Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall (CD/DVD)
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Free Music Notes for Live at Massey Hall (CD/DVD)
Free Music Review: Neil Young's best live album
Hit: 5 Stars
I've been listening to most of these songs for almost thirty years, but they virtually sparkle on this incredible CD, sounding fresh as a new coat of paint. Sometimes it's just a slight change in phrasing or different instrumentation, sometimes it's the incredible warmth of the sound, making you feel like you're right there in Massey Hall. Whatever it is, the entire album demands to be played repeatedly no matter how many times you've heard Neil Young do these songs before. It's a beautiful recording and managed to surpass the high expectations I had of it.
The DVD provides visual accompaniment to the entire album. There's lots of grainy footage of Young performing at the show but also lots of shots of a reel to reel player recording the music. Intercut with all the performance footage are what look like home videos on his ranch but are probably from the Dutch documentary that is excerpted in the bonus material. The extras also include a couple of performances recorded for the Johnny Cash show and some video footage from 1997 of Young looking through archival photos of the Massey Hall performance. You might not watch the DVD many times but it's definitely worth having.
If the rest of the stuff from the archives ends up being this good, it'll be like Christmas all year long. Check out the link repriserecords.com/neilarchives for a taste of what else is to come.
Free Music Review: An Absolute Gem
Hit: 5 Stars
Like many other Neil Young Freaks, I may have eveything from Neil on Vinyl and CD. I started late since I was young and not much into the music scene until I saw Rust Never Sleeps in 1979 at a midnight showing. It changed my life. Started playing guitar the next day. To see Neil Young live in concert has always been a religous experience for me and this recording from Massey Hall really pulls me back into the artists world. The performance and recording are top 5 of anything in my collection. Nothing can be more intimate between artist and listener. The vocals are out front and the guitar work outstanding as usual. This CD is in my stereo testing reference for guitar and vocals. Some of the songs were "new" and unfinished and would end up on "Harvest" with added or changed verses. Arguably one of Neil's best works. This recording sounds like David Briggs just let it roll for the night it was recorded. Just as if you were there in Toronto that night listening to Neil explain why or what he was writing about or where he was at the time, unlocking more clues to his creative process and ultimately his genius. I am still amazed by his technique on the acoustic guitar, something that will always set him apart from other claimers. A live performance from Neil. A stool, His Martin D45, and a microphone, the rest is a magic that can't be explained. The '71 Massey Hall recording captures this miracle.Free Music Review: Excellent, excellent CD! But minor DVD problems.
Hit: 5 Stars
This is Neil Young at his BEST. Back in 1971 after the release of "After the Goldrush" and before "Harvest", another popular but unauthorized album was released titled "Young Man's Fancy" which was a very similar show in Los Angeles, which I and many of my friends bought copies of and played to death. Massey Hall is much better fidelity, but I miss having a full, solo guitar & harmonica version of "Heart of Gold" and "Sugar Mountain" which were on "Young Man's Fancy".
The DVD serves up the entire Massey Hall audio performance with video footage for almost all the songs, but there are some problems. First, the audio seems to often be just a split-second off from matching the video image; watch Neil's lips or guitarwork, and it is just-not-quite-on-the-spot. Second, the negative image is backwards on one segment as Neil plays piano; anyone who plays piano knows that the bass notes are played with the left hand and the treble notes with the right hand. At the end of the piano spot, he goes to pick up and play his guitar with the neck of the guitar held in his right hand. I'm glad to have what we do with this performance footage, but this was an unfortunate mistake, and hopefully will be corrected if this DVD is reissued.
Very happy to have this excellent peformance in top-quality sound on CD! All fans of "After the Gold Rush'' and "Harvest" need to buy this.
Free Music Review: Hometown Hero
Hit: 5 Stars
Neil Young's Live at Massey Hall is an instant classic, and the best live album of his long career-easily surpassing 1979's Live Rust. With the entire place at his command-early on he informs what is essentially a hometown crowd that he will be playing mostly new music(to applause!)-Young runs through some the most affecting songs he'd written to that point; indeed , several from Harvest wouldn't be released for over a year, including an embryonic piano version of Heart of Gold as part of a medley with A Man Needs a Maid. Looking at it from our vantage point 36(!) years on, Live at Massey Hall seems like a "greatest hits live" collection, putting us in the position of observing the 1971 crowd hearing music for the very first time that we already know is classic Neil Young. What I'm trying to say is that not only does the audience appreciate the new songs, they enthusiastically applaud songs-such as Cowgirl in the Sand, Helpless, and the songs from the (then current) After the Goldrush that were relatively new at that time as though they were already part of the classic rock canon. Which, I suppose they were. Live at Massey Hall, 1971 can be enjoyed on so many levels. Long time die hard fans, Harvest-era casual fans, and younger fans seeking a quick introduction to the genius of Neil Young can all benefit from this excellent collection.Free Music Review: ANOTHER (essential) PIECE (peace?) OF THE PIE
Hit: 5 Stars
This is truely a Neil Young in his prime. Its funny how over the years you think to yourself that his voice has never changed, or at least you don't always notice the transition from then to now.. but then you go back to 1971 and you hear how crisp and on the money he was. Especially live stuff from the early days. Neil Young did most of his best recordings live...
This is right in the middle of his most creatively jam packed years... you find yourself just before the release of his most succesful Harvest album,... right around the time he was doing songs from Time Fades Away, another great live album that for some reason has been lost to vinyl and 8-track tape for ever to come (two songs are done very nicely here JOURNEY THRU THE PAST and LOVE IN MIND) and still riding on the success of his CSNY stuff.
Together you get one hella mix... mostly on the softer side, but there is still a shinning intensity. Also, this may be the coolest DVD I've seen in the Neil Young file.. yet.
Not to long ago, Neil released another lost live tape... the one with Crazy Horse around the same time frame. That one has the crunchy extended rockers... this one shows what the people really ate up back in the day... the intimate, acoustic Neil Young. This collection shows, they ate up with good reason. Very nice.