Memories of Old Princeton Landing: All In A Dream, Neil Young & Crazy Horse Play In A Small Bar in Coastal California - 1996

Old Princeton Landing, Princeton-by-the-Sea, Half Moon Bay, California - July 2019
photo by Aer "H2OFace"

Last week, we featured a Comment of the Moment on the legendary Neil Young & Crazy Horse gigs at the Old Princeton Landing bar by Joseph.

The posting inspired many memories of the those gigs which seemed to be all in a fevered dream -- full on Neil Young & Crazy Horse "stealth concerts" in a tiny dive bar with barely 150+ squeezing in. Reports were that more folks were outside the bar than inside while the band played.

Here's a look at Old Princeton Landing, Princeton-by-the-Sea, Half Moon Bay, California from July 2019 by Aer "H2OFace".

Leaving Greendale Sign

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - OPL, 1996

Draft of Lyrics for "Sun Green"

Thanks so much for sharing Aer "H2OFace"!

Neil and Ralph's set-ups on the other side of the stage. The red box in the foreground is Neil's effects gizmo - 1996
(pic: Richie | CA)

"The Echos" (NYCH) OPL Stealth Dates - 1996

Rusties Lineup for Wristbands - 1996
Don and Jan Leary and Ken Schick snag the head of the queue for tickets
(pic: Richie | CA)

Some more OPL memories and reviews:

Old Princeton Landing, Half Moon Bay, CA Concert Review - June 6, 1996

Old Princeton Landing, Half Moon Bay, CA Concert Review - March 22, 1996

Old Princeton Landing, Half Moon Bay, CA Concert Review - March 21, 1996

REVIEW: 1996-05-09
The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, California, w/ The Echos
Santa Cruz Sentinel via Sugar Mtn

So where exactly is Old Princeton Landing, Princeton-by-the-Sea, Half Moon Bay, California?

Old Princeton Landing, Princeton-by-the-Sea, Half Moon Bay, California
via Cardboard Analogue

GREENDALE 2020 HINDSIGHT by James Mazzeo

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! Incidentally, 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.

Also, see more OPL concert reviews @ NYAS Broken Arrow #63 | May, 1996:

NYAS Broken Arrow #63 | May, 1996
Cover Photo - OPL 1996 By Teddy Triolo

"This is Greendale" Brochure
Tomorrow's Town - Today (1948)

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TONIGHT: Fireside Sessions | Neil Young Archives

UPDATE:

"Sugar Mountain"
via Fireside Sessions | Neil Young Archives

Setlist: (Thanks H2OFace)

Sugar Mountain (outside)
Vampire Blues
~~a message from the sponsor - water~~
Love Art Blues
Tell Me Why
Razor Love
Little Wing

"Vampire Blues"

Fireside Sessions | Neil Young Archives

Neil Young has announced a "Fireside Sessions" broadcast tonight, Thursday, March 19 per Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives.

Neil writes that: "Daryl was up all night putting together our fireside session for you."

Program should run about 30 minutes.

More on Neil Young Announces "Fireside Sessions" | NYA.

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World Premiere: "Leave The Driving" - RETURN TO GREENDALE by Neil Young & Crazy Horse | NYA

"Are Protesters Terrorists?"
Grandpa (Larry Cragg) & Grandma (Twink Brewer)
Scene from RETURN TO GREENDALE by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
via "Return To Greendale" World Premiere | NYA

"Leave The Driving" (Chapter #4) from "Return To Greendale" will have its World Premiere in Hearse Theater | NYA today, Thursday, March 19.

"Leave The Driving"

RETURN TO GREENDALE @ Balboa Theater, San Francisco, CA - Jan 28, 2020

A premiere screening of the film RETURN TO GREENDALE by Neil Young & Crazy Horse was held at Balboa Theater in San Francisco, CA on Jan 28, 2020, where much of the cast and crew attended, as we reported.

GREENDALE 2020 HINDSIGHT by James Mazzeo

In January, a preview of the upcoming concert film of the Greendale Tour by Neil Young & Crazy Horse was featured on Goin' To Greendale | BENTLEY’S BANDSTAND | NYA.

Goin' To Greendale | BENTLEY’S BANDSTAND | NYA

Music industry veteran Bill Bentley writes about his Greendale experience and seeing the film of the 2003 Toronto concert: ‘And that, dear listeners, is when the bells start ringing, the lights start flashing and the thrillometer heats up all the way to the top of the tube.'

Sun Green (Sara White) and Grandpa (Ben Keith)

"Greendale" on Neil Young Archives in the Hearse Theater

Neil Young calls "Greendale" on Times-Contrarian | NYA "one of the biggest highlights of my filming life".

Neil Young Filming Greendale Actors Grandpa & Jed

But back in 2003, "Greendale" was one of the most controversial and divisive albums and concert tours of Neil Young's career. The importance of "Greendale" can not be understated - either in terms of Neil Young's body of work, nor its impact on his fan base. This is how we memorialized "Greendale" on Thrasher's Wheat Home Page in June 2003:

With the arrival of Greendale in 2003 -- for us -- Greendale was like a sledgehammer to the anvil of truth and awakened this blog from it's post-9/11 dormancy. Because when Neil Young Sings Truth To Power, The World Listens.

So let that soak in for a moment.

This website was launched in 1996 -- about 24 years ago. It sort of languished with periodic updates until 2003. Then, with the theme of the "Greendale" songs coming into focus, we here were inspired to begin daily blog updates. At the time we said we would update the blog daily until the concert tours "Greendale" ended. But the tour kept going and going and going around the world, well into 2004, along with all the ancillary books, videos, films, etc.

So we can safely say that Thrasher's Wheat would not exist today if it had not been for "Greendale". Period. Full stop.



'She was welded to the eagle's beak
sun green leaned into that megaphone
and said, "truth is all i seek" '
"Sun Green" by Neil Young
As many of our long time readers here at Thrasher's Wheat know, we have long since declared: "The Inconvenient Truth of Greendale".

Mainly this observation centered on the album's environmental call to action and it's plea to respect Mother Nature and all of her creations. But environmentalism is but just one of the many themes of Neil Young's 2003 album Greendale, which we once boldly declared "the most important album of 2003, the musical equivalent of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring".


Greendale Graphic Novel
By Joshua Dysart/Cliff Chiang
The inconvenient truth of Neil Young's Greendale is that he was right -- and his message is even more relevant today than upon Greendale's original release.


Sun Green Was Right
The Greendale Prophecies

Sun Green (Sarah White, Greendale Film by Neil Young, 2003) + Greta Thunberg (Climate Activist, Born in 2003)
Greta Thunberg and Neil Young's Prophetic Greendale: Sun Green + Julia Butterfly

For some, 2003's Greendale was an incomprehensible disaster. From The Washington Post's critic David Segal on Year 2003 CDs, who labeled Greendale as the year's "most baffling critical swoon", Segal writes: "Neil Young's 'Greendale' is "a droning mess of a concept album inexplicably hailed as ingenious" and "a vanity project gone stupefyingly wrong".

For others though, Greendale was hailed as a groundbreaking concept album similar to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Who's Tommy or Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'.

Greendale Officer Carmichael in the "compelling", "controversial" and "audiences challenging" concert opera "Greendale".

Some critics went as far as saying that Young had broken new ground by creating an entirely unique art form -- the "audio novel". From New York Times article 'Have You Heard the New Neil Young Novel?' by Madison Smartt Bell:

"Mr. Young has always been remarkable for his creative resilience, and this time he really has done something new, rendering into this combination of print and audio a novel that is surprisingly sophisticated and satisfyingly complete."

Greendale @ Radio City Music Hall, New York City, March 18, 2004
Photo by thrashette
The inconvenient truth of Greendale is its uncomfortable confrontation with themes such as the power of mass media and global corporations, loss of personal freedoms and privacy, destruction of the environment, rampant fraud and corruption, an out of balance government and breakdown of the family. All of which we've detailed before here, here, and here.

Essential Greendale Links

Greendale 2004 Concert Reviews

Greendale 2003 Tour Reviews

Greendale Album Reviews

Greendale Lyrics Analysis

Greendale Concert Tour Photos 

Greendale DVD Reviews

Greendale Film Reviews

Making of Greendale

Greendale Interviews

Greendale Commentary

Greendale Controversy

Greendale Challenging Audiences

Greendale Poll

Comments on Greendale Guestbook

"Everything You're Looking For" - Bandit

LEAVING GREENDALE
POP. 25,810

Neil Young News: Premiere; RETURN TO GREENDALE by Neil Young & Crazy Horse @ Balboa Theater, San Francisco, CA - Jan 28, 2020
See https://t.co/hTt0IDeLud
---#CrazyHorse4HOF @NeilYoungNYA @CrazyHorse4HoF pic.twitter.com/UdjixWOKSy

— ThrashersWheat (@ThrashersWheat) February 2, 2020

Greta, Julia Butterfly & Sun Green
Neil Young's Prophetic Greendale: Sun Green + Julia Butterfly
See https://t.co/7iH6U4aIMC
"Be a goddess in the planet wars" #BeTheRain @NeilYoungNYA @CrazyHorse4HOF @dhlovelife pic.twitter.com/g6qv5TFPoN

— ThrashersWheat (@ThrashersWheat) February 10, 2020

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Comment of the Moment: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Old Princeton Landing - 1996

Old Princeton Landing, Half Moon Bay, California
Image via Cardboard Analogue

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...

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

Thanks for memories 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:

Old Princeton Landing, Half Moon Bay, CA Concert Review - June 6, 1996

Old Princeton Landing, Half Moon Bay, CA Concert Review - March 22, 1996

Old Princeton Landing, Half Moon Bay, CA Concert Review - March 21, 1996

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.

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NOW PLAYING: "Shut it Down" Video by Neil Young & Crazy Horse | NYA

"Shut it Down" - MOUNTAINTOP
Hearse Theater on NYA

As noted over this past weekend here, on Tuesday, March 17, the "Shut it Down" video will screen in Hearse Theater on NYA.

The video, directed by Bernard Shakey and dhlovelife, is from documentary film MOUNTAINTOP of the recording sessions at Studio in the Clouds for the album Colorado with Crazy Horse.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

So, as we previously blogged, those prophecies by Neil Young just keep piling up.

The Neil Young Song of the Moment on TW last week was the prescient and ahead of its time "Shut it Down" from the album Colorado released in November 2019. (Thanks John Q. !)

"Shut it Down": Neil Young Archives

"(Have to shut the whole system down)
That’s the only way we can all be free
(Have to shut the whole system down)
Start again and build it for eternity

***When I look at the future I see hope for you and me***
(Have to shut the whole system down)
Working, working for eternity, working now, working now
Have to shut the whole system down, working now"

The song was actually written about one year ago while Neil Young recorded the album album Colorado and made the documentary film MOUNTAINTOP of the recording sessions in April 2019.

NYCH
Billy, Neil, Nils, & Ralph - April 2019

via Neil Young Archives | Times Contrarian

photo: dhlovelife

In the meantime, "Shut it Down" has rocketed up the Charts on Cashbox to #13.

"Shut it Down" @ #13 - Cashbox

Some ask, why bother with the prophecies of Neil Young?

Shut it Down
Climate Rally - 2019

Well, fair question, we suppose and it seems kind of obvious. But -- for those who just love to bash all things Neil, all the time -- here's why knowing the future is helpful today.

(Really? Do we really need to spell this out?)

Why not just check out the Greendale Prophecies or Neil Young's time traveling into future and back with messages in his songs. so pay attention, now, this time, please?


Sun Green Was Right
The Greendale Prophecies

Sun Green (Sarah White, Greendale Film by Neil Young, 2003) + Greta Thunberg (Climate Activist, Born in 2003)
Greta Thunberg and Neil Young's Prophetic Greendale: Sun Green + Julia Butterfly

More on album Colorado , film MOUNTAINTOP and song "Shut it Down" by Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

Neil Young News: Film Review of the Moment: MOUNTAINTOP by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
See https://t.co/jqb2MTg7Ee
PHOTO: Neil Young & Crazy Horse in the Studio
(Frame via film Mountaintop)
---@NeilYoungNYA @CrazyHorse4HoF @nilslofgren #CrazyHorse4HOF pic.twitter.com/PwrGIBNyAs

— ThrashersWheat (@ThrashersWheat) January 15, 2020

Also, see:

• FIRST IMPRESSIONS: 'Colorado' by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
• MEGA-REVIEW: COLORADO by Neil Young & Crazy Horse | Alan's Album Archives
• META-REVIEW: COLORADO by Neil Young & Crazy Horse

COLORADO by Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Release Date: October 25, 2019 - Pre-order now

(Please shop locally & independently. But if you can't, we appreciate your supporting Thrasher's Wheat by clicking this link. Thank you!!!)
#CrazyHorse4HoF

In the meantime, Keep Calm and Keep on Rockin'!

Keep Calm and Keep on Rockin'!

ps - now can you feel that #BigShift happening?!

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Neil Young Announces "Fireside Sessions" | NYA

Fireside Sessions: Neil Young Archives

Neil Young has announced a series of "Fireside Sessions" will be streaming on Neil Young Archives.

Performing in the Rocky Mountains while his wife Daryl Hannah films, Neil writes: "It will be a real homework - a few songs, a little time together ."

Look for details ... coming soon. July?! :)

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