Neil Young
13 Days of Neil
RustWorks, Vol. 4
On the Beach

I recently acquired Chris Davis’ fantastic Jerry Garcia compilation, “8 Days of Jerome” and thought that somebody should do the same for Neil Young. Well, taking my own advice I embarked on this little project in May 2011 and, hoping others will enjoy it, decided to share. The title, “13 Days of Neil” is an obvious rip-off from Chris and Neil (Lucky 13), but feel free to call it whatever you want. Neil’s birthday is on 11/12 and this set contains 14 volumes. Yeah, it makes no sense.

Vol. 4: On the Beach continues down the Doom trilogy path. We start with the famed impromptu Bottom Line appearance and the unreleased Citizen Kane Jr. Blues. Then On the Beach is presented live, in sequence, and in its entirety-with a spoken word Vampire Blues. The late Bert Jansch accompanied Ambulance Blues is a real treat-Bert’s guitar giving the song an added depth. The CSNY Uniondale shows on August 14th and 15th featured a couple of classic Young moments. As Nixon resigned, Neil gave him and Rosemary Woods a public, improvised sendoff. The next night he slipped into Old Homestead, a song that wouldn’t appear until 6 years later on Hawks and Doves.

Over the years Neil’s performed most of OTB but 1974 saw just two Neil Young performances (only one of which was recorded) until he was swallowed by the CSNY mega excursion later that summer. That tour marked the end of the Doom era for Neil and prompted him to start getting outside of himself again. By the end of the year, Zuma had started coming together, the pain of marriage breakups, friends’ deaths, and rock superstardom’s excesses gradually (like time) fading away.

Pushed it Over the End (New York, 1974-05-16)
Walk On (CSNY, New York, 1974-09-08)
See the Sky About to Rain (Boston, 1971-01-21)
Revolution Blues (New York, 1974-05-16)
For the Turnstiles (Electric Band, Weert, 2008-07-11)
Vampire Blues (Davis, 2010-07-15)
On The Beach (Hamburg, 2003-04-29)
Motion Pictures (New York, 1974-05-16)
Ambulance Blues (Bert Jansch, Mountainview, 2006-10-22)
*Pardon My Heart > Old Homestead (Uniondale, 1974-08-15)
*Goodbye Dick (Uniondale, 1974-08-14)
Cripple Creek Ferry (New York, 1973-01-21)
L.A. (Toronto, 1973-01-15)
Don’t be Denied (Chicago, 1982-01-31)
Time Fades Away (Stray Gators, New York, 1973-01-21)

The selection process for this compilation was quite simple. I attempted to pace the songs in a loose chronological order, creating counterpoint with slow and uptempo tunes, and above all include versions of songs that I can enjoy over and over. In that sense, this is more of a retrospective than a greatest hits or best of compilation. Basically, it’s just a bunch of songs that just seem to go well together. Of course, the fact that Neil is so prolific made this project fairly mind-boggling simply in terms of available material. Clearly, I avoided any officially released material, or any that was likely to be released in the foreseeable future.

This collection is also a showcase for the great people and bands with whom Neil has played over the years: Danny, Bert, Nicolette, all those Nashville players, Crazy Horse, the Stray Gators and Santa Monica Flyers, the Springfield, CSN, Pegi. Listen closely and you’ll hear all of them at one point or another. This goes out to Long Grain in particular. If not for Ben Keith, I fear there would be no Neil Young as we’ve come to know, and love, him.

A word about compilations: I compiled these performances for my personal listening pleasure, and share them for the same reason. There are many Neil Young compilations available out there: “Archives be Damned 2000” (and 2006), “Acoustic Masterpieces,” “A Perfect Echo.” Of course, the one must-have compilation is the officially released “Archives.” Nothing beats the original tracks themselves. This compilation is not meant to replace any of the aforementioned. It, simply, is what it is.

I urge you to seek out the original performances (they’re all available somewhere). Thank you so much to the original tapers and uploaders and all who share this great music (what we do here at DIME is a rare and precious thing). And, of course, thanks, Neil.

Enjoy,
1chucho
November 2011

Lineage: All recordings obtained from various torrent sites (DIME, Trader’s Den, HungerCity, TapeCity, Zomb): FLAC > WAV > CD-R > FLAC (8) > DIME
Notes on Sound Quality: All Audience Recordings except as noted, the SQ is Excellent to Excellent+ throughout except*
*SQ is Fair to good
Convert to lossy for personal use only
NOT FOR SALE-SHARE FREELY
Please support this artist-purchase official recordings, attend live performances regularly, and visit the websites:

www.neilyoung.com
www.thrasherswheat.org
www.sugarmtn.org

RustWorks, Vol. 1: Sugar Mountain
RustWorks, Vol. 2: Heart of Gold
RustWorks, Vol. 3: Tired Eyes
RustWorks, Vol. 4: On the Beach
RustWorks, Vol. 5: Interstate
RustWorks, Vol. 6: This Old Guitar
RustWorks, Vol. 7: Let it Shine
RustWorks, Vol. 8: Out of the Blue
RustWorks, Vol. 9: Into the Black
RustWorks, Vol. 10: Transformer Man
RustWorks, Vol. 11-Part I: Don’t Spook the Horse
RustWorks, Vol. 11-Part II: Don’t Spook the Horse
RustWorks, Vol. 12: Stringman
RustWorks, Vol. 13: Borrowed Tune
RustWorks, Vol. 14: Looking Forward