’s the fact that we represent the spirit of the good fight, to keep something good happening. It just keeps getting stronger and stronger….”  Neil Young

Farm Aid celebrates it’s 30-year anniversary this year, and they have had a lot of great music through the years. Today we’ve picked a very fine set from Neil Young in 2008. Enjoy!

1. Love And Only Love
2. Everybody knows this is nowhere
3. Powderfinger
4. Mother Earth
5. Unknown Legend
6. Old Man
7. Get Back To The Country
8. A Day In The Life

Farm Aid was started by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp in 1985 to keep family farmers on the land and has worked since then to make sure everyone has access to good food from family farmers. Dave Matthews joined Farm Aid’s board of directors in 2001.

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