Neil Young fans have grown accustomed to waiting. The mercurial songwriter started talking about his gargantuan Archives project all the way back in the mid-'80s, promising a comprehensive overview of his career, including unreleased songs, live material, and outtakes. After years of teases, the first volume finally hit shelves in 2009, covering Young's work up to 1972. Even though he suggested that the second volume—covering what are arguably his peak creative years in the 1970s—would arrive hot on its heels, fans are still waiting. Breath-holding is not advised.
We've been better served by the live Performance Series releases, which began trickling out in 2006 with some regularity; this month's Bluenote Café double disc set brings the tally to eight volumes thus far. So it's a good time to look back at the highlights of this ongoing dive into the various stages of Young's onstage life over the decades, where brilliance can be found lurking in the most unexpected corners.
1. Live at the Fillmore East 1970
At they very top of the Performance Series heap is this astounding 45 minutes of Young with the original Crazy Horse (plus pianist Jack Nitzsche) blazing away at NYC's legendary Fillmore East (sharing a bill with Miles Davis, of all things—those were different times!). It just might be Neil's finest live album. The laid-back groove of "Wonderin'" and a gorgeous, definitive reading of "Winterlong" both show off Crazy Horse's sensitivity and range. But the main draw is the guitar bliss found in the twin epics, "Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand", as Young and guitarist Danny Whitten soar to celestial heights, calling to mind the lean attack of Television's "Marquee Moon" more than any overblown '60s jam. That this was Whitten's final tour with Young before his tragic death in late 1972 of an overdose makes Fillmore East all the more precious.
2. Live at Massey Hall 1971
The acoustic flipside to the electric adventures of Fillmore East, Live at Massey Hall 1971 is a prime example of Young's power as a solo performer. Touring on the back of After the Goldrush, the setlist for this release demonstrates how deep the songwriter's catalog was even at this early point in his career. Veering from Buffalo Springfield chestnuts to stripped down renditions of CSNY favorites like "Helpless" and "Ohio", it's a body of work Young could've coasted on for the next 40 years. Of course, he was already looking toward the future, as he debuts several compositions from Harvest and Time Fades Away. Most interesting is the medley of two songs that would become signatures separately: "Man Needs a Maid" and "Heart of Gold", played with appropriate intensity on the grand piano.
3. A Treasure
An extremely successful curveball. Even the most contrary of Young aficionados have trouble defending the songwriter's uninspired Old Ways LP from 1985. But the International Harvesters, the band he took on the road to support the album in '84 and '85, got their due on A Treasure, released in 2011. Featuring such longtime associates as pedal steel master Ben Keith and bassist Tim Drummond alongside Nashville crack sessioneers like keyboardist Spooner Oldham and fiddler Rufus Thibodeaux, the record captures an otherwise undocumented period for Young. And it's all pretty great, as Young and the International Harvesters cruise through twangy new tunes like "Amber Jean" and "Grey Riders" (the latter featuring a lightning bolt solo), as well as re-imagined classics like "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong" and "Are You Ready for the Country". Best of all is the closer, "Southern Pacific", which charges on relentlessly for close to eight minutes.
4. Bluenote Café
Like A Treasure, the latest Performance Series release shines a deserving spotlight on one of Young's 1980s genre experiments. Now primarily known for "This Note's for You", Neil's deathless diss of his light-beer-shilling contemporaries, Neil Young and The Bluenotes' 1988 album of the same name is not particularly thrilling. But onstage, the horn-heavy group was a force to be reckoned with, with Young's powerhouse blues guitar work framed by swaggering, smoky big band arrangements. On tracks like "Welcome to the Big Room" and "Bad News Comes to Town", the Bluenotes swing convincingly. But it's not all sax solos and throwback blues rock. The lengthy, righteous "Ordinary People" and the fiery thump of "Crime in the City" (which would show up in mellower form on Freedom) are as angry and invigorating as Young got in the 1980s.
5. Live at the Cellar Door
Recorded in late 1970, just a few months before the Live at Massey Hall release, one might think this similarly styled solo acoustic disc would be redundant. But against the odds, it's a winner through and through, boasting the debut performance of "Old Man", a totally unique piano version of "Cinnamon Girl" and a lovely/lonely "Expecting to Fly". The Cellar Door in Washington, D.C. was a tiny club and Young seems to relish the intimacy, chatting amiably with the crowd and indulging in some moments of pure weirdness, such as his extended, sly intro to the closing "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong", wherein Neil conjures up an avant cluster of noise from his Steinway.
6. Dreamin' Man Live '92
1992's Harvest Moon remains one of Young's most beloved and approachable albums—the kind of record that both casual fans and die-hards can agree upon. Dreamin' Man, recorded during solo tours prior to and just following that album's release, offers up an alternate version of Harvest Moon's 10 tracks. Without the backing of the Stray Gators (not to mention Linda Ronstadt and Nicolette Larson's creamy harmony vocals), the sound here is rawer and more immediate, for the most part, with the long, hypnotic "Natural Beauty" as a standout. But while there's little to complain about, Dreamin' Man doesn't feel quite as revelatory as its Performance Series brethren.
7-8. Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House 1968 & Live at the Riverboat 1969
Down at the bottom are these two early solo acoustic collections, which capture Young right at the beginning of his solo career, having just left the Buffalo Springfield, and touring folk clubs in support of his eponymous debut LP. Recorded just months apart in 1968 and 1969, both releases are definitely interesting, but they don't really stand up to multiple listens, aside from a few key tracks. The best stuff on Sugar Mountain is actually the rambling and charming spoken intros and asides, showing off Young's characteristic wit. The Riverboat performances are a bit more assured, but still show Neil searching for the voice that would sustain him through the next several decades. He's almost there—a gripping "Old Laughing Lady" gives the Riverboat audience a preview of the ragged glories to come.