Is This The Story of "Cinnamon Girl"? The Story Behind Neil Young's Iconic Song Revisited

Rare Neil Young "Cinnamon Girl" 45 RPM Picture Sleeve
Recorded Live at The Fillmore East, New York City, March 7, 1970

"I wanna live with a cinnamon girl
I could be happy the rest of my life
With a cinnamon girl"

 

Here is a look back at one of the most heavily trafficked TW posts in our history and the ensuing controversy. 

 

TW Traffic History:

So Who Was The "Cinnamon Girl"? The Story Behind The Song by Neil Young  

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Quickly, back in  2010 -- while we were still on Facebook -- we were contacted by someone claiming to be the song's inspirational muse. The actual "Cinnamon Girl" herself.

While we were highly skeptical at the time, we decided to go ahead and publish her story @ So Who Was The "Cinnamon Girl"? The Story Behind The Song by Neil Young. 

 

The original post contained a disclaimer at both the top and bottom that the tale -- while highly intriguing and very entertaining -- was suspect and to proceed cautiously using disCERNment.

 

Oddly, even after a thorough debunking and the identification of the actual true  "Cinnamon Girl"? the posting continues to gain momentum over 10 years on.

So we begin yet again ...

 

So who was Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl"?

And why did he want to live the rest of his life with a "Cinnamon Girl" anyways? (Then again, who wouldn't?)

Who was she? Or did she even really exist?

If we look at the Decade box album, Neil's hand written note about the song "Cinnamon Girl" says:

"Wrote this for a city girl on peeling pavement coming at me thru Phil Ochs eyes playing finger cymbals.

It was hard to explain to my wife."

The mystery of "Cinnamon Girl" only deepens.

Which city? What's peeling pavement? Who's Phil Ochs? Finger cymbals?

Phil Ochs: 1940 - 1976
(Phil Ochs and Neil Young have a somewhat tangential, but critical relationship.)

And why was it hard to explain to his wife, Susan?

First, let us go back to comments on the original 2011 TW posting So Who Was The "Cinnamon Girl"? The Story Behind The Song by Neil Young.

 

Immediately, rusties found innumerable flaws in the "The Riverboat Cinnamon Girl" story that just didn't add up.  Rustie extraordinaire and author of "Young Neil: The Sugar Mountain Years" Sharry Wilson immediately commented:

Interesting story, but I'm having trouble with the dates. Neil was doing his thing in Yorkville in the late fall/winter of 1965. By the early spring of 1966 he was playing in the Mynah Birds. He left Toronto in March 1966 to go to California. The date for his Riverboat gigs is also incorrect. He played them in Feb. 1969.

I double-checked my dates about Neil at the Riverboat and they were correct. He played the Riverboat in a string of dates starting in early Feb. 1969. (See Sugar Mountain setlist link below):
http://www.sugarmtn.org/show.php?show=196902040

He came to Toronto in late June/early July 1965 after Mort (his hearse) broke down near Blind River. He was in Toronto through the rest of the summer, the fall and winter and then until the spring of 1966 when he departed for L.A. in his second hearse, Mort II.

Subsequent investigations by Sharry and other rusties determined that this was a big LARP.

But why? 

Why would anyone go to such trouble and lengths to put forth such a tale which we suspected would ultimately be debunked?

(While we have come up with various theories over the years as the page views racked up ever higher, those theories are for another day.)

So back to the actual, true "Cinnamon Girl" of Neil Young's dreams.

The main clue is right there in the Decade box album liner notes: "Phil Ochs eyes playing finger cymbals."

In the book "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough, Neil Young is asked on page 337:

- Who inspired all the dancing-women songs?

"I don't know ... I remember this one girl, Jean "Monte" Ray - she was the singing partner of Jim, Jim, and Jean, folk duo. 

Had a record out called, "People's World," and she did a lot of dancing with finger cymbals. She was really great. Might've been her. Good chance. I kinda had a crush on her for awhile. Moved nice. 

She was real musical, soulful."

 

 

Jim And Jean "Changes"  - 1966

As Mother Nature on the Run commented: "FWIW - Jean Ray "Cinnamon Girl" was the bridesmaid in Ochs-Skinner wedding."

MNOTR continues; 

Jean Ray is quoted in liner notes that "Cowgirl In the Sand" came from a visit Neil made to her and her family living on the beach:

"Of the songs Ray penned, she reveals that "Topanga Road" was "about the Buffalo Springfield getting busted in Topanga Canyon, a totally bogus bust. Neil Young's song 'Cowgirl in the Sand' came from a visit he made to me and my family living on the beach. Neil watched me finishing up the tune, written on cheap paper with purple ink. I think he was so touched by my caring about their suffering through that awful ordeal, that his song came from mine. In it there's his lyric 'purple words on a [gray] background,' etc."

 - Liner notes from Jim and Jean's Changes/People World CD reissue by Richie Unterberger (2005) [1]

 

 Jean Ray and Jim Glover

Still skeptical?

Here is Brian Ray -- Jean's brother -- telling the "Cinnamon Girl" story and performing at his record release party for This Way Up at The Roxy on October 8, 2010.

 

 

Still skeptical?

 

Paul McCartney and Brian Ray 

 MetLife Stadium on August 7, 2016 in East Rutherford. 

(Photo: Mike Coppola, Getty Images)

 

From Paul McCartney in New Jersey: Meet Brian Ray, the man who plays bass | app.com:

The cover of Neil Young’s  “Cinnamon Girl,” with a coda of Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul,” is personal for Ray.

“One of the main reasons, besides the fact it’s a seminal guitar-riff song, that it’s meaningful for me is because Neil and my late sister, Jean Ray, were very close in the ‘60s,” Ray said. “As a result, I got to meet and hang out with him as an 11-year old.”

 

More on So Who Was The "Cinnamon Girl"? The Story Behind The Song by Neil Young ... and be sure to check out those wacky comments from back in the day right on up to today ... 

... and all for a big LARP they said ...

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Neil Young Release Schedule Updates + Comment of the Moment: "Toast"

"Toast" by Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse
 “It's got everything that the best Crazy Horse albums have had.” - Neil

 

A few Neil Young release schedule updates on NYA timeline: (Thanks Phil!)

• Noise and Flowers - 12th November 2021,
• Toast - 10th December 
• ORS box sets 4-5-6 & Harvest 50th anniversary - Feb 2022

(More details on Neil Young's planned release schedule for 2021 and 2022 + DVD & Official Bootleg Series schedule.)

Previously, Neil Young shared his deeply personal thoughts on the unreleased and most curious 2001 album "Toast" with Crazy Horse  -- one of the “great lost masterpieces”. (See  "Toast" - A Roadstory: Neil Young Shares Thoughts on Unreleased 2001 Album.)

In addition, the recent interview with Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, Neil Young, Crazy Horse Guitarist | The Aquarium Drunkard contained further revelations on the album "Toast":

Frank “Poncho” Sampedro: Toast is whole ‘nother story. 

Here we are in the Mission District in San Francisco, where we open the back door to the studio and smoke a cigarette and we watch giant rats running all over the place. They’re so evolved. Not just black and brown. They’re pintos. They’re big. The whole neighborhoods is just crazy dilapidated. Usually, Neil would call us, and he’d have songs. [This time] we got to that place and he didn’t have that many songs. He was writing. We spent a lot of days just walking around the studio and watching TV. 

There was really nothing to do. There was a donut shop on one corner and a Mexican place about a block away. So, we’re in that environment and we’re watching Neil sit there with his legs crossed on the floor, holding a yellow pad of paper and a pen. And that’s not just for a couple of days. That’s for a couple of months. 

Then out of nowhere, we start playing the songs and we’re not really getting them great.

Then all of a sudden, Elliot says he’s got this tour for us. So, we take off and we go to South America and holy shit, man. That was a blast. We’re playing giant places. One hundred and eighty thousand people or two hundred thousand. In Buenos Aires, the whole crowd got so into it [they were] doing these soccer chants of the melodies and… I’d love to hear some of those tapes. Louder than us. It was really fun. Plus, Billy’s Italian, Ralph’s Puerto Rican, both my parents are from Spain. So, we have this Latin influence in the band. We were big into salsa music. When we got back from that, we went right back into Toast. It’s funny that all the songs kind of have a little Latin feel to them. Things were different. It was like a different session from the time we got back. 

And then those sessions ["Toast]  ended.

More on  recent interview with Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, Neil Young, Crazy Horse Guitarist | The Aquarium Drunkard. 

Are You Passionate? - 2002

by Neil Young w/ Booker T & M.G.’s

(See thoughts on would there have been a "Greendale" without "Are You Passionate?"?  And is there a linkage back to "Sleeps With Angels"?  on Comment of the Moment: "Toast" - A Roadstory: Neil Young Shares Thoughts on Unreleased 2001 Album by Meta Rocker)

 

Which brings us to the Comment of the Moment on "Toast" - A Roadstory: Neil Young Shares Thoughts on Unreleased 2001 Album by Tony "Hambone" Hammond in the UK:

If Neil says that Toast reflected a relationship going sour, then it almost as if the touring of that time was part of that realisation. 

 

The 2001 Euro Horse tour debuted many of the Toast tracks with Pegi in the backing singer line-up along with the Horse.

And then links and moods between Toast, Are You Passionate? and Sleep with Angels all collided oh so briefly with the 5 Poncho & the MGs shows. I had the great fortune of being at Brixton Academy in May 2002 and have come to realise that it was my "Bottom Line" show - rare live outings and Neil in a real transition mode but utterly in control.

I'm not one for assuming that an artist lives their personal life on the stage, least of all Neil, but you can almost read this as a year long conversation - let's get away from home, see the sights, be with friends and colleagues but also lose ourselves in work. 

What to make of a sequence of Differently, Sleeps with Angels, Are You Passionate? and then Goin' Home? 

 

It was thrilling to hear at Brixton and there must have been a compelling reason to include SWA 8 years after release and an even more compelling reason to go out to do these few shows in the first place - maybe one last try at healing with a different group of friends?

I can't say any of this was obvious in any way on stage, it's just what we now read on the Archives allows us to re-assess all these lesser known songs.

At the time I thought the real centrepiece was the Cortez, Let's Roll and Powderfinger sequence - the "violence" trilogy of sorts. The lame political criticism of Let's Roll especially was blown away by the realisation that it was simply a powerful modern retelling of Powderfinger, about people being placed a a desperate and hopeless situation, coming to terms with this and taking action, however doomed. 

 

Whilst Powderfinger gives the protagonist's lone act an epic musical cinemascopic treatment, Let's Roll has to deal with real people and treads an almost brooding documentary path. It was clear that No one has the answer, But one thing is true, You've got to turn on evil, When it's coming after you was hardly a ringing endorsement of Bush's foreign policy but a call for ordinary people to face down unimaginable hatred.

This show is now my absolute candidate for a Timeline Concert submission on the Archives for all the surprises and being a genuinely unique musical occasion.

And then the following year we got solo acoustic troubadour Greendale which sent us on a completely different musical journey.

Tony "Hambone" Hammond in the UK

 

Thanks so much for comment Tony! We had been saving this for the right moment and now seems as good as any. Wow on Brixton concert.  "Differently"?!  Now there's an obscurity for sure.  According to Sugar Mountain Setlists,only played in concert 4 times.

 

More on the “great lost masterpiece” "Toast" - A Roadstory: Neil Young Shares Thoughts on Unreleased 2001 Album.

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INTERVIEW: Frank “Poncho” Sampedro - Neil Young, Crazy Horse Guitarist | The Aquarium Drunkard

Poncho
Köln, Germany - July 12, 2013
Photo by Roel van Dijk's
(Click photo to enlarge) 

A major 4:20 special interview with Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, Neil Young, Crazy Horse Guitarist | The Aquarium Drunkard. (Thanks Harold!)

In the interview, Poncho says: 

“I still play, man, I still play. 

Four times a week with a couple of guys here. Acoustic. I have a little fantasy that maybe one day I could go on an acoustic tour with Neil. But that’s a fantasy at this point.” 

‘Way Down in the Rust Bucket’  - Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse "Let me go on record as saying that I think this 'Way Down in the Rust Bucket" is the best Crazy Horse record we ever recorded. I love it! "~ Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, Rolling Stone -  March 2, 2021  

In March, Poncho did his 1st major interview in many, many years with Rolling Stone and Andy Greene.

Here is an excerpt from  The Aquarium Drunkard interview with Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, Neil Young, Crazy Horse Guitarist. (Thanks AD & Tyler!)

Aquarium Drunkard: One of the things that we just heard for the first time on this Archives, Volume II set is “Changing Highways”, which I believe is your first recording experience with Neil. What do you remember about that session?

Frank “Poncho” Sampedro: Chess Records! Yeah. I had never met Neil. Billy and Ralph told him all about me. We were jamming in Echo Park at Billy’s house, and we flew to Chicago to meet up. We went to the hotel and Ben Keith was already there. We went to Neil’s room and Neil started playing all these songs. I had my guitar, so I started trying to play along. I was just naive [laughs]. I gave Ben the guitar and I said, “Hey man, why don’t you play a couple”? He said, “No man, I think you better play!” And I said, “Well, who’s going to roll a joint? It’s me that’s gotta roll the joint!” But anyway, the bottom line was, I had no clue. No clue at all that those were the songs we were going to be recording the next day and I was supposed to be learning. Taking shorthand and paying attention. I was just going, “I don’t know if I like that one. That’s hard.” We went to Chess and it was very cool place. And you know, I was a huge Chuck Berry fan. Just to be there was like, wow, you know? [But] we didn’t do so good. 

AD:  It didn’t come together right away? 

Frank “Poncho” Sampedro: No. [Harvest producer] Elliot Mazer was recording us and he was, you know… David Briggs was definitely our leader and he knew how to get to us and get things out of us. Elliot was more like a teacher. [He] was technically oriented and none of us had those kinds of chops. Even Neil. Neil knows his songs because he wrote them.

AD: Have you gone and listened back to that “Changing Highways” that just came out?

Frank “Poncho” Sampedro: No, but here’s the story. When it finally got recorded and put on a record [in 1996], we were sitting in a studio one day after David passed. I just played “Changing Highways.” Neil said, “Wow, that was pretty cool, Ponch.” I said, “Well, you know, ever since that session, I really wanted to record it with you again and I practiced it all these years. Just in case you ever pulled it out, I’d be ready.” He said, “Well, it sounded so good. We should do it.” 

The other one we did at Chess was “Vacancy.” When I heard Ben and those Nashville cats do it [on the recording that appeared on Homegrown], it kind of tickled me because they did a good job and I like it. I love the song. But our version was so much more out of control and just bashing and crazy. All those little turnarounds at the end of the verses just kind of got lost in ours because it was just distortion and craziness going on.

...

AD: You recorded “Cortez The Killer” during those sessions—one of the ultimate Crazy Horse epics. 

Frank “Poncho” Sampedro: Both of my parents are from Spain. I grew up wanting to be a bull fighter. My home wasn’t a typical American home. I lived in Mexico for over three years. When we recorded “Cortez,” I had just smoked some angel dust when Neil walked out into Briggs’ backyard and said, “Come on, Poncho, I got this song. It’s easy to play—just three chords. Let’s record it now.” At the time, I was a junkie and high on smack and blow, plus the angel dust. We went in, put on our guitars and just played the whole thing and that was the take. The power even went off in the control room but not in the room where we were playing. Briggs got the power back on. We listened to where it dropped out and then punched back in right in the right place. We did lose the third verse. Something about “a rocky grave.” Neil never sang it again. 

In my stoned dream, I imagined the song started on the D chord. It starts on the Em. So, Neil emphasizes the Em and I emphasize the D. But what I’m getting at is—“Cortez” lives in my hands! I’ve listened to many different versions of that song and Neil has played it with a few different configurations. None of them get it! I can play with someone who only knows a couple of chords and it sounds just like the recording from that day. I can play it over the phone to you and you will ask if that was the record! It’s just a part of me! “Cortez” lives in my hands. I’m not trying to put anyone down! It is just something I can’t understand why others don’t get it.

AD: What was David Briggs like? Even though he wasn’t a musician, I get the sense he was almost a member of Crazy Horse. 

Frank “Poncho” Sampedro: He was the compass, man. He gave us all our direction. He’s not just our compass. He’s a compass of rock and roll. He believed in it with all his heart. He can get us to do things just by…It wasn’t nice. He wasn’t nice and he played guitar a little bit, but he wasn’t a musician, and he wasn’t an engineer. He engineered some. He was just a guy and a motivator. Just a music motivator and he wasn’t afraid to tell any single one of us, including Neil, that we weren’t giving 100 percent. Or he’d come in and say, “Look, you guys are really playing over the top right now. Do you think you can go further? Let’s rock it hard! We’re rolling in there! Don’t stand around!”

You know, I think it really helped me. He’d come in and we could tell he was on a bummer and he’d get nose to nose with you when you’re just noodling around. “I don’t know what that last solo was, but it sounds like you’re not projecting. Not singing. You want to just record tomorrow? I don’t know what’s up. Are you into this or not?” And we would all see that going on and say, “No, no, no, no. We’ll do another one. I’ve got more than that.” And then as soon as he’d walk out of the room, we were like, “OK, goddammit. We’re going to blow your ears off.” It would pump us up in a kind of like reverse psychology way to get us to do better. It’s rock and roll, man. We’ve got to make people dance.

...

AD: Let’s jump ahead a little to the Rust Bucket era in late 1990. Have you had a chance to check that new record out yet? 

Frank “Poncho” Sampedro: In the first interviews I did, I said, “I believe in my heart this is the best Crazy Horse record we ever did.” Right now, after listening to it more and more and listening to stuff we did after it, I really think it’s the best we played. Not technically but relaxed and into the groove. We rocked as hard as all of us could together as a unit. It was something that was happening. We knew all the material. There were no thoughts in our head about not executing the shows. We got to another level and Neil’s playing…wow. I just go, “Wow, man. Neil’s out there.” He wasn’t missing any notes and he wasn’t missing any place to go. He wasn’t noodling. He was driving home the point of every song. It’s amazing and it really makes me smile to listen to. It really does.

We did five sets that night. I don’t know why, but it might have had something to do with drugs. Or maybe we just didn’t know what song to play next. We had to think about it for a second. Some of the breaks are very short. But nobody cared. No one was like, “We’re stopping playing.” We were laughing and going right back out and going at it again. Everything was fine. The more I think about it, it was really just a pinnacle. We all knew each other. Everything finally came together, and we just laid it down. 

AD: You guys break out some deep cuts—“Surfer Joe and Moe The Sleaze.” I’ve always thought of that as a perfect Santa Cruz song. You have a co-write on that one, right? 

Frank “Poncho” Sampedro: I heard one writer refer to that song as Neil’s slap back at Warner Brothers, Mo Ostin and all this other crap. In all my memory, every time we met with Mo and Lenny [Waronker] and all the guys from Warner Brothers, it was very sweet and loving. We liked each other. There was no animosity. No one ever put Mo or Lenny down. Never. Ever. It was always beautiful. Those guys are really into what they’re doing, and they really supported us and helped us out a lot. So just to clear that up: that song has nothing to do with talking shit about them. I’m sure Neil was sorry that he ever left Warner Brothers.

[On “Surfer Joe”], I added all of the background vocals that go [Ahhhing ensues]. I started singing those and nobody could stop me. I’m not a singer really, but I can sing on stage any time without a microphone and people can hear me. I sing really loud. And then even when we’re soloing sometimes and you see Neil coming over to me, a lot of times I’ll just be humming or chanting the line that I hear in the song.  I’m like [Ohhhhing ensues] and just going along and he looks at me and his eyes go back like, “Oh shit. Ponch is in another world.” But it’s inspiration. The music inspires me. 

Full interview with Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, Neil Young, Crazy Horse Guitarist | The Aquarium Drunkard.  

"Fuckin' Up"
Crazy Horse's Frank "Poncho" Sampedro
Cleveland, OH, Oct. 8
Photo by thrasher 

 
 

Neil Young with Crazy Horse

Also, see:

• NYA FIRST LISTEN/WATCH: ‘Way Down In The Rust Bucket’ - Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse
•  "Homegrown": ‘Way Down in the Rust Bucket’ - Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse
•  "Smell the Horse": Ragged Glory Extended + Comment of the Moment: NYA FIRST LISTEN/WATCH: ‘Way Down In The Rust Bucket’ - Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse
• REVIEW: ‘Way Down in the Rust Bucket’ - Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse | Old Grey Cat
• Comment of the Moment #2: NYA FIRST LISTEN/WATCH: ‘Way Down In The Rust Bucket’ - Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse

 

Deluxe Box Set Edition (DVD, 4 LPs, 2 CDs)

Pre-Order Now: WAY DOWN IN THE RUST BUCKET" by Neil Young w/  Crazy Horse 

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

 

Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse:
"3rd Best Garage Band in the World"
~~Bill Graham

 

In tribute to Crazy Horse, the "3rd Best Garage Band in the World", here's a look back at some highlights:

• Poncho did his 1st major interview in many, many years with Rolling Stone and Andy Greene - March 2021
• 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

#DontSpookTheHorse 

Induct Neil Young w/  Crazy Horse
Into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
#CrazyHorse4HOF 

 #MayTheHorseBeWithYou

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"Epic.": The Plenary, Melbourne, AUS Concert by Neil Young & Crazy Horse on Mar 13, 2013 Added to "Timeline Concert of the Week"

Neil Young And Crazy Horse
The Plenary, Melbourne (13/03/2013)
Photo Gallery by Luke Sutton
(Click photo to enlarge)

The awesomely magnificent and legendary Melbourne, AUS (The Plenary) 13th March 2013 concert by Neil Young & Crazy Horse has been added to Neil Young Archives on the new "Timeline Concert of the Week". (Thanks Phil!)

 

RustFest

The Plenary, Melbourne, AUS Concert  by Neil Young & Crazy Horse on Mar 13, 2013  

Image via Broken Arrow Magazine

From Neil Young Films Alchemy Concert Movie In Melbourne, Australia | Live | Music News | Noise11 by Paul Cashmere on March 14, 2013:

Tonight, Neil Young fans got to see him up close and personal for one of his most ferocious shows ever, with thanks to his band of pitbulls, Crazy Horse. I challenge any musician even two thirds younger than 67-year old Neil Young to go a few rounds with him on stage. He would destroy you musically.

I’ve seen Neil Young on every one of his Australian tours and by far this was his most powerful. In total, three hours from head to toe. Neil Young & Crazy Horse were like a hurricane this evening.

Tonight he was totally switched to 11.

 

Billy Talbot & Neil YoungNeil Young & Crazy Horse - Melbourne, AUS Concert,  Mar 13, 2013 
"Adventure # 3: We held off holding the sign “ Arkansas Girls ♥ Crazy Horse” that Tami had sent from Arkansas, till they had nearly finished playing “Cinnamon Girl.” Carolyn held it up & Ralph spotted the sign first, & then pointed a drumstick toward us & mouthed to me, “Are you’re Michael?” I nodded & mouthed back “Yes.” He nodded back at me... Then Billy spotted the sign & his face lit up like an infield fly. The biggest smile came over his face & the moment was magic & captured for all to see... Billy pointed the sign out to Neil, & Neil had this big grin on his face as well.. Job done Tami & done well... More on the sign later.... The best part.. — with Billy Talbot."
via Michael S.J. | Photos of Rusties

 

 

Review via Sugar Mountain

 

"Epic."

That's what we heard over and over again, our friends, regarding  Neil Young & Crazy Horse concert in Melbourne, AUS. Clocking in at 3 hours, the longest Alchemy tour show so far with 18 songs. Dangerbird, Barstool Blues and Sedan Delivery are tour debuts with Cortez The Killer making first appearance of 2013.

An amazing night by all accounts.

The setlist breaks down as follows:

American Stars and Bars 1
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere 1
Harvest 1
Life 1
Psychedelic Pill 4
Ragged Glory 1
Rust Never Sleeps 3
Reactor 1
Unreleased 2
Zuma 3 

Poncho & Neil Young
Melbourne, AUS 13 March 2013 (reviews)
Photo Gallery by Sten Thorborg | Flickr
(Click photo to enlarge)

 

"Ramada Inn"
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - The Plenary, Melbourne Australia - 13th of March 2013     

 Ticket Stub via Sugar Mountain

 

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Cortez the Killer [Live Melbourne 13/3/2013]

 Alchemy Tour 2013
Neil Young & Crazy Horse 

"Danger Bird" - Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Melbourne, AUS, Mar 13, 2013

Also, see:

• Melbourne, AUS Concert Reviews of Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Mar 13, 2013
• VIDEO: A Giant Walks - Neil Young and Crazy Horse Down Under
• VIDEO: "Danger Bird" - Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Melbourne, AUS, Mar 13, 2013 
• EPIC + Cortez Video: Melbourne, AUS Concert by Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Mar 13, 2013 
• Comment of the Moment: Does Neil Young owe you his hits? No, he doesn’t.
• Comment of the Moment: Bands of Neil Young  w/ VIDEO: "Ramada Inn"
  Neil Young & Crazy Horse - The Plenary, Melbourne Australia - 13th of March 2013 
• An Alchemy Tattoo Way Down Under: A Neil Young Fan Story
• Lots of fantastic stories from the 2013 Australia/New Zealand Tour of Neil Young and Crazy Horse  

 

On The Aussie Rail w/ Lee "Astrolee", Stringman & Kaz
 
2013 Alchemy Tour: Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Thanks Lee "Astrolee" B.! (See An Alchemy Tattoo Way Down Under: A Neil Young Fan Story )
 

With the recent announcement of Neil Young Archives Membership Tiers: Rust & Patron, more details have been forthcoming on  the "Timeline Concert of the Week" feature.

The "Timeline Concert of the Week" feature is now available to members at the Rust tier level with streams of live concerts from Neil Young's entire career. "Rust" subscribers can also exchange memories and stories with other subscribers. Some concerts are already accessible via the timeline, more will be added over time. Subscribers can send inquiries and express requests.

"Timeline Concert of the Week" | NYA

 

As covered here recently, the "Timeline Concert of the Week" | NYA is courtesy of Patron Andrea: Saddle Rack, San Jose, California 6/6/1984 (Early Show) — writes Andrea: First show* of The International Harvesters. I just love them.

Previously, the excellent Crazy Horse concert in Boulder, Colorado 1976: "Timeline Concert of the Week" | Neil Young Archives requested by Patron Michael/E2F.

Here is a listing of all of the Neil Young concerts on the NYA Timeline:

• Melbourne 13th march 2013 
• San Jose, 1984-06-06,  w/ The International Harvesters  
• Boulder, Colorado, Nov 6, 1976 w/ CHAntwerp, July 9, 2019 w/ POTR
• Paris, 11 dec 1989
• Stockholm, 3 jul 2001
• Kelowna, 22 apr 2009
• Hunter Valley, 9 mar 2013
• Belfast, 7 jun 2016 (3h !)   

More on "Timeline Concert of the Week" on the recent announcement on Neil Young Archives.

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