Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Live at the Fillmore East

As the old cliché goes, there are few guarantees in life other than death and taxes. An unpredictable, stubborn Neil Young could easily sit just as comfortably within that list. After years and years of rumors, incessant delays and harassment from fans (long-awaited isn’t even close to the right description), Young has finally released the first installment from his Performance Series Archives. At first glance, Live at the Fillmore East, which has only six cuts, will leave diehards scratching their heads saying, “This is it?” This is it indeed. The original line-up of Crazy Horse, featuring the late Danny Whitten trading assaults with Young on guitar, is on blistering fire for the entire near 45 minute stampede taken from several 1970 shows in New York. The Horse comes out firing on “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” “Winterlong,” and the countrified “Wonderin’,” but it’s the sloppy raggedness of “Down By The River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand (clocking in around 15 minutes and with a hypnotic bed of keys from Jack Nitzsche)” that show the magic of the world’s greatest garage-punk band. Whitten also delivers inebriated vocals on a stellar version of his often-overlooked “Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown” after Young hilariously gets his band members' hometowns wrong during intros. While this release is mostly for collectors, casual fans will have no trouble appreciating the pristine sound and interplay between a still-innocent Young and his goons. Let’s hope Young’s vault has more in it like Fillmore. [www.neilyoung.com]