Essentials: The top ten Neil Young & Crazy Horse live songs

Why has Neil Young not appeared in Essentials yet? Probably because with a catalogue so big it is nearly impossible to listen to it all thoroughly enough to make a valid judgement. For me quintessential Young is with The Horse and on a live album, so I’ve narrowed down the work to do by keeping my selections within that boundary. There are seven live albums in their joint discography, from the 1970 released as the archive “Live at the Fillmore East” to last year’s “Fu##in’ Up”. If there’s a connecting thread it must be noise and chaos, and that’s fine by me.

Number 10: ‘Cowgirl in the Sand’ from “Live at the Fillmore East” (1970/2006)

The original Horse with Danny Whitten on guitar and on this album electric piano from Jack Nitzsche. 14 minutes of epic guitar shredding, which unlike some of Young’s epic solos doesn’t run out of steam halfway through. Given that it started off as a 10-minute tune on ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’ the stretch probably wasn’t a big one, but when he sits on one note for about a minute at around 12 minutes in before coming back to the vocal with Talbot, Molina, and Nitzsche getting as close to funky as Crazy Horse ever got in the background you can see why Young sets off on these almost hypnotic flights so often.

Number 9: ‘Danger Bird’ from “Way Down in the Rust Bucket” 1990/2021)

Long-time Crazy Horse guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro said “Let me go on record as saying that I think this Way Down in the Rust Bucket is the best Crazy Horse record we ever recorded. I love it! I love this record. Neil plays great, unbelievably great. He’s just electrified. He just takes it to all kinds of different levels. He nails ‘Danger Bird’.” While I’m not quite with Poncho on that, this version of Young’s song about the disintegration of his relationship with Carrie Snodgress is as good as the widely praised original on “Zuma”. Young’s wobbly yowl of a voice and the ragged backing vocals add to the emotional weight of the words. I promise there will be some shorter songs in a bit…

Number 8: ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ from “Weld” (1991)

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young never rocked harder than when they played this song and should have been on the 2008 “Déjà Vu Live” album. But Crazy Horse are not far behind them on this take from the definitive Young with the Horse live album. A sound so loud and dirty it left Young with permanently damaged hearing while mixing this album. The solo descends into almost pure noise and the song doesn’t so much end as implode.

Number 7: ‘Leave the Driving’ from “Return to Greendale” (2003/2020)

Young’s musical novel had already had a live outing with the acoustic “Live at Vicar Street”, but this, one of the more restrained Crazy Horse live albums, is the one to choose. Better than the studio version as is the rest of the album in my view. Frank Sampdero who had sat out the recording of “Greendale” was back on piano. I was in the undecided camp about the original album, but the live album, as so often with Neil Young, has put them into perspective.

Number 6: ‘Cinnamon Girl’ from “Live Rust” (1979)

You can trace Young’s evolution through this song which seldom gets left off live albums. This is the best version for me taken a little faster than on “Weld” or “Way Down in the Rust Bucket” and all the better for it. As one of Young’s earliest and best-known songs, it has stayed in the setlist almost constantly. The original duet vocal with Danny Whitten is still the best but this version is pretty close.

Number 5: ‘Mr Soul’ from “Year of the Horse” (1997)

Acoustic Horse on an old Buffalo Springfield tune. He had brought it out for his ‘Unplugged’ contribution about 5 years previously and clearly felt it had life left in it. He came back to it in 2023 with a very different interpretation for his “Before and After” album. This however is the one to hear first.

Number 4: ‘Heart of Steel’ from “F##in Up” (2023)

The song has been renamed since its appearance on “Ragged Glory”, but 21^st Century Horse still have the edge and the smell of danger that has always been their trademark. Now with Nils Lofgren and Micah Nelson in for the retired Poncho on guitar and piano. The sound is even more dense but the godfather of grunge still puts out enough power to light a small city.

Number 3: ‘My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)’ from “Live Rust” (1979)

Perhaps not really a Crazy Horse song, but the definitive version. The fact that Young can take essentially the same song and make this reflective acoustic ballad and the incendiary electric workout of ‘Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)’ on “Weld” tells us everything we need to know about one of the premier artists of the last 60 years. “When I get big I’m gonna get an electric guitar…….. when I get real big”

Number 2: ‘Welfare Mothers’ from “Weld” 1991)

The gap between this version and the “Rust Never Sleeps” take is the gap between Young hitting his stride and an artist in full command of his art after the “difficult” 80s. He’s been accused of a “lack of lyrical sophistication” at various times, and this is the evidence for the prosecution, along with some ill-advised interviews in support of Reagan’s less charitable policies towards the more disadvantaged sections of society. Musically it is one of the key texts in Young’s influence on grunge. “Where’s the cheque Billy?”

Number 1: ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ from “Weld” (1991)

I discounted the ‘Arc’ section of “Arc-Weld” as it was a studio construct, making this along with ‘Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)’, from the same album, the peak of Young’s live recording career. Sirens, machine guns and rockets and the slow-to-the-point-of-crawling speed they take the song at makes this the most anti-war of all anti-war songs. Dirty to the point of unlistenable in places but so totally over the top as to be just the most glorious album he’s ever made.