Way Down in the Rust Bucket is a Must for Neil Young Fans

Since prompted by Music Enthusiast recently and my March 4 post about Mansion on the Hill, I’ve been thinking to do more on Way Down in the Rust Bucket, the latest release from Neil Young’s archives that appeared on February 26. I guess it was only a matter of time before I would revisit what Young and former Crazy Horse guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro have called a “definitive chapter” in the band’s history. In fact, when interviewed by Rolling Stone a few days ago, Sampedro went as far as characterizing the new live album as “the best Crazy Horse record we ever recorded.” While I cannot claim to know all of the band’s album, I know one thing for sure: Way Down in the Rust Bucket truly rocks, and Neil Young fans are going to love it!

The album captures a gig of Young with his long-time backing band Crazy Horse, which happened on November 13, 1990. About two months earlier, they had released Ragged Glory. The concert at The Catalyst, a nightclub in Santa Cruz, Calif., took place before the band embarked on an intense 53-date tour to support the album in January 1991. The tour was documented in the albums Weld and Arc, which both came out in October 1991. Located close to Young’s Broken Arrow ranch, The Catalyst holds about 800 people – sounds like a great venue to experience live music!

But don’t tell Poncho it was a warm-up gig. “I hate when people say, “These were warm-up shows for the tour”, he emphasized to Rolling Stone. “We did two shows. Do they really think they were warming us up for a giant tour? That’s more for us. It’s giving back to the community. We played in Santa Cruz. It’s really close to Neil’s place. That’s so most people could come to see us.”

Apart from songs off Ragged Glory like Country Home, Fuckin’ Up, Farmer John and Mansion on the Hill, Way Down in the Rust Bucket also features goodies from various other Neil Young albums, such as Cinnamon Girl (Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere – 1969), Sedan Delivery (Rust Never Sleeps – 1979), Like a Hurricane (American Stars ‘n Bars – 1975) and Cortez the Killer (Zuma – 1975). The live album is available in triple vinyl, CD, DVD and streaming formats. In addition to all tracks on the vinyl, CD and streaming versions, the DVD includes one extra tune, Cowgirl in the Sand, another track from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Time for some music!

Let’s kick it off with opener Country Home, which is also the first track on Ragged Glory. Unless noted otherwise, all tunes were written by Young.

Here’s Farmer John. Originally an R&B song, the tune was co-written by Don “Sugarcane” Harris and Dewey Terry who also first recorded and released it as Don & Dewey in 1959. Sampedro told Rolling Stone the band recorded their cover in just one take for Ragged Glory. Their performance at The Catalyst only was the second time they played it. “It wasn’t quite as good, but we never played it before” [live], he noted.

Let’s do another track from Ragged Glory: Fuckin’ Up, a Young-Sampedro co-write. Asked during the above Rolling Stone interview, Sampedro confirmed Fuckin’ Up was first recorded during rehearsals for Young’s appearance on Saturday Night Life in 1989, where he was backed by Sampedro, Charley Drayton (bass) and Steve Jordan (drums). However, they switched it up during rehearsals. “Steve was playing my guitar and I love to play drums,” Sampedro said…I started playing the drums and we were getting into it.” Young has said he wants to put out the SNL rehearsals as an album – looks like another archives release to me! Meanwhile, here’s the live version from Way Down in the Rust Bucket.

Time to take a look at some of the goodies from other Young albums. Here’s Homegrown, the title track of the album Young initially had planned to release in 1975 but then decided to abandon at the last minute and put out Tonight’s the Night instead – a classic Neil move! Though, of course, Homegrown eventually appeared in June 2020.

Yes, it’s been played over and over, including in my blog. And while I don’t see myself being in a crowded hazy bar anytime soon, Like a Hurricane from American Stars ‘n Bars remains one of my all-time favorite Neil Young tunes that still blows me away. As such, I simply couldn’t skip it. Plus, this version is killer! 🙂

Not that I want to glorify violence, but speaking of killer, I’d like to wrap things up with what in my book is another absolute Young classic: Cortez the Killer, from Zuma, a 1975 album Neil recorded with Crazy Horse.

“I love this record,” Sampedro raved about Way Down in the Rust Bucket. “Neil plays great, unbelievably great. He’s just electrified. “Country Home” sounds like a country tune I never heard in my life. He just takes it to all kinds of different levels. He nails “Cortez.” He nails “Danger Bird” and “Over and Over.” He’s just playing so good and the band played really good.”

The last word shall belong to Young. We were in the pocket as soon as the lights went down that night at the Catalyst, he wrote on his website. I really love this memory and sharing it with all of you! We are so lucky to have this one. If you were there, our love goes out to you [man, I wish – you should have invited me, Neil!] Now this record and film brings that night to everybody! While it’s safe to assume no album can replace the experience of actually having been there that night at The Catalyst, I still take it!

BTW, Neil Young has been prolific with releases from his archives. Only last year, he put out three: Homegrown, Return to Greendale and Neil Young Archives Volume II: 1972-1976. The next one is already scheduled for March 26: Young Shakespeare, an all-acoustic solo gig recorded at Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Conn., on January 22, 1971, just three days after Young’s legendary Massey Hall show.

Sources: Wikipedia; Rolling Stone; Neil Young website; YouTube

It Was 35 Years Ago

The last part of this mini-series reviews highlights from the U.S. portion of Live Aid at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. Things there got underway at close to 9:00 a.m. EDT (2:00 p.m. BST) on July 13, 1985. The British concert at London’s Wembley Stadium ended at 10 pm BST (5:00 pm EDT). As such, both shows overlapped by eight hours. Unfortunately, this meant viewers could not see all artist performances on their television broadcasts.

The Philly concert included reunions of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the original Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne and The Beach Boys with Brian Wilson. It also featured a less than stellar appearance of Led Zeppelin with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones who were joined by Phil Collins and Tony Thompson on drums.

With Page’s guitar out of tune and Plant’s hoarse voice, unfortunately, it was one of Zep’s poorest performances. Later, Page blamed the drumming of Collins who had played at Wembley earlier and traveled to the U.S. by supersonic jet, so he could perform in Philly as well – the only artist who pulled off that stunt. It seems to me the reality of the fiasco was a combination of factors, including lack of rehearsal, some technical challenges and probably a portion of bad luck.

While white artists were well represented at Live Aid, the same cannot be said for artists of color, especially at Wembley, where I believe only two performed: Sade and Brandon Marsalis – a bit of an oddity for a charity concert put on for the African nation of Ethiopia. The U.S. did better in this regard. The show line-up featured The Four Tops, Billy Ocean, Run-D.M.C., Ashford & Simpson, Patti LaBelle, as well as Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin of The Temptations. In addition, U.S.A. for Africa performed their charity single We Are the World, which included additional artists of color, such as Lionel Richie, Harry Belafonte and Dionne Warwick.

Let’s kick off this last part with one of the above noted reunions: Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne. Here’s Paranoid, the epic title track of the band’s sophomore album from September 1970. The music was credited to all members of Sabbath, while the lyrics were written by bassist Geezer Butler.

One of my favorite bands performing in Philly were Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They closed their mini-set with Refugee, one of their best songs, in my opinion. Co-written by Tom Petty and Mike Campbell, the tune is from Damn the Torpedoes, the band’s third studio album released in October 1979. It also became the record’s second single that appeared in January 1980.

Neil Young is another of my all-time favorite artists. Here is Powderfinger, a beloved tune among Young fans. He first recorded the song for his live album Rust Never Sleeps from June 1979. It was also included on various other live albums he released thereafter.

As a fan of Cream, of course, I couldn’t skip Eric Clapton and his rendition of White Room. Composed by Jack Bruce with lyrics by poet Pete Brown, the classic tune was included on Wheels of Fire, Cream’s third studio album that appeared in August 1968.

The last clip I’d like to call out is a great medley of tunes by The Temptations performed by Hall & Oates, together with Eddie Kendricks und David Ruffin: Get Ready, Ain’t Too Proud To Beg and My Girl, which all first appeared as singles. Get Ready from February 1966 was penned by Smokey Robinson. Ain’t Too Proud To Beg, co-written by Norman Whitfield and Edward Holland Jr., came out in May 1966. And My Girl was first released in December 1964. Robinson and Ronald White wrote that tune together.

While you may not agree with Bob Geldof who in his introduction to Live Aid 35 said it was commonly called the ‘greatest concert of all time,’ I think there can be no doubt Live Aid was a one of a kind event. Sure, there were other historic concerts like Woodstock and the Monterey Pop Festival that brought together many of the leading music artists at the time. One must also mention the Concert for Bangladesh, the first benefit music event of significant magnitude. But none of these concerts came anywhere close to Live Aid in terms of audience reach and logistics – and in the case of the Concert for Bangladesh the scale of fundraising.

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube

“Live Rust” At 40 Remains Free Of Corrosion

On November 14, 1979, Neil Young and Crazy Horse released Live Rust, which was my introduction to Young. I heard this live album for the first time as a 13 or 14-year-old back in Germany, after my best friend had gotten it as a double LP. With Young’s 74th birthday (November 12) and the 40th anniversary of Live Rust being just around the corner, I thought this would be a opportune moment to celebrate one of my favorite live albums by one of my longtime favorite music artists.

Before getting to this, I have to give credit where credit is due. This post was inspired by a great “Life Rust” show I saw Friday night at a local Jersey theatre. Decade, a top notch band around Neil Young tribute artist John Hathaway, played the album in its entirety and recreated scences from the companion movie Rust Never Sleeps – it was a pretty cool experience! For more on Decade and their upcoming gigs, you can check out their Facebook page. I also got a sample clip from the above show at the end of the post.

Live Rust captured footage from various concerts Neil Young and Crazy Horse played in the fall of 1978 during their Rust Never Sleeps tour. Venues included Cow Palace, Daly City, Calif.; Boston Garden, Boston; Civic Center, St. Paul, Minn.; Chicago Stadium, Chicago; and McNichols Arena, Denver. Weirdly, the album features a stage announcement recorded at Woodstock following the start of a rainstorm. Young had performed at the festival as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

The companion film Rust Never Sleeps captured the band’s October 22, 1978 concert at Cow Palace. It was released on July 2, 1979 by Young under the pseudonym “Bernard Shakey.” There is also an album with the same title, which appeared ahead of the movie on June 22. While it is based on material recorded at Boarding House in San Francisco, the record is not a true live album, in my opinion. In addition to added overdubs, most audience noise was removed later in the studio. Time for some music from Live Rust!

I’d like to kick it off with Sugar Mountain, which like most tracks on the album was written by Young. He composed the tune on his 19th birthday (November 12, 1964) in a hotel room in Ontario after a gig with The Squires, one of his first bands. The song was initially released in February 1969 as the B-side to Young’s single The Loner.

The acoustic My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) and its grungy counterpart Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) are among the many highlights on Live Rust. Both tunes were co-written by Young and Jeff Blackburn and first appeared on the Rust Never Sleeps album. Here’s the acoustic take.

Moving on to the record’s rock section, Powderfinger is one of my favorite electric songs by Young. Like My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) and Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black), the tune was intially released as part of the Rust Never Sleeps album.

Like a Hurricane is another electric tune by Young I’ve always dug. It was first included on his eighth studio album American Stars ‘n Bars from May 1977.

As noted above, the last clip for this post shall belong to Decade and their rendition of Tonight’s The Night, the final track on Live Rust. Young first recorded the tune as the title song to his sixth studio album. It’s a tribute to first Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry, a Young roadie. Both died from heroin overdoses.

Neil Young is still highly productive and going strong. My thoughts on his most recent album Colorado are here.

Sources: Wikipedia; Ultimate Classic Rock; YouTube

Neil Young Triumphantly Returns To Boston

“One of my first solo shows was in the Wang Theater, then called the Music Hall,” wrote Neil Young on his website in May, talking about his 2018 solo tour that officially ended last night with the second of two dates at the landmark venue in Boston’s Theatre District. “It’s a real beauty folks – a chapel of soul and music. I hope it still sounds as good as it did then and that I do too!” While I wasn’t around when Young played Music Hall in January 1971, I saw him at Wang Theatre on Wednesday night, the first of his two concerts there, and he surely sounded amazing to me!

View of Wang Theatre auditorium from stage

Young was right. The venue is pretty impressive. Take a closer look at the above photo, and you can see the rich ornaments and decorative painting. In addition to its looks, he certainly also well remembered the Wang Theatre’s acoustic, which was great.

While it must be about 40 years ago that Young entered my radar screen with Heart Of Gold, I had never been to one of his shows. When I read about his solo tour a few months ago and noticed it would bring him to Boston, it didn’t take long for me to decide that seeing him was worth a five-hour drive from my house, especially given the tour only had six dates: Two in each Chicago and Boston, and one in each Detroit and St. Louis.

But before I further get to Young, I’d like to acknowledge William Prince, a folk and country singer-songwriter, who like Young hails from Canada. Punctually at 8:00 PM, he walked on stage with just an acoustic guitar and opened the night. Prince is a member of the Pegius First Nation from Manitoba.

In 2015, he released his debut album Earthly Days, for which he won a Western Canadian Music Award for Aboriginal Artist of the Year in 2016 and the 2017 the Juno Award for  Contemporary Roots Album of the Year. From that album, here’s Breathless. The look and feel of the performance, which apparently was captured in December, is very similar to Wednesday night. I thought his voice and guitar-playing sounded really nice. Visit his website for more information.

And then it was time for Young. To get an idea what to expect, I checked the previous shows from the tour on setlist.fm. I noticed the sets were relatively constant and included a mix of well-known songs and other tunes that at least to me were deeper cuts. A friend of mine, who is a Neil Young connoisseur and the lead vocalist in an excellent Neil Young tribute band, thought it was a selection for longtime fans.

The stage setup looked a little like a music workshop. It featured areas with different instruments, including an array of acoustic guitars, a semi-hollow electric guitar, two grand pianos and two organs. Young also had multiple harmonicas on hand. During the show, he shared anecdotes about most of the instruments. For example, one of the grand pianos was from the 19th century, and the bottom had been burned during a fire. Young maintained this gave it a very unique sound, adding this tour was the first time he took it on the road. He also pointed to guitars that had once been owned by Stephen Stills and Hank Williams.

Time for some music. I tried capturing some of the songs, and while the audio came out okay, the quality of the video varies quite a bit. The latter was due to challenging lighting conditions and my seat up on the balcony in the back of the theater. There was also what looked like an illuminated stripe in the background above the stage. I’m wondering whether this may have been done on purpose to discourage taking videos, which officially was strictly forbidden.

While I get they don’t want flash photography, I generally find these “no video rules” complete nonsense. Unless you walk in with a professional camera that enables you to record footage you could sell, what damage are you going to do with clips taken with a smartphone? On the contrary, in my opinion, taking and posting such clips on Facebook or elsewhere actually helps promote the artist. Okay, I’m stopping going off on a tangent now. The following is a combination of my own clips and footage from other recent solo gigs.

First up: Pocahontas, a song by Young that first appeared on the Rust Never Sleeps live album from July 1979. Initially, he recorded a version of the tune in the mid-70s for Chrome Dreams, a then-planned but unreleased album.

Ohio was the only Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young tune Wednesday night and one of two songs Young played on the electric guitar. Written by him in the wake of the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970, the track was released by CSNY as a single in June that year. It was also included on the band’s 4 Way Street live album from April 1971 and the studio compilation So Far, released in August 1974. The tune also appeared on Young’s solo compilation albums Decade (Oct 1977) and Greatest Hits (Nov 2004).

A highlight of the show and perhaps my favorite moment of the night was After The Gold Rush. Young played the title track of his third studio album from September 1970 on a pipe organ. The church-like sound was just incredible. He slightly updated the lyrics by singing, Look at mother nature on the run in the 21st century/Look at mother nature on the run in the 21st century. The performance was incredibly powerful and gave me the goosebumps!

Among Young’s more recent tunes was Love And War. He recorded the song for his 30th studio album Le Noise, which appeared in September 2010. This clip was captured at his June 28 show in St. Louis.

Young finished his regular set with two gems from Harvest, his fourth studio album released in February 1972: The Needle And The Damage Done and Heart Of Gold. Unfortunately, the following clip of Needle, shot in Chicago on July 1, is cut in the beginning but otherwise 10 times better than my attempt to film it.

Here’s the mighty Heart Of Gold. Young may be getting old (though he sounded great!), but not the song.

Young came back for one encore: Tumbleweed, a tune from the deluxe edition of his 34th studio album Storytone from November 2014. He performed it with a ukulele. This clip is from the above St. Louis clip.

For now, Young’s second gig in Boston last night marked the final show of his solo tour. In September, he is scheduled to perform back-to-back at Farm Aid (Hartfort, Conn., Sep 22) and, together with Promise Of The Real, at another Willie Nelson event (Saratoga, N.Y., Sep 23).

Sources: Wikipedia, Neil Young official website, William Prince official website, setlist.fm, YouTube