November 9 & 10: Neil Young Sugar Mountain Live at Canterbury House 1968

Neil Young was horribly nervous before the performance and had to be coaxed from his hotel room by his manager Elliot Roberts and the minister of Canterbury House, Dan Burke. Burke tells NPR Music he remembers Neil Young huddled in Young’s hotel room bed, too scared to perform. He told Burke no one would want to hear the Buffalo Springfield tunes or his new tunes. Young was afraid he didn’t have enough material. But he was eventually persuaded to take the small stage.
~Neil Young News

This is a GREAT live album from Neil Young’s two concert @ The Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA – Nov 9-10 1968.

Wikipedia:

Released	December 2, 2008
Recorded	November 9 and 10, 1968
Genre	Folk-rock, Country rock
Length	70:15
Label	Reprise

Sugar Mountain – Live at Canterbury House 1968 is a live album by Neil Young. On November 8–10, 1968, Young performed three shows at Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This album is compiled from the performances on the 9th and 10th.

This album is Volume 00 in the Archives Performance Series. Since volumes 2 and 3 had already been released, this album, while performed earlier chronologically, is the third release from the Series. The Riverboat 1969, released in The Archives Vol. 1 1963–1972in 2009, is the fourth Archive Performance Series released but was performed earlier chronologically than volumes 2 and 3.

The songs, by the way, are beautiful. He does mysterious Springfield compositions (“Broken Arrow,” “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing”), and provocative newer tunes (“The Old Laughing Lady,” “The Loner”). The version here of “Sugar Mountain,” his enduring lost-adolescence lament written before Springfield, has been previously released as a B-side and on the Decade box set. But hearing it in this context adds to its impact.
~Steve Rosen (pastemagazine.com)

Songs:

1. Emcee intro – 0:45
2. “On the Way Home” – 2:52
   
3. Songwriting Rap – 3:13
4. “Mr. Soul” – 3:14
5. Recording Rap – 0:30
6. “Expecting to Fly” – 2:49
   
7. “The Last Trip to Tulsa” – 8:36
8. Bookstore Rap – 4:27
9. “The Loner” – 4:41
   
10. “I Used to…” Rap – 0:38
11. “Birds – 2:17
12. “Winterlong” (excerpt) and “Out of My Mind” Intro – 1:38
13. “Out of My Mind” – 2:07
14. “If I Could Have Her Tonight” – 2:34
15. Classical Gas Rap (Mason Williams/Young) – 0:41
16. “Sugar Mountain” Intro – 0:29
17. “Sugar Mountain” – 5:47
18. “I’ve Been Waiting for You” – 2:04
19. Songs rap – 0:38
20. “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing” – 4:43
    
21. Tuning Rap and “The Old Laughing Lady” Intro – 3:06
22. “The Old Laughing Lady” – 7:26
23. “Broken Arrow” – 5:09

 Neil doesn’t second-guess here but he is fragile and human, telling stories (sometimes at considerable length) before sliding into these delicate songs, wryly lamenting that he should have some happy songs to sing before testing out the melody for “Winterlong,” stopping short because the song isn’t quite written yet. It’s a marvelously intimate performance, unguarded and open-hearted, unique in its delicate touch: it’s Neil Young before the myth crystallized, and listening to it anew, it’s easy to fall in love with him all over again.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

 Spotify:

-Egil