Neil Young & The Bottom Line Club, New York City
The Bottom Line Club, New York City
(Click photo to enlarge)
The thirty-ninth anniversary of Neil Young’s legendary 1974 appearance at New York’s Bottom Line club falls today – May 16.
This fabled show – an unannounced acoustic set of eleven mostly new songs performed in just over an hour – was captured for posterity by an anonymous, prescient taper; something all Neil Young fans should remain eternally grateful for. At the height of his song-writing and performing powers and in the middle of a sustained burst of creativity, Neil Young – almost certainly aided by illegal substances – delivered an unforgettably powerful acoustic performance that has stood the test of time. An astonishing five of the eleven songs played that night were début performances and even more astonishingly 10 out of the 11 were unreleased at the time. Yes, you read that correctly, it’s not a typo. Of the eleven songs performed only “Helpless” had been officially released. The show itself had a wonderfully feel-good, happy vibe. Both Neil and the audience were very loose and Neil was in a humorous, storytelling mood. If you’ve never heard the Bottom Line tape you need to go listen right now!
To commemorate this anniversary all round Neil Young fanatic Bernie B. Shakey has re-visited the Bottom Line performance and, over 16 fascinating pages, takes us back to those long ago days of 1974. Full of press clippings, rare photos, historical facts, anecdotes, transcripts, commentary, and contemporaneous news items it makes for a wonderful read. I am pleased to say that this article will be published exclusively in the June issue of Broken Arrow, published by the Neil Young Appreciation Society. (Although fingers crossed Bernie will choose to subsequently put it up online to make it available for everyone to read! Always a good home for archiving here @ TW.).
Thanks Bernie!
Labels: neil young
by thrasher@PermaLink: 5/16/2013 12:57:00 AM
13 comments
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13 Comments:
can't wait to read that. thanks Bernie!
vittorio
this tape was the first bootleg of Neil I ever had and really elevated my interest in him from casual fan to near fanatic. Ok, bonafide fanatic. Changed my way of thinking about music as well. Until I heard of Time fades away I thought this the holy grail of it all.
>> An astonishing five of the eleven songs played that night were début performances and even more astonishingly 10 out of the 11 were unreleased at the time.
..... i wonder how many of those attendees were bitching the next day about how Neil didn't play any of the 'hits' last night ?
....... the 'new stuff' is what's kept the Shakey one relevant for over 40 years now.
And how do i get to the 'tape'.....
Anonymous: Perhaps the easiest way to hear this archival recording is on YouTube; here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8MkAm1OdA4
I am working on a new Neil fanzine at the minute and have just finished a little piece on this myself! Its not 16 pages though. Its a classic bootleg and a great story.
My fanzine should be out for the UK shows in June - won't be as good as Broken Arrow obviously but hopefully people may like it.
Des
You can find a lossless torrent of this show here. you'll need to register at the site.
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=90509&highlight=neil+young+1974-05-16
One thing I've never heard mentioned, but I think, based one Neil's pre song rap, that 'Long May You Run' was written earlier on the same day of the show.
Does anyone think the same thing?
Just going from memory here, but Neil says 'I was just passing thru you know...bought a bus to go on the road with...and I wrote this song for my car'
Feel free to pull out the exact quote and correct me, but I believe Neil is saying he wrote this song today, inspired by buying his new tour bus, and thinking back to his first, Mort.
Either way. I put that down as the definitive performance of that song. To me the show also includes the definitive performances of 'Pushed It Over The End' and 'Pardon My Heart'. Maybe even a couple others.
Syscrusher
keepin' T.O. alive
Here's a song I wrote for my, uh ... I'm just passing through, you know, and, uh, I, uh, wrote this song for my car. I bought a bus today to go on the road with, you know, can't stand all those airplanes anymore. It's a big bus, it's got lots of room in it. ... Here's a song I wrote for my car.
1974 saw Neil writing some of the best songs of his career and we all knew that at the time, likewise we know NOW his recent out put will not be viewed in the same way in 2042!
anonymous. could you please repost address for concert google says it cannot locate. thanks. all the best.mel.
close to securing a Billy Idol ticket for Mt Winery, next sunday. great venue and great supporter of BSB and a great guitar player, Stephen Stevens, and a front guy named Billy. on face Billy and Ol NY, not a good match, but a match made in goodness and respect. Billy does Bridges and its always great.
If anyone uses Dime, both the Ry and Neil sets are still up in a single torrent: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=372373
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