Live At The Fillmore East

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Reprise, 2006

http://www.neilyoung.com

REVIEW BY: Benjamin Ray

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 01/06/2007

Neil Young fans are rejoicing that the idiosyncratic artist is finally releasing his archives, something he has been talking about for a long while. But it seems as if Young is taking a different route to do so.

This concert is the second volume of the "performance series" that focuses on Young and backing band Crazy Horse's night at the Fillmore. Actually, this is only half a concert, as Neil started it with an acoustic set, so this disc picks up after the intermission. Of the songs that made up that part of the show, only "Cinnamon Girl" is absent because there was no good tape for it.

The other songs show the band touring behind my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, and the show is a pretty good way to kick off this archive series. Had Neil released the whole show, we may have had a classic on our hands, but even these six songs are a great way to showcase the chemistry between Young and his band; and it's a more compelling listen than any of Neil's studio albums prior to 1975.

Crazy Horse was both loose and conservative in its playing, much like Creedence Clearwater Revival's rhythm section; the band can swing and they can ride a groove for 12 minutes, which is the case with "Down By The River." The live version outstrips the studio counterpart with some great solos from Young and Danny Witten, showing displays of guitar work that are not flashy or dull. Evidently, Crazy Horse thrived in the live setting.

The four short songs are solid in their early versions. "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown" is known for Young's performance of it on Tonight's The Night, his 1975 tribute to Witten (who died of a heroin overdose two years after this Fillmore show), but it's good to hear Witten shine on the track he wrote, which has a Southern rock feel. "Wonderin'" is almost straight country and only average, but "Winterlong" is all ragged glory, the kind of electric performance Young would return to after his experimental albums.

"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" is a decent way to open the electric part of the show, but "Cowgirl In The Sand" is one hell of a way to close it, a 16-minute tour de force of solos and equally lumbering and loose rhythms from bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina. A truly epic jam, this is the song that defines both Young and his band, winding through an almost-apocalyptic series of roughly melodic solos, guitar-hero theatrics and a foreboding sense of doom, the kind of song that would play over the end credits of man's life as he walked to the chair.

While a bit too short to be considered necessary listening, this disc reveals a very good night and remakes the case for Crazy Horse as a great lost American rock band. If this is representative of what's in Neil's vaults, these archive releases should be wonderful.

Rating: B

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