Neil Young's ongoing release programme shows no signs of letting up- he's recently appeared live again and still records new albums with Crazy Horse and whoever else is around. The recent brand new/ re- release of Chrome Dreams is either his 44th album or the first official release of an album that he shelved in 1977 (but was widely bootlegged). Or both. He recycled some of the songs and some of the recordings afterwards, some of them dating back to 1974 (like Star of Bethlehem) and some recorded for Zuma (Sedan Delivery) but then turning up on Rust Never Sleeps (albeit in faster and rawer form, a response to punk). Too Far Gone didn't see the light of day on an official release until Freedom in 1989. Chrome Dreams does sound like a 'great lost' Neil Young album, some songs played acoustically next to an audible campfire and some with an amped up Crazy Horse. The album starts with Pocahontas and Will To Love, then Star Of Bethlehem, Like A Hurricane, Homegrown, Captain Kennedy, Sedan Delivery, Powderfinger and Look Out For My Love. The asking price of £44 for three sides of vinyl is a step too far for me though.
There's never a bad time to hear Like A Hurricane. It was recorded at Neil's Broken Arrow ranch with Crazy Horse in the autumn/ winter of 1976, eight minutes of guitars, thudding drums and Neil's lovelorn vocals. When Chrome Dreams was shelved Like A Hurricane appeared on American Stars And Bars in 1977 and has been played hundreds of times live ever since, including at Sheffield Don Valley Arena in June 2001 when I saw him.
According to the internet Neil's most played songs are (in order from the top) Heart Of Gold, After The Goldrush, Old Man, Needle And The Damage Done and Cinnamon Girl. There are many Neil Young live albums worth hearing. In March 1970 Neil and Crazy Horse played two nights at Fillmore East, the last tour with guitarist Danny Whitten, who died in 1972. This is the full on sixteen minute version of Cowgirl In The Sand from the Live At The Fillmore East album (officially released in 2006).
Cowgirl In The Sand (Live At the Fillmore East)
In 1971 Neil toured on his own, just acoustic guitar and harmonica, road testing many of the songs which would make it onto run of classic albums in the early/ mid 70s. Ohio was written in the immediate aftermath of the Kent Sate University shootings, Neil's anger and sadness backed on the studio version by David Crosby's howling backing vocals. The full album Live At Massey Hall came out in 2007, recorded decades earlier in Toronto, Canada on January 1971. Ohio came out as a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young 7" single in June 1970, just weeks after the shootings. 'Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming', Neil sings, 'We're finally on our own...'
Jumping forward two decades a revitalised Neil and Crazy Horse toured the world, playing the classics with songs from the pair of then recent albums Freedom and Ragged Glory. This performance at Buffalo, New York, captures them on fire, cranked up and dealing with the detritus of the Reagan and Bush administrations, the Gulf War, the turn of the decade and their rediscovery by a new generation of bands and fans.
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