Neil Young's "Year of the Horse" Streaming This Weekend | NYA + Message From Neil

Neil Young and Crazy Horse

The Neil Young film "Year of the Horse" (1997), directed by Jim Jarmusch, is streaming this weekend in Hearse Theater on NYA.

Meanwhile, Neil Young & Crazy Horse 2020 Tour remains on hold. Here's the latest "Message From Neil" on tour plans:

Message From Neil: Uncertain Times

"We are looking at this uncertain world with our fully booked Crazy Horse Barn Tour, ready to announce the first stage.

The last thing we want is to put people at risk, especially our older audience. Nobody wants to get sick in this pandemic.

So we wait together and see how it goes on, how long it will take, and how many people and animals on our planet will be affected."

And so we wait and watch. Watch "Year of the Horse", for example. The film features David Briggs, along with Neil's father Scott Young.

 Scott Young
(Writer, Neil's Dad)

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).

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."

Jim Jarmusch & Neil Young
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."

Ralph Molina Discussing Danny Whitten

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.

Jim Jarmusch & Neil Young
Also, see:

• Dead Man Film Reviews
• Dead Man on YouTube: More on Neil's Tone
• Year of The Horse Film

Billy, Poncho and Neil 
At a 7/11 store before gig @ Old Princeton Landing in Princeton - Half Moon Bay, CA

View this post on Instagram

Album of the Week: Year of the Horse released 6-17-1997 The soundtrack for a movie made about Crazy Horse by the great filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, the film features David Briggs, my dad Scott Young, and countless other characters, The horse rocks through the whole movie! I love my dad in this one. ny #NeilYoung #NeilYoungArchives #YearoftheHorse #NYCH #CrazyHorse

A post shared by Neil Young Archives (@neilyoungarchives) on Mar 4, 2020 at 11:56am PST

Soundtrack songs for YOTH: "Fuckin' Up", "Slip Away", "Barstool Blues", "Stupid Girl", "Big Time", "Tonight's the Night", "Sedan Delivery", "My Girl", "Like a Hurricane" ,"Music Arcade"

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

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 REVIEWS: "Year of the Horse"

A concert film-group portrait that captures as well as any other music movie the natural, untethered essence of live rock." -- John Anderson, LOS ANGELES TIMES 

The concert film "Year of The Horse" from the 1996 tour, directed by Jim Jarmusch, is certainly a worthy successor to the classic "Rust Never Sleeps" with the addition of interviews and behind the scenes footage along with the raging, stomping, raw Crazy Horse style. Featuring a several epic jams including "Slip Away" and "Big Time" which clock in over 15 minutes each, the live material reveals the magic nature of what happens onstage in the "huddle".

A Tale of 4 Guys Who Like To Rock

In an interview with Crazy Horse and Neil Young: 

Neil Young: I love that movie and I think it is a perfect add-on for the "Year of The Horse" record. You can really feel the personal view of a film maker, and above all the movie is about the band. It's more than a simple story, it's an impression, a succession of feelings. I had the idea of doing this movie - I like this kind of stuff and I like to have a camera with me, but Jim made it possible. 

Poncho: I always thought that that the story of Crazy Horse was less interesting than his music. It's certainly the more successful movie on Neil Young and Crazy Horse, but for me, this film is just touching on this topic. With all due respect to Jim and his work, I think that the first song in the movie shows more than what you can see in the following hour. So I liked this short movie, but I wouldn't like people to stick to this cinematographic view. It happened so many things in that band, that no one, as a movie maker, will be able to relate."

In an interview with Crazy Horse's Manuel Francisco (Poncho) Sampedro:

"So what we've got," he says, aiming his RayBans right at the camera and folding a couple of massive forearms over his Jimi Hendrix T-shirt, "is some artsy-fartsy New York director gonna ask a bunch of stupid questions and pretend like you're explaining what's been a 30-year relationship."

Year of The Horse Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:

"This is quite possibly the worst documentary I have ever had the displeasure of watching on the big screen."
-- James Berardinelli, REELVIEWS

From Roger Ebert's I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie on Year of the Horse:

" 'Year of the Horse' plays like This is Spinal Tap made from antimatter. Both films are about aging rockers, but Year of the Horse removes the humour and energy, portraying Neil Young and Crazy Horse as the survivors of a death march. There are times indeed, when Young, his hair plastred flat against his face with sweat, his eyes haunted beneath a glowering brow, looks like a candidate for a mad slasher role."

"Year of The Horse" - Directed by Jim Jarmusch, Film Review, Ottawa Citizen, February 18, 1998

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Neil Young & Crazy Horse - 2014

 

Neil Young & Crazy Horse: "3rd Best Garage Band in the World" ~~Bill Graham - The Cow Palace, Daly City, California, Nov. 21, 1986 

#CrazyHorse4HOF

Bill Graham said that Crazy Horse is "the 3rd Best Garage Band in the World", during the intermission of the final stop of Neil Young & Crazy Horse's 1986 Rusted Out Garage tour. Bill Graham also once called CSN&Y: "America's Beatles".

 

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - 2012

Jack Nitzsche , Neil Young's producer/arranger on the masterpiece "Broken Arrow", has stated that "Crazy Horse was the American equivalent of The Rolling Stones." IOHO, Crazy Horse is to Neil Young what The Band was to Bob Dylan. As perfect a complement as tequila and salt. In tribute to Crazy Horse, the "3rd Best Garage Band in the World", here's a look back at some highlights:

• EXCLUSIVE: Crazy Horse Drummer Ralph Molina Interview
• Year of the Horse Film Review and Interviews on the making with Crazy Horse, Neil and Director Jim Jarmusch
• Year of the Horse - Interview in France's Les Inrockuptibles, July 1997
• Year of the Horse - Film Review
• Crazy Horse Biography - Reprise Records, 1997
• Frank Sampedro Interview - Torhout Festival, 1996
• Poncho Interview - Halifax Daily News, 11/1/96
• Interview: Crazy Horse and Neil Young Maintain Special Relationship, by Barry Gutman, Music Wire, ~9/96
• Billy Talbot Interview - Rip it Up, ~8/96  
• Crazy Horse Album Reviews- by Robert Christgau
• Years of the Horse

 

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - 2019

Rusties @ "Year of the Horse" Film
Key Theater, Georgetown, DC - 1997
Photo by thrashette

So between some sort of cosmically alchemical blend of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones via "the 3rd Best Garage Band in the World", 2020 looks to promise a 'Neil Young & Crazy Horse Barn Tour'?!

 

Frame via "This Town" Music Video | NYA

More on Crazy Horse -- whom Bill Graham once called "the 3rd Best Garage Band in the World". And how about Crazy Horse being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame someday soon?

#DontSpookTheHorse

RUSTED OUT GARAGE BARN TOUR 2020
#MoreBarn
(More on More Barn! page. Thanks MB Brad!)

 

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

Also, see Remembering Danny Whitten: 1943 - 1972.


Danny Ray Whitten: 1943 - 1972
(via Danny Whitten - His Life - His Music)

"You only get one musician in your life who you really connect with, and for me, that musician was Danny Whitten."
~~Neil Young (From Danny's Friends)

Neil Young's "Year of the Horse" Streaming This Weekend on NYA: "A Tale of 4 Guys Who Like To Rock"
See https://t.co/oVrViKutYJ
---@NeilYoungNYA #NeilYoung @CrazyHorse4HoF
#CrazyHorse4HOF #DontSpookTheHorse #MoreBarn pic.twitter.com/Ep0iheAmZo

— ThrashersWheat (@ThrashersWheat) March 8, 2020

Also, see Crazy Horse: A Noble American History.


"His ferocity of spirit remains a guiding light for all who seek lives of defiance." Crazy Horse: A Noble American History
from album art for Americana by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Also, see "In The Spirit of Crazy Horse" | National Geographic Magazine - August 2012.


"In The Spirit of Crazy Horse"
National Geographic Magazine - August 2012

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