Concert Memories of Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse in Bristow, Virginia on May 11, 2024

Neil Young w/ Crazy Horsephoto by thrashette
(Click photo to enlarge) 

To say that we were blown away by the Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse concert in Bristow, Virginia on  (May 11) would be a bit of an understatement.

 

Awesome to catch up with so many of our Rustie Grain friends who traveled from far and wide. To witness the band of brothers hitting their 80's so fearlessly was inspiring. And then we had a near perfect Saturday night concert in mid-Spring with a full horizon to horizon rainbow over the lawn just before concert time.

 

 

Like A Hurricane 

From "Neil Young refuses to race against time: Has anyone in rock history been this good at making music this loud at this age?" | The Washington Post by Chris Richards:

 

"Show up at any high school graduation ceremony this spring and a teenage speechmaker might tell you that time flies, heals all wounds, is money, is a flat circle, can’t be turned back. Show up at any Neil Young concert this summer and a 78-year-old carrying an electric guitar will remind you that time really is a river, and that his music is a huge granite boulder plunked square in the middle of it."

 

Cortez

Love And Only Love  

Comes A Time 

Crazy Horse

 

 From a comment by our buddy Jim McKelvey:

Now I can see why people have taken to the road to see multiple Neil Young & Crazy Horse shows. Right now the shows are getting longer and there is more variety. My wife and I drove up for about five hours to Bristow and arrived just as the heavy rain moved in. So we arrived a little too late for the soundcheck, tailgate experience and the rust fest the day before. Was looking forward to seeing everyone but it wasn’t to be.

Honestly, not a big fan of the digital ticket. I don't generally carry a phone with me, to be honest, and to have to get in and out of your seat is a pain for me showing your digital wallet each time. You had to pay an extra $6 for a printed ticket.

We got in about 6:45 PM as the rainbow formed so we checked out the polar bear at the Love Earth village first. Around 7:00 or so I took two books for Neil to the backstage area in a clear plastic bag. The guard said he couldn't be responsible for getting them backstage and he called an assistant on the bus. She came out to get the books that were my first one that I autographed, "Faces of Pilot Mountain," and Mr. Rufus Edmisten's autographed book, "That's Rufus: A Memoir of Tar Heel Politics, Watergate and Public Life." When I told Neil the themes of my book as I was writing it his response in the Letters to the Editor was, WOW. 

 

That was really encouraging and now the Ancient American 8K video crew have filmed a documentary on the book which was one of the biggest gifts of my life. By the way, Mr. Rufus Edmisten is the lawyer who served President Nixon for the Watergate tapes in the White House.

Then Rev. Billy started his part of the show and I really enjoyed it. His get out in nature to your sacred spot really hit home with me. Love Earth, indeed!

There was an emotional weight to the show that was amazing. Our seats were right in line with the seated sound crew so the sound was spot on and perfect in Row Q. About the time he played "Powderfinger" they somehow dialed the sound in even more that was like shifting it into 5th gear or something. There was signage that we were being filmed by Daryl Hannah's film company.

My wife had gone with me to the second Rust Never Sleeps show outside Detroit in 1978 and she remembered the stage set-up but missed the Jawa's since they were only white coated scientists in Bristow. She sang right along on the acoustic set with just about everyone else. It was like standing in a choir instead of just listening to a choir. "Helpless" was a really good choice as a sliver of a moon came up on the right side of the stage but given the G5 solar event happening right during the concert it seems like Pocahontas would have been a great choice, too, that Thrasher wanted.

Clearly, the vivid bright rainbow was a sign that this was going to be a night to remember and it was...

 

 And here is a video of entire concert.

 

0:00 / 1:51:16 NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE - FULL SHOW@Jiffy Lube Live Bristow, VA 5/11/24 

From The Flying Scotzman's Bristow notes:

Micah found that sweet spot of unleashing the passion and keeping the tension on a tight leash.

Ralph is playing brilliantly. Billy knows they’ve cracked it — see the smile at the end of the song.

...

Again, the high points of this show are where we feel that Neil is fully in control of his instrument (playing with precision, not just thrashing around with no idea where the notes will land), and he can rely on Ralph to be right there with him.

No pressure, Ralph!

Actually, there is pressure. There’s no pressure and there’s lots of pressure, both at the same time.

See what I mean about tension? About keeping it on just the right leash? Too much tension, and the musicians are paralysed. Too little, and there’s no explosion, no thrill, no intensity.

None of us expect the more senior members of the band to be putting in the same energy as 1986; nearly 40 years ago.

The ace up their sleeve, the full deck of cards up their sleeve is they can still play with scary levels of intensity and precision and controlled tension. Which requires just a little physical energy, physical dexterity and nimbleness, and a lot of mental focus.

Thanks for the notes Scots!

"EARTHALUJAH"! 

Reverend Billy and The Church of Stop Shopping Choir

 

Wheat Rail Crew

 

Rustie Grain Friends  

 

 

Rainbow Over The Lawn

LOVE EARTH Village(photo by Jim M.)  

Rustie Grain Fest: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse @ Manassas, Virginia - Friday, May 10

Such a great thrill to host all of our Rustie Grain Friends  at the pre-concert fest!

See ya down the road!

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REVIEWS: "Fu##n' Up" Album by Neil [Young] & The [Crazy] Horse

"Fu##n' Up" Album
Neil & the Horse(Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse)  

Yet another Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse album -  "Fu##n' Up" specifically - has been released and here are a few takes.

First up, Scotsman weighs in with his vast Neil knoweddge.

The new Neil Young and Crazy Horse live album, F**kin’ Up, has bolted from the barn. In the build-up to release day, we’ve been treated to three pre-release singles:

Over and Over was a bit messy, but had the spirit and THEN SOME.

Farmer John was a bit of fun. (For a version of this great song that’s a lot more than just a bit of fun, check out the power-packed Way Down In The Rust Bucket version.)

And Days That Used To Be, whilst again performed with spirit (and notice, too, the surprise addition of the harmonica solo from 1988 solo versions), felt like a bit of an uphill grind.

That’s partly because the song was already close to the top of Neil’s vocal range about 30 or 40 years ago; he’s now at the stage where reaching those high notes is amazingly still possible, but more challenging. And it’s partly because the deceptively “loose” grungy sound actually requires immense concentration and discipline to harness and direct.

People often speak of how the appeal of Crazy Horse is in how sloppy and “loose” they are, but I think that misses the point. Lots of bands sound sloppy, and that’s just because they’re not very good. But *sounding* loose whilst *also* performing with precision is where the real magic is. Let’s not underplay this band’s skills.

On the album F**kin’ Up, the band are playing the songs with much the same sound they created as rock ‘n’ roll “teenagers” at the height of their powers (aka in their late forties).

Here and now, Neil Young and the band are rolling back the years. And if it’s at times a struggle to get there, a struggle to find the right gear for a rocky road, then we could argue that’s part of the appeal. Battles can be more captivating to experience than easy victories.

But to retrace our steps for a second, what exactly *is* this album? The marketing of it—marketing that’s supposed to get us salivating in anticipation—seemed a bit of a muddle, and didn’t care to tell us much.

If there was enthusiasm, it wasn’t necessarily communicated. If there was a compelling story to be told, it wasn’t.

Perhaps that’s because, on the face of it, the story of releasing a live album of a 2023 private show for the billionaire boss of a big business ain’t nearly as compelling as, say, selling tickets on the door to a bar in 1996 California.

(If stories were gold, only one of these would be 24-karat; The opposite story to the one that’s more likely to pay in 24-karat.)

But instead, as with Before And After, we get barely any story at all. It’s an album of new versions of nine of the ten songs from Ragged Glory, with new titles (pffft, big deal — out of habit I’ve stuck to the original titles for the purposes of this column)… and that’s about it.

Bottom line: Keep stripping away the story, and neglect the action that goes into turning that story into a reality, and pretty soon all that will be left is the art shell. A bunch of distorted guitars aren’t worth much, by themselves. The art exists in the *context*.

(As an aside, notice how much attention the “new” lyrics to the superbly-performed version of Cortez the Killer from San Diego 2024 have been attracting. Because the lyrics are originals from the 70s, they seem even more interesting, compared to if they’d been written as an add-on in 2024. Context matters.)

From *Neil’s* point-of-view, one story of F**ckin’ Up is that is he has discovered a way of playing guitar again with less aggro from his arthritis. That’s why he particularly enjoyed this performance. And it’s up to us to decide if that has resulted in not just a less painful performance for the artist, but also a moving one for the audience.

And as with the 2023 Roxy shows, F**kin’ Up (almost) replicates the tracklist of a classic album. This time, Ragged Glory.

I’m not always a huge fan of this approach. Innovation often comes from reconstructing pieces of the past; but sticking *rigidly* to a 30-year-old blueprint doesn’t allow for this sort of forward movement. Over the years, Neil has generally stayed clear of crowd-pleasing classic album set-lists, and I think overall it’s proved to be a wise move.

As uncertain as the future may be, we need to put at least one foot assuredly forward. That doesn’t mean we can’t take the past with us.

How does F**kin’ Up (the album) stack up? I think it gathers steam as it goes. The first few tracks sound like Neil is lobbing musical grenades and, quite thrillingly, it’s not clear if they’re going to land on stage or in the audience. And then it all kicks into gear and captures the essence of Crazy Horse in full fight.

Clear highlights: Love To Burn, Mansion On The Hill, Over and Over. Love And Only Love, too — a sort of hybrid Horse/POTR version that retains the texture of the latter, without much of the excessive noodling or belly flab.

On the other hand, we might justifiably wonder if remaking Ragged Glory without Poncho Sampedro is like remaking Harvest without Ben Keith.

Poncho put the “Crazy” into Crazy Horse. The guts, too. If you like your Crazy Horse to sound like the most thrillingly dangerous rock band in the world, the Poncho line-up remains the only competitor.

He’s the Ray Winstone of Crazy Horse: the guy who brings the hard-rock edge in a way that *seems* to just be part of who he is.

Example: Just listen (go on: press play now) to the way Poncho sings the backing vocals with Ralph on the original Fuckin' Up — or the Weld version. They make it sound punchy, edgy, gleeful, devilish and possessed.

On the new version—as with almost all non-Poncho versions in the last 30 years—it sounds like the backing vocalists themselves are as comatose as the character in the song. Zzzz!

Overall, though, the new album sounds like what you’d expect:

A rough around the edges version of Ragged Glory… played by a band with a combined age of 5017… who’ve barely played three notes together in the last ten years…shaking out some cobwebs… starting to actually play some music together for an extended period…

…and quickly developing back into an elite unit, scarily close to the height of their powers.

But labelling it actively *superior* to the original (or, heaven forbid, Weld) as a complete record might inspire your doctor to prescribe a stomach-pump to get the kool aid out of your system. More pertinently, it might also inspire the ghost of David Briggs to arise and chuck you out of your own house.

The album as a whole has this thrilling and liberating “just-the-right-side-of-ramshackle” feel that makes me want to grab a guitar and join in, or perhaps go and bash some trash-can lids together down a back alley at 2:30am. It has that care-free exuberance.

And notice how songs like Over and Over take on new significance when the performers have experienced the sun rise and fall, reliable as clockwork, every day for a further 30+ years since they first performed them in 1990. It feels like a lot of shared time and lots of living, condensed into a few minutes of music.

As with 2023’s Before and After, each song flows into the next with little-or-no pause. An uncharitable view might be that it’s the equivalent of wolfing down a nine-course-meal with no time to digest each one.

And it’s an album that positively *has* to be heard in the context of 2024, not 1990. That’s perhaps where the retitling of the songs comes in. Existing outside the momentum of a full tour, some of these tracks feel like they’re just beyond the performers’ reach; not quite road-worthy, yet. And others just sound like more experienced, more interesting and more battle-hardened versions of themselves.

The songs themselves have a youthful spirit and calloused skin…. character-adding wrinkles around their eyes. That’s no criticism at all. On the contrary.

Mother Earth is the one Ragged Glory song missing from this concert. At this sort of “corporate” gig, this increasingly pertinent (and very beautiful) song makes its point not through its presence, but its absence. And it’s unclear if anybody in the room wanted to really listen to it, anyway.

And incidentally, wouldn’t the last verse of Days That Used To Be prove the perfect lead-in to an overdue live version of 2022’s Chevrolet? It would be one way of bringing one foot of the setlist out of retracing-of-steps of nostalgia, and into the world of possibility in 2024.

One foot forward.

Scotsman.

PS: The first show of the 2024 Crazy Horse tour, which I enjoyed via the various excellent YouTube videos, grabbed me with more conviction than any of the few 2023 shows with the Horse.

Hearing the band come out onstage *firing*, well rehearsed, in-form, and with a “get down to business” attitude—and with *that* version of Cortez The Killer—practically had me jumping up and down with excitement. Bravo, fellas.

Thanks so much Scots. Not really a f* up afterall it seems. Excitement builds as the LOVE EARTH tour rolls east.

Next up, a clip from a review on Only Castles Burning titled "ragged redux":

As with Before and After, the songs are presented without much of any break between them, so the album is unrelenting. This show was one of the first times Neil had played after having some laser surgery on his hand, and he talked a bit about how much freer he felt playing guitar. Old Black is wild here! It’s one of the things I notice first. Ragged Glory is a tight album, all things considered. His guitar on that original album soars and locks in the pocket really well. By contrast, Fu##in’ Up is more like the garage band flip side, perhaps reflecting what some of the unselected takes for Ragged Glory may have sounded like.

Like they did at the Roxy shows, this is actually a five piece. Since Frank “Poncho” Sampedro retired after the Alchemy tour, the rhythm guitarist for Crazy Horse has been Nils Lofgren. However, when the Roxy shows were scheduled, Nils was supposed to be on tour with Bruce Springsteen. Bruce had to postpone some dates when he came down with COVID, so Nils was able to join the Roxy show. However, by that time, Neil had already drafted Micah Nelson*** aka Particle Kid aka Willie Nelson’s son to play second guitar. Micah had been playing with Neil as part of the Promise of the Real era, although he was a bit buried under all the noise of that big band. In Crazy Horse, he is taking a much bigger role.

This same five piece arrangement applied to the Toronto show, with Nils and Micah trading off guitar and piano throughout. Of course, Ragged Glory has no piano on it, so that’s one sonically different aspect to these songs…I wonder if that’s really why the songs have all been retitled? Oh yeah, all the songs (except “Farmer John”) have new titles based on lyrics in the songs. They also have numbers before the songs that don’t match the track order. Neil has not been forthcoming on any of these choices. The stream of conscious, but very heartfelt, note that accompanies the album does not elucidate.

Thanks so much for the "ragged redux" on  Only Castles Burning.

Last but not least, our pal Davy has his video podcast review of the latest.

 

Thanks Davy, and yes, Neil's ragged glory becomes even more ragged and even more glorious, if that's even possible.

More on "Fu##n' Up" album and concert reports @ “Love Earth Tour”: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse Concert Dates (UPDATED).  

Also, see background on recording of album  "Fu##n' Up" in 2023 at a private party in Toronto for one of Canada’s richest men where almost every song from 1990’s Ragged Glory was played.

The Rivoli, Toronto on Nov. 3, 2023

(see STEALTH GIG REPORT: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse)

Photo by Andrew Bennett  (Click photo to enlarge) 

 

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OFFICIAL AUDIO: "To Follow One's Own Dream" (Days That Used to Be) Neil Young with Crazy Horse

"Fu##n' Up" Album
Neil & the Horse 

A new video (Official Audio) of  "To Follow One's Own Dream" (Days That Used to Be) is now posted.

The video (Official Audio) is from Neil Young's upcoming album "Fu##n' Up" with Crazy Horse scheduled for release on April 20, aka 420.

The live concert album is from the Rivoli, Toronto, 4 Nov 2023, which featured a setlist of songs from the 1990 album "Ragged Glory" album.

More on the STEALTH GIG REPORT: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse, Toronto - Nov. 4, 2023. 

The Rivoli, Toronto on Nov. 3, 2023

(see STEALTH GIG REPORT: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse)

Photo by Andrew Bennett  (Click photo to enlarge) 
More on Neil Young's upcoming album "Fu##n' Up" with Crazy Horse. 

More on  “Love Earth Tour”: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse Concert Dates (UPDATED).

 

“Love Earth Tour”: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse Concert Dates (UPDATED) 

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NEW VIDEO: "She Moves Me" (Farmer John) | Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives

 She Moves Me (Farmer John) | Times-Contrarian | NYA
(Click photo to enlarge)

 

A new video of  "She Moves Me" (Farmer John) is now posted on Times-Contrarian | Neil Young Archives.

The video is from Neil Young's upcoming album "Fu##n' Up" with Crazy Horse scheduled for release on April 26.

The live concert album is from the Rivoli, Toronto, 4 Nov 2023, which featured a setlist of songs from the 1990 album "Ragged Glory" album.

More on the STEALTH GIG REPORT: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse, Toronto - Nov. 4, 2023. 

The Rivoli, Toronto on Nov. 3, 2023

(see STEALTH GIG REPORT: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse)

Photo by Andrew Bennett  (Click photo to enlarge) 
More on Neil Young's upcoming album "Fu##n' Up" with Crazy Horse scheduled for release on April 26.

 

"Fu##n' Up" Album
Neil & the Horse 

More on  “Love Earth Tour”: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse Concert Dates (UPDATED).

 

“Love Earth Tour”: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse Concert Dates (UPDATED) 

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A Comment on the Comment of the Moment: Neil Young "Rebrands" Crazy Horse

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Alchemy Concert 2012 Tour & "Fu##n' Up" Album

(Click photo to enlarge)

 

Earlier this month, we explored the subject of what was up with Neil Young "rebranding" his band Crazy Horse.

And what ensued was, well, a wide ranging discussion across genres, fields, and centuries, that often veered into some rather head scratching territory for many an ordinary rustie-grain.

To wit, here is a comment on the Comment on the Moment on Neil Young Rebrands Crazy Horse by Dionys:

To summarize at the end of this babylonian thread with 11 persons participating, we have been mentioning, referring to, quoting: 

Neil Young
Crazy Horse (individual members and various incarnations)
The Rockets
The Grateful Dead (and various incarnations)
The Beatles
Creedence Clearwater Revival
The Rolling Stones
U2
Phil Lee
Nils Lofgren
Danny Whitten
Drive By Truckers
Michael Jackson
Bob Dylan
Little Richard
James Brown
Booker T. & The MGs
Steve Earle

Las Vegas
Portsmouth
Paris
San Francisco
Myrtle Beach, SC

William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (drama)
V.M. Straka “Ship of Theseus” (novel)
William Faulkner
Bertolt Brecht, Tales of Mr. Keuner (parables)

Proteus 
Theseus (Mythology)
Ship of Theseus (Plutarchy / Aristotle)
Greeks, Romans, Punians
HMS Victory
Lakota
Crazy Horse (Lakota Chief)
Walter Benjamin
Jean Baudrillard
Donna Haraway
Woody (Wooden cigar Indian)
Atheneans
Dionysos
Ariadne
Crete
Philbert Bono (Powwow Highway)
Dada
Surrealism
Immanuel Kant
Buddhism
Hinduism

Horse
Herring
Chameleon
Camel
Pony
Dinosaurs

Thanks for the summary Dionys.  We here at TW have had -- over the decades -- some comment threads  that were wide ranging, deep and complex and strange. 

But this one really sticks out.

From Shakespeare to Vegas. From Bertolt Brecht to Booker T. & The MGs. From Faulkner to Dada & Surrealism.

And the marvelous thing about the thread was how remarkably polite everyone was in addressing a potentially sensitive subject. The depth and breadth of our readers and commenters is truly humbling and we are honored to host this forum.

 

“Love Earth Tour”: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse Concert Dates (UPDATED)

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The Origin of Neil Young's Band Name "Crazy Horse"

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Alchemy Concert 2012 Tour & "Fu##n' Up" Album

(Click photo to enlarge)

 

Much ado about something -- or nothing -- around here lately @ Thrasher's Wheat's vibrant comments community.

As the battle rages on an empty page over Neil Young "rebranding" Crazy Horse (mainly inside the head of the namesake of this blog), the question arises as to exactly what is the origin of the band name "Crazy Horse"?

 

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - 2014

 

While much attention has been paid to the now rider-less horse on logo image and the removal of the word "crazy" from name, the exact origin of the band name "Crazy Horse" seems to be lost in the shrouds of time and mystery.

For many, the assumption is that the name "Crazy Horse" is a tribute to the legendary Lakota warrior chief.

Crazy Horse*
from album art for Americana by Neil Young & Crazy Horse (2012)

 

In fact, if one looks at the artwork for the album Americana (2012) we can see an image of Crazy Horse*. (as noted in a TW comment, there are no known authenticated photos or renderings of Chief Crazy Horse.)

Pegi & Neil Young w/ Wisdom Dancers

Bridge School Benefit Concert - 10/22/2011
Photo by Nan Philpot

 

So did in fact the band name itself after "Crazy Horse", the Native American Indian?  Or was there some other calculus going on?

Crazy Horse Monument
Black Hills, Custer County, South Dakota
 (Click photo to enlarge)

 

In our rather massive discussion on the subject -- which has literally gone all over the map across genres, fields, and centuries -- a few interesting stories have emerged to shed light on the topic.

From a comment by Dionys:

Which brings us to "Crazy Horse". 

I recall something like an interview with Frank Sampedro in which he (jokingly?) brought up the idea that Crazy Horse was named after the famous cabaret club in Paris, well known for their presentation of nude women, comparable to the even more famous "Moulin Rouge", also in Paris. American imitations of this club existed for instance in Las Vegas, San Francisco (!) and Myrtle Beach, SC. 

After protests by the great chief's descendants in 2004 the French establishment's name was changed into "Forever Crazy".

Le Crazy Horse - de Paris, France


"Crazy Horse Saloon - 6 Flags Texas

And another comment by namesake of this blog with a story:

another story lost in the mists of time goes something like this.

The pre-CH band The Rockets were rehearsing and hanging out. Someone is joking about a night spent w/ a bunch of "crazy whores".

Neil walks in and *hears* "Crazy Horse" and everyone laughs.

Another version is that Neil wants to "rebrand" The Rockets. Someone suggests "Crazy Whores". Knowing that won't work w/ the record labels, they decide on "Crazy Horse" as an inside joke.

Neil Young w/ "Woody"
Jack Singer Concert Hall - Calgary, Canada
 January 19, 2014 (concert review)
Photo Gallery by Mike Drew/Calgary Sun/QMI Agency | Calgary Sun
(Click photo to enlarge)

 

And what about the long running campaign to Induct Neil Young w/  Crazy Horse
Into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame???

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

 

Should the whole campaign be revamped as "Induct Neil Young w/  The Horse Into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame???

Have we finally determined the root cause for why Crazy Horse has not been  inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Afterall, Bruce Springsteen's long time backup band E Street Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

We here at Thrashers Wheat demand answers.

Which brings us to the ultimate "Horse Test": So if it looks like a crazy horse, and sounds like a crazy horse, and smells like a crazy horse, then it probably is a Crazy Horse.

But we'll let our resident TW philosophers weigh in on this.  oh, but wait.  The resident TW philosophers have already debated the subject in great detail.  And they have arrived at a conclusion to the existential "Horse Test" question...

... Saddle up for a crazy ride ...

And, up next on TW ... is it Neil Young & Crazy Horse or Neil Young with Crazy Horse? or simply Neil & the Horse?

Regardless, we smell The Horse a comin'! 

More on Love Earth Tour.

 Love Earth Tour

Neil Young 

Crazy Horse

 

 #MayTheHorseBeWithYou

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Comment of the Moment: Neil Young Rebrands Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse MonumentBlack Hills, Custer County, South Dakota  (Click photo to enlarge) 

As we noted here recently, it seems that Neil Young has "rebranded" his band Crazy Horse with a new logo and name change.

"Fu##n' Up" Album
Neil & the Horse (Click photo to enlarge)

 

"The Rider" no longer appears on horse back in the iconic logo.  And "Crazy" has been dropped to simply "The Horse".

 

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Alchemy Concert Tour - 2012

 

Which brings us to our Comment of the Moment on Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse 2024 Love Earth Concert Tour by Scotsman:

Lots of intriguing discussion (both here and elsewhere) about band names, what it means to be “Crazy Horse”, does it matter, etc.

Here’s my perspective:

Let’s imagine a parallel universe where Bob Dylan really was killed in the legendary 1966 motorcycle accident.

(Or, if we want to be less morbid, let’s say he decided to retire from the music biz immediately after.)

The record company decide Bob is worth more to them alive than dead. And so they replace him with another singer/songwriter who strongly resembles him.

He wears a black wig, speaks in the drawl, writes compelling songs….

Nobody notices the difference.

(If this sounds incredible, consider the story of how Andy Warhol once sent an actor to replace himself on a speaking tour. Consider also how, in 2024, AI allows us to convincingly play with what is “real”. And of course, there’s the famous anecdote about Charlie Chaplin once entering a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest and winning the prize for third place!).

More than 50 years later, this actor is still making Bob Dylan records and touring as a Bob Dylan.

The question is this:

Is he *really* Bob Dylan or not?

My answer is no…

and yes.

No, because it’s clearly not the Bob Dylan who made those classic '60s records for which the original was most famous.

And yes, because it *is* the guy who we’ve accepted as Bob Dylan for the last 5+ decades.

When we think of Bob Dylan, we think of the guy we’ve been listening to for most of our lives. At some point, the name “Bob Dylan” (essentially a brand name) came to stand for the persistent actor, not the fleeting original.

Back to the real world. Is it still Crazy Horse if one of the fundamental members of the group (“the glue… without him, it falls apart” as Niko Bolas once said about Poncho) is missing in action?

YES IT IS. Because clearly, Crazy Horse was around before Poncho Sampedro joined. And if the band can change line-ups once, it can do so again.

And NO, it isn’t. Because the Crazy Horse name is valuable because it stands for something magical — for the unique musical and psychological chemistry that has been nurtured between Neil, Poncho, Ralph and Billy for so many years. To deny that would be to deny the very thing that makes the band special.

If you drop a marshmallow into water, nothing much will happen. If you drop sodium into water, it will explode.

In music, as in chemistry, the specifics *matter*.

But of course, it’s not only sodium that reacts explosively with water. So do other alkali metals.

So the best way to view the 2024 version of Crazy Horse, I think, is as a band that is both separate *and* apart from the classic, longest-running Poncho lineup.

It’s still Crazy Horse, but at the same time, it’s a different Crazy Horse. With at least a partially-different dynamic, and very different chemistry.

Now, will it explode like sodium, or fizzle out? We don’t know until we try.

Seeing the 2024 version of the band as a new Crazy Horse (or at least, a musical cousin of previous versions) isn’t demeaning, but liberating. Because it stops unhelpful comparison with the past.

Listening to the new version of Over and Over, there surely might be the temptation to think “well, it’s pretty good, but obviously it’s not in the same league as earlier versions”. It needs to be heard in the context of 2024, not 1990 or 2012.

(An aside: The story of the new album, as far as one has so far been presented, isn't massively compelling. Perhaps that’s because the fundamentals are inherently less interesting. “Neil Young and Crazy Horse re-tread Ragged Glory at private gig for billionaire” is less compelling than “Neil Young and Crazy Horse play small bar in California and sell tickets at the door.”).

But a 2024 version of, say, Chevrolet? There’s no in-concert precedent to compare that to. So there’s the opportunity to define what it is while it is still growing, still finding its place in the world.

To sum up:

Why is seeing a band like Crazy Horse particularly special? Because the name stands for something. It stands for a very unique musical chemistry that has proved its worthiness on countless albums and countless tours. I don’t think we should gloss over that. And when Neil and Elliot speak in Year of the Horse about how special the relationship is between the four members of the band, they are doing so sincerely.

If these relationships don’t matter, if it’s just a bunch of guys backing Neil Young, then the band name would stand for nothing. To imply it’s the exact same band without Ralph Molina would be ridiculous, and the same applies to Poncho Sampedro — probably the most musically proficient member of the 1976-2013 lineup, as evidenced by his ability to thrive in various non-Crazy-Horse projects with Neil.

So thank you, Poncho Sampedro, for your contributions. You are missed, and the biggest compliment any of us can give is to truthfully say it clearly won’t be the same without you.

At the same time, life goes on. Previous masterpieces (or, more humbly, special moments) have already happened, and their legacy is assured.

But there are still new ones waiting to happen. And that’s both refreshing and inspiring, isn’t it?

Scotsman.

Thanks for the CotM here Scots.  Your expansive musings are always welcomed here @ TW. As mentioned originally,  we fear that historical revisionism has gotten completely out of control as the gatekeepers become increasingly desperate while The #BigShift  gathers momentum.

All this said however, if we look at the marketing for the 2024 “Love Earth Tour” of Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse, it would seem that the Crazy Horse name is still intact, but the horse is riderless. 

So the inconsistency remains consistent.

 Love Earth Tour

Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse

 

If we take the "crazy" out of the "The Horse", will there be any spook left?

Long live Crazy Horse! And never Spook The Horse.

#DontSpookTheHorse

 

More on “Love Earth 2024 Tour”: Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse Concert Dates.

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Neil Young Rebrands Crazy Horse?! + Comment of the Moment

"Fu##n' Up" Album
Neil & the Horse (Click photo to enlarge) 

It would appear that Neil Young has "rebranded" his band Crazy Horse with a new logo and name change.

"The Rider" no longer appears on horse back in the iconic logo.  And "Crazy" has been dropped to simply "The Horse".

 

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Alchemy Concert Tour - 2012

 

Which brings us to our Comment of the Moment on Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse 2024 Love Earth Concert Tour by Meta Rocker:

re: the band's name and emblem change. 

To my knowledge, we've been referring to Neil's most important band as "The Horse" for decades ("don't spook the Horse!" "smell the Horse!", etc.), so that alteration almost didn't register with me. 

It does lead to the interesting topic of NY's music and art in relation to Native American cultures. It seems to come from a place of genuine interest and even spiritual connection, but at the same time, Neil's understandings will have been informed by what he learned in Canadian schools in the 1950s, "cowboys and Indians" movies, and so on.

In other words, white folks probably have a different, "outsider's" view of what Native American is and means, as compared to the lived experiences of First Nations people. It's too easy for these ideas to turn into pastiches and caricatures, which may get ingrained as stereotypes. These can be either highly negative or over-romanticized (think of the "noble savage" trope). In either case, the result is objectification and othering. It's probably related to the empiricist tendency to sort everything--and everyone--into discrete groupings, as opposed to a more holistic worldview, but I'm getting too deep in the weeds now.

I do think NY is cognizant of these ambiguities, to some extent.

An eco-protest song titled "Indian Givers" is fairly self-aware. I remember my grandmother casually using that expression. It likely became a habit because it made us laugh as very young children, insofar as we'd never heard it anywhere else: one of those weird "old people" sayings, where you understand from context what they mean but it makes so little sense as to seem goofy. I can't remember her using any other racialized language (does "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!" count?), but it does go to show how these images and ideas get embedded through cultural transmission.

Thanks for the CotM here Meta Rocker.  Your nuanced insights are always welcomed here @ TW. Yet we fear that historical revisionism as gotten completely out of control as the gatekeepers become increasingly desperate while The #BigShift  gathers momentum.

All this said however, if we look at the marketing for the 2024 “Love Earth Tour” of Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse, it would seem that the Crazy Horse name is still intact, but the horse is riderless. So the inconsistency remains consistent.

 Love Earth Tour

Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse

 

So, if we take the "crazy" out of the "The Horse", will there be any spook left?

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

 

Back in 2012, we posted on  National Geographic Magazine's August 2012 cover of In The Spirit of Crazy Horse.  Our hope was that folks would follow the NG link and go read the wonderful article. We suggested that maybe modern humans need to go back and learn from indigenous peoples about how to live sustainably.

Crazy Horse*
from album art for Americana by Neil Young & Crazy Horse (2012) 

Please note our previous piece Crazy Horse: A Noble American History and the ensuing uproar. As evidenced by the post, we have nothing but the utmost respect for Native American history, And for that matter, indigenous peoples around the world.

From Time to Get Crazy: What We Can Learn from Native American Resistance to Colonists' Greed  by Chris Hedges:

There are few resistance figures in American history as noble as Crazy Horse.

He led, long after he knew that ultimate defeat was inevitable, the most effective revolt on the plains, wiping out Custer and his men on the Little BigHorn. “Even the most basic outline of his life shows how great he was,” Ian Frazier writes in his book “Great Plains,” “because he remained himself from the moment of his birth to the moment he died; because he knew exactly where he wanted to live, and never left; because he may have surrendered, but he was never defeated in battle; because, although he was killed, even the Army admitted he was never captured; because he was so free that he didn’t know what a jail looked like.” His “dislike of the oncoming civilization was prophetic,” Frazier writes. “He never met the President” and “never rode on a train, slept in a boarding house, ate at a table.” And “unlike many people all over the world, when he met white men he was not diminished by the encounter.”

Crazy Horse was bayoneted to death on Sept. 5, 1877, after being tricked into walking toward the jail at Fort Robinson in Nebraska. The moment he understood the trap he pulled out a knife and fought back. Gen. Phil Sheridan had intended to ship Crazy Horse to the Dry Tortugas, a group of small islands in the Gulf of Mexico, where a U.S. Army garrison ran a prison with cells dug out of the coral. Crazy Horse, even when dying, refused to lie on the white man’s cot. He insisted on being placed on the floor. Armed soldiers stood by until he died. And when he breathed his last, Touch the Clouds, Crazy Horse’s seven-foot-tall Miniconjou friend, pointed to the blanket that covered the chief’s body and said, “This is the lodge of Crazy Horse.” His grieving parents buried Crazy Horse in an undisclosed location. Legend says that his bones turned to rocks and his joints to flint.

His ferocity of spirit remains a guiding light for all who seek lives of defiance.

Crazy Horse*

Lakota Chief, American-Indian

Long live Crazy Horse! But never Spook The Horse.

   #DontSpookTheHorse 
Neil Young & Crazy Horse 2014 Europe Tour 
 

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

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

 #MayTheHorseBeWithYou

* see comments below on Crazy Horse image

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