Hello everybody, hope you are well. No shows on the horizon until the mid March Furthur shows, so it’s time for another installment of my super original named series, It Was 20 Years Ago Today. This chronicles the shows I went to 20 years ago, AKA my senior year in high school. Next up Neil Young and Crazy Horse.
I got introduced to the awesomeness that is Young Neil by Rolling Stone magazine. I can’t really emphisize how much of an influence this mag had on my musical tastes and exposure to what was good. You can take issue with some of the cover choices, (Brittany, Beiber, etc) but they do have to sell magazines. When Allen Ginsberg passed away, they had U2 on the cover. Let’s be honest, when the history of the 20th century is written, Ginsberg’s contributions to the culture will dwarf U2’s (although what Bono is doing with his debt relief programs and help for Africa is very good). When the fans buy it to read about U2, maybe a few would have their mind’s eye opened a little bit more by Mr. Ginsberg.
So its announced Neil Young is playing the Cap Centre on Feb. 27, 1991 with Sonic Youth and Social Distortion opening. Neil Young might have the greatest career in rock and roll. This guys had more peaks in his career that the Himalayas. You could argue his entire 70’s catalogue is better than most artist’s entire outputs. First, he was a folkie/rock and roller with his early solo and CSNY albums. Then in the mid 70’s, after turning his back on the commercial gold of the country rock of his hits such as Heart of Gold, he put some incredibly emotionally charged albums. These are known as the Ditch albums, partially inspired by the OD death of his close friend Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry. Neil was once quoted “If you want to put an album on Sunday morning, put on the Doobie Brothers, not Tonight’s the Night. “ These albums dealt with the failure of the 60’s dreams and the carnage that was laid out in its wake.
He returned to form by the late 70’s. How good was he? He was the only “hippie” rock and roller to escape the wrath of the new and exciting punk movement. The 80’s were marked by some really crazy experimental albums covering genres as diverse as electronic, rockabilly, and old school R&B. He was even sued by his record label for making albums that were “unrepresentative” of Neil Young. But as the decade grew long, the spark that burns so brightly in him was about to go nuclear.
In 1987, he released “This Note’s for You”. The accompanying video made fun of the current pop icons (Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, etc) for selling out. MTV banned the video, which went on to win the MTV award for Video of the Year. He then released what I believe to be his best album ever, Freedom. Chronicling the state of the union by the end of the 80’s, (much like he did in the 70’s with his album Live Rust and Rust Never Sleeps), Neil declared all other forms of rock and roll irrelevant with his release of the single “Rocking in the Free World.” I really can’t put into words how much this song blew my mind. Below is a link for the performance from SNL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4Pug2cokaw
Here’s another link where Neil bestows his approval on a young up and coming band out of Seattle. This is how he earned the nickname “Godfather of Grunge” I was doing a balloon as this happened live on the TV, and I’m not sure I have yet to recover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTTsyk-pyd8
Neil then kicks off the 90’s with the album Ragged Glory, which was drenched in feedback and loud distortion, giving everyone a preview of what early 90’s rock and roll was going to sound like. Ever the iconoclast, he had punk band Social Distortion and NYC noise assassins Sonic Youth open on his tour. I can’t remember everyone I went down with, but I do remember they were all from the class of ’92. (Myself I was the class of ’91. Drugs are legal, sex is fun, we’re the class of ’91)
Social D had one hit, Ball and Chain from the album they were promoting and they played a short tight set. Sonic Youth came out and unleashed weird tunings of aural sculptures of noise designed to make you ask, WTF? I bought Goo when I found out they were opening but it really did do much for me. Finally, Mr. Young came out to show us what it was all about.
Neil Young, 2/27/91, Cap Centre, Landover, MD
Intro/Star Spangled Banner, Crime in the City, Blowing in the Wind, Love to Burn, Cinnamon Girl, Mansion on the Hill, Fucking Up, Cortez the Killer, Powderfinger, Love and Only Love, Rockin’ in the Free World, Welfare Mothers, Like a Hurricane
This whole tour was taking place during the first Gulf War, so the atmosphere was rather charged. Huge Marshall amps adorned the stage and Neil took no prisoners. Using the distortion and feedback as another member of the band, Neil laid waste to the audience and the arena. Having only been to 2 shows before this, I was blown away by his energy. He’s a guy in his 50’s singing a song called Fucking Up, which would have deflated the pouffy hairdos of the 80’s hair metal bands. Playing the best of his new release along with some Crazy Horse classics, it was just an amazing show from start to end. I bought a pin that said, “Stop the War” at the Greenpeace table. On the ride home, we heard over the radio that the Iraqi forces and the coalition troops had reached a cease-fire. So as soon as I bought the pin, the war was over. Pretty impressive results for a 5 dollar donation.
I actually have an audience recording of this show. I found it on the etree bit torrent page within the last year. Amazing the things you can find on the Internet.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD in Rock and Roll
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