A peach from Big O this morning a set from Neil Young (and you thought Bob was on an endless tour!?) and reforming an earlier incarnation (later? - ED) from the early 70's (sic) of Crazy Horse with the legendary Nils Lofgren who I have always greatly admired but check the notes for this. Only Young would assemble such a crew and with no rehearsals, you heard me "NO REHEARSALS" went on to do a week long residency at Fresno - the gig here from ten days ago!
Nervous? Worried? check it out!
Check out 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' if you don't believe me![see below]
Here from Big O:
NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSEFresno 2018 [no label, 2CD]Live at the Warnors Theater, Fresno, CA; May 1, 2018. Very good audio (ripped from HDTV webcast). Glitches inherent in the source webcast.Andy Greene, rollingstone.com:Even by Neil Young’s fearless standards, his show at Fresno, California’s Warnors Theater was a bold move. Not only did it mark his first performance with Crazy Horse in four years, but he claims they didn’t rehearse prior to the gig even though this is a new lineup of the band with guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro sitting out for the first time since he joined the group in 1975. In his place is the E Street Band’s Nils Lofgren, essentially making this a reunion of the 1973 Tonight’s the Night band (who billed themselves as the Santa Monica Flyers) minus the late Ben Keith. Oh, yeah, and he decided to broadcast the whole thing live on his website so the whole world could see the group plug in together for the first time since the Nixon administration.It was apparent right from the the get-go that bassist Billy Talbot has absolutely no lingering symptoms from his stroke in 2014 that took him off the road before a European tour. He was grinning from ear to ear and playing just like he did in 1996 and even 1976. Also apparent was the intense focus on the face of Nils Lofgren. He’s accustomed to weeks and weeks of rehearsal prior to E Street Band tours, but it was clear he was into the challenge of doing a show on the fly.Lofgren was the obvious choice to replace Sampedro because of his long history playing alongside Neil Young and his brief stint in Crazy Horse when they cut their own LP in 1971. But he’s also a virtuoso with a wildly different style than Sampedro, who has a rawer sound and plays straight from the gut.Not that anybody cared, but the lack of rehearsal was apparent a few times throughout the night. Talbot seemed to miss a few changes and forgot to come in on background vocals so many times that Young once literally walked over to his mic and began singing them for him. But such moments are part of the beauty of Crazy Horse. The world is full of musicians that can play “Cinnamon Girl” with absolute precision. There’s nobody, however, that can play it like Crazy Horse, even when they screw up. That’s why Young returns to them time and time again, even though it would be a far better for his financial situation if he were to play instead with CSNY or merely break out his his greatest hits with anonymous pros.As always, the future of Neil Young and Crazy Horse is unclear. This week-long run of California theater shows might pave the way for a world tour in 2019. The band also might never play again. Poncho could also come back and these gigs will just be a weird detour. (His absence has yet to be explained.) It’s doubtful that even Young has any idea where this is going. But if opening night was any indication, five decades after they first played with him, Crazy Horse are ready to follow him anywhere he wants to go.+ + + + +
Wouldn't we all but . . . . . . .
Track 201. Only Love Can Break Your Heart 4:14
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