Comment of the Moment: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Old Princeton Landing - 1996
The Comment of the Moment is the legendary Neil Young & Crazy Horse gigs at the Old Princeton Landing in Half Moon Bay, California in 1996 by Joseph:
greetings and salutations...Thanks for memories Joseph!
i have decided to approach this subject via this site given yr obvious propensities. i have been a fan for a while, i went on tour with neil and crazy horse back in 1970, i think but it could have been 1971? but anyway...i have been listening to a particular show over and over...which nobody else i know is even aware of.
the date is 4/14/96.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yup it's an opl....old princeton landing show...and to me it seems to warrant some kind of collective acknowledgement for it's heavy magical content....which is yet forthcoming.
this is without the shadow of a doubt, to my ears anyway (and i'm a musician now for over half a century...): the absolute best example of what neil and crazy horse could deliver live. i know there are other prime examples, needless to say, but why is it that nobody has even heard this show for the most part, and why do i feel so compelled to even bother you with this crazy notion? that it is inexorably the best recorded neil and crazy horse live? yup, in a hole -in-the -wall bar with 200 person capacity...
therefore it should be italicized so all you other folks might perchance hear it also. maybe you already know but i would love to hear whether it is even on yr radar. at that time, i was embroiled in acupuncture school in santa cruz, and my friends told me that these shows were about to commence, but i was in wicked exam mode and couldn't rationalize driving up to the venue on a night before the giant mf exams. i did manage to see the catalyst show in may which was great but that venue is so damn grotto-like...so years later i found these shows had been recorded well, and this show, the one with the very long pocahontas, and the very long cortez....has been emblazoned on my brain.... .....so my question to you.... is have you heard this show from start to finish?
my email is jrigan@hotmail.com
thanks very much for yr site, and yr patience.....
yrs, joseph
Neil and Ralph's set-ups on the other side of the stage. The red box in the foreground is Neil's effects gizmo
(pic: Richie | CA).
Some more OPL memories and reviews:
Also, see definitive Cardboard Analogue, which details the performances of Neil Young and Crazy Horse at the Old Princeton Landing bar near Half Moon Bay in Northern California during March-June 1996. (Thanks Ciaran for keeping the dream alive! Incddentally, we've always found the website name "Cardboard Analogue" very clever. It is a pun on Broken Arrow ranch's "Plywood Analogue" studio. Although, "Cardboard Digital" might be even more clever.)
Liz (note TW 25th Anniv shirt!), Denis, Lee & Mr. W.
Old Princeton Landing - 2016 Bridge Weekend
photo by thrashette
More @ Shirt of the Moment: Old Princeton Landing - 2016 Bridge Weekend.
Labels: concert, crazy horse, neil young, review
by thrasher@PermaLink: 3/18/2020 09:34:00 AM
16 comments
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16 Comments:
Collected as many of the OPL shows as I could on cassette back then and they were a treasure at the time. Cheers to the Schoeps' mic crowd who did so much work for the Rusties!
Half Moon Bay is right down the road from Broken Arrow ranch. I can see Neil waking up in the right mood & doing spur of the moment shows there. I think it makes total sense that those shows could very well be some of the best ever! Wish I had the tape.
The Old Princeton Landing shows are my favorite live shows Neil has done since the 70s. That was a special moment for him, preceding an excellent tour. It would be great to see them released at some point, sooner than later please.
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@ Jim - yeah tapers!
@ Muddy - yes, it was a dream at the time. wish we could've been there. so glad the tapers there out to capture.
@ PLD & akiv1971 - except for the fact that Neil's in Colorado, not CA
" but why is it that nobody has even heard this show for the most part"
To assume, especially on this site, that nobody has ever heard of ALL the OPL shows.... is just folly.....
Just FWIW, Neil indicated in today's Movietone - on how Transformer Man was written about Ben and their trains at the ranch - that he's back in Southern California (not sure if that's Malibu again or not): "Now I am making another train layout for us down south. We are using all the same wood we had on the first layout."
I don't think we're connecting Thrasher. The shows on Half Moon Bay happened when Neil lived at his ranch near Redwood City, CA. What am I missing?
ok sure PLD.
So we thought you were suggesting that neil could go from ranch, play a gig @ OPL and go back home, wake up, repeat. like back in 96.
but we're saying he appears to be in COL so that would make that unfeasible. to play @ OPL and go back home etc
so what are we missing. actually no big deal and we can move on, if you'dlike.
peace
Understood. Thanks Man
cool PLD.
incidentally -- or not -- the film Greendale was shot in the town of Old Princeton Landing, Half Moon Bay.
you can still see those old buildings like the Jail where Jed was held.
NOW PLAYING:
World Premiere: "Leave The Driving" - RETURN TO GREENDALE by Neil Young & Crazy Horse | NYA
http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2020/03/world-premiere-leave-driving-return-to.html
simply extraordinary. we repeat, simply extraordinary.
so glad we made as many Gdale shows back in 2003 & 4 as we could.
and folks were laughing and walking out of those shows back then. clueless chuckleheads.
priceless memories of peak neil
just remember the moral of this story...
and never forget it
Lots of Princetons. The bay is Half Moon Bay (the center of the town of Half Moon Bay is about 4 miles south... kinda on the bottom edge of the bay), but the unincorporated community
were Old Princeton Landing (the club) is located, is Princeton-by-the-Sea, with all the hyphens, located on the northern part of Half Moon Bay.
thanks H2OFace!
So the map on cover of Greendale? Is that the same area?
Doesn't look like it to me, but I really have no idea. I think James Mazzeo did all the art for it..... but I would have to look again.
it kills me that I was in wsanjose at the time and missed these shows. OPL is in Pillar Point Harbor, Princeton by the Sea. The Broken Arrow ranch is like 20miles south just go in from San Gregoria State Beach to the hills youll see. Theres a little general store at San Gregorio that has a small bar and often live daytime music on weekends. Also stop in to Duatres (doo arts) in Pescadero nearby for very good made from scatch seafood and soup and pies. A sharp eye will see it in Greendale and has been there for like 90 years or longer.
https://ia600701.us.archive.org/10/items/NeilYoung1996-04-14OldPrincetonLanding/NeilYoung1996-04-14OldPrincetonLanding.mp3?cnt=0
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