This week has been an anniversary of sorts for Neil Young and I. It was 30 years ago — Christmas of 1977 — when I became a Neil Young fan for life. I received the three-l.p. vinyl Decade as a gift, and wore holes through the grooves playing it so often. When Neil toured the following year with a batch of new songs that would later become Rust Never Sleeps, I was at the Nassau Coliseum show:
Neil Young has been a constant through those entire 30 years, through my passing fads of fanship in punk, post-punk, anti-folk, jamband, et. al. When Neil suffered a serious aneurysm in 2005, it looked as if the career of rock’s most diverse and yet consistently excellent performer would either be curtailed or come to an end. Fortunately, the post-aneurysm Neil was as productive as ever, producing Prairie Wind, appearing in Jonathan Demme’s Heart of Gold, and producing an new album (Living With War) and a full tour with old friends CSNY (a recording of the Jones Beach CSNY 2006 concert is in the nyctaper archives).
The current tour, which ended its US leg on Wednesday night at the United Palace Theatre, has been a complete triumph in support of another superb Neil release Chrome Dreams II. Neil has performed the standard Acoustic/Electric set split, with the appearance of some rare chestnuts mixed in with consistent classics, and new numbers. Wednesday’s show featured the tour’s star revival “Out on the Weekend” as the first set closer. Other highlights included “Journey Through the Past”, “Winterlong”, “Cowgirl in the Sand”, and completely shredded 26-minute “No Hidden Path” as the second set closer.
Some readers may have followed my efforts to attend one of these concerts, which ultimately came to a happy ending when I found a cancellation ticket on ticketmaster on the morning of the 19th. My seat was in Row N, slightly left of center, about 10 rows behind the Soundboard and under the overhang. This is not an optimal recording position, and the problems were exacerbated by the low volume of the PA during the acoustic set and a couple of clowns in the audience around me. The final disaster was my batteries running out during the last few notes of No Hidden Path. After a significant amount of post-production (removing idiotic yelling is excruciatingly difficult), and the very generous offer of the balance of the concert from an alternate recorder thanks to “zuma11”, nyctaper is finally pleased to present a really excellent version of this concert. Enjoy!
This recording is no longer available at nyctaper. If you look around the web, you’ll likely find a copy.
Neil Young
2007-12-19
United Palace Theatre
New York, NY USA
Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Row N
Left Center, 10 Rows Behind Soundboard
DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > 16bit 44.1 wav > Soundforge (set fades, level boosts, close clapping and crowd noise edits, slight eq, crossfade patch material) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac
Premiere Download offered at
http://www.nyctaper.com
[email protected]
Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2007-12-22
Setlist:
Acoustic Set
[total time 1:04:36]
01 From Hank to Hendrix
02 Ambulance Blues
03 Sad Movies
04 A Man Needs a Maid
05 No One Seems To Know
06 Harvest
07 Try
08 Journey Through the Past
09 Mellow My Mind
10 Love Art Blues
11 Cowgirl In the Sand
12 Out On the Weekend
Electric Set
[total time 1:29:01]
01 Mr. Soul
02 Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
03 Dirty Old Man
04 Spirit Road
05 Bad Fog of Loneliness
06 Winterlong
07 Oh, Lonesome Me
08 The Believer
09 No Hidden Path**
Encores
10 [encore break]**
11 Cinnamon Girl**
12 Cortez the Killer**
13 The Sultan**
[**patch material — thanks zuma 11]
If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Neil Young and visit his website.
Hi!
Thanks for offering the show on your server!
Very fast d’l.
Be sure I support Neil ;-)
– Front row seat Berlin, Germany, 26 Feb. 2008!
Cheers, FrankB
Dan –
Thanks very much for this and all the other recordings of yours you’ve shared both through this site as well as on Dime. Your generosity is very much appreciated.
I hope you have a fantastic holiday season, no matter how you chose to celebrate.
Best regards,
Seth
Thanks for sharing!
Nice to see you FrankB in Berlin!
Yes, yes, yes…:-)
Greetings from Alaska..
Thankyou for your ward work and love of music. Peace, Joe Ray
really appreciate your time and patience to bring this to us.I first saw Neil with CSN in 1974 at Roosevelt Stadium.Neil announced that President Nixon has resigned.Broke into Ohio……quite a night.Saw him with The Horse several times and with CSN twice again.Love his mind and his music.My wife and I went on 12/12……looked high and low for a taper to no avail.Your night has some gems that our night didnt have.
Thank you again,
mike
Another excellent effort – thank you for this cool Christmas present!
dan,
I too saw neil for the first time at the nassau coliseum,(Trans Solo Tour Feb.1983),have not missed an area tour since.
Saw Sunday night’s show, 12-16-07.
Damn fine performance, neat old venue (could’ve used some A/C though).
Many thanks for recording/posting.
Merry Christmas and Happy Neil Year!
herb.
I’ll give this a listen. Have heard a couple of decent shows from this tour, but the same set list (basically) every night is kinda a let down. I understand this isn’t Crazy Horse, but some variation would be nice. But hey, I’ve been a Neil fan for 20+ yrs, so the guy has his hits and misses and when he hits, BAM!!! So ty, good sir and have a good holiday!
Anyone else having trouble with track 8 on the 2nd set? It won’t convert at all while all other of the files are just fine?
track 9, i meant. oops.
No,I didn`t get a problem with tr.9.It downloaded/plays fine.Something strange going on with your setup perhaps
Well done,Dan,on blotting-out the `whoo-ers`I`ve noticed U.S. audiences ,in particular, go `whoo` alot.I know it`s a spontanious display of appreciation but I ,(and others,I suspect),thank you for taking the time+effort to edit them out.They can get very irritating/distracting.You`ve got the balance between music/crowd mood perfect.Thanks many times.
As usual, you made my day with your excellent recording of Neil’s last show. Thank you !
Looking forward to his upcoming French stop.
Cheers.
Patrick
Many kind thank yous for this and for your kind service.
Thanx Couldnt Get Tickets Here.
Thanks very much for the NY (unf, missed this tour) and for the archive RT show from ’97 — awesome. Happy New Year.
a very BIG thank you, nyc taper, for doing such a great thing for longtime neil fans such as ourselves.
i missed these shows for a variety of reasons, but also first saw neil at nassau coliseum in ’76, i believe it was, on the ill-fated stills-young band tour.
my sister turned me on to after the goldrush when i was 13 or so (1973) and have been a huge fan ever since.
i’ve seen him solo, silver&gold tour, with crazy horse, with family&friends and he just gets better and better.
again, BIG thanks for this.
Many Thanks Dan, Ive been a Neil Young fan for many years, I seen him well half of the show here in Louisville Ky back in 1983 during the (Trans Solo Tour) When he got sick and quit playing after the first set.. then all hell broke loose idiots started to hurl chairs at the stage after they announced he was sick and would not return.. was pretty sad that they did that shit.. well anyway thanks again.. :) Happy New Year !
Anyone have an idea if this might still be available anywhere else, or where that might be? Thanks!