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

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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.

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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)

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October 15: Neil Young released Time Fades Away in 1973

“My least favorite record is Time Fades Away. I think it’s the worst record I ever made – but as a documentary of what was happening to me, it was a great record. I was onstage and I was playing all these songs that nobody had heard before, recording them, and I didn’t have the right band. It was just an uncomfortable tour. It was supposed to be this big deal – I just had Harvest out, and they booked me into ninety cities.”
– Neil Young

“… Time Fades Away, was a ragged musical parade of bad karma and road craziness, opening with Young bellowing “14 junkies, too weak to work” on the title cut, and closing with “Last Dance,” in which he tells his fans “you can live your own life” with all the optimism of a man on the deck of a sinking ship. While critics and fans were not kind to Time Fades Away upon first release, decades later it sounds very much of a piece with Tonight’s the Night and On the Beach, albums that explored the troubled zeitgeist of America in the mid-’70s in a way few rockers had the courage to face.”
– Mark Deming (Allmusic)

Time Fades Away is a 1973 live album by Neil Young. Consisting of previously unreleased material, it was recorded with The Stray Gators on the support tour following 1972’s highly successful Harvest. Due to Young’s dissatisfaction with the tour, it was not reissued on CD. Nevertheless, Time Fades Away received much critical praise and was widely pirated after lapsing out of print because of the ensuing demand from fans. It was initially reissued on vinyl only as part of the Official Release Series Discs 5-8 Vinyl Box Set for Record Store Day in 2014, also finally released on CD in 2017.

Neil Young – Don’t Be Denied, London, England, September 14, 1974:

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September 27: Neil Young Released Prairie Wind in 2005

neil young Prairie Wind

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]Since Prairie Wind is a return to the soft, lush country-rock sound of Harvest; since Neil Young suffered a brain aneurysm during its recording; since it finds the singer/songwriter reflecting on life and family in the wake of his father’s death; and since it’s his most cohesive album in a decade, it would seem that all these factors add up to a latter-day masterpiece for Young, but that’s not quite the case.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com) – 3,5/5[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The Painter:

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September 20: Watch Neil Young @ Farm Aid 2008

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September 20: Neil Young at Farm Aid in 2008 (full set, videos)

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]Just as rock & roll is loud and proud, so is Farm Aid. Farm Aid’s greatest accomplishment, I believe, is in the spirit. It’s the fact that we represent the spirit of the good fight, to keep something good happening. It just keeps getting stronger and stronger….”
– Neil Young[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Farm Aid was started by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp in 1985 to keep family farmers on the land and has worked since then to make sure everyone has access to good food from family farmers.

FARM_AID-2008_LOGO

Farm Aid has been going on for 31 years, and they have had a lot of great music through the years. Today we’ve picked a very fine set from Neil Young in 2008. Enjoy!

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20 Songs Released in 1979 You Must Hear





My rules:

  • Only one song per artist/group
  • The song must be released that specific year
  • Songs from live albums not allowed
  • Restricted to only 20 songs

A lot of wonderful music was released in 1979, here are my 20 chosen songs.

  • And the Healing Has Begun – Van Morrison

    Released on his 1979 album, Into the Music.

    And we’ll walk down the avenue again
    And we’ll sing all the songs from way back when
    And we’ll walk down the avenue again and the healing has begun
    And we’ll walk down the avenue in style
    And we’ll walk down the avenue and we’ll smile
    And we’ll say “baby, ain’t it all worthwhile?” when the healing has begun
    I want you to put on your pretty summer dress
    You can wear your Easter bonnet and all the rest
    And I want to make love to you yes, yes, yes, when the healing has begun




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20 Songs Released in 1977 You Must Hear





My rules:

  • Only one song per artist/group
  • The song must be released that specific year
  • Songs from live albums not allowed
  • Restricted to only 20 songs

A lot of exciting music was released in 1977, here are my 20 chosen songs.

  • Like a Hurricane – Neil Young

    Written by Neil Young in 1975 and first released on the album American Stars ‘n Bars in 1977.

    Once I thought I saw you
    in a crowded hazy bar,
    Dancing on the light
    from star to star.
    Far across the moonbeam
    I know that’s who you are,
    I saw your brown eyes
    turning once to fire.




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