When Neil Young was accompanied by friends and relatives
In 2000 Neil Young released two albums: in April “Silver and gold” (read the review here), live on December 5th “Road Rock Vol. 1″. The following is the review we published twenty-four years ago of the Canadian musician’s live album
The question, some would say, arises spontaneously: yet another Neil Young live show, just three years after “Year of the horse”? The answer is yes and no, at the same time. It’s true, the great old man of rock has a passion for live records, so much so that we have now almost lost count of how many he has released. But this “Road rock” has some peculiarities. Meanwhile it is not recorded with Crazy Horse, but with “Friends & relatives”, friends and relatives, as the subtitle says. The first category includes Ben Keith, Spooner Oldham, Donald “Duck” Dunn, Jim Keltner and Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders. In the second category Pegi and Astrid Young. Then it marks the return to electric, after the last studio album “Silver & gold”. Finally, it leverages a very respectable repertoire.
In fact, in this “Road rock” we note an epic version of “Cowgirl in the sand”, the unreleased “Fool for your love”, “Words”, the always touching “Tonight’s the night” and the Dylan-esque “All along the watchtower ”, sung with Hynde.
Recorded during our last tour, “Road Rock” is a record from times gone by. Because today’s marketing laws require planning and long lead times, while this album hit the market almost without anyone expecting it. Because it is packaged in a simple, almost Spartan way, with the titles written in the now well-known handwriting.
And, above all, because it is made of a totally out of date sound, now so great as to not allow comparisons: that of Young’s electric. And, it must be said, the songs chosen contribute greatly to enhancing it. Of course, seeing Young live is something else, an experience that cannot be reproduced on a record. An experience that, moreover, has been missing in Italy for too long. For the moment this is an excellent consolation.
