Weld

'Weld' finds Young & greatest backing band Crazy Horse on another peak as their 'Don't Spook the Horse'-tour followed the potent triad 'Eldorado' (1988), 'Freedom' (1989) & 'Ragged Glory' (1990). This two disc set takes in highlights of that tour, which was set to a backdrop of Young being seen as the godfather of the movement that would become grunge and the 1991 Gulf War. Following the great 'Rust Never Sleeps'/'Live Rust' (both 1979), Young followed his muse and produced an eclectic, if unsatisfatory body of work in the 80s: soundtrack work ('Where the Buffalo Roam'), rockabilly ('Everybody's Rockin'), trad-country ('Old Ways'), Billy Joel-synthrock ('Landing on Water')& r'n'b ('This Note's for You' - whose caustic lyrics continued into songs like 'Rockin...' & 'Crime in the City'). It was only with the Crazy Horse LP 'Life' that the band seemed like the fantastic act of the 60s & 70s - songs that followed like 'Heavy Love', 'Don't Cry' & 'Cocaine Eyes' had more in common with Dinosaur Jr, Buffalo Tom & Sonic Youth than Young's former peers...

These 16 tracks are fantastic, drawing heavily from the excellent 'Ragged Glory' LP (an epic 'Love to Burn'; the Manson-themed 'Mansion on the Hill'; 'F*!#in'Up'; 'Love and Only Love' & 'Farmer John' - a song Young had performed pre-Springfield!). 'Rockin' in the Free World' makes more sense set to the Iraq war zeitgeist & the splitting Balkans, much livelier than the 'Freedom'-version, while 'Crime in the City' sounds like Dylan/The Band 'Live 1966' as played by Dinosaur Jr - far superior to the bland studio original.

Young has always been confounding politically - against Bush but writing songs like 'Let's Roll' & ironically lionising Reagan after censuring Nixon...The cover of 'Blowin' in the Wind' feels like his attempt to unite and address all sides of the 1991 Iraq war - Public Enemy-sirens give way to feedback, Young's deliver of Dylan's classic and superb backing vocals from the Horse (as great as their backing vocals on 'Live Rust')- it's a much better version than I recall, though Low's cover is my favourite...

There are several songs that turned up on 'Live Rust' (which is also an obligatory purchase) - 'Cinnamon Girl', 'Powderfinger', 'Cortez the Killer', 'Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)', 'Tonight's the Night' & an epic 'Like a Hurricane.' These versions are just as vital - 'Cinnamon', 'Hey Hey, My My', 'Tonight's...' & 'Powder' much more potent takes while 'Cortez' & 'Hurricane' are stretched out longer. The version of 'Welfare Mothers' is also much longer, with some call/response and some of the wild Sonic Youth-approved feedback that would turn up on companion LP 'Arc'. Even better, following the fantastic 'Tonight's the Night', Young & co stick with that dark classic and deliver a fine version of 'Roll Another Number.'

Young had released a lot of live albums, and I find it hard to get passionate about the upcoming 'Heart of Gold', the so-so 'Road Rock', & the familiar 'Year of the Horse'. The ones to get remain this, 'Live Rust' and the bizarrely deleted 'Time Fades Away.' I suppose the good news that Young is going to release a 'Bootleg Series' style compilation might add to this. After all, in addition to many unreleased chestnuts mooted for the imaginary 'Decade II' there must be storming versions of 'Cowgirl in the Sand', 'Down by the River', 'Inca Queen', 'Barstool Blues', 'I'm the Ocean' & many other faves?

'Weld' is a fantastic live LP and like the best of the genre - 'Kick Out the Jams', 'It's Alive', 'The Who Live at Leeds', '...It's Too Late To Stop Now' & 'Live 1966' it adds to the studio original and shows why the Horse were probably the greatest rock'n'roll band.

If you have any friends who have never heard of Neil Young (shame on them!), or simply remember him for his only hit 'Heart of Gold', then you should play them this album. At a very loud volume. This is quite simply Neil Young & Crazy Horse in their element. The music is loud, emotive, passionate. It's everything music should be but often isn't. The 13 minute version of 'Like a Hurricane' is worth the price of the CD alone, it contains some of the most electrifying guitar playing ever commited to record. 'Hey hey, my my (into the black)' is awesome, the distortion beyond belief, and the lines 'better to burn out than to fade away' give me goosebumps (R.I.P. Kurt). 'Rockin' in the free world' is far better than the studio version, Neil's guitar seems to detonate on the choruses! And for good measure he does a cover of Bob Dylan's 'Blowin' in the wind' which is far more powerful, and relevant (it was performed during the gulf war) than Dylan ever could have imagined.

Got home from a day Satan must have concocted for me to test my mettle. So I sat back, filled with red wine that had left me dangerously stone sober, wondered what music I could possibly play that would both complement the raging unease I was feeling and combat said vexacious spirit in one fell swoop, and remembered I hadn`t heard Weld for too damn long. It`s not a CD you`d play just anytime, it needs to be applied judiciously. Neil Young is a canny dude, and Weld is one of his most enlightened live gestures to the wild, mad-as-hell savage in all of us.
There`s so much urgent, windswept, up-yours rock here that picking out `highlights` is, frankly, absurd. Many have claimed, or tried, to be the Wild Man of Rock. Not only is NY the sole credible claimant of that hallowed title, he also (the old shape-shifter) knows how to seduce with a burst of grainy folk, or come up with an unforeseen gem few reviewers `get` but NY lovers like us love to bits, such as the wonderful, unexpected "Are You Passionate?"
What can I say? Neil tends to leave those who love him a little lost for words, such is his spell. It says a lot, to me anyway, that Dylan`s a fan. Hell, isn`t everybody?
This lengthy double live one is possibly the greatest live rock album around, with lavish helpings of Neil`s wayward guitar - he doesn`t `solo` so much as play what needs to be said until it`s all said, then gets back eventually to the song in hand and sings his Canadian heart out till closing time.
I need hardly urge you to play this one as loud as you can get away with. Play it when you have to hear it, when all else fails. Play it when you`ve just got to hear NY rocking for the world, for all our glorious sins and all our dubious virtues.
Mansion On The Hill is a six-minute pounder I`d happily have blasting out at my wake, his faithful Crazy Horse harmonising like fallen angels. Blowin` In The Wind is one of the relatively few Dylan covers that doesn`t disgrace itself, in fact it`s sublime. Cortez The Killer - originally on his great early album Zuma - is stunning.
If anyone, anywhere, has given this cathartic cobweb-dispersing rock masterpiece less than 5 stars - well, they`re plain wrong.
I feel better now.