Back in the days, when I was just seventeen, I fell for this real cool hippy girl, and she introduced me to Neil Young. Though I did know the name Neil Young, I didn't know his music. So she made a cassette for me with, what she considered, his best work. I remembered the exact moment, the surroundings and all, when I put the cassette in my Sony Walkman, and heard his voice for the first time. That first song was The Loner, man that really got me: Neil sang exactly about things I felt back at that period of my life...
Anyway, nothing too spectacular happened between me and the girl (well nothing as spectacular to tell you...), and even though I stayed fan, learned to play and sing his songs, I never got around to see Neil perform live. So, last night, finally, after all these years, I went to the Ziggo Dome venue in Amsterdam to see my hero play live. Such a feast to see the huge five meter high amplifiers on the stage, still in their flightcases when Los Lobos were playing the opening show. As I remember from photos and stories by others, these stage items were already used on the Rust Never Sleeps tour in 1978, when the roadies were dressed as monks, with wide capes covering their faces. Now the roadies dress as docters, and construction workers, and I still don't know why but who cares.
From the moment the Beatles song A Day in the Life was heard, everybody knew that Neil and Crazy Horse were about to enter the stage and you could sense the excitement rising. What followed was maybe not Neil's best show ever, but as he said himself: not every show can be great. For me, it was the coming together of decades of sentiments and musical inspiration. The man was there, he moved around stage with his long legs, a bit clumpsy, but just very intense playing, staying close to his fellows of Crazy Horse. Maybe that is what I liked most: though these musicians have been around for decades, they're still in it for the love of music. So, they do not try to occupy the whole stage, but rather stay close to each other concentrating on what the others are doing. Also, they do not change instruments all the time, but they use the ones they like most, with Neil's Old Black center stage: the legendary Gibson Les Paul he has used for most of his recordings and shows.
For all of his hours of beautyful, emotional music, for his great contributions to country-rock, punk-rock, grunge and all other guitar-based music, for his fantastic songbook and the inspiration he has given us, and most of all, for giving my emotions a voice when it needed one so badly, Neil Young gets all of the five stars I have available. On a more objective note, last night's show gets four. But nevermind, we're not done yet with Neil 'Shakey' Young; tonight I'll have another look at the Jim Jarmusch' documentary Year of the Horse at the Melkweg venue. Tomorrow another CasparCritique!? See you there!
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