Rust Never Sleeps

I certainly love Neil Young and I must say I was disappointed with his first self-made effort "Journey through the past" .As I do not go much for the CSN stuff the idea of a filmed concert with Crazy Horse was really exciting.Besides,Young was then at the height of his powers,after releasing one of his very best records "rust never sleeps".Sadly ,afterwards,then came a period of barren inspiration-but Young's career was buoyant again in the nineties-,but that's another story.Suffice to say that Neil Young's epiphanies were numerous and brilliant ,he is second only to Bob Dylan.

The film features almost the same songs as the soundtrack album "live rust" although for instance the marvelous "thrasher" is not included in the record (and "tonight's the night" ,on the other hand,was not in the film ).Half acoustic,half electric ,Young plays like a person possessed and he revisits his catalog with gusto.Particularly impressive is his reggae version of "Cortez the Killer".

The "star wars" stuff did not impress me.It's the singer and the songs which matter.The film begins with Hendrix's "star spangled banner" and the Beatles' "a day in the life" on the PA.

I saw this concert film when it was first released in Australia and still have respect for the fact that it wasn't edited to present Neil as a 'star': like a lot of his albums, it's a "warts-and-all" presentation.

Another commentator bemoaned the fact that "Tonight's The Night" wasn't included in the footage. I dunno. Perhaps it was, even as late as then, a too-sensitive subject for Neil and The Horse to explore on stage. Then again, there had to be differences between "Rust Never Sleeps" and "Live Rust".

"Rust" as a 'show' was a concept: a piece of theatre that sometimes didn't work and at other times captured the sheer vitality and looseness which has been a trademark of Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

The 'road-eyes', apart from being an atrocious pun (both linguistically and visually) can be seen as a comment, by Young, about the almost non-presence of roadies in the audiences' perceptions. The visual reversal of size: roadies small/equipment big is, as another pointed-out, an almost surreal juxtaposition. Acoustic Neil, crawling out of his sleeping bag, and later indicating that when he gets big he wants a real guitar, is his trademark self-deprecating humour.

I have only one main criticism about "Rust Never Sleeps" - and that is purely that the cinematic/reproduction quality of the video was so abominably terrible. Still, that's production values for you. I'd probably have "bitched about" technicalities to do with a performance of a Shakespearean play, had I been there in Elizabethan times. Huh, yeah. I'd have been outside, sweeping-up horse-droppings to resell for fuel.

I have been a Neil Young "fan" since 1970. That is probably the first time I heard his music or at least associated his music with him. I was living in the city (SF) with about 12 other folks way up off California St. It was a nice victorian on Lake St. The album (yep - 12" plastic) was Everybody Knows This is Nowhere. I was immediately drawn to the countryish twang of some of the songs (TLE, ENTIK, R&R,RD); I was mesmerized by Down by the River and Cowgirl in the Sand.

I first played the RNS movie while in Japan in 1982. I was on the vinyl CED format. I bought it at a record store above the Yokohama train station. I was awed by the quality and choice of material. Neil must have tapered his interaction with audiences during the mid-late 70's. Early on he was such a blabber mouth - not a bad thing - but on RNS he was "courteous" but focuses on the presentation. Almost all the songs were superbly executed. This contains is my favourite Powderfinger arrangement. The screw-up on Thrasher demonstrates a professional just slyly grinning it off and rewinding a tad to recover nicely without skipping any of the lyrics. I have always wondered how he screwed that part up? "they were...rock formations" - he forgot "lost in". I only wish he had put this version of thrasher on the "live rust" lp/cd.

The roadeyes and woodstock bits were a drag but on the cd version can be effortlessly, immediately bypassed. I am 54 years on and I have a lot of concerts under my belt and many Firday or Saturday nights were at Winterland and the Fillmore West seeing the greats of the day. imagine Led Zeppelin at the Fillmore; bumping into Janis at the Fillmore; There was no sense of star ego then. It was a different thing. Carlos Santana talking to myself and others on the street after a concert. he was walking alone. Those days are gone forever. What the heck happened?

Rust Never Sleeps is superb. The music isn't flawlessly performed but it is real and really, really good. Perhaps some do not know that many Neil Young recordings are essentially live takes - not a bunch of crappy track takes and overdubs to create the sound some record exec wants to sell to an unsuspecting public.

The simplicity of many of the RNS songs are their beauty in disguise. From the gentle acousticals to some of the blistering industrial tunes (Sedan Delivery, Powderfinger, ...) its unlike any video/movie/musical I have ever seen/heard. Neil was at his best. The horse was up for the task.

This is a must-see for anyone who thinks live music sucks!

Yes we do need to see Jawa's setting up the stage its funny. They even have an over-sized tuning fork to help Neil tune up. Also funny is the scientist explaining that if you put on the glasses provided you can see flakes of rust falling off Neil's guitar during the solos. I think the stage announcements and the fact that their isn't a real audience, just recorded noises from Woodstock add to the surreal/fake quality of the film, its Neils little dig at the huge corporate sponsored rock events that were starting to spring up at the time. Obviously the songs are great too, Hey Hey My My namechecking Johnny Rotten at a time when most of his contemporaries where acting like confused old men at the emergence of punk (By the by Young discovered New wavers Devo and Jonathon Richman).

This movie captures the electrifying spirit of Neil Young & Crazy Horse in the best era of their carer! Direction is great and the performances of all the songs are mind blowing! Cortez The Killer, Hey Hey - My My & Powderfinger are played in a way that the only thing you can do is wish you have been in Cow Palace too in 1978! The stage set-up is excellent and Neil wants to show with the gigantic speakers and mikes that the music is the star here and not the musicians! A must see for all rock fans and the DVD edition is a great chance to once again yell: Rock N' Roll will never die! If you like rock music we will love this, one of the greatest rock music movies ever put on screen