I listened once.
Then I listened again. I felt like you were sitting in a chair across the room from me, playing these twelve songs like you'd just written them. They were so alive and so personal and so strong, and your voice sounded a bit in awe of them yourself. Like maybe you were a bit surprised these were all your creations. Each time another song would start I would get the chills, like I was walking through a new door into a room I'd never been in.
Many of the songs had been on earlier albums and those original versions had always sounded cast in stone--"Ohio," "Cowgirl in the Sand' and others. But now, just you, your guitar and piano, and played them all like they were flowing from your heart for the very first time. You were twenty-five years old that night in Stratford, but the sound of your voice carried an eternal resonance that felt like you had landed on planet Earth carrying a timeless message from another land. It's hard to describe, but you didn't sound like someone on a theatre stage with an instrument or two. This was way beyond that. This music had a cosmic reverberation going on that really did bring in a new different reality. Something was happening.
As I played YOUNG SHAKESPEARE for the third time, I suddenly realized that if I would only be allowed to own one Neil Young album, this would be it.
A preview track and video for "Tell Me Why" from the upcoming "Young Shakespeare" album by Neil Young is now available on NYA.
As noted here in 2020, Neil Young discussed the unreleased album and film titled "Young Shakespeare" from January 1971 at the Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Connecticut as "the earliest known film of any of my performances."
. Thank you!!!)
RELEASE DATE: March 26th with pre-order now for the album and film on LP, CD, DVD, and Deluxe Box Set.
Neil Young Concert Ticket Stub
1971-01-22, Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, Connecticut, USA
via Sugar Mountain
"Young Shakespeare" tracklist:
Tell me why
Old man
The Needle And The Damage Done
Ohio
Cowgirl in the sand
A Man Needs A Maid
Heart of gold
Dance Dance Dance
Helpless
Don't Let It Bring You Down
Down By The River
Sugar Mountain
Neil Young - Tell Me Why (live) - Young Shakespeare (Official Music Video)
More on "Young Shakespeare" album by Neil Young.
Looking forward to hearing the whole thing and up until now my favorite album by Neil was
ReplyDeletethe Rubber Dubber "I'm Happy Ya'll Came Down."
Did anyone ever figure out who Rubber Dubber was since they did Neil, Hendrix and a bunch of other in very HQ?
While Neil is blamed for ticket prices it was Elliott that cut the deal.
$6.50 for a concert ticket in 1971 was outrageous being a full $2 above the normal top price for a ticket of the time. In late 1971 the top ticket for the original Jefferson Airplane in Ann Arbor was $4.50. In 1973 the Rolling Stones top ticket price was $6.50 but that was three years later and it was the "Sticky Fingers" Rolling Stones with Mick Taylor.
Remember sending a check for four Stones tickets and then they said money order only. Sent a money order for four tickets learning 200,000 orders had been rec'd for the one show at Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit with Stevie Wonder opening. My heart sank but then one day I got two envelopes with eight tickets all together and was over the moon, but I digress.
random diversion comment here...but yet maybe not...I just finished blasting 'Opera Star' from Reactor on this beautiful Friday afternoon...just think how Neil went from the Shakespeare performance in 1971 to the Reactor album in 1981...
ReplyDeleteI mean whoa...
Opera Star just freaking ROCKS!!!
YOU WERE BORN TO ROCK
@ Jonathan: I completely agree with Opera Star. I love that whole album actually. An overlooked gem of a record.
ReplyDelete@ Thrashers: Bill Bentley is such a gifted writer. I aspire to be as good someday.
Peace 🙏