"The Final 50": Revisiting Neil Young & Crazy Horse in Oslo 2013

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Cologne, Germany, 2013
Photo by Roel @ Rust Radio!
(Click photo to enlarge)

So where does Neil Young & Crazy Horse go from here?

Here are some updated thoughts from our good friend Mark "Spook The Horse" Golley looking back on the Europe 2013 tour of Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Back in 2013, Mark "Spook The Horse" witnessed what he called "END OF THE LINE (a.k.a The Final 50): Thoughts on Crazy Horse". "The Final 50" tells the tale of Crazy Horse's last amazing gallop with Poncho. Read all all about it and get pumped up. -- what would be defined as the end of an era and the beginning of a new era and spirit that would soon get REAL.

enjoy!

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INTRODUCTION
Recently I had the pleasure of working with UNCUT magazine editor Michael Bonner as he curated the cover story special on NYCH at 50. It was fascinating to see the features contained within the whole piece come together, one by one, as Michael and his team of writers constructed one of the most entertaining pieces on Neil that I’ve read in the printed press here in Britain for many years.

One of the interviews that Michael conducted himself was with Poncho Sampedro, out in his home on Hawaii. I had some excited emails from MB soon afterwards and had a sneak preview of the content. Amongst many things that cropped up in conversation was Poncho’s retirement from Crazy Horse ~ Ralph Molina had confirmed as much a couple of months ago when the subject was raised via Facebook but here was Frank telling Michael that it was over ~ close on 40 years as a member of the best band Neil Young has ever worked with were, officially, done.

That was that and Poncho seemed utterly unfazed by it.

It turns out that I was lucky enough to see Poncho’s last Crazy Horse show, at Colmar, France in August 2014. The show was one of the better ones from what, I thought, was a largely disappointing 17 gig European tour. This was a band that (to my eyes and ears) clearly missed Billy Talbot (who was at home in America, recovering from a stroke) and despite the late Rick Rosas filling in admirably, the lack of a key member of the band and the (curious) addition of backing vocalists Dorene Carter and YaDonna West took the vibe some distance from what was (and still is) the true Crazy Horse and it cantered off into a different band’s realm altogether (that said, the Colmar “Hurricane” was remarkable and “Be The Rain” wasn’t far behind).

Turn the clock back exactly a year and a day before Poncho’s final, final CH show in Alsace and you alight on August 7 2013. An unassuming Norwegian Wednesday evening, this was, as we know, the very last Neil Young & Crazy Horse show to feature what remains, for many, the classic line up of this extraordinary band who so many of us hold dear.

A line-up that had been in place since 1975.
A line-up that had performed over 500 shows together.
A line-up that recorded some of the very finest albums within Neil Young’s mighty musical legacy, starting at “Zuma” and ending with “Psychedelic Pill”.

As it happens, I was fortunate enough to be in Oslo to witness that “other” final Poncho show too. A show that has taken on (for me) some significance over the last five and a half years as the realisation dawned that the Neil, Billy, Ralph and Poncho Horse were seemingly done.

Soon after I came back from Oslo, when the extent of Poncho’s injury after his freak accident weren’t fully known, I wrote a piece for Thrasher’s Wheat entitled “End of the Line (a.k.a. The Final 50)”. That was my attempt to convey the majesty of the show’s last 50 minutes, 50 minutes which may have been the last for Crazy Horse full stop. That, obviously, wasn’t the case but, as we know now, there was a significant “finale” element to the Norwegian show…

I mentioned this a couple of times to Michael Bonner at UNCUT, assured him that the Oslo performance really was as extraordinary as I tried to tell him it was ~ I then dug out the file I sent to Thrasher’s Wheat and re-read what I’d written. I still feel strongly that I got it right. It was that good a performance.

By one of those lovely little quirks of fate, as I was finishing off reading some proofs of the UNCUT material, I took a look at what was playing over on Roel van Dijk’s brilliant “RUST RADIO” website. Fate played her hand there and then, in five minutes the NYCH show from the Oslo Spektrum was about to start. Some two hours later, I was still rooted to the chair. It was really was one heck of a show, the ragged bits were nowhere near as ragged as I remembered them to be at the time and the good bits were still good. Like, really good. And that “final 50” absolutely held up on my first listen to the show since I left the venue.

So, I’ve revisited that “End of the Line” piece. Rather than trawl through everything from then, I went to the part of the gig that excited me most. The final 50.

Try and track down the Oslo show. The recording captures vividly an exceptional performance. I really hope that my excited words from 2013, tweaked slightly in 2019, manage to convey the extraordinary vibe I felt that night as something very special happened.

A happening that has become ever-more special as the curtain came down on one exceptional incarnation of Crazy Horse.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Rock in Roma, Italy - July 26, 2013
Photo by Francesco Lucarelli
(Click photo to enlarge)
“THE FINAL 50”:
OSLO SPEKTRUM Wednesday August 7, 2013
Three-quarters of the way through one of the most plaintive, melancholy and downright beautiful presentations of "Ramada Inn" that you could ever wish for, it happened.

There was a tangible shift in the onstage dynamic as Crazy Horse went from just plain greatness to something that went in to another (fabled) dimension. Neil and Poncho’s guitars locked and inter-twined in the most beguiling manner; you could see Neil Young had found that special zone that he’s talked about in sometimes reverential tones; blissed out, lost in the moment as he locked in to somewhere unquantifiable with his allies. The groove was there, right there, in that single moment as the spook nestled across the stage. It felt magical at the time and it still felt magical as I listened to RUST RADIO. You can hear, and sense, the shift to this mysterious musical place ~ it sent shivers down my spine at the time and I was surprised at how it moved me six years on too…

This extraordinary moment, within one of the greatest songs that Neil Young has ever written, kick-started a sublime and unforgettable final 50 minutes: what followed astonished and delighted in equal measure, expectations confounded once again by this gnarly old foursome.

It’s odds-on that no one would ever have thought that "Sedan Delivery" could be the song of the night at any NYCH show, but the band fizzed and crackled through it like a sonic Catherine Wheel, a ferocious assault on the ageing song. From five rows back, it felt as though the band were as close to capturing a moment in time, from fully 35+ years ago, Crazy Horse in as full-on a 1978 “Rust Never Sleeps”-mode as anyone had seen since. Jaw-droppingly good, fast & furious, they were turning back the garage rock clock. "Surfer Joe" (complete with infamous” X-rated” verse) was a fairground colossus, taking you around the back of the ferris wheel, lean, mean and fist-fight tight, while the twin Gibson assault on "Mr Soul" melded and mashed the song in to a psychedelic punk pulp, shards of booming sound dropping down from every inch of the ceiling and walls of the Oslo hall.

The solitary encore (“Hey Hey My My”) was triumphant, victorious and glorious, as loud and as tight as you like with a sound that, once again, harked back to a vintage time for this quartet. The climax hurtled along like a freight train, the grand finale returning to a dramatic and electrifying conclusion, suitably (perhaps appropriately) brutalised, battered and bruised but, crucially, still in tact, like a triumphant heavyweight standing proud in the ring after an epic bout.

Another gaze up at the big screen, a quartet of smiles stretched across the stage.

Neil, Billy, Ralphie and Poncho.

Four old men, four trusted friends. Wrapped in each other’s arms. They’d been doing what they wanted to do and with whom they wanted to do it. They had just made one hell of a racket. And, for 50 peerless minutes, they made the best noise, the loudest noise, made by man. Ever. The smiles said it all. They’d nailed it and they knew it. With grins as broad as fjords and an excited “whoop whoop”, they were gone, laughing and joking as they descended the stage, a scene we know now is likely never to be repeated with this particular classic incarnation of Crazy Horse…

As grand finales go, it was quite something, a swansong of rare beauty. A show to cherish.

We’re fortunate that the Crazy Horse has realigned once again, Nils Lofgren bringing a different kind of beauty to the band, subtle, delicate, fragile even. Fresno brought tears to my eyes and Winnipeg’s second show captured the country punk that I’ve craved from them for decades. Ad hoc, informal and no set lists? Long may that continue.

The barn door is ajar. Shows are being booked. Maybe a new record might come. Time ticks by and projects abound for Neil Young, solo, with POTR, in the depths of the Archive, but it’s the Horse that many of us hold dearest and who we want to see, and hear, most.

Who knows where NYCH will end up (and who will end up in it) but I so want to be there for the rest of the ride…

Mark "Spook The Horse" Golley
NYAS #1098

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Thanks Mark! And thanks again so much Mark "Spook The Horse" for those "The Final 50" memories. Too soon, too late.

Your original article in 2013 generated a fair amount of comments. Let's see how we down below here in 2019.

As we said back in 2013, we certainly (of course) hope it's not the end of the line for The Horse. And it wasn't. We had the oh-so brief Rick "The Bass Player" Rosas era.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse with Nils Lofgren & Zeke
Backstage @ Bruce Springsteen 2013 MusiCares Tribute

And we now know that The Horse has evolved back to its roots with the return of Nils Lofgren.

More on Neil Young & Crazy Horse's Alchemy Concert Tour Reviews in Summer 2013 Europe Tour.


Fall 2012 N. America Tour
Spring 2013 Australia/New Zealand Tour
Summer 2013 Europe Tour
Europe Summer 2014 Concert Tour

Thrasher's Wheat Radio Supporters Go To Europe
Also, how about it Rock Hall?! 50 years of Crazy Horse! It is quite bittersweet that there appears to be no proper sendoff for The Horse after 50 years of galloping about. But we have a dream...

After we have Crazy Horse inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there will be one last romp out of the Barn. One last feedback drenched crescendo w/ Neil & The Horse.

yes, we can dream. So lets make it happen @RockHall! C'mon. 50 years. What are you guys waiting on? Don't be too late.

Let's Induct Neil Young & Crazy Horse into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!!! Let's Induct Neil Young & Crazy Horse into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!!!

Induct Neil Young & Crazy Horse into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

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BOOK EXCERPT: "Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock’s Greatest Supergroup" by David Browne

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock’s Greatest Supergroup by David Browne
(Please shop locally & independently. But if you can't, we appreciate your supporting Thrasher's Wheat by clicking link above. Thank you!!!)

A new book titled Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock’s Greatest Supergroup by David Browne has just been published.

Here is an excerpt on CSNY’s 2006 Freedom of Speech tour.

When the main set ended soon thereafter, the group hurried backstage only to find Young’s manager, Elliot Roberts, screaming at him, “No fucking encore!” Young responded in kind, announcing they would be doing one; after all, he retorted, this was called the Freedom of Speech Tour for a reason.

Young led the musicians back out for one more song—“Woodstock”—but the tension didn’t subside when the music ended and the lights went up. Instead of jumping onto tour buses, the musicians and Cerre were driven out of the venue and straight to a nearby airport in SUVs flanked by a motorcade of Georgia state troopers. Since the major airlines had shut down their flights as a result of the terrorist threat, a DC-10 was quickly chartered, and nearly two dozen musicians and crew members piled on for the flight out. “They were really shaken but also invigorated,” says Cerre. “It was like, ‘Yeah, that is what music is about, and I guess we got people’s attention.’ And at the end of the day, it could have gotten much worse. Nobody got hurt and it didn’t turn into a riot.”

For the first time on the tour, Young was rattled.

He and the group were confronted with a startling new reality: that some portion of their fan base, solid counterculture types from the Vietnam era, no longer shared the group’s political leanings. In 1972, according to an American National Election Study, 51 percent of eligible-voter boomers identified themselves as Democrats, and 29 percent as Republicans. But in a similar poll that would be published in 2008, two years after the Freedom of Speech Tour, the number of Republican-leaning boomers would jump to 48 percent.

Especially after the Atlanta fiasco, the implications of this generational drift were immediately felt. In Young’s hotel room in Washington, DC, before the next show in Bristow, Virginia, security guards poked behind the curtains in search of unwanted intruders. Before they went onstage, the four men had a long-standing tradition of a band handshake, which replaced the shared joint of years before. That evening, at the Nissan Pavilion concert in Bristow, Young huddled with Crosby, Stills and Nash and instead told them how nervous he was. They slapped him on the back and did their best to comfort him. “We got your back,” Stills responded. For a moment, at last, Young no longer needed them just for musical or financial reasons; he needed them for emotional support.

That night, as bomb-sniffing dogs were ordered up for that and future shows, some booing again erupted during “Let’s Impeach the President.” But showing a fortitude that had escaped him during the Stills-Young Band tour of three decades before, Young gave no thought to canceling. “We thought, ‘Let’s just keep going,’” recalled Pegi Young, then married to Young. “If we stopped, would the terrorists win?” But another month of shows awaited them, and those in the touring party who weren’t accustomed to those responses made peace with the new normal. Fans in Missouri also walked out during “Let’s Impeach the President,” and the bomb detectors continued to try to protect them. “The first time I saw the bomb squads, I thought, ‘This is not good,’” says Chad Cromwell, the drummer on the tour. “I thought, ‘Is this going to be the gig where the bomb goes off? Is this how it will end?’ I was nervous, but after a few more gigs, it wasn’t that bad. Everyone settled into it.”

The set list never changed, and “Let’s Impeach the President” remained the first encore.

More on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock’s Greatest Supergroup by David Browne.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock’s Greatest Supergroup by David Browne
(Please shop locally & independently. But if you can't, we appreciate your supporting Thrasher's Wheat by clicking link above. Thank you!!!)

CSN&Y - Concord, CA, July 25, 2006

Photo by Tim Mosenfelder

Also, more on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and "Freedom of Speech 2006 concert tour:

• Freedom of Speech: CSNY 2006 Concert Tour - Neil Young
• Reflections on Freedom of Speech Tour
• Documentary Film of CSNY Freedom of Speech Tour

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Elvis Costello to Open For Neil Young in Vancouver

Opening Act for Neil Young in Vancouver : ELVIS COSTELLO
via Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives

Elvis Costello will be playing a special guest set at the upcoming NYA Vancouver solo show at Queen Elizabeth Theatre on May 15.

Per Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives: "A second show may be announced. It would initially will be presale and then go on general sale a short time later, just like we always do with NYA shows."

Pacific Northwest shows are now on sale to the general public!

Solo
5/15 - Vancouver, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (With Elvis Costello)
5/17 Portland, Keller Auditorium
5/18 Spokane, Fox Theatre

with POTR
5/20 & 5/21 Seattle, Paramount Theatre
5/23 Eugene, Matthew Knight Arena#nya pic.twitter.com/rtENPQ6GC9

— Neil Young Archives (@NeilYoungNYA) April 5, 2019

Also, see Elvis Costello plays at Vancouver Olympics Tribute to Neil Young.


"The Losing End"
Elvis Costello honors Neil Young | 2010 MusiCares Person Of The Year

Also, see Elvis Costello honors Neil Young as MusiCares Person Of The Year.

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Neil Young Announces That Archives Will Host "Bootleg Albums"

Album Of The Week: "Neil Young"
"The album was the culmination of all my dreams of becoming a solo artist”
via Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives

As the surreal world becomes ever more surreal, Neil Young has announced that the Archives will eventually be hosting "Bootleg Albums".

via Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives

Nope, not another cruel April Fools joke. (Folks may recall what happens when Neil Young goes shopping for bootleg records back in 1971. Hint: hilarity ensues.)

While Bob Dylan unarguably holds the lead in the "official bootleg releases" category, Neil's latest move demonstrates that The Joker and The Thief remain in neck and neck in the friendly competition for singer-songwriter of the century.

In a message by Neil Young on Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives, he writes that "NYA will be presenting one of my albums every week! I will share the story behind each album in our new column ‘ALBUM OF THE WEEK’ on page 5 of the Contrarian, starting this week. This means I will be writing the story behind these albums regularly."

via ALBUM OF THE WEEK | Neil Young Archives

The first ALBUM OF THE WEEK is -- fittingly -- Neil Young's first solo album, Neil Young, produced in 1968, over 51 years ago.

And it's getting better all the time...

More NYA Subscriber News @ Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives.

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LAST CALL: CONTEST: Uncut Magazine: Neil Young & The Legend of Crazy Horse - May 2019

"I'm tapped into the source!"
Neil Young & The Legend of Crazy Horse
Uncut Magazine Cover - May 2019
CONTEST: Win A Copy

Last call for our contest to win a copy of the latest issue of Uncut Magazine celebrating 50 years of the band Crazy Horse. Full contest details @ CONTEST: Uncut Magazine: Neil Young & The Legend of Crazy Horse - May 2019.

Also, how about it Rock Hall?! 50 years of Crazy Horse! Let's Induct Neil Young & Crazy Horse into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!!!

Induct Neil Young & Crazy Horse into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

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"Greatest Misses Vol. 1" Coming Someday, Says Neil Young | NYA

"A MESSAGE FROM NEIL"
via Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives

In a message by Neil Young on Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives, he writes to thank everyone for supporting The Archives project.

In addition, Neil announces that an album tentatively titled "Greatest Misses Vol. 1" of unreleased material will be made available someday. Neil writes:

There are more than enough of them to create an album called “Greatest Misses.” I think I am going to put that together.

These are studio tracks, finished records that did not become part of an album, yet are really cool records. Then there are the unreleased albums. Somewhere between ten and fifteen of those are ‘in the can’ or under construction. They all need to be reviewed. John Hanlon, John Hausmann, Tim Mulligan and myself are doing that all the time.

More details at "A MESSAGE FROM NEIL" - Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives.

Neil Young
photo: Michael Miller via Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives

Also, see:

• More Crazy Horse To Come Says Neil Young: Concerts + New NYCH Album
• DISCOVERED: Original "Thrasher" Lyrics | Neil Young Archives
• "Music was reverberating off of the haystacks at the Harvest Barn" | Neil Young Archives
• Neil Young Archives | Letter to the Editor: Restoring Neil Young to New Woodstock Documentary?
• TUSCALOOSA: Live Album - Neil Young & The Stray Gators - February 5, 1973

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Interview: Crazy Horse Saddles Up with Phil Lee | Americana-UK

Ralph Molina, Phil Lee & Billy Talbot

Last year, we posted on news of an album by Phil Lee, a long time friend of L.A. Johnson and the Shakey Crew.

Phil Lee's new record -- The Horse He Rode In On -- released in December 2018 with Crazy Horse's Billy Talbot on bass and Ralph Molina on drums as the core of his band. Phil lives near Ralph and they play together frequently. It's a pretty cool record with great tunes.

Phil Lee & The Horse He Rode In On

From Interview: Phil Lee on how he finally saddled up with Crazy Horse | Americana-UK by Paul Kerr:

Q: What it was like to work with the legendary rhythm section?

Phil Lee: Well, it’s taken like 30 years to get these guys in the studio with me.

You remember those gigantic amplifiers Neil had on stage for his Rust tours? The company I worked for built those sets and I was hauling them from gig to gig. I also knew Larry Johnson since NY in the 70’s and he was the line producer on the Last Waltz and he also filmed much of Neil’s stuff so he introduced me to these guys and that’s how I first met Ralph and Billy. We’d always talked about making a record but we had to postpone it several times.

Most recently, Ralph had some health issues, I mean he’s strong as a horse, but he had to take some time out but once we eventually got together it was plain sailing. First off we got the right studio. Ralph helped me find Painted Sky studio and although its taken like forever to get off the ground, once it started happening it was incredible. You know, Billy and Ralph never got the memo that they are rock stars, they’re the most affable hard working chaps. They come in a 10 o’clock and work like hell, take a lunch break and get back to it, they still have the enthusiasm of teenagers.

They’ve been playing together since the early 60s so they’re like twins, I’ve only seen one blow up between them when they started to argue about some shit that went on in 1972 and they were like it happened yesterday! So, we got into the studio and cut the stuff in a week. Ralph and I had been playing together on and off but Billy had only got the demos so he wasn’t quite as up to speed as we were. But we kept it all simple and we were in the studio as I say for a week recording the songs with just the one guitar player and we’ve actually put some of those takes on the album as we didn’t think we could add anything to them.

Q: Phil reminded us of your first band, Danny and The Memories. You were singing kind of doo-wop rock’n’roll back then and I was wondering what got you into the Rockets and then Crazy Horse?

Ralph Molina: I was called to come to California by my cousin, who knew I was singing in Florida with a doo-wop group, he knew I sang falsetto. So I came out and began singing in Danny and the Memories and from there, when The Beatles came, Danny asked that I should play drums and Billy the bass. We got three other guys to play with us and we became The Rockets. Neil had just left the Springfield and used to hang out with us at Billy’s house where we would play in his garage in Laurel canyon. We were going, The Rockets, to play at the Whiskey A Go Go and we asked Neil to sit in with us. I guess he liked our sound and next thing we were recording ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’ and we evolved into Crazy Horse.

Billy Talbot: It was a natural progression. We came from the east coast, both Ralph and I, and here we are on the west coast with this guy from Ohio, who was really born in Georgia. A real conglomeration. Phil could have just added to that. It would have been great then. It’s really great now. I just love the record—the way it turned out.

Q:What’s the difference in recording with Neil Young and then Phil Lee?

Ralph: No difference. Phil is Phil, Neil is Neil. We record live and they both have the passion, feel and heart…

Billy: It’s like the difference from one day to another.

Full article @ Interview: Phil Lee on how he finally saddled up with Crazy Horse | Americana-UK by Paul Kerr.

Ralph Molina, Billy Talbot, & Phil Lee

More on Phil Lee and recording album "The Horse He Rode In On".

Also, check this Phil Lee interview by Tom Snareside. More Horse!

Tom Snareside- The Phil Lee Interview from Will Mitchell on Vimeo.

but just a song before we go...

Also, see CONTEST: Uncut Magazine: Neil Young & The Legend of Crazy Horse - May 2019:

"I'm tapped into the source!"
Neil Young & The Legend of Crazy Horse
Uncut Magazine Cover - May 2019

CONTEST: Win A Copy

Induct Neil Young & Crazy Horse into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!!!

Induct Neil Young & Crazy Horse into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

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Neil Young Album Releases in Pipeline: Neil Young Answers Letters to the Editor | NYA

NYA | Letters to the Editor

Neil Young has responded to another batch of questions regarding upcoming releases on Letters to the Editor | Neil Young Archives. (Thanks Ken!)

As noted previously, the next release will be "TUSCALOOSA: Live Album - Neil Young & The Stray Gators". On March 30, Neil responds to a question that "Tuscaloosa is an album that will be as close to TFA [Time Fades Away] as I will get." Answering another letter, Neil writes that: "The real 'Homegrown' album is coming out after Tuscaloosa."

Also, the album "Oceanside-Countryside", is still in the pipeline.

More on Oceanside-Countryside: Another Neil Young Album in The Pipeline.

Oceanside-Countryside: Another Neil Young Album in The Pipeline
"The hand written title seen above is found on the timeline in March 1977, where it will soon be replaced by original album art."
via Neil Young's Archives (NYA) Times-Contrarian

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Neil Young Helps Complete Long Lost Film Starring Dylan and Hendrix

All Along The Watchtower - The Movie

Neil Young’s Archives aren’t the only ones containing works of fine cinema in various stages of completion. Hollywood notoriously has acres of film canister stacks that may never see a projectionist’s booth. Though starring or directed by the cinematic legends, uncompleted films languish as key creative personnel left a project hanging due to: scheduling conflicts, their death, rehab stints, or the cliché industry excuse “creative differences.” Other works simply over ran budgets and producers failed to find completion funding.

An uncompleted work can become a years or decades long passion project for others to finish. Orson Welles’ 15-year production odyssey of “The Other Side of the Wind” came to an end at his death in 1985. It was finally released in 2018, 35 years after his death. Director Peter Bogdonovich was a Welles confidant and friend and he is one of the film’s actors. He took up the mantle of director and editor from his Mentor Welles, finishing post production in 2017 after decades of work on it as a final tribute to him.

Robert Altman has a new film coming out 13 years after his passing in 2006, and almost 50 years after the death of it’s meteoric co star in 1970. All Along the Watchtower is Altman’s cinematic vision of one of rock and roll’s finest counter culture protest songs.

The film stars the two musicians most associated with the work, it’s writer Bob Dylan appearing as The Thief and the guitarist whose legendary performance of it made it iconic - Jimi Hendrix as the Joker. Dylan’s lyrics tells a story of disillusioned outcasts looking to challenge the establishment and change the system. That is the plot of the movie – the Joker and the Thief attempting to overthrow the corrupt economic and political structure of a western frontier territory in the 1800’s

Jimi Hendrix passed in 1970, months after the filming of his role was finished. He and Bob Dylan spent only a few weeks together filming in British Columbia. Altman was filming two movies there – Watchtower and McCabe and Mrs. Miller, which was released in 1971.

Hendrix’s passing brought the post production work to a stand still and tossed the movie into the courts. He and Dylan were supposed to write and perform the soundtrack for the movie. Decades of legal proceedings between Altman’s production company and Hendrix’s estate kept the project on the shelf. When Altman passed in 2006, legal proceedings ceased, unresolved, and the project became a mere glimmer in the eye of those who knew about it.

Fortunately, cinematic and musical projects with the cultural gravitas such as All Along the Watchtower sometimes are revived. Neverwuz Productions, backed by Wall Street Hedge Fund investment in the production company, reached a settlement with the estates of Hendrix and Altman several years ago acquiring it out right.

Making this film relevant to our Dear Readers and fellow Rusties is the involvement of Neil Young. One of the most contentious part of the decades long legal and creative wrangling was over the song AATW’s use in the film. Altman got Dylan and Hendrix to agree to a duet performance of the song. He did not want Dylan or Hendrix’s original recording appearing in the film which Dylan and Hendrix appreciated. Hendrix’s death ended that idea.

When Neverwuz Productions acquired the film the Soundtrack and playing of AATW was the key component of post production that would lead to the movie’s success or failure – it’s release or abandonment. T Bone Burnett was hired to produce the Soundtrack and address the Watchtower issue.

Burnett and his staff spent almost two years on the soundtrack and recording the appropriate sounding version of Watchtower. Burnett had several versions of the song done with his band but none of them captured his imagining. Burnett wanted the song’s emotional component to be true spiritually to Hendrix’s and Dylan’s recorded versions of it. He felt the entire movie would fall flat and disappoint audiences if AATW wasn’t inspiringly performed. Faced with a completion deadline for the soundtrack and no useful version of Watchtower from his recording sessions he went to the one source who he felt could satisfy his artistic ear of the song’s performance– Neil.

Burnett’s staff had been listening to covers as they watched the film’s climactic scene. He said that search for the right sound came to an immediate halt when they heard Neil’s cover that appears on Road Rock, Vol. 1: Friends & Relatives. Burnett told the Producers that Neil’s version of the song has the ideal emotional impact he was looking for.

Road Rock, Vol. 1: Friends & Relatives
by Neil Young

He said the recording from Red Rocks Amphitheater in a driving rain and thunderstorm “captures the song’s narrative and emotional elements. It has the perfect balance and tone between vocal and instrumental performances so why not use this version”, he said.

The Friends and Relatives Band with Neil, Ben Keith, Spooner Oldham, Donald “Duck” Dunn, Jim Keltner, Astrid Young, Pegi Young and guest vocalist Chrissie Hynde capture the entire essence of the song Burnett said. “Chrissie Hynde’s vocal was the perfect sound dueting with Neil on Old Black”. Burnett said he was awe struck by her clarion voice piercing through the sonic atmosphere the band created, bringing a female perspective to what is a male dominated movie. Old Black’s thundering earthly elemental sound feedback and crunch expressed and further heightened the emotion and the chaos of the movie’s climactic scene.

“That’s what you’re looking for when you score a movie. A musical performance that has the same emotional impact as the visual and narrative components of the film,” Burnett said. T-Bone continued, “I always felt that Dylan sang the song the best, his recording focuses on the lyrics to tell the story. Hendrix’s instrumental performance has no peer but over shadows the message of the lyrics. Then you have Neil Young.

Personally, Neil and the band's performance on that night is my all time favorite."

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Thanks to TW Tour Manager Hounds That Howl for separating the wheat from the chaff!

ps - Happy ARC Day!

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