

There, the timeless brilliance of “Cinnamon Girl” rings out proudly and doesn’t overstay its welcome at four minutes in length )read: it plays well and its brevity is a boon), and “Farmer John” is a perfect follow-up to that start as it plays to the same succinct and tastefully-performed strengths. It is with the opening of the C-side that listeners really get the first “meat” course of Way Down In The Rust Bucket. It is, very simply, a very good take which is echoed very, very well in the performance of “Bite The Bullet” which follows it and closes the side. There, all the bases required to make a great Neil Young moment get touched and feels like a bit of magic the electric guitar solos don’t wandeer on too long or get really gooey or atonal, and the verse/chorus/verse structure about the play is rock solid. The B-side of the first plate in this set begins confidently with the extended stomp that is a fourteen-minute version of “Love To Burn” (which does threaten to test listeners’ patience, ten minutes in) but resolves nicely with the comparatively succinct take of “The Days That Used To Be” which follows it in the running. Those who already knew they were in) will find the effort easily made. Requiring that the side be changed so (seemingly) quickly feels awkward, but those listeners who have already been won (a.k.a. …And then the needle lifts – just two songs into the running. That same kind of energy – complete with some sighing vocals – endures through “Surfer Joe” and keeps its great, soothing tone in spite of lyrical anachronisms like “Come on down to the pleasure cruise/Plenty of women, plenty of booze.” Those who choose to overthink the propriety of those moments will certainly find themselves lost in an ethical quandary before long, but those who simply accept the song for the decades-old rock behemoth it is will find themselves well-rewarded by the experience. True, there is some atonality about Young’s guitar tone in performance – but that makes it no less easy to fall into, even as the cut reaches and breaches the eight-minute mark. As an introduction for the set goes, “Country Home” is as smooth as silk and gets listeners eased in for a long ride really well true, they know they’ll be flipping vinyl plates, but this beginning doesn’t leave anyone feeling like they need to rush. In this case, it starts with the mild (but lengthy) accousticism of “Country Home,” which casts a fantastic spell the guitars of Young himself and “Poncho” Sampedro intertwine smoothly into a perfect conglomerate, punctuated tastefully by the rhythm section of bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina. Simply put, Way Down In The Rust Bucket is the kind of set that fans of Neil Young hope to find.įrom the beginning salvo of the A-side in this 4LP set, Way Down In The Rust Bucket illustrates how earnestly it seeks to at least please, if not impress. That’s the first reason Way Down In The Rust Bucket is interesting captured in a small venue in Santa Cruz, CA in 1990 with (arguably) the best band he’s ever had behind him (Crazy Horse) playing a set that is gloriously flawed and played both hard and excitedly.
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The singer has been interested in making a difference for the duration of his entire career – and that interest has both shaped and informed the public’s perception of him going as far as to say that Neil Young is a stoic might be a bit far (that title belongs more to Leonard Cohen), but hearing him laugh or crack a joke where a mic was present to pick it up is so rare and novel that the prospect is genuinely exciting. In the fifty-two years which have made up his career to date, Neil Young has been a lot of things – an activist, a fortune teller, an elder statesman, a folkie, a rock star, a filmmaker and other titles too – but he has never seemed to be lighthearted.
