NEIL YOUNG'S "LIVE AT MASSEY HALL" SET FOR RELEASE MARCH 13TH
The 1971 Concert Is The Second Album in Performance Series.
January 17, 2007 - Burbank, CA – On January 19, 1971, Neil Young performed at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada. In many ways, this was a major homecoming event. He had left Canada in 1966, soon becoming a member of Buffalo Springfield in Los Angeles, then recording his self-titled debut solo album in 1968. That was followed by "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" with Crazy Horse, then Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Déjà vu" in 1970 and his best-selling album "After The Gold Rush." By the time Young came back to Canada for the Massey Hall concert, he had become one of the most exciting and successful singer-songwriters in rock.
Neil Young was performing solo that evening in Toronto, playing many of his well-known songs like "Down by the River," "Ohio" and "I Am a Child." But he also included several new originals that would be featured on his next new album, "Harvest," which had not been released yet, like "Old Man," "The Needle and the Damage Done" and "Heart of Gold." The audience had not heard any of these before, and the night was an historic and moving performance for all.
"This is the album that should have come out between "After The Gold Rush" and 'Harvest,'" Young says now. "David Briggs, my producer, was adamant that this should be the record, but I was very excited about the takes we got on "Harvest," and wanted "Harvest" out. David disagreed. As I listen to this today, I can see why."
Live At Massey Hall, produced by Young and the late David Briggs, is the second Reprise Records release in the Neil Young Archives Performance Series, following last year's "Live At The Fillmore East" album. Both are in anticipation of the "Archives Volume I" collection, due this fall. That 8-CD, 2-DVD audiobiography will include Young's music from 1963 to 1972, and feature a treasure trove of previously unreleased recordings, both studio and live, along with concert footage and rare memorabilia from the first decade of Neil Young's long and unequaled career.
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Neil Young
1970 and 1971 were landmark years in the career of Neil Young. From touring to recording, and back again, this creative period was one of the most productive and varied.
The year started on tour with Crazy Horse. This run of shows would years later yield Neil Young & Crazy Horse Live At The Fillmore East (Disc 2 of the Archives Performance Series). That tour was followed by the recording of After The Gold Rush. At this same time the CSNY album, Déjà Vu hit the streets to rave reviews. Then in early May, his strong reaction to a photo of the Kent State Massacre on the cover of Time magazine prompted Neil to write, record and release the song, "Ohio" as a 45 rpm single with CSNY. No sooner than "Ohio" hit the record shops and airways did CSNY embark on a highly successful summer tour from which would come the live album, 4 Way Street. In the Fall, the release of After The Gold Rush became a commercial success with such songs as "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", "When You Dance", and "Southern Man".
After the Gold Rush made it to the charts, solidifying Neil's place as a relevant singer-songwriter for the generation. He then embarked on a solo tour, accompanied by just his guitar and piano.
Forever in motion, Neil only stopped when an incapacitating back problem brought him to a Los Angeles hospital. Shortly thereafter, he was back on the road wearing a back-brace and writing new songs.
Neil began working these and other new unreleased songs into his set list, including "The Needle And The Damage Done", "Heart of Gold", "A Man needs a Maid", "There's a World", "Love in Mind", "Bad Fog of Loneliness", "Journey Through the Past", "See the Sky About to Rain" and "Old Man". This new group of songs was perhaps best captured on tape January19, 1971 at Toronto's Massey Hall.
During this time Neil was planning to release a double live album , but the events of the upcoming weeks shelved those plans.
While on a trip to Nashville in early February for a taping of the televison show, Johnny Cash On Campus, Neil gathered a group of studio musicians to record some of the new songs. From these tapes would come the first tracks for the Harvest album. Later that month, Young traveled to England to perform in London. While there another session was booked, this time with the London Symphony Orchestra backing up Neil on grand piano. The result? Two more songs that ended up on Harvest, "A Man Needs a Maid" and "There's World".
Neil was so intent to release the recordings he had completed in Nashville and London that he never listened to the recording from Massey Hall. His producer, David Briggs pleaded with him to release the Massey Hall concert recordings instead of the studio version of Harvest, but Young held his ground. In a short period of time the idea of the double live album became a distant memory.
It was 27 years later that Neil heard the recordings for the first time and created a place for them as part of his Archives Release. Today you can hear this Toronto concert from 1971 in this package and learn more about this period in the "More" section of the DVD.
