‘I never heard anybody be that intense’: David Crosby selects his favorite Neil Young performance

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The long, long, long, long-awaited box set focusing on Crosby Stills and Nash’s mythical 1974 tour has been mentioned, officially announced, set for issue and pulled back — remaining steadfastly unreleased for decades now. A confirmed August release date came and went, as did the hopes for an early-2014 date in recognition of the concerts’ 40th anniversary.

Eventually dubbed the Doom Tour, it saw internal tensions between the always-tenuously connected members of this group growing it seemed with each appearance. Drugs, arguments over the material, even complaints about Neil Young’s haircut have all been variously blamed for the deep antipathy these shows engendered.

And yet David Crosby says the mythical set, which is said to feature three discs of music culled from eight different shows, contains some of the best singing Crosby Stills Nash and Young ever did. He reserves his most effusive praise for a treasured Young deep cut, “Pushed It Over the End.”

“That’s one of of the most intense pieces of music I’ve ever heard it in my life,” Crosby tells Radio.com. “It might be the single greatest Neil Young live [performance] ever. I never heard anybody be that intense on a record. Ever. Anybody. Anybody. Ever. And repeatedly all through this thing there are just moments where you say, ‘Wow, did they do that?’ It’s stunning stuff.”

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