Track Listing

Disc 1:

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. Fuckin' Up

Disc 2:

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20082 in Music
• Released on: 1991-10-21
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Live
• Dimensions: .38 pounds

CD Description
Young hit yet another peak in the 90s and this blisteringlydistorted album was the best. He out-grunges everybody withCrazy Horse, the best support band in the world (ask Ian McNabb). 'Cortez The Killer' is given new life, as is his gentle rocker 'Cinnamon Girl' from 1968. The excitement level ofthe double set is extraordinary as the gut-wrenching volumeof playing fails to irritate - it only ignites the soul formore.

Customer Reviews

This is the Story of Johnny Rotten
The End of Valentine's Night, listening to John Peel (alone, of course), and he plays Freigewillege Selbstkontrolle's 'My Funny Valentine'. And this makes me think, "The King is gone but he's not forgotten, this is the story of Johnny Rotten". And I dig out my copy of 'Weld' and you know what? Ten years on, it still sound astonishing. The primal heart of rock and roll beats strong in this collection. The limitations of Crazy Horse become their strengths. Neil Young? Well, I trail him in years, but whenever I'm whatever age he was whenever, I guess I hope I have his spirit then. Just Buy It. "In the valley of hearts, there's a house full of broken windows..."

One of the great NY live albums?
'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.

Sir Percival the Knight
Once sued by Geffen Records for delivering "uncommercial" records, Canadian Neil Percival Young has never sought stardom. He has always followed his instincts, even when they told him to put out an album of feedback noise, yet he has also produced a body of work which, in terms of depth and influence, is second only to Bob Dylan.
And nobody but nobody, not even His Bobness himself, will leave behind a musical legacy as diverse as that of Neil Young.

No techno or rockabilly here, though. "Weld" is a furious two hours of blistering hard rock, courtesy of Neil Young and his legendary 70s backing band Crazy Horse.
Screaming with distortion and vibrating overdrive, "Weld" gathers sixteen powerful songs, averaging 7½ minutes in lenght, on two discs.
Young's then-current albums "Freedom" (1989) and "Ragged Glory" (1990) are represented by "Mansion On The Hill", "Crime In The City" (in a much harder rocking version than the studio one), "Farmer John", "Fuckin' Up", and the classic "Rockin' In The Free World", and from his masterpiece "Rust Never Sleeps" comes "Cortez The Killer", "Welfare Mothers" and one of the best songs of Neil Young's forty-year career, "Powderfinger".

He also covers "Blowin' In The Wind", complete with the sounds of an air raid siren, gunfire and bombs going off, and the result is quite majestic.
There's an impressive 14-minute guitar extravaganca built around "Like A Hurricane". A great "Love And Only Love". And the final song on disc two is a wonderfully rough, yet melodious rendition of the superb "Roll Another Number".

Several of these songs have been released live before, but that doesn't change the fact that "Weld" is one of the most awesome rock records of the 90s. The guitars sizzle and shimmer like you won't believe, and somehow Neil Young's fragile wail of a voice is just right for these furious hard rock arrangements.

A must-have for any self-respecting Neil Young-fan, and a good place for the curious listener to discover why the Neil Young/Crazy Horse-combination was so highly esteemed.