10 Camera Edit w/ HQAudio: Susan Tedeschi, Dave Matthews Band Cover Neil Young’s ‘Cortez the Killer’

Last week, we posted a video of Dave Matthews Band with Susan Tedeschi covered Neil Young’s "Cortez The Killer" in Jacksonville, Florida on May 1, 2019.

Multi-cam video featuring footage from 10 different concert-goers has been combined with high-quality audio by ChesterCopperpot5

Susan Tedeschi & Dave Matthews
Jacksonville, Florida - May 1, 2019
Photo by @JeffCoffin via Instagram

Neil Trivia du jour... “Cortez The Killer”, was banned in Spain because it offended General Franco’s regime. In Spain, Hernando Cortez (or Hernán Cortés) is considered a national hero as the conquistador who conquered Mexico's Aztec Empire for Spain.

So what's up with the song "Cortez The Killer"? Well, the time shifting from past, present and future is pretty mind-bending, despite what some historical purists might think about the song's accuracy. From the article American Educator - Cultural Literacy Rocks by Matthew Davis, who has some quibbles with Young's lyrical/historical record:

"The romanticizing of the Aztecs begins in the opening lines, when Young claims that all of these native peoples were beautiful and healthy, a condition which has probably never prevailed in any civilization at any time.

Young also glides over the subject of human sacrifice. It is true that the Aztecs "offered life in sacrifice / So that others could go on." They believed that such sacrifices would appease the gods. But the lives they sacrificed were human lives: sacrificial victims were tied to an altar, whereupon their chests were sliced open and their still-beating hearts offered to "the angry gods." By avoiding the fact that the Aztecs killed human beings and emphasizing the unselfish motives behind these sacrifices, Young puts a cheerful face on a terrible practice and presents a one-sided view of the Aztecs.

"Hate was just a legend, / And war was never known," is more of the same kind of romanticizing, all too common today. The residents of pre-Columbian Mexico were well acquainted with hate and war. In fact, the Aztecs stand out in the annals of history as an exceptionally belligerent civilization: In order to keep their altars supplied with a steady diet of sacrificial victims, the Aztec emperors kept up a perpetual war with neighboring peoples.

It would be more accurate to say that "peace was never known."

In an interview in Mojo Magazine in 1995, Neil Young is asked about Cortez The Killer and where he gets his information:

YOUNG:" It was a combination of imagination and knowledge. What Cortez represented to me is the explorer with two sides, one benevolent, the other utterly ruthless I mean, look at Columbus! Everyone now knows he was less than great and he wasn't even there first (laughs). It always makes me question all these other so-called 'icons' (smiles). "

During a show in Manassas, VA on August 13, 1996, Neil said that he'd written Cortez in high school while suffering "Montezuma's Revenge". Incidentally, we attended the Manassas '96 concert & it was awesome. Now that said, he may have just been joking around when he made the comment.

Hence the album title 'Zuma, we suppose.

And Crazy Horse's Frank "Poncho" Sampedro discussed the situation surrounding the "missing verse" of Cortez in an interview with Rolling Stone by Andy Greene:

RS: The story goes that when you guys cut "Cortez the Killer," the board went down and you lost the entire last verse. Is that true?

Frank "Poncho" Sampedro: Yeah. True. Check it out.

What David Briggs did …We didn't know the power went out. In the room we were playing we had power, but where he was recording, in the control room, they lost power. When they got power back up and running, David ran the tape back and listened to right where he lost us and kept listening to us playing, and then he punched and started the tape back in right in time with where we where. [Laughs]

So that verse is gone.

So will the missing verse of "Cortez the Killer" ever be re-stored? Or has it been lost forever to the ages? [Cries]

And Young's reaction to hearing the loss of the recorded verse? "I never liked that verse anyway", and it has never been performed live (source).

More on Neil Young Lyrics Analysis: "Cortez The Killer".


Also, see Video of the Moment: "Cortez, The Killer" - Neil Young & Crazy Horse @ Warsteiner Hockeypark, Mönchengladbach, Germany - 2014 and "Cortez The Killer" Concert Video - Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Casa de Campo, Madrid, 25/4/87.

Or maybe -- perhaps -- the Longest Version of "Cortez the Killer" Ever @ 22 minutes?!

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2019 - Year of The Nelsons: Willie, Lukas & Micah

Willie Nelson
Rolling Stone Magazine - May 2019 ("The WEED Issue")

Over the past few days, a few items crossed our paths that made us think that 2019 is Year of The Nelsons.

1st, Willie Nelson is on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

"A Star Is Rising" - Lukas Nelson
Southwest Airlines Magazine - April 2019

2nd, Lukas Nelson is on the cover of the latest issue of Southwest Airlines magazine.

Micah Nelson Gets Married
Particle Kid | Instagram

3rd, Micah Nelson gets married, per his Particle Kid | Instagram.

So, if 2019 is the Year of The Nelsons, then 2019 will be a good year.

Willie Nelson and The Boys (Lukas & Micah) - Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain (Official Video)

Lukas, Willie & Micah
Global Green USA's 10th Annual Pre-Oscar Party
Avalon, Hollywood, CA..February 20, 2013

Willie for a Nobel!

Willie Nelson for Nobel Peace Prize
for Farm Aid and his work on
alternative fuels, and world peace initiatives.
(Sign the petition now)

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NYA CURATED PLAYLIST: "Walk On" by Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real

via WALK ON WITH LUKAS NELSON & PROMISE OF THE REAL : NEW CURATED PLAYLIST | NYA

The good times keep rolling -- and walking -- on Neil Young Archives with the latest curated playlist added by Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real.

The newest curated playlist from Promise of the Real's band members Lukas Nelson, Anthony LoGerfo, Corey McCormick, Logan Metz, and Tato Melgar.

Thanks guys. Great cuts. Keep walking on and keeping it REAL!

Also, see New Curated Playlist on Neil Young Archives by PARTICLE KID aka Micah Nelson and “Stumblin’ with Neil": Kurt Vile's Curated Neil Young Archives Playlist #1 .

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Remembering Rusties 2019: "One of These Days"

Here's a tribute to Neil Young fans who have moved on to the Great TV Sky by our long time friend HarryO -- rustie extraordinaire.

In September 2000, I joined The Rust List, a list-serv dedicated to discussing the music of Neil Young. Members refer to themselves as Rusties. From 2001-2016 I attended the Bridge School Benefit Concerts in California; the Bridge School was founded by Pegi and Neil Young to educate children with cerebral palsy and other speech and physical impairments. The Rusties created a multi-day gathering around the BSB Concert called the International Rust Festival (IRF). It was because of IRF that I started to learn to play the guitar.

Over nearly two decades now, I have formed some of the deepest friendships of my life with Rusties, and they are a kind of extended family to me. I have traveled around the USA, to Canada and across Europe to visit them and to attend concerts together. Over the next two weeks, many Rusties will be touring the Pacific Northwest while Neil is playing here. We are having a party in Seattle before the shows here, which will be the closest thing to IRF since the Bridge School shows concluded.

This tour and the recent passing of our dear friend Lauri Lieber prompted me to update the remembrance montage I created in 2017, which was inspired by the annual Bridge School video showing photos of the students, educators and administrators of the school. Most of the people in this video were friends of mine, but some I never met... I asked the Rusties to send me photos of our members who are no longer with us, and in the process I heard touching and sometimes funny stories about the folks I never knew. I am proud to be a member of this community, and grateful to Neil Young for the fact that I have dear friends all over the world.

"One of these days I'm gonna sit down and write a long letter to all the good friends I've known..." - Neil Young

Thanks HarryO! You speak for so many with your words, thoughts and images. Many thanks for taking the time to assemble and share.

Keep the candle burning and never stop rockin'.

♫ One of These Days ♫
Remembering our rustie brothers and sisters...
With peace in our hearts and love in mind ♥

Carol Snyder
Cor van der Giessen
Chuck Doering Jr.
David Magda
Eileen Fischer
Frank Stewart
Gaetanne Nadon
Gene Harrold
Gitty Her
Jack Clark
Jane "Starz" Allen
Jim Dickie
Jim Haley
Jim Sweeney
Johnny Marr
Kathy Popple
Lauri Lieber
Les Green
Mike Glück
Pat Graham
Pat Skinner
Pegi Young
Randall Garrison
Rick Ahlgren
Steve Walls
Tom Riggs

... and more ...

Rustie Lauri Lieber: 1964 - 2019
("Over & Over" w/ Rustie of the Month Crown)

(thanks HtH for h/t)

too late, too soon. they sleep with angels...

may they rust in peace (r.i.p.)

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"EARTH: What we were thinking. . . ": Album Of The Week | Neil Young Archives

EARTH : What we were thinking. . .
Album Of The Week | Neil Young Archives

The Album Of The Week on Neil Young Archives is EARTH, with Promise of the Real, released in 2016.

On the NYA post, Neil writes about his "thinking" behind the album and concludes with the following:

via NYA

Well, that about sums up a lot about Neil. A lot about the REAL. And -- frankly -- a lot about us here at TW.

We've written about the endemic corruption here on TW for decades -- like Neil -- and often echoing his sentiments. We'll keep banging away here at TW -- as will Neil + the REAL -- until we no longer can.

More on ALBUM: "Earth" by Neil Young & Promise Of The Real.

REVIEWS: EARTH by Neil Young + Promise of the Real

Also, see The Humanity of Neil Young.

Neil Young
2014-07-12, Hyde Park, London, England
Photo Paolo Brillo |Facebook
(Click photo to enlarge)

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Elvis Costello Covers Neil Young's "The Losing End" | MusiCares 2010

In 2010, MusiCares honored Neil Young as Person of the Year with a wide roster of artists, including Elvis Costello, Dave Matthews, Wilco, and Lady Antebellum paying tribute to the music legend. Young was honored for his body of work, as well as his philanthropic efforts over the years.

Here's Elvis Costello cover of "The Losing End".

Elvis Costello will open for Neil Young in Vancouver at the upcoming solo show at Queen Elizabeth Theatre on May 14 & 15.


"The Losing End" - Elvis Costello
Neil Young: MusiCares Person Of The Year - 2010
January 29, 2010 in Los Angeles, California
The Musicares Neil Young Tribute BluRay/DVD is available to support musicians in need of financial and medical assistance. There is no better cause.


MusicCares Tribute to Neil Young [Blu-ray]
(Click to Zoom Cover)
Also, see Elvis Costello plays at Vancouver Olympics Tribute to Neil Young.

Also, a career retrospective ELVIS COSTELLO : Red Shoes and All | NYA by Bill Bentley.

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LIVESTREAM TEST TONIGHT: 34+ Minute "Like A Hurricane" - 7/23/2013 | NYA

LIKE A HURRICANE (7/23/13) SCREENING : ATTENTION NYA SUBSCRIBERS!!
via Neil Young Archives

A live stream test today Monday, May 6th at 4 p.m. Pacific Time in The Hearse Theater per Neil Young Archives.

The 34+ minute version of "Like A Hurricane" at the Paleo Festival, Nyon, Switzerland on July 23, 2013 takes places during a torrential thunderstorm... and the band plays on. And on. And on.

"Like A Hurricane"
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Paleo Festival, Nyon, Switzerland on July 23, 2013
(Click photo to enlarge)

There are quite a few epic songs in Neil Young's vast catalog.

But what makes "Like A Hurricane" often especially spectacular when played is not what happens just on stage but all around it simultaneously. As we have seen over the years, the song's performance sometimes seems to literally alter the weather to create the ultimate alternate state of reality transporting the audience to far away dimensions.

Such is the case at the Paleo Festival, Nyon, Switzerland on July 23, 2013. The Concert Review of the Moment is from the Neil Young & Crazy Horse concert by wolle:

July 24th nearly 6 o clock in the morning..comin back home by car after a long ride 430km from western switzerland, all clothes , all is wet, wet as can be after all that....

First all of it started in a very good mood, nice weather and a beautiful organized paleo festival , it was my first time there and i was overwhelmed by the people there, all continents were there , african musicians, asian people, food and art and music from all over the world.

The concert of neil young and the horse began at night at 23.00 pm and it started with an epic long version of love and only love, got over to powderfinger with 3 solo parts after another, moved over to the psychedelic pill and a tremendous burning thundering walk like a giant over to hole in the sky and then the acoustic part began with heart of gold. After that song, neil was not comfortable with the hank williams D28 , was not in tune ...the new larry who looks like andy warhol had to come out and tune hanks guitar on stage while neil was standing there grinning.

At blowin in the wind it happened a lyrics mistake and at comes a time he had a wrong chord but didn't matter^^ then he started with singer without a song and no woman with a guitar bag was seen on stage the first time he played that xD but as he started playin that a cold wind came around the scene and thunderbolts and then it began slightly to rain...neil saw that and played it til the end , stood up from the piano and then the wind came mighty and blew his black hat from his head away! Neil was surprised , saw that rain also from the roof comin down on stage and the flashings at heaven . He ordered the organ to get it down on stage and they began like a hurricane to play!

The thunderstorm now was more and more heavy and like the monsoon at australia the storm blew us nearly away we got wet all around and neil and the horse played the strongest, most brutal but also melodic and most emotional hurricane ever heard at concert!!! he sang nearly 6 verses of hurricane he played solo 100 times over hurricane, at the end of the song he started again from the beginning and all culminates into an extended excessive sound and thunder , that was so incredible to the whole scene all around !

The audience was so great and cheered to the boys on stage tremendously so they played on and on. Neil saw the wet audience gave hurricane a thunder ending and moved immediately over to rockin in the free world and the water of the monsoon came rollin down from the hill behind me and right beside me so i stood in a lake!

We cheered the horse and held the line like soldiers at a kamikaze mission and neil and the horse appreciated that much that they came at the end of rockin to the front of the stage and bowed to us neil prayed to us, after they decided to break down the concert because of the incredible storm and too much rain . I thought while he played hurricane, now it is the right moment to die , have no fear, neil and the horse are staying with you, leading you the way to the nirvana, while the stage bursts and break down on me.

i couldn't imagine such a concert in my hardest dreams and it took place reality! It was a spiritual moment feeling the power of nature the storm and the energy the horse played and filled the earth altogether with that enormous power and thunder . That was really magic! After the concert broke down i try to get to my car walking through rivers that the rain caused and found my car and could get out of that mud , drove many hundred kilometres through thunderstorm through switzerland to germany back in the prairies where all was dry but all things i had were almost wet and i was still alive-

Very, very cool wolle! We've had the privledge of some epic LAH ourselves, but never the total 3D experience. Maybe someday...

"Like A Hurricane"
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Photo by GenevaLunch News
Concert Reviews and more on Paleo Festival, Nyon, Switzerland: Neil Young & Crazy Horse Concert Reviews - July 23, 2013 .

Also, see Hurricane On The Hill - Neil Young & Crazy Horse Blows Audience Away.

"Like A Hurricane"
Neil Young with Crazy Horse
A Day On The Green - Mar 16, 2013
Photo by Gary "Old Man Emu" Cee | Picasa Web Albums
(Click photo to enlarge)

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INTERVIEW: Jim Jarmusch & Neil Young - 1996

Here's an interview with Jim Jarmusch and Neil Young from February 1996.

In the interview clip -- which appears to be from a longer piece from "Neil TV" -- they discuss scoring the 1995 film "Dead Man".

Neil Young Soundtrack - "Dead Man" Directed by Jim Jarmusch

This is also a good time to look a little closer at the creative relationship between filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and Neil Young.


Jim Jarmusch & Neil Young
Jim Jarmusch discussed his masterpiece DEAD MAN starring Johnny Depp in a Q&A during Film Society of Lincoln Center's complete retrospective "Permanent Vacation: The Films of Jim Jarmusch" in 2014. (Thanks Hounds That Howell!)

Be sure to check first ~10:00 minutes of session where Jarmusch discusses recording the film soundtrack with Neil Young.

Jim Jarmusch: "You can not trick Neil Young! Don't even try, trust me. He is way ahead of all of us!"

(More on Jim Jarmusch on Recording Neil Young for 'Dead Man' Film Soundtrack.)

Director Jim Jarmusch's film Dead Man -- with a Neil Young soundtrack -- was considered by critic Greil Marcus in Salon Magazine to be "the best movie of the end of the 20th century." Among reasons that Marcus cites are: "For a film set more than a century ago, an electric guitar, playing a modal melody, surrounded by nothing, sounds older than anything you see on the screen."

In an interview, Jim Jarmusch said of Neil's efforts:

"What he brought to the film lifts it to another level, intertwining the soul of the story with Neil's musically emotional reaction to it - the guy reached down to some deep place inside himself to create such strong music for our film."

Dead Man film clip
Jarmusch's concert film of Neil Young and Crazy Horse from the the 1996 tour has been called: "A concert film-group portrait that captures as well as any other music movie the natural, untethered essence of live rock." (John Anderson, in the LOS ANGELES TIMES).


Yet, the album Year Of The Horse, contains none of the performances that are in the film. Go figure.


From Australia's The Age Newspaper interview with Jim Jarmusch by writer Stephanie Bunbury:

"For "Year of the Horse", his documentary about a Neil Young concert tour, Young himself suggested the project after he had written the music for Dead Man and they had made a video clip for his song Big Time. "Young said: 'Look, I'll pay for it. Just shoot some stuff and see if you like it, and we'll continue if you do, and if you don't, I'll just put it on a shelf somewhere.' How could I refuse that? And it was a really great experience, because there was no road map at all."

With the discussion of Neil having a new tone on the 2010 Le Noise tour and the followup on some of the technical details on his signature style made us consider one his most distinctive and evocative sonic creations for the 1995 film Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch.

From Now Magazine interview with Jim Jarmusch by INGRID RANDOJA (DECEMBER 18-24, 1997) on Year Of The Horse:

"Neil's incredible," recalls Jarmusch.

We showed him the Like A Hurricane number, which right in the middle of the song cuts from him now to him 20 years ago.

"Neil jumps out of his seat. I thought, 'He's going to say something about how different he looks.' Instead, he says, 'Look at Old Black!' which is the name of his guitar. 'She looks so new and shiny! She was so young back then.'

"We were laughing so hard, but he was deadly serious. He wasn't self-conscious about his own image changing, just 'Look at Old Black. I haven't taken good care of her.'"

But Jarmusch gets serious when he says, "If Neil were a native American he would be a 'contrary' -- a medicine man. He'd have to walk backwards, because everything Neil does is contrary to what is natural.

"Neil is a perfectionist who embraces imperfection. Everything he does is like that, and the more you get to know him, the more you see it in him.

"Jesus, he doesn't even dress like a rock star. He dresses like a garbage man. He doesn't care."

 Jim Jarmusch interview on Dead Man soundtrack An interview with Jim Jarmusch and Neil's Producer L.A. Johnson in Austin Chronicle | 11-10-97 by Marjorie Baumgarten:

Austin Chronicle: What did you see as your greatest challenge in making this movie?

Jim Jarmusch : No, ah, there wasn't a challenge. You know it was really fun and Larry (L.A. Johnson) was so amazingly organized. I wish my feature films could have the same kind of organization because Neil's people, his road people, man we should make a movie just about them. Cause his road crew are like pirates, or a biker gang, or something. Very organized. And they were great.

And then Larry, whatever we needed was suddenly there. Like Neil asked us to go on the road and in three days -- I was in New York, Larry lives in L.A. -- he had all the equipment together, all the film material, everything was on the way. It was amazing. I guess the challenge to it came after collecting the material and sitting down and being open enough so that the material told us -- me and Jay Rabinowitz, the editor -- what the film wanted to be. You know, to just not try to bludgeon it into any form at all, just sort of in a Zen-like way say, "Okay, what do you want us to do with you now?"

That was like the most challenging thing. It was a fun film to make.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse interview w/ Jim Jarmusch: Year of the Horse 1996 Also, see:

• Dead Man Film Reviews
• Dead Man on YouTube: More on Neil's Tone
• Year of The Horse Film
• trailer for the film "Year of The Horse"
• Jim Jarmusch interview on directing Neil Young and Crazy Horse in a concert film
• Jim Jarmusch & Neil Young
• Jim Jarmusch: "I thought Neil (Young) might burn psychic rays through my skull..."
• Bible Study with Neil Young & Jim Jarmusch
• Neil Young Films

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