Neil Young Weld (1991)

From New Musical Express

I guess you just really had to be there to fully appreciate the surge of power that has been captured on these two discs, but for those devoted Neil Young & Crazy Horse fans who just couldn’t make it to their US tour last spring, ‘Weld’ manages to give the illusion that you had a front row seat.

Live albums are usually hit and miss affairs, a fusing together of all the best bits from a successful tour in the hope that a valid and perhaps valuable document will be the end result. If it charts then that’s a bonus! Neil Young & Crazy Horse have had a couple of stabs at making a live album, with varying degrees of success. ‘Time Fades Away’ from 1973 featured an all-new set of songs never released on record before, a shock tactic that baffled all those who were expecting a run-through of ‘Harvest’ and ‘After The Goldrush’ nuggets and a bitter blow for Young’s record company, who were hoping for just that.

‘Time Fades Away’ (and the string of albums that came after it) was the benchmark for Young’s independent spirit, for here was one rock’n’roll star who was not going to be pushed into his own past by anybody.

As the ’70s progressed and punk took a hold, Neil Young & Crazy Horse surprised the world again by embracing the ‘enemy’ at their door. Rather than dismiss the rock revolution that punk was demanding at that time, Neil and his band plugged themselves in and gave their own version of how it should all come down. The result was the tongue-in-cheek titled ‘Rust Never Sleeps’, a brutal and brilliantly played celebration of rock ‘n’ roll that was taken on the road with a set of giant-sized props and a sound to match.

The resulting live double album was ’79’s ‘Live Rust’, a set which delivered the man’s past and present while, at the same stroke, elegantly signing off that particular stage of his career. ‘Weld’ is, to some extent, a sequel to ‘Live Rust’, and that same rush of ‘mission accomplished’ comes over strong when Young heaps praise on the tour’s sound crew before signing this one off with an emotionally charged rendition of ‘Roll Another Number’. The formula here follows that of ‘Live Rust’ too, indeed, six of the songs from that particular set have the test of time to muscle their way on to ‘Weld’.

‘Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black’), ‘Cinnamon Girl’, ‘Cortez The Killer’, ‘Powderfinger’, ‘Like A Hurricane’ and Tonight’s The Night’ are blasted out ’90s style with a freshness and a deep knowledge of just how rock ‘n’ roll works that makes today’s young Sub-Pop groomed guitar rebels look pretty sick and stupid.

Not that that’s the aim of the game that Neil Young & Crazy Horse are playing here. It’s the music and the creative comradeship of four lively minds that’s on display, and the fruits of that friendship surpass any fly-by-night fad and supply ‘Weld’ with a bountiful harvest of quite astonishing rock music.

The old songs are stripped down and updated fo fit snugly against the new; so closely have they been shaped and ground down that it is sometimes difficult to spot the join. Nostalgia is flattened in favour of powerful progression and each song is a pop rivet which ultimately becomes an integral part of the entire construction that Neil Young & Crazy Horse are building onstage. Thus, ‘Cinnamon Girl’ is nudged against ‘Mansion On The Hill’ and ‘F—in’ Up’ from ‘Ragged Glory’, while ‘Love And Only Love’ provides the perfect opening theme for the equally impassioned ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ from ‘Freedom’.

Throughout ‘Weld’ the sonic distortion of feedback, which was put to such great effect on ‘Ragged Glory’, has been brought into play and amplified still further. It’s presence can be immediately felt like a stiff breeze on the opening ‘Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)’, but by the time you get to ‘Tonight’s The Night’ the black storm clouds of despair and frustrated anger have gathered and the breeze has developed into a full blown tornado.

The sheer force of the feedback frenzy that Young and his band whip up is intense, purifying and draining. As though the spirits who have been bottled up in the song for so many years (ex-Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten and ex-CSN&Y roadie Bruce Berry, both of whom died through drugs) have been exorcised forever. As the feedback slowly fades away Young sounds exhausted but on top of the world. “The best,” he mumbles to the roaring crowd.

For a further feedback fix try ‘Arc’, which has been soldered on to the ‘Weld’ package as an optional extra. Tour support band Sonic Youth are partly to thank for this; it was they who suggested to Young the idea of releasing a record of wall-to-wall feedback and ‘Arc’ is the glorious, if slightly wearing, result. A feedback symphony of noise that is the perfect accompaniment for what has to be the greatest live rock album ever recorded. Here it is in all its ragged glory. (10)

Neil Young & Crazy Horse Weld (1991)

From New Musical Express 19th Octo 1991

I Guess you just really had to be there to fully appreciate the surge of power that has been captured on these two discs, but for those devoted Neil Young & Crazy Horse fans who just couldn’t make it to their US tour last spring, Weld manages to give the illusion that you had a front row seat.

Live albums are usually hit and miss affairs, a fusing together of all the best bits from a successful tour in the hope that a valid and perhaps valuable document will be the end result. If it charts then that’s a bonus! Neil Young & Crazy Horse have had a couple of stabs at making a live album, with varying degrees of success.

Time Fades Away from 1973 featured an all-new set of songs never released on record before, a shock tactic that baffled all those who were expecting a run-through of Harvest and After The Goldrush nuggets and a bitter blow for Young’s record company, who were hoping for just that.

Time Fades Away (and the string of albums that came after it) was the benchmark for Young’s independent spirit, for here was one rock ‘n’ roll star who was not going to be pushed into his own past by anybody.

As the ’70s progressed and punk took a hold, Neil Young & Crazy Horse surprised the world again by embracing the ‘enemy’ at their door. Rather than dismiss the rock revolution that punk was demanding at that time, Neil and his band plugged themselves in and gave their own version of how it should all come down. The result was the tongue-in-cheek titled Rust Never Sleeps, a brutal and brilliantly played celebration of rock ‘n’ roll that was taken on the road with a set of giant-sized props and a sound to match.

The resulting live double album was ’79’s Live Rust, a set which delivered the man’s past and present while, at the same stroke, elegantly signing off that particular stage of his career. Weld is, to some extent, a sequel to Live Rust, and that same rush of ‘mission accomplished’ comes over strong when Young heaps praise on the tour’s sound crew before signing this one off with an emotionally charged rendition of Roll Another Number. The formula here follows that of Live Rust too, indeed, six of the songs from that particular set have the test of time to muscle their way on to Weld.

‘Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)’, ‘Cinnamon Girl’, ‘Cortez The Killer’, ‘Powderfinger’, ‘Like A Hurricane’ and ‘Tonight’s The Night’

are blasted out ’90s style with a freshness and a deep knowledge of just how rock ‘n’ roll works that makes today’s young Sub-Pop groomed guitar rebels look pretty sick and stupid.

Not that that’s the aim of the game that Neil Young & Crazy Horse are playing here. It’s the music and the creative comradeship of four lively minds that’s on display, and the fruits of that friendship surpass any fly-by-night fad and supply Weld with a bountiful harvest of quite astonishing rock music.

The old songs are stripped down and updated to fit snugly against the new; so closely have they been shaped and ground down that it is sometimes difficult to spot the join. Nostalgia is flattened in favour of powerful progression and each song is a pop rivet which ultimately becomes an integral part of the entire construction that Neil Young & Crazy Horse are building onstage. Thus, ‘Cinnamon Girl’ is nudged against ‘Mansion On The Hill’ and ‘F—in’ Up’ from Ragged Glory, while ‘Love And Only Love’ provides the perfect opening theme for the equally impassioned ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ from Freedom.

Throughout Weld the sonic distortion of feedback, which was put to such great effect on Ragged Glory, has been brought into play and amplified still further. It’s presence can be immediately felt like a stiff breeze on the opening ‘Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)’, but by the time you get to ‘Tonight’s The Night’ the black storm clouds of despair and frustrated anger have gathered and the breeze has developed into a full blown tornado.

The sheer force of the feedback frenzy that Young and his band whip up is intense, purifying and draining. As though the spirits who have been bottled up in the song for so many years (ex-Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten and ex-CSN&Y roadie Bruce Berry, both of whom died through drugs) have been exorcised forever. As the feedback slowly fades away Young sounds exhausted but on top of the world. “The best,” he mumbles to the roaring crowd.

For a further feedback fix try Arc, which has been soldered on to the Weld package as an optional extra. Tour support band Sonic Youth are partly to thank for this; it was they who suggested to Young the idea of releasing a record of wall-to-wall feedback and Arc is the glorious, if slightly wearing, result. A feedback symphony of noise that is the perfect accompaniment for what has to be the greatest live rock album ever recorded. Here it is in all its ragged glory.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse Weld (1991)

From soundblab.com

In a career where each artistic step has felt like a reaction to the one before it, Neil Young’s 1991 Weld/Arc release is perhaps best summed up as the live document that captures Young and his live band at the peak of their collective abilities.  A record so sonically dense that Young claims the mixing sessions permanently damaged his hearing, Weld documents the 1991 tour in support of the critically acclaimed Ragged Glory, an album regarded by many (this reviewer included) as one of the best from Young’s mid-period ‘grunge’ years.

The chemistry between Young and Crazy Horse – his long-time partners in crime Billy Talbot (bass), Poncho Sampedro (guitar), and Ralph Molina (drums) – is tangible from the first feedback-drenched notes of “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black).  That song, along with the obligatory live staples “Cinnamon Girl” and “Rockin’ In The Free World” are all given the definitive performance treatment by the band.

While Ragged Glory may feel a bit over-represented (with a total of five songs), the album’s already-built-for-stage selections go over incredibly well here, as the songs feel all the more visceral (“Love to Burn’, and “Farmer John” in particular) in the context of what is an otherwise ‘greatest hits’ set.  A particularly moving version of Zuma’s “Cortez the Killer” and a masterful fourteen-minute rendition of “Like a Hurricane” are clear album-highlights, and feature some of Young’s most inspired guitar-playing on record.  And to that point, incredibly tight vocal harmonies are on full display throughout much of the set.

Included as a companion piece with the ‘special edition’ of the original release, the thirty-five-minute compilation of dissonant feedback-drenched guitar noise that is Arc is easily relegated to the ‘for completist’s only’ pile.  Arc is more or less a gratuitous sonic exploration, neither an adding or subtracting from the stellar content of its counterpart. If that’s your ‘sort of thing,’ then it’s obviously a treat, but this writer has honestly never made it past the five minute mark.  

Above all else, Neil Young’s prolific run has always been marked by his refusal to march to the beat of any other drum other than his own.  At a time when many of his contemporaries were cashing in on their legacies, forgoing the process of creating new music in favor of the far more lucrative business of redundant compilations and endless ‘greatest hits’ tours, Young consistently opted for the far less bank-able path of forging ahead into the unknown.

To that point, Weld reveals a rejuvenated Young (who was an impressive forty-five years young at the time of its recording) rocking out to his heart’s content.  With a litany of live documents to choose from, (Rust Never Sleeps will forever remain the obligatory go-to) Weld will probably always be an oft-overlooked mid-career gem; but a gem it remains nonetheless.

Neil Young Weld (1991)

From donignacio.com

This is a really good live album, but it makes a really tough listen. Young continues his thesis from Ragged Glory that the more ultra-distorted guitar, the better. And, after sitting through this album several times, I’ve gotten so much guitar that my head is pounding from it. Most of these guitar solos, I’d say, are very good. Young has a good idea how to make them cool without sounding cliche. Even at times he seems to let that electric guitar be an extension of his own warped personality, which is undoubtedly the reason a lot of people enjoy Weld so much!

But at other times, he seems to go off on these overextended, ear-piercing tangents that are aimless and terrible. I’m specifically talking about the times when he makes that guitar screeeeeeech like some sort of evil demon that’s trying to suck my soul out of my nostrils. That’s right; my soul out of my nostrils. Do people actually enjoy listening to that? Other times, he’s doing these sloppy, one-tone wonky things for many many minutes, and they come very close to driving me completely nuts! Why must he do that? So, if you’re going to listen to Weld and you don’t worship the electric guitar, then there’s going to be a price to pay.

But you probably noticed by the exceptionally high album score, these complaints ended up only having minor bearing on my overall impression of the album. So what made this live album so great to deserve such a high score? It was the song selection!! For the most part, he only covers songs that I already liked to begin with … Even the ones I didn’t like at least had pretty strong hooks, and he tended to improve them. So, yes, I did like the album. It was also an entirely crowd-pleasing effort since he completely ignored all of his 1980-1988 albums, which his big fans never liked, but he borrows freely from his 1969-1979 and 1989-1990 material. (Oh man! And I was really itching for something from Everybody’s Rockin’!)

It’s also a loooooooong live album. It’s a double one that clocks in at an incredible 115 minutes. If you scan the track listing, there are only 16… Yeah, and many of them are extended to 10 minutes. Luckily, most of them are far from tedious. As I already said, they usually have a good hook or a good riff to keep it chugging along, and of course Young’s guitar noodles do what they can to elevate them. “Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)” is the first song and my favorite one seeing that it was my favorite song on my favorite Neil Young album. He opens it with those super dark and distorted guitar tones, the sort that infested Ragged Glory like cockroaches, but it’s still great to hear them in limited supply… which is what he does. After the intro, he tends to adopt more usual (though still dark) guitar tones.

“F*!#in’ Up,” “Rockin’ in the Free World” and “Mansion on the Hill” were each from Young’s previous two albums, and highlights of them For the most part, they keep that good central hook, and the electric guitar work throughout keeps them engaging for their entire REALLY LONG track lengths. Other songs like “Love and Only Love” and “Crime in the City” didn’t impress me much at all, originally, but they had a lot more life put into them here… so I like them now! “Welfare Mothers,” the worst of the bunch from Rust Never Sleeps, starts out to be much smoother and electrifying than the original version, but they do this curious thing at the end. It’s a really ugly symphony of guitar distortion and feedback and play-acting tacked on the end completely ruined what was otherwise a decent song (albeit that riff still isn’t the greatest).

The version of “Cortez the Killer” in Zuma was much more engaging and emotive than this version, but I really like hearing it all the same. It’s probably the album’s only slow song … the guitars come off more contemplative instead of psychologically maladjusted … So, its position smack dab in the middle of the album is a much-appreciated “intermission.” The most surprising track of the album is undoubtedly the cover of the Bob Dylan song “Blowin’ in the Wind.” It is played incredibly slowly and Young and Crazy Horse essentially sing it a cappella. (They strum a super-distorted guitar throughout it, but it sounds utterly detached from the melody.) I started listening to that rendition hating it, but after listening to it for awhile, I found the experience to be almost frighteningly engaging. Yeah, I don’t understand it either.

I’ll just repeat the point that you’re REALLY going to have to like the electric guitar if you’re going to like Weld. Honestly, I prefer to just listen to a bunch of foofy British guys with hair-dos plomp around with synthesizers and cheesy drum machines… But even the non-dork inside of me really enjoys much of this mean guitar that Neil Young is able to play, even if he tries my patience now and again.

Neil Young Weld (1991)

From epinions.com

Stephen Stills once jammed with the Grateful Dead and referred to them afterwards as the greatest garage band in the world. Even as a longtime DeadHead, I must respectfully disagree with that assessment. Stills should check out a former bandmate of his: Neil Young. I have been a Neil Young fan for over two decades. I tend to enjoy his iconoclastic approach to music. I also appreciate the different styles of music he experiments with along the way.

But I have consistently found that my favorite Neil music is the work he does with Crazy Horse. There is a kind of magic that occurs whenever they play together. I can remember a documentary from a few years ago when Neil’s father marveled at the fact that Neil & the Horse keep getting better. After three decades, I guess they should know each other pretty well.

Neil is planning a tour with the Horse this summer so we shall see how true his father’s assessment was. Meanwhile, I’ll have to settle for a double live disc that was released in 1991. Weld is a two disc set that features over two hours of music and sixteen tracks. There was a companion piece called Arc which is merely feedback and distortion. I don’t own Arc so I can’t comment on it.

I was listening to both Weld and Live Rust recently. Both are great sets but I did find Weld to be the superior set. It burns and blisters with passion and intensity. The songs were culled from Neil’s tour in the winter of 1991. They don’t list where the songs were actually recorded but I remember going to see this tour in Philly and New York. Neil was playing with an extraordinary degree of conviction.

The set list for disc one is:

1. Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)
2. Crime In the City
3. Blowin’In the Wind
4. Welfare Mothers
5. Love to Burn
6. Cinnamon Girl
7. Mansion On the Hill
8. F*!#in’ Up

Hey Hey My My (Into the Black) is a great way to begin a Neil Young & Crazy Horse set. This ode to Johnny Rotten and the spirit or rock’n’roll rebellion reasserts Neil’s belief in Rock Music. The band is cranking it up from the start. If I can digress and add a little sidebar: Sonic Youth opened on this tour. Neil took Thurston Moore to school on use of distortion and feedback. There are many fans of Folky Neil that will probably find the aggressive rawness of this music to be disconcerting.

Neil & the Horse are unrelenting on this disc. Crime In the City and a cover of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’In the Wind continue the assault on the senses. Neil does not do a folky rendition of the Dylan classic. The intro feedback suggests sirens and fast moving traffic on a highway. Neil is poignant in singing the lyrics but a touch of anger also prevails.

Welfare Mothers (Make Better Lovers) is a sarcastic song but still a bit humorous. Love to Burn was a newer song at the time from the Ragged Glory CD. Cinnamon Girl is an old nugget. Both are well rendered on this set. But they are among the weaker tracks on the disc. That is less a criticism of these two songs as it is praise for how good the rest of the disc is. Love to Burn is a lengthy jam though that does show off the interactive among band members.

The last two songs on disc one were also from the underrated Ragged Glory disc. Mansion On the Hill and F*!#in’ Up. They both burn with a passion. The last song resonates with a question I’m sure many of us ask of ourselves from time to time: “Why do I keep f***ing up?”

The song list for disc two is:

1. Cortez the Killer
2. Powderfinger
3. Love and Only Love
4. Rockin’ In the Free World
5. Like a Hurricane
6. Farmer John
7. Tonight’s the Night
8. Roll Another Number

This disc opens up with stellar versions of two more old Neil classics. Most Neil Young fans will remember Cortez the Killer and Powderfinger from the classic 1979 live album Live Rust. I find both songs to be better played on Weld. Cortez is more thoroughly jammed out. The rhythm section of Ralph Molina on drums and Billy Talbot on bass provide an amazing backdrop for the music. Mention should also be made of second guitarist Frank (Poncho) Sampedro aka the new guy. He’s only been in the band since 1974.

Love and Only Love is a long jam that is as close to a ballad as anything on the set. It rambles on for over nine minutes. Then, he does a version of Rockin’ In the Free World. This is one of the few classic Neil song’s to emerge from the 80s. It is still a passionate celebration of rock and roll.

The centerpiece of disc two and the entire set is the long, rollicking version of Like a Hurricane. This has always been one of my favorite Neil songs. Here it is converted into a 13:26 jam. It opens with feedback that vaguely simulates a serious thunderstorm. Neil sings with his raspy voice on this one. As near as I can tell, it is about a tumultuous relationship. Whatever the case, it makes for some spectacular rock music.

Of the last three songs on the disc, two tend to be more fun oriented song. Tonight’s the Night is a dark, brooding song about the destructive problems of drug addiction. Many believe the song was written about former Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten who died of an overdose in the early 70s.

Farmer John was written by Don Harris and Dewey Terry back in 1959. It’s a fun rockabilly type song. The last song on the disc is a great lesser known Neil Young gem called Roll Another Number. It’s a great rock’n’roll song to close off the disc.

The two discs here make for a great selection of great live Neil Young & Crazy Horse. This is raunchy, raucous rock at its finest. There is a chemistry that exists whenever Neil hooks up with Crazy Horse. I like most of his music but I always find his work with the Horse to be the most fun. I recommend this for fans of grunge, guitar madness and general down and dirty rock-n-roll. It’s also a must have for Neil fans everywhere (except maybe the previously mentioned Folky Neil fans).

I’ll close this review with a note that I wrote down when I got home from the Philly show on the tour this set is culled from: “Whenever I forget what rock & roll is all about, Neil Young is always there with a reminder.” Neil Young & Crazy Horse gets my vote for greatest garage band in the world.