Unnatural. Naked. Listen to Neil Young pour into the opening progression of ""Old Man"" in a live show. Without the immediate inundation of applause, one can't help but detect an obvious void. Yet a curious silence was all that filled the Massey Hall crowd on January 19, 1971. But that silence wasn't unnatural. It wasn't naked. It was history.
In many respects it was the Canadian's homecoming, a return to what Young left behind five years prior for a career in the American music scene. After two years with Buffalo Springfield, a short stint with CSNY and intermittent recordings with Crazy Horse, Neil Young had nothing left to do but advance his solo career.
Poised in his artistic prime, Young was beginning to perform legendary, unreleased music in preparation for his 1972 album, Harvest. The Journey Through the Past tour includes the debut of ""Old Man,"" ""Heart of Gold"" and ""Needle and the Damage Done.""
Throughout the show, Young leaves much of his musical flashiness aside, surrendering largely to his folk roots as a storyteller. Despite four to five-minute track times, rarely does a song break the three-minute mark.
While tuning or switching between piano and guitar, Young delights the audience with explanations and introductions to his (at the time) not-so-well-known masterpieces. For example, before ""Old Man,"" Young informs the audience the new song is about the foreman on his Californian ranch.
Like any live recording, there are aspects of the show an artist can choose to comprise or exclude. Almost all of the speaking parts Young chooses for the album add to the overall feel of the concert. One comment, however, seems superfluous and pretentious. Before the show gets too far underway, Young politely requests the cameramen stop taking pictures while he's playing. ""The clicks are out of time,"" he says, ""and it takes my mind off what I'm trying to do.""
The only apparent role of this comment is to let Young's native land know America may have changed him.
Young continues to showcase his musical storytelling, backing himself with intermittent guitar riffs and blasAc chord strums. He begins by discussing his Canadian departure, sporadically letting major chords resonate. While referencing his move to the south, Young subtly flows into delta blues licks. Continuing on, Young thumbs through a minor progression as he introduces the theme of addiction, all the while teasing the intro to ""Needle and the Damage Done."" This track best illustrates Young's rising confidence in his ability to captivate an audience.
Through a retrospective lens, Young offers his listeners several unpolished gems of his early genius. The primitive version of ""Heart of Gold"" is performed in just under two minutes. This fragment of the current ballad allows the listener to look back in time and compare that debut performance to the song's final form.
Other album highlights include already popular hits such as ""Dance Dance Dance,"" ""Down By the River"" and ""Helpless.""
