NYA Timeline Concerts

a treasure trove from the board

The Neil Young Archives may look like an outdated website full of oddly formatted ephemera, but it hides one of the best archival experiences of any artist. There’s a chronological list of every song Neil has written, played, and released. High resolution streaming access to his entire catalog of music including numerous outtakes that have never been officially released. Special concert presales. An exhaustive collection of movies and videos from throughout his entire career. The overflowing and somewhat difficult to navigate NYA Times-Contrarian, Neil’s own online newsletter filled with cherry picked articles, news, and even correspondence to and from the artist. It’s true: Neil accepts letters through the website and answers them weekly. His personality is fully on display all over this website, but it’s one particular gift that I want to feature here.

For decades, Neil has maintained recordings of nearly every concert he has performed. High quality recordings straight from the soundboard, most often recorded by long-time “front of house” engineer Tim Mulligan, and frequently, producer David Briggs. A few years ago, Neil began sharing these recordings on the “Timeline,” a side-scrolling representation of his catalog. If you were paying attention, you’d see these little diamond-looking icons below some of the albums, as well as a column of dots. The dots were concerts and the diamonds were actually tiny graphics of tape boxes. If you saw one of these icons, it meant there was a full recording of a show hidden there. To date, there are 37 of these wonderful recordings spanning 1969-2019. I said above it’s a gift and I truly mean that. Sure, we pay for Neil Young Archives, but there’s just something “extra” feeling about these recordings that feels incredibly generous of an artist.

I have no intention of reviewing or featuring every Timeline concert, but I did want to highlight a few of my favorite ones and fun moments from them. If you have a Rust level subscription or higher, check them out.

The historical nature of the 1969 Canterbury House recordings (crystal clear tape) makes them super fascinating. Neil seems obsessed with television, and in one surreal moment compares the concurrently happening Zodiac killings with Batman and the Joker. His banter, or “raps” as fan call them, are always a highlight of live recordings, and I especially like the rare moments when he admonishes the crowd like on the 1976 Balch Fieldhouse show. The crowd was particularly rowdy and Neil seems very distracted by some commotion being sorted out at one point. I was rolling when he told someone to shove it during the 1989 Paris show. But the ultimate moment is decades later on the 2007 Chrome Dreams tour, when a loud member of the audience finally gets Neil to break and call him out in a self-deprecating way.

It’s your voice, that’s the one that really drives me nuts. I like ya but all the other people may not want to hear you. I don’t like to say that cause it generally throws me off but then who can tell the difference if I’m on or off. (2007-12-16, United Palace, New York City)

This show has a pretty annoying crowd at the beginning, while Neil is playing some very tender songs, so I’m glad he finally said something. “Sad Movies” is a rare song and it’s lovely on this recording. The 1997 San Francisco warm-up show is not the best recording, but a fun time, with Neil messing up a couple times trying to start “Crime in the City,” great renditions of Mirror Ball songs by Crazy Horse, particularly “Truth Be Known,” and a truly dramatic “Cowgirl in the Sand” intro that is a treat. However, the best part is the guy continually screaming for “Danger Bird” during one lull, but instead getting “Prisoners of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a polar opposite if there ever was one.

The 2001 Rotterdam show is a big highlight. Fantastic three hour show with a Horse in fine form. They even do a favorite of mine, the Danny Whitten song “Cmon Baby Let’s Go Downtown” as well as working through “Goin’ Home” twice. In my notes, I just wrote “incredible le noise show” for the 2010 Atlanta show and it really is one of my favorite Timeline concerts. I just love the way Neil translates the Le Noise songs to live play, but also this is where he started playing some songs solo on Old Black and his Gretsch (like “Ohio”). It’s a powerful sound that I really appreciate.

The biggest treasure of the entire trove is probably the 2013 Melbourne show with Crazy Horse on the Alchemy tour. The band is on, the sound is fantastic, and the tracklist is great. A beautiful, unhurried “Cortez,” a shimmering “Danger Bird,” the soulful “Ramada Inn,” and just to show the band was really having fun: “Opera Star.” It’s a contender for the best Crazy Horse show I’ve ever heard and I’d be perfectly happy if he just released this as the official Alchemy live album (which has been delayed for years now).

The 2018 Fresno show with Nils Lofgren replacing Poncho Sampedro in Crazy Horse for the first time is pretty fun. It’s not as magical as that 2013 show, but it’s a great opportunity to see the band shaking out some rust and showing why they are the “third best garage band in the world.” “World on a String” is jangly and loose. “Walk On” is pure joy, and I was delighted to hear the David Briggs tribute “Scattered” during this show. There is also a film of this show and you can see Neil struggling a bit with the lighting during “Cortez,” but the music itself is masterful and beautiful despite that. Seeing his agitation and then comparing it to the performance without the visual, I have a renewed admiration for his mastery.

NYA has been lacking in new Timeline performances for awhile, and it’s a shame, as these are always fascinating. I hope they add more soon. There are a few untapped eras that deserve coverage. I’d really love to hear an unedited Rust Never Sleeps show, and would like to hear what kind of Old Princeton Landing recordings they have.