Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall 1971 (CD/DVD) (Reprise / Wea)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Neil Young sat down at Massey Hall in Canada in 1971 as a man who had released 'After The Gold Rush', and was about to record 'Harvest'. Anyone with even a little knowledge of the man's career then will know that the rickety wooden chair that hosted the fellow that night was the seat for a chap at the very height of his powers. Yet as this fine record of that evening attests, he wasn't just at the top of his game as a songwriter, but also as a performer.
This, the third instalment in the long awaited Neil Young Performance Series, collects all the songs Neil played on an excellently recorded CD, and also a grainy yet not without charm DVD. But it's not just us years down the line with the benefit of hindsight who are aware that the man is a genius - clearly, judging by the reaction these (mostly brand new at the time) songs are given by the assembled mass of bodies, the kids of the seventies had decided this a long time ago. He's one man with a guitar and a piano (a solo set, this - no band) in a huge dark room, and there's no other noise whatsoever, not even a cough, apart from rapturous applause at the end of the last note of each song. Oh, and the same sound as soon as everyone recognises what the song is. And the uproarious laughter when Neil makes jokes that aren't even funny. Seriously, other than that, you'd have been shot for dropping a pin at this gig.
The reverence of the crowd makes you remember just how important this greasy haired, proto-grunge-type fellow was. Suffering from terrible back problems at the time (he can't even bend over to get the plectrum he drops before performing a beautiful rendition of his classic 'Helpless'), he's afforded nothing short of worship. Some tracks, like the mournful 'Cowgirl in the Sand', get clapped twice - once by the people who recognise it by the opening guitar line alone, then again by the rest of the people who recognise it once the title line has been sung to open the song. They just want him to know they care that much.
There are a few songs here that were already big hits when they were performed that night, but this was a set largely to showcase new material. Hence 'Tell Me Why' is tossed away very early, as if to illustrate the purpose of the evening. It an honour to hear songs you know all too well stripped of all the studio trickery that often made 'Harvest' a bit of a stodgy listen, but it's important to remember that this crowd would never have heard 'Old Man' or 'Heart of Gold' before. Naturally, they were blown away - I mean, imagine hearing 'Heart of Gold' for the first time. I struggle to imagine a point in my life where I hadn't heard that song. So, imagine being a twentysomething in 1971, sitting down, and someone singing you that. Imagine how everything would change...
Despite being far from a charismatic showman (he can't quip to save his life), Neil is certainly an engaging performer. The DVD helps prove this, but all you really need is the voice to be certain of it. His vocals simply soar. 'Old Man' for example, rid of those umpteen part vocal harmonies, has a harrowing quality where on record it could be seen as quite a jolly little number. And though he never breaks in to complex solos or disjointed rhythmic patterns, the guy's guitar playing is gentle, powerful and rhythmically superb.
It's true that some of the songs sound like variations on a theme. Often, as with 'Journey Through The Past' (which sounds like Neil Young pretending to be Neil Young, and as such rightly didn't make the final 'Harvest' cut) they sound like they're going to break in to 'After The Gold Rush', but it never happens. The best ones are the ones where Neil's out of his comfort zone - the at-piano medley of 'A Man Needs a Maid' (described as "a show tune" from the movie of his life) and 'Heart of Gold' and 'There Is A World', rid of the horrid orchestration that the 'Harvest' session provided it, are far more affecting than the throwaway but still pleasant enough clap-along of 'Dance Dance Dance' for example.
It's very, very Canadian - even though he didn't live there at the time and hadn't done so for a while. Every mention of a place like Ontario ('Helpless') or Vancouver (before 'There's a World') is greeted with rapturous and uncomfortably patriotic applause for the prodigal son. When he sings the line "I'm goin' back to Canada", the place erupts as for a moment they think their hero might actually be coming home to them for good, only for that idea to be dispelled by the rest of the song.
There's a reason some songs never made it further than this. 'Bad Fog of Loneliness' for example is just a little too sugary and simplistic to warrant laying down on a record when you've got stone cold classics like 'The Needle and The Damage Done' to put on wax instead. He had his priorities right, did Neil. The aforementioned anti-heroin classic song gets a fantastic rendition here, along with a thought provoking and frank explanation of its subject matter. Follow it with the infamous protest of 'Ohio', as Neil does, and you've got a double whammy of some of the most affecting, upsetting and intelligent acoustic guitar laments about how unavoidably shit the world is ever.
Maybe it's his bad back, but the guy ain't a barrel of laughs this evening. You forget that at the core of 'See The Sky About To Rain', which is what you're presented with in this piano and voice only rendition, is one of Neil's best ever downtrodden songs. In fact, it's one of the best songs by anyone ever. All he's talking about is it being a bit overcast, and I want to bawl like a baby who's just broken both its legs. That whinging bit at the end of the narrative where he gets his fiddle broken, that's just heartbreaking isn't it? He goes as far as to shoot someone, his 'baby' even, in 'Down By The River'. What's up, Neil? Something you wanna get off your chest?
He ends on the poignant 'I Am a Child', the whole room now as convinced of his unshakable brilliance as they are that 2 + 2 = 4. That you'll feel the same thing, 36 years after this set was recorded, listening to it walking down the street rather than seeing it with your own eyes, really is a testament to its power. His manager wanted to release this very set instead of 'Harvest'. He had a point.
Watch the video for Neil performing 'Ohio' live at Massey Hall, 1971 HERE.
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment