Live at Massey Hall 1971
Encyclopedia
Live At Massey Hall 1971 is a live album by Neil Young
. Released in 2007, the album features a solo, acoustic performance from Massey Hall
in Toronto
, Canada
on 19 January 1971 during the Journey Through the Past Solo Tour. It is the second release in Young's Archives Performance Series
.. It reached #1 in Canada with 11,000 units sold in its first week. It debuted at #9 on the Irish Charts, and #30 on the UK albums chart
.
The album debuted on the Billboard 200
album chart on 31 March 2007 at number 6, with 57,000 copies sold. It spent 11 weeks on the chart. In 2009, the album was named by Fretbase as one of the all-time 10 best albums featuring a singer-songwriter on acoustic guitar.
The CD release is paired with a DVD
featuring footage from a performance at the Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut
.
and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
, or had released on one of his three solo albums to date.
Five additional songs performed would appear one year later on the landmark album Harvest (though there are noticeable differences in the lyrics on "A Man Needs a Maid"). One song, "Bad Fog of Loneliness
," makes its first appearance with this release. The remaining four songs would see the light of day on subsequent 1970s albums. "Love in Mind" and "Journey Through the Past" would appear on the 1973 live album Time Fades Away
, which has yet to appear on CD. "See the Sky About to Rain" was released in a different arrangement on the 1974 album On the Beach. "Dance Dance Dance" would appear on Crazy Horse
's February 1971 debut album
, and rewritten with new lyrics on the 1977 compilation album Decade
as "Love Is a Rose
." The reworked version later became a hit for Linda Ronstadt
.
Many of the songs appear in a form that virtually duplicates live takes found on other albums. "Cowgirl in the Sand," "Don't Let It Bring You Down," and "Down By the River" are unchanged from the versions that appear on 4 Way Street
. "Journey Through the Past" and "Love In Mind" are similar to the performances found on Time Fades Away (to date not released on CD). "The Needle and the Damage Done" appeared in a live cut on the otherwise studio album Harvest.
three days later (filmed for a 1971 Dutch TV documentary titled Swinging mit Neil Young) but has the Massey Hall audio dubbed on top. Where there was a lack of video performances of certain songs, footage of the reel-to-reel tape recorder used onstage fills the screen instead.
The DVD also contains: performances of "The Needle and the Damage Done" and "Journey Through The Past" on The Johnny Cash Show
(filmed February 1971), an interview from the aforementioned Swinging mit Neil Young TV Documentary and footage of Young meeting to discuss the Archives project on his Broken Arrow Ranch (filmed February 1997).
. According to Young, "This is the album that should have come out between After the Gold Rush and Harvest...David Briggs, my producer, was adamant that this should be the record, but I was very excited about the takes we got on Harvest, and wanted Harvest out. David disagreed. As I listen to this today, I can see why.". Atlantic Records
ultimately released a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young live album, 4 Way Street
on 7 April 1971.
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
. Released in 2007, the album features a solo, acoustic performance from Massey Hall
Massey Hall
Massey Hall is a venerable performing arts theatre in the Garden District of downtown Toronto. The theatre originally was designed to seat 3,500 patrons but, after extensive renovations in the 1940s, now seats up to 2,765....
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
on 19 January 1971 during the Journey Through the Past Solo Tour. It is the second release in Young's Archives Performance Series
Neil Young Archives
The Neil Young Archives is a series of archival releases by singer-songwriter Neil Young which feature previously released as well as unreleased studio and live recordings. The project has been long in the making – work began in the late 1980s...
.. It reached #1 in Canada with 11,000 units sold in its first week. It debuted at #9 on the Irish Charts, and #30 on the UK albums chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
.
The album debuted on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
album chart on 31 March 2007 at number 6, with 57,000 copies sold. It spent 11 weeks on the chart. In 2009, the album was named by Fretbase as one of the all-time 10 best albums featuring a singer-songwriter on acoustic guitar.
The CD release is paired with a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
featuring footage from a performance at the Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....
.
Setlist
Though the set of songs featured that night was similar to other concerts during the tour, the bulk of the songs played would have been unfamiliar to the audience. Of the eighteen songs Young performed during his second set that night, only eight had already appeared on record. These include songs that Young recorded with the bands Buffalo SpringfieldBuffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield is a North American folk rock band renown both for its music and as a springboard for the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Among the first wave of North American bands to become popular in the wake of the British invasion, the group combined...
and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young)
Crosby, Stills & Nash is a folk rock supergroup made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, also known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when joined by occasional fourth member Neil Young...
, or had released on one of his three solo albums to date.
Five additional songs performed would appear one year later on the landmark album Harvest (though there are noticeable differences in the lyrics on "A Man Needs a Maid"). One song, "Bad Fog of Loneliness
Bad Fog of Loneliness
"Bad Fog of Loneliness" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young, recorded in 1971, but not released until 2007 on the album Live at Massey Hall 1971 and in 2009 on The Archives Vol. 1 1963-1972....
," makes its first appearance with this release. The remaining four songs would see the light of day on subsequent 1970s albums. "Love in Mind" and "Journey Through the Past" would appear on the 1973 live album Time Fades Away
Time Fades Away
Time Fades Away is a 1973 live album by Neil Young, consisting of previously unreleased material. It was recorded with The Stray Gators on the tour following 1972's highly successful Harvest and has not been reissued on CD due to Young's dissatisfaction with that particular series of concerts...
, which has yet to appear on CD. "See the Sky About to Rain" was released in a different arrangement on the 1974 album On the Beach. "Dance Dance Dance" would appear on Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse (band)
Crazy Horse is an American rock band best known for its association with Neil Young. It has been co-credited on a number of albums throughout Young's career and has released five albums of its own.-Early years:...
's February 1971 debut album
Crazy Horse (album)
Crazy Horse is the 1971 debut album by Crazy Horse, released by Reprise Records. It peaked at number 84 on the Billboard album chart.- History :...
, and rewritten with new lyrics on the 1977 compilation album Decade
Decade (Neil Young album)
Decade is a triple album compilation by Neil Young, released in 1977, now available on two compact discs. It contains 35 of Young's songs recorded between 1966 and 1976, among them five tracks that had been unreleased up to that point...
as "Love Is a Rose
Love is a Rose
"Love Is a Rose" is a song written by Neil Young in 1974 for the unreleased album Homegrown. It was later released in 1977 on the compilation Decade....
." The reworked version later became a hit for Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
.
Many of the songs appear in a form that virtually duplicates live takes found on other albums. "Cowgirl in the Sand," "Don't Let It Bring You Down," and "Down By the River" are unchanged from the versions that appear on 4 Way Street
4 Way Street
4 Way Street is the third album by Crosby, Stills & Nash, their second as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and their first live album. It was originally released as Atlantic Records SD-2-902, shipping as a gold record and peaking at #1 on the Billboard 200...
. "Journey Through the Past" and "Love In Mind" are similar to the performances found on Time Fades Away (to date not released on CD). "The Needle and the Damage Done" appeared in a live cut on the otherwise studio album Harvest.
Track listing
All songs written by Neil Young.- "On the Way Home" – 3:42
- "Tell Me Why" – 2:29
- "Old ManOld Man (song)"Old Man" is a song written and performed by Neil Young on his 1972 album Harvest.The song was written for the caretaker of the Northern California Broken Arrow Ranch, which Young purchased for $350,000 in 1970. The song compares a young man's life to an old man's and shows that the young man has,...
" – 4:57 - "Journey Through the Past" – 4:15
- "HelplessHelpless (song)"Helpless" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young, most famously recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on their 1970 album Déjà Vu....
" – 4:16 - "Love In Mind" – 2:47
- "A Man Needs a Maid / Heart of GoldHeart of Gold (song)"Heart of Gold" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young. Released from the 1972 album Harvest, it is so far Young's only U.S. #1 single. In Canada, it reached #1 on the RPM national singles chart for the first time on April 8, 1972, on which date Young held the top spot on both the...
Suite" – 6:39 - "Cowgirl in the Sand" – 3:45
- "Don't Let It Bring You DownDon't Let It Bring You Down"Don't Let It Bring You Down" is the seventh track on Neil Young's album After the Gold Rush. It was written by Young. It also appears on the 1971 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young live album Four Way Street as well as Young's 2007 album Live at Massey Hall 1971, which was recorded in 1971...
" – 2:46 - "There's a World" – 3:33
- "Bad Fog of LonelinessBad Fog of Loneliness"Bad Fog of Loneliness" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young, recorded in 1971, but not released until 2007 on the album Live at Massey Hall 1971 and in 2009 on The Archives Vol. 1 1963-1972....
" – 3:27 - "The Needle and the Damage DoneThe Needle and the Damage Done"The Needle and the Damage Done" is a song by Neil Young that describes the descent into heroin addiction of musicians he knew. It was written about the heroin use of his Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten, and previews the theme of "Tonight's the Night", a song that addresses the heroin overdose...
" – 3:55 - "Ohio" – 3:40
- "See the Sky About to Rain" – 4:05
- "Down by the RiverDown by the River"Down by the River" is a song composed by Neil Young. It was first released on his 1969 album with Crazy Horse, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Young explained the context of story when introducing it in New Orleans on September 27, 1984. It depicts a man who catches his woman cheating on him,...
" – 4:08 - "Dance Dance Dance" – 5:48
- "I Am a Child" – 3:19
DVD
The concert at Massey Hall was not actually filmed. Footage appears of Young performing a number of tracks which is instead sourced from a performance at the Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, ConnecticutStratford, Connecticut
Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....
three days later (filmed for a 1971 Dutch TV documentary titled Swinging mit Neil Young) but has the Massey Hall audio dubbed on top. Where there was a lack of video performances of certain songs, footage of the reel-to-reel tape recorder used onstage fills the screen instead.
The DVD also contains: performances of "The Needle and the Damage Done" and "Journey Through The Past" on The Johnny Cash Show
The Johnny Cash Show (TV series)
The Johnny Cash Show was an American television music variety show hosted by Johnny Cash. The Screen Gems 58-episode series ran from June 7, 1969 to March 31, 1971 on ABC; it was taped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The show reached No...
(filmed February 1971), an interview from the aforementioned Swinging mit Neil Young TV Documentary and footage of Young meeting to discuss the Archives project on his Broken Arrow Ranch (filmed February 1997).
1971 near-release
For much of 1971, Neil Young was recuperating from a debilitating slipped disc back injury (he mentions at one point during the concert how difficult it is for him to bend over when he drops a pick). The year would be the first since 1965 not to see a new studio album featuring the prolific artist. The release of a live album was scheduled for March 1971. It may have featured material from just this show, or from several shows, including the one featured on the first Archives release, Live at the Fillmore EastLive at the Fillmore East (Neil Young album)
Live at the Fillmore East is a live album by Neil Young and Crazy Horse featuring guitarist Danny Whitten. In February and March 1970, Young and Crazy Horse went on tour to support Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Live at the Fillmore East, released in 2006, features performances from the tour...
. According to Young, "This is the album that should have come out between After the Gold Rush and Harvest...David Briggs, my producer, was adamant that this should be the record, but I was very excited about the takes we got on Harvest, and wanted Harvest out. David disagreed. As I listen to this today, I can see why.". Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
ultimately released a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young live album, 4 Way Street
4 Way Street
4 Way Street is the third album by Crosby, Stills & Nash, their second as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and their first live album. It was originally released as Atlantic Records SD-2-902, shipping as a gold record and peaking at #1 on the Billboard 200...
on 7 April 1971.
Charts
| Chart (2007) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
6 |
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
1 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
9 |
| UK albums chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
30 |