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Rating: I had almost given up hope; for years there had been a rumor that old Neil was about to open his vast drawers to gift fans with various archival gems, including historic concerts, unreleased albums, and other delights. Besides, there was also the fear that he might release everything together in mammoth box sets that would cost a fortune even for the most devoted fan.
It seems that's not the case, at least judging from this first release that "captures" Neil Young and Crazy Horse (that's exactly the right word, since in the DVD included with the CD, the remastered concert version is accompanied by photographs and not by video) during one of the most thrilling moments of their career.
The Crazy Horse band has always been fantastic, maybe sometimes a bit too rough, but they have always conveyed the immediacy and urgency of certain songs by the great Canadian remarkably well, and during that period, they were absolutely superlative.
It had been only a few months since Neil's tour with Crosby, Stills, and Nash in Europe, and NY and the Crazy Horse reunited for "After The Gold Rush," which was followed by a related tour that stopped for four days at the legendary Bill Graham's New York venue.
It's unclear why the entire concert wasn't put on the record, as per the initial plan, for a CD that was meant to be a double.
Yet the quality of what I hold in my hands is nothing short of excellent, the band at its peak, with six absolutely great tracks (three even gigantic) that can't leave indifferent even those listeners who maybe aren't very familiar with Neil Young.
The start is entrusted to a remarkable version of "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere", followed by an exquisite "Winterlong", a beautiful ballad that had so far only appeared on the anthology "Decade".
Then comes the first true peak of the disc: "Down By The River" is one of those timeless pieces, that makes you jump from your seat even just listening to it from a stereo, let alone those lucky ones who could hear it live at the Fillmore, and played in that damned way! Twelve minutes to be passed down through the ages to give one of those famous examples of what rock'n'roll is.
Then it returns to the country-rock ballad with "Wonderin'", a lovely piece that so far could only be heard in a funny rockabilly version on "Everybody's Rockin'," Neil Young's 1983 whimsy.
"Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown" is written by Danny Whitten, the first guitarist of Crazy Horse, present at the concert along with Jack Nitsche on keyboards (as well as Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina, obviously), and is a song with probable references to drugs, which would soon claim him as a fatal victim.
The closure of this album with few tracks (only six), but of good length (about three-quarters of an hour) is entrusted to an epic version of "Cowgirl In The Sand", sixteen absolutely incredible minutes, where you can understand that the roots of the sound that made Crazy Horse epic start from here, from these furious rides that came from the late '60s.
But the great pleasure of listening to this concert is overshadowed by the thought of what it could have been if the CD had been released as a double, as it seemed it was meant to be...
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