The second release in Neil Young's Archive Performance Series, Live at Massey Hall 1971 is a pristine recording that sat in the vaults for 36 years. The Archive series, which has long been promised and the first installment of which was only delivered at the end of 2006, was delayed as long as it was because Young was waiting for technology to catch up with his vision for the series. Massey Hall contains the 17-song setlist on one CD and again on a DVD with a video element.The DVD has a lot of great extras, in addition to video from the concert and superb audio. There are video clips from the Johnny Cash Show and a 1997 video of Young going through material for the Archives. There's radio interviews with Young talking about some of his new songs, and newspaper clippings of reviews from the period. There are many photos and a timeline as well, all of which make a comprehensive snapshot of Young in the early 1970s.
The Massey Hall show was recorded in January 1971, shortly after the release of After The Gold Rush, considered one of Young's very best albums.
In fact, this release reveals that Young's producer, David Briggs, wanted Massey Hall to be the follow-up album to Gold Rush, but Young, who had just recorded many of the songs that would make up Harvest, insisted on going ahead with that album instead. What's amazing is that both men were right: Who could argue with releasing Harvest, one of Young's most celebrated albums and the one which gave him his only #1 hit, "Heart of Gold"? But upon hearing Massey Hall - which includes many of the songs from Harvest that made their debut at this show and on the tour from which it came - you can see it being as strong an addition to the Neil Young canon. "On the Way Home," "Tell Me Why," "Journey Through the Past," "There's a World," and "Ohio" are highlights of the set, as is "A Man Needs a Maid/Heart of Gold Suite" which combines two songs from the Harvest album. It's also somewhat refreshing to hear a four-minute version of "Down By The River," which can often reach double that length on live albums.The video of the concert is a little muddy, as many 36-year-old films are wont to be, but it is no less a gripping visual document of the show. The concert footage is cut with video of the venue and of other locations, such as Young's ranch, which he talks about in reference to "Old Man" and the caretaker the song is about. More intriguing though is the use of the DVD format as a method of archiving. Including those newspaper reviews, pictures, radio interviews and the like shows how encompassing the format can be, and Young is exploring the possibilities. (Indeed, the first box set in the Archive series, set for release in 2007, includes 2 DVDs and 8 CDs, plus a large book.)
Massey Hall remains a great document of a great artist. This is Neil Young at his acoustic best (which is not to dismiss such fine works that followed as Comes A Time, Old Ways, Harvest Moon, Silver and Gold and even the recent Prairie Wind) with the songs that made his solo career get off to such a memorable start. It's historic as part of the artist's past and where he was going at a fertile point in his development, and deserves a place in any Neil Young fan's collection.More info: Thrasher's Wheat: Neil Young News
