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Rating: Here's finally another release from Neil Young's "Archives" series.
The CD contains the essence of two concerts held on November 9 and 10, 1968, at the Canterbury House in Michigan. This period is quite interesting: Young was fresh off the (in some ways) controversial successes with Buffalo Springfield and needed to "build" a new career or at least a different way to present himself.
He embarked on a brief solo tour, completely acoustic. With just a guitar, Neil presented to an (probably) not very large audience, songs from his still limited songbook, in perfect folk style, in the manner of the already famous and acclaimed Dylan.
Therefore, on the CD, you can enjoy "raw" versions of Buffalo Springfield era tracks like "On The Way Home," "Mr. Soul," "Broken Arrow," or the psychedelic (in its lyrics) "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing," (dedicated to a school friend of his suffering from multiple sclerosis) and still raw versions of future hits, at the time still unreleased, like "The Last Trip To Tulsa," "The Old Laughing Lady," "The Loner," or a touching performance of "Birds," later in "After The Goldrush."
What can I say! A remarkable record that shows us the Loner in one of the very early stages of his solo career.
The tracks are played in a very simple and direct manner, without frills or virtuosity and the singing, in my opinion perhaps a bit too subdued, has a definite emotional impact.
In the overall mood (even if I would have preferred to hear a full concert) that vein of subtle melancholy and sadness surfaces, typical of Young, a vein that will accompany him to our days and that finds its culmination in masterpieces such as "Harvest," "Tonight's The Night," or "On The Beach," just to name a few. A rather "strange" way of singing for the standards of the time, also due to a very unique voice, yet able to capture and transpose the listener between dream and reality, between the sophistication of a tottering metaphor and the raw and uncut image (see "The Last Trip To Tulsa").
This is also the dualistic way of perceiving Young's work: acoustic and electric, color and black and white, the sparkling light of rock and country and the almost mystical twilight of ballads.
In short, a very interesting record (the third archival release) from a historical perspective, to understand the genesis of one of the most prolific and original singer-songwriters in rock history.
The songs are also published in a DVD version, where I presume they will be accompanied by images from that era.
Here's the track list:
Emcee Intro / On The Way Home / Songwriting Rap / Mr. Soul / Recording Rap / Expecting To Fly / The Last Trip To Tulsa / Bookstore Rap / The Loner /
I Used Rap / Birds / Winterlong (excerpt) Out Of My Mind (Intro) / Out Of My Mind / If I Could Have Her Tonight / Classical Gap Rap / Sugar Mountain (Intro)
/ Sugar Mountain / I've Been Waiting For You / Song Rap / Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing / Tuning Rap & The Old Laughing Lady (Intro)
/ The Old Laughing Lady / Broken Arrow
Tracklist and Lyrics
04 Mr. Soul (03:13)
Oh, hello Mr. Soul, I dropped by to pick up a reason
For the thought that I caught that my head is the event of the season
Why in crowds just a trace of my face could seem so pleasin'
I'll cop out to the change, but a stranger is putting the tease on.
I was down on a frown when the messenger brought me a letter
I was raised by the praise of a fan who said I upset her
Any girl in the world could have easily known me better
She said, You're strange, but don't change, and I let her.
In a while will the smile on my face turn to plaster?
Stick around while the clown who is sick does the trick of disaster
For the race of my head and my face is moving much faster
Is it strange I should change? I don't know, why don't you ask her?
06 Expecting to Fly (02:38)
There you stood on the edge of your feather,
Expecting to fly.
While I laughed, I wondered whether
I could wave goodbye,
Knowin' that you'd gone.
By the summer it was healing,
We had said goodbye.
All the years we'd spent with feeling
Ended with a cry,
Babe, ended with a cry,
Babe, ended with a cry.
I tried so hard to stand
As I stumbled and fell to the ground.
So hard to laugh as I fumbled
And reached for the love I found,
Knowin' it was gone.
If I never lived without you,
Now you know I'd die.
If I never said I loved you,
Now you know I'd try,
Babe, now you know I'd try.
Babe, now you know I'd try,
Babe.
09 The Loner (04:41)
He's a perfect stranger,
Like a cross of himself and a fox.
He's a feeling arranger
And a changer of the ways he talks.
He's the unforeseen danger
The keeper of the key to the locks.
Know when you see him,
Nothing can free him.
Step aside, open wide,
It's the loner.
If you see him in the subway,
He'll be down at the end of the car.
Watching you move
Until he knows he knows who you are.
When you get off at your station alone,
He'll know that you are.
Know when you see him,
Nothing can free him.
Step aside, open wide,
It's the loner.
There was a woman he knew
About a year or so ago.
She had something that he needed
And he pleaded with her not to go.
On the day that she left,
He died, but it did not show.
Know when you see him,
Nothing can free him.
Step aside, open wide,
It's the loner.
11 Birds (02:16)
Lover, there will be another one
Who'll hover over you beneath the sun
Tomorrow see the things that never come
Today
When you see me
Fly away without you
Shadow on the things you know
Feathers fall around you
And show you the way to go
It's over, it's over.
Nestled in your wings my little one
This special morning brings another sun
Tomorrow see the things that never come
Today
When you see me
Fly away without you
Shadow on the things you know
Feathers fall around you
And show you the way to go
It's over, it's over.
17 Sugar Mountain (05:46)
Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.
It's so noisy at the fair
But all your friends are there
And the candy floss your head
And your mother and your dad.
Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.
There's a girl just down the aisle,
Oh, to turn and see her smile.
You can hear the words she wrote
As you read the hidden note.
Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.
Now you're underneath the stairs
And you're givin' back some glares
To the people who you met
And it's your first cigarette.
Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.
Now you say you're leavin' home
'Cause you want to be alone.
Ain't it funny how you feel
When you're findin' out it's real?
Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.
Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
with the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.
18 I've Been Waiting for You (02:04)
I've been looking for a woman to save my life
Not to beg or to borrow
A woman with the feeling of losing once or twice
Who knows how could it be tomorrow?
I've been waiting for you
And you've been coming to me
For such a long time now
Such a long time now.
I've been waiting for you
And you've been coming to me
For such a long time now
Such a long time now.
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