Track Listing

1. On The Way Home
2. Tell Me Why
3. Old Man
4. Journey Through The Past
5. Helpless
6. Love In Mind
7. A Man Needs A Maid/Heart of God Suite
8. Cowgirl In the Sand
9. Don't Let It Bring You Down
10. There's A World
11. Bad Fog of Loneliness
12. The Needle and the Damage Done
13. Ohio
14. See The Sky About to Rain
15. Down By The River
16. Dance Dance Dance
17. I Am A Child

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3289 in Music
• Released on: 2007-03-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
"I'm gonna sing mostly new songs tonight," Neil Young tells the rapt Massey Hall audience, "...I've written so many new ones that I can't think of anything else to do with them other than sing 'em." He steps to the mic unadorned, distant from CSNY's rippled harmonies or Crazy Horse's yowl, hypnotically nailing 17 tracks on this unreleased 1971 solo set. You hear him tower at vocal heights on the chorus for "Old Man" (then a debuted, brand-new song) and name-check Canada on "Journey to the Past" and North Ontario on "Helpless," much to the Toronto crowd's delight. The sound is impeccable, and the closeness to Young in this spare setting exhilarates--especially his vocal quavering in the high registers, his intricate guitar work, and an overall vibe that exceeds description. And the DVD: Here you catch Young in tightly framed, starkly-lit shots, flourishing in the early years of an unparalleled rock career. Not only that, you get commentary from 1997, a rare window on how Young thinks, how he speaks, his humor. --Andrew Bartlett

CD Description
Bob Dylan once famously remarked about hearing Neil Young's"Heart of Gold" on the radio that he knew his days as the man of the hour were numbered. Fact is, Young is the only guywho can even reasonably compete with Dylan for the title ofrock's greatest songwriter, and while "Dylan in the '60s" has long been a cliched assessment of an undeniable rock hot streak, so too has become "Neil Young in the '70s". While Dylan has long culled material from his archive, Young has been reluctant to do the same. He's now joining the fray full force with LIVE AT MASSEY HALL 1971--the second live release in an ongoing series from Young's legendarily deep vaults.
The performance comes between the release of AFTER THE GOLDRUSH and HARVEST and hot on the heels of DEJA VU, basicallythe last time Young's eminently enthralling man-child persona of "I Am A Child" and "Helpless" held sway over the obstinate, electric crank of TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT and RUST NEVER SLEEPS. The set is pure magic. Young still seems humble and shy, a guy who stumbled across an incredible gift for melody but possessed the worldliness to let his awkward talent breathe and warble as it was meant to.
Familiar songs have drastically different readings: the subdued "A Man Needs A Maid" comes off here as more of a cry for help than the potentially chauvinistic enigma on HARVEST and seeps perfectly into"Heart of Gold;" while the normally heavy "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "Ohio" are remade as acoustic dirges. The true treasures, however, are the never-released gems "Bad Fog of Loneliness" and "Dance Dance Dance", a song--with its lyrics of love and rainbows--that foregrounds Young's latent whimsy and sets up "I Am A Child" as the perfect closer for this disc. A must for fans of Young, '70s singer-songwriters, and rock in general, LIVE AT MASSEY HALL 1971 perfectly captures the moment just before Dylan's prophecy came true and Young took over pop music.

Customer Reviews

Superb concert capturing an artist at his creative peak...
Neil Young's 40 year career has had its high points but, while his songwriting skills shine through a great deal of his huge output, 1970 & 1971 were something special... and this brilliant live album shows why. Confident, controlled, clearly completely at home as the only man on the stage and with a string of new songs to showcase - many of which would become "Harvest" classics - this is "unplugged" music at its very best, beautifully sung & played and enhanced by crystal clear recording & engineering. And, unlike many live albums, his between song reflections and introductions add real depth & interest to the performance to produce a wonderfully effective record of what it must have been like to be there. Breathtaking stuff and an absolutely superb CD.

Neil Young at his best
A real treat for Neil Young fans and casual listeners of this Canadian singer songwriter. This appears to be the early show and not the late show which has been in circulation for years.This is a fine example of Neil's accoustic skills and the sound is superb. I bought the cd + dvd combo, which I think is worth the extra cash. I liked the chatter in between the songs but I did miss the hilarious story told just before Bad Fog of Lonliness on the late show "bootleg". What more can I say but get out and buy this masterpiece, maybe Neil will get back into the charts if I can persuade you to buy this CD.

perfect perfect perfect
if you own a turntable do your self a favour and buy this on vinyl with a good amp and speakers neil young is in the room with you, a stunning recording from 1971 it has pride of place in my vinyl collection (all albums should be recorded like this)