Neil Young’s reunion with Crazy Horse has nixed previously announced plans for a long-awaited tour with Buffalo Springfield.
Neil Young, Richie Furay and Stephen Stills got together as Buffalo Springfield for the first time in four decades for an appearance at 2010’s Bridge School benefit. There was also an appearance during the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee last year — leading to talk of a multi-date reunion tour. But then the ever-mercurial Young began working again with Crazy Horse. That outburst of creativity quickly led to two album’s worth of material. Young has already unveiled a 37-minute recording of Crazy Horse jamming called “Horse Back.”
“You know, Neil is just fickle and even though it boils down to all three of us making a decision … without the three of us, really there can’t be anything that would even resemble a Buffalo Springfield,” Furay said during a recent radio interview. “I gotta say that we probably lost a little bit of our momentum; that isn’t to say it couldn’t be picked up again, but I certainly don’t see anything happening this year.”
Crazy Horse has appeared on all or part of some 20 Neil Young projects, notably 1970’s After the Gold Rush, 1975’s Tonight’s the Night and 1979’s Rust Never Sleeps, as well as the minor pop hit “Cinnamon Girl.” Their last new collaboration, however, was Greendale in 2003.
The band appeared with Young on February 10, performing “I Saw Her Standing There” at the MusiCares tribute to Paul McCartney. Thus far, however, no Crazy Horse concert dates have been announced. “I honestly have not heard a solitary thing about touring,” Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina wrote on his Facebook page last week.)
Here’s a look back at our recent thoughts on Neil Young, including a report by Glen Boyd — author of the forthcoming book ‘Neil Young FAQ’ from Backbeat Books/Hal Leonard Publishing. Click through the headlines for complete reviews …
ONE TRACK MIND: BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD, “MR. SOUL” (1967): The track bursts out in a tangled web of ass-whipping guitars, then Young starts an acidic attack on the music business, and what it does to those who get pushed through its grinding gears. As “Mr. Soul” rattles along, Richie Furay adds a yowling background vocal, ominous skronks whiz by and then, over a stomping bass and angry, smeared guitar, Young growls out a timeless line from an obsessed fan’s letter: “She said ‘You’re strange, but don’t change’ … and I let her.” Next comes a delightfully disturbing flurry of guitar sounds, like having several people talk to you all at once, before a deft switch on the above line: “Is it strange I should change?” Young repeats, as the song fades. “Why don’t you ask her.” If Buffalo Springfield remains a band that never quite reached its true potential — outside of the Stephen Stills’ songs “For What It’s Worth” and “Bluebird,” anyway — Young’s mercurial nature was surely to blame. But it’s that same flinty creativity that sparks engrossing, obdurate experiments like this, too. You can’t have one without the other.
SOMETHING ELSE! INTERVIEW: NILS LOFGREN OF CRAZY HORSE: Working on seminal recordings like After the Gold Rush and Tonight’s the Night, Lofgren told us, “was obviously a gift from musical heaven. I would sneak backstage all the time to ask advice from my musical heroes. Neil’s first Crazy Horse tour came through town to the Cellar Door, and I go back to a little dressing room. He was kind enough to hand me a guitar and let me sing. The next thing I knew, I spent the weekend hanging out with him. He said: ‘Look me up when you get to L.A.,’ and I did. So at 18 years of age, when he asked me to do After the Gold Rush, as intimidating as it was, I recognized it as a very blessed opportunity – and fortunately, it was with somebody that I knew a bit. As overwhelming as it might have been, I had a comfort level. That made it possible for me to hang in there and get the job done. It was a great adventure.
FORGOTTEN SERIES: NEIL YOUNG AND THE INTERNATIONAL HARVESTERS – AUSTIN CITY LIMITS (1984): Of all of Neil Young’s 1980s genre experiments, his country period is perhaps the most misunderstood of them all.For one thing, Neil had a hell of a band back then in the International Harvesters. This band of Nashville cats may not have blown down arena doors with the same ferocity as Crazy Horse or, for that matter, Pearl Jam. But as this 1984 ACL concert proves, they could more than hold their own with Neil Young on an extended version of “Down By The River.” In fact, a very young at the time Anthony Crawford’s guitar interplay with Neil here, very nearly pulls off the enviable trick of summoning up the ghost of the late Danny Whitten himself.
[amazon_enhanced asin=”B001VZY4MI” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B000002LMK” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”1617130370″ container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B000002KCC” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B001W2F730″ container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /]
- Angell & Crane, “Himalayan Dial-Up” from ‘Angell & Crane’ (2024): Video Premiere - November 22, 2024
- Michael Attias, “Avrils” from ‘Quartet Music Vol. II- Kardamon Fall’ (2024): Streaming premiere - October 11, 2024
- Bryn Roberts, “Aloft” from ‘Aloft’ (2024): Video Premiere - September 20, 2024
