RETURN OF THE HORSE

In 1996, Neil Young released Broken Arrow and, with Crazy Horse, went on tour. This resulted in the Jim Jarmusch film, Year Of The Horse, as well the Year Of The Horse album. However, none of the songs from the movie were found on the album. This release tries to correct that anomaly.

Here is a succinct account according to the CD notes:

Neil asked film director Jim Jarmusch to shoot some of the shows on 16mm film for potential future use. After the autumn US tour, Neil and Jarmusch got together and started working on their project called Year Of The Horse. In June 1997 a double CD with the same title was released. Despite an interesting song list - 10 out of 12 songs have never been released on any previous Neil Young live CD - the production was very poor.

His lifetime friend and producer David Briggs passed away two years before and Neil wanted to release his own official bootleg of a great tour. The result was a shambolic sounding double-CD, only 80 minutes long and badly mixed. Late autumn 1997 saw the premiere of the movie with the same name. Hailed and praised by both press and fans the film travelled around the world, shown in unique theaters and during art film festivals.

The songs heard on this CD have been taken from the original soundtrack. When one listens to the sound quality in comparison to the official live album, it is like being transported to a different stage. Take a bow for the dueling guitars in Slip Away, where Sampedro and Young end up like battling soldiers. Indeed this CD sounds so good, so perfect that we are at a loss for words.

But the real treat is that all performances are different and much better than those on the double CD. Award-winner is Tonight’s The Night, over 10 minutes long and an epic seldom heard before. Like A Hurricane is a unique mix of two decades Crazy Horse sound. The intro and outro were recorded in Viennes, France in the summer of 1996, while the middle part (the centerpiece of the song) got captured at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, during his much hailed 1976 European tour.

Neil’s voice has never sounded so rich, tender and lonely as in those last four minutes on Music Arcade. A perfect closer to a classic live album, and a perfect partner in crime to Weld.

Lineup:
Neil Young - vocals, lead and acoustic guitar
Frank (Poncho) Sampedro - guitar
Billy Talbot - bass
Ralph Molina - drums