release date: Jul. 1979
format: cd (1993 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: Neil Young, David Briggs and Tim Mulligan
label: Reprise Records, Germany - nationality: Canada
Tracklist: 1. "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" (4 / 5) - 2. "Thrasher" (4 / 5) - 3. "Ride My Llama" - 4. "Pocahontas" - 5. "Sail Away" - 6. "Powderfinger" (4 / 5) - 7. "Welfare Mothers" - 8. "Sedan Delivery" - 9. "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" (4 / 5)
Live album and 10th album of new material by Neil Young & Crazy Horse is also Young's second official and perhaps best received live album. This is not his great albums come to live but actually all new tracks recorded for a live audience. First half of the album is almost entirely Neil on his own, just singing, playing guitar and harmonica, whereas the second part (tracks #6-9 - the actual B-side on vinyl) is an electrified Young with Crazy Horse. Mostly, the cheering and clapping of the audience has been removed, so it's a different kind of a live album in more than one sense. It was released and classified as a collection of songs and as a live album, but basically it has been heavily re-produced and overdubbed in the studio, which makes it a bit of a bland experience as a genuine live album.
The album put him back on top of the world of rock despite new times with punk rock, post punk and new wave. It's enlisted in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die", and it's a certified must-have item in any Neil Young collection, which means: highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 5 / 5, Q Magazine 4 / 5 stars ]
