Phish and Neil Young: "Down By the River", Farm Aid 1998

On October 3, 1998, Phish performed at the Farm Aid Benefit, near Chicago, IL, with Young. Setlist notes from Andy's Phish Page indicate that Young joined Phish onstage for "Runaway Jim". Next came an electric instrumental that is best described as "Arc"-like. This was followed by a monster 26 minute jam on "Down By the River".

Judge for your self, but this version of "Down By the River" is considered to be of the top 10 performances of the song. Certainly the best ever non Ol-Black version. Neil uses a hollow body Gretsch guitar (Trey Anastasio's older Languedoc guitars, hand-made by Phish soundman Paul Languedoc) and delivers some heavy hand blows to the body at various jam points. Massive shredding ensues.

The Trey and Neil duel @ 12:45 is epic. We can't honestly we've ever sen another guitarist ever push Neil so far to the dark side.

Unfortunately, the YouTube version is *only* 19 minutes long.


Phish and Neil Young - Farm Aid 1998
Photo by Barry Brechsian

More on Phish and Neil Young.

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‪Neil Young at Global Forum on Sustainability, Brazil

Neil Young will be part of a panel discussion on sustainability at Fórum Global de Sustentabilidade in Brazil in November.‬

Here's Neil talking about the panel and why he's involved. Also, where this all starts.

In other news from Greendale....



From Think Progress "JULY HEAT RECORDS DEFINE THE UNITED STATES":

July was so hot “that just by plotting the location of each daily heat record that was broken, a nearly complete image of the contiguous United States is visible,” reports NOAA.

“Almost 9,000 daily records were broken or tied last month, including 2,755 highest maximum temperatures and 6,171 highest minimum temperatures (i.e., nighttime records).” “Some cities reached daily high temperatures 19 out of the 31 days in the month.” The data is incomplete, as they include “only include weather stations with real-time electronic reporting, which accounts for about two-thirds of the locations.”

More on why Sun Green was right and the inconvenient truth of Neil Young's Greendale.

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Eddie Vedder on Music, Life, Ukuleles & Uncle Neil

Eddie Vedder
Photo by Danny Clinch

From SignOnSanDiego.com "Eddie Vedder on music, life & ukuleles" by George Varga:

Eddie Vedder: "I think music is just something – I have friends who are, and who have been, professional athletes – and the one thing that is nice about my lot in life is you can – how do I say it? – you can just keep playing. And I don't feel like I'm half way there. I'm, maybe, a third of the way there...

One of the prime examples (of musical longevity) for myself and our group – maybe because we're so close and have such a strong relationship with him – but 'Uncle Neil,' Neil Young, is still working and constantly inventing sounds and songs on his instrument, and changing the sound. That's where you see that there really are no boundaries.

And he just keeps going; he's never been satisfied, even with the grand state of what he's accomplished already. The acreage that he’s accumulated over the years – speaking of it as a musical landscape – you can't, the eye can't, see to the edges of that, and yet it still goes further. Maybe that’s what he meant on (the 1995 Young/Pearl Jam album) 'Mirror Ball,' with (the song) 'I'm The Ocean'."

Q: Or, to quote the Young song "Field of Opportunity," from his 1978 album, "Comes a Time": In the field of opportunity / It's plowing time again...

Eddie Vedder: "For us as a band, being with Neil makes us feel like we're pushing ourselves a little bit," Vedder noted. "And then you realize – it's really interesting – not that you're trying to keep up with him, but that you try harder, for sure."

More on Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam and Uncle Neil Young.

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Interview With Richie Furay, Joe Vitale and Rusty Young on the Buffalo Springfield Reunion - Sound Waves Magazine

Sound Waves Magazine
August 2011

The cover story in the August issue of Sound Waves Magazine is “There’s Somethin’ Happenin’ Here: The Triumphant Return of Buffalo Springfield" by Mark T. Gould.

The article contains extensive interviews with Richie Furay, Joe Vitale and Rusty Young with a few revelations on how the reunion came together, what went into making the rehearsals, and where the Buffalo Springfield are stampeding to next.

Some highlights...

“Of course, we missed not having Bruce and Dewey with us to ‘experience’ the moment,” Furay said. “But, the addition of Joe and Rick could not have been any better. Those two guys are professionals and they delivered; they are always prepared and know their instruments. They were the perfect choice. The fact that they play regularly with Stephen and Neil certainly helps, because they are used to them, and know the music they are associated with. I love those guys and it’s an honor to have them along for the ride.”

...

“There were certain songs we all knew needed to be in the set, and out of those we selected the ones came back to us the easiest,” Furay added. “The songs that most interested me were the ones from the first two records, where most of the songs came from, with the exception of ‘Kind Woman’ and ‘I Am A Child,’ which came from ‘Last Time Around’. For me, the ‘Whisky A Go Go’ songs were the ones I wanted to focus on because they were the songs that had the strongest memory of us as a band.

“Overall, we had a very nice selection from all of the albums, and we still have quite a few to learn,” he recalled. “There were some physical considerations that kept some off the playlist – ‘Sit Down I think I Love You’ has a repetitive figure that made it difficult to play at this time. I hope we’ll add it, as well as ‘Hung Upside Down.’ We started to work out ‘Down to the Wire’ at show rehearsals, and that one will probably be added as well.

“It was a nice challenge to do ‘Broken Arrow’ (which was slotted as the first encore at the shows). ‘My Kind Of Love’ was done to fill an up tempo need. ‘Hot Dusty Roads’ was one of those ‘Whisky’ songs that we all loved, as well as ‘Everybody’s Wrong.’ But, it’s amazing there are still a lot of songs we have to get to,” he said.

...

Vitale agreed with Furay’s assessment, adding “the rehearsals were all so easy, just a piece of cake. It was pretty much the most fun I’ve ever had. We just got on royally.

“They’ve done and seen it all, all the different emotions, all the things that can drag you down out there,” Vitale observed about Stills, Furay and Young. “They’re way passed all that junk. We went back to why we do it; that is, to have fun. I’ve never had this much fun, ever.”

...

“The crowds were amazing and appreciative. It was just us, and the audience appreciated that. It was definitely a mix (in the audience), not just “old timers,” but some young whippersnappers as well,” Furay recalled.

“One of the great things about Buffalo Springfield reunion was ‘what you saw and heard was what you got’ and I think everyone appreciated that,” Furay said. “All the music and all the singing was just us – we didn’t have 10 back-up musicians or singers on stage to enhance what we were doing – it was just us.”

Vitale agreed, noting that “the audiences were just spectacular. We walked on stage at the first Bridge show with butterflies, like we were kids again, and it was frightening how loud the crowd was. I would have liked the shows even if I weren’t in the band.”

...

And, according to Furay, there will still be a next time. The band has postponed, not cancelled, Furay stressed, a national tour that was scheduled to begin this fall.
“I know we did have shows being sorted out for a fall tour, but there were some scheduling conflicts and when it got right down to it, we had to move the tour,” he said.

“The tour has not been cancelled – it has been moved. We were planning on covering most all the country, so that’s what I believe we will be doing when we decide to do it,” he added.

“The only indication there was ‘unfinished business’ came with the release of Neil’s ‘Silver and Gold’ album which included the song – ‘Buffalo Springfield Again’ – about 10 years ago,“ Furay said. ”If you listen to the lyrics of that song, it would appear that there was ‘unfinished business’ in his mind. I’m certainly glad we got the chance to ‘deliver,’ if you will, because the reunion tour proved we could still deliver after all those years.”

So. Might we hear Rusty Young's pedal steel in 2012, as Peter D. speculates on Rust???

Full online interview in the August issue of Sound Waves Magazine “There’s Somethin’ Happenin’ Here: The Triumphant Return of Buffalo Springfield" by Mark T. Gould. (Also, see text and discussion Steve Hoffman Forums (Thanks Benjamin D & Peter D.!)

Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Neil Young
Buffalo Springfield at the Santa Barbara Bowl on June 7, 2011
Eleanor Stills Photography | © Eleanor Stills 2011

More on the Buffalo Springfield Reunion Tour and Reviews.

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Rare Neil Young Performance of "LOUIE LOUIE" for KFJC Radio, 1983

An extremely rare version of "Louie Louie" by Neil Young from 1983.

Neil Young performs a unique version of the song "Louie Louie" during the legendary KFJC Radio LOUIE LOUIE marathon of 1983.

This particular performance was uncovered, and reconstructed during the audio air check archival recovery project that utilized an international team of audio technicians. Working diligently for approximately 8 years, the entire 63-hour marathon of 800 unique renditions of the song "Louie Louie" has been fully digitized and catalogued.

This video footage and audio archival project has been orchestrated by producer/ director Eric Predoehl, who is currently working on a rather ambitious documentary on the song, featuring exclusive interviews with songwriter Richard Berry, the Kingsmen, the Wailers, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Little Bill Engelhart, Jack Ely, Jim Manolides, Arnie Ginsburg, and a lot of other people that helped transform this song into such iconic song.

For information about this project, visit http://www.louielouie.net.

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‪Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) - Live at Farm Aid 2003‬‏ - YouTube

‪Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) - Live at Farm Aid 2003‬‏ - YouTube

Neil Young and Crazy Horse performs "Into the Black" live at Farm Aid 2003 at the Germain Amphitheater in Columbus, Ohio on September 7, 2003.

Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp founded Farm Aid in 1985 and serve on the board of directors. The three agreed that family farmers were in dire need of assistance and decided to plan a concert for America.

More on Farm Aid 2011 in Kansas City, Kansas on August 13.

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Dave Matthews and Neil Young

Dave Matthews and Neil Young
Covering Hank Williams’ “Alone and Forsaken”
Hope For Haiti Telethon
Screen Grab by Patricia

The Dave Matthews Band and Neil Young have performed together a number of times together over the years. Matthews is a fellow Farm Aid concert organizer along with Neil, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp. Dave Matthews has also supported the Bridge School Benefit Concerts on several occasions.


Dave Matthews, Neil Young & John Mellencamp
Farm Aid 2010 in Milwaukee, WI
Photo Gallery by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Dave Matthews and Neil Young
Farm Aid Press Conference
Photo Gallery by photographer Mary Francis Andrews
(via Linda @ www.stillisstillmoving.com)



Dave Matthews Band played Neil Young's "Hey Hey, My My" on June 4, 2008 as the first encore at Camden, N.J. It was the first performance of the song by Dave Matthews Band who have previously covered Young's "Cortez the Killer" and "Down by the River."


"The Needle and The Damage Done"
Dave Matthews
MusiCares Honors Neil Young As Person Of The Year

Neil Young joined the Dave Matthews Band concert at the Vote for Change Concert Tour on October 3, 2004 at the Palace in Auburn Hills, MI. Dave Matthews introduced Young by saying 'a good friend of ours,' before launching into a 15 minute electric performance of Bob Dylan's 'All Along the Watchtower.'


‪Dave Matthews Band with Warren Haynes cover "Cortez the Killer" by Neil Young Live at Central Park, New York City in 2003

In what is probably one of the greatest videos of a "Cortez the Killer" cover with a 10 minute plus killer jam.


Dave Matthews Band & Neil Young at Bridge 2006 Concert
Photo by Craig Abaya

Neil Young, Dave Matthews & Woody Harrelson at 2000 Bridge School Benefit Concert
Photo by Clay Butler

More on other musicians influenced by Neil Young's music.

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Somalia Aid – Old Black Pick-guard for Bidding

Brass pick-guard for a Gibson Les Paul “Old Black” style guitar

From Bad News Beat comes word of Somalia Aid.

An guitar pick-guard is being auctioned to help with Somalia famine. It's a handmade brass pick-guard for a Gibson Les Paul “Old Black” style guitar, top-chromed, similar to Neil Young's Old Black.

The plate is massive chromed brass (250 grams) and has all feed-throughs for the original screw drillings and the humbuckers.

More details at Bad News Beat.

Thanks Albert, Liza, & Rainer & BNB!

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