Neil Young & Crazy Horse -- Live at the Fillmore East 1970

My pal Mike asked me how I ranked Neil Young's Decade. Oddly enough, I'd been thinking about another one of Young's albums -- Live At Fillmore East. When I first heard about the release I was very excited. Here was Young in one of his prime moments, playing some classic songs -- Down by the river, Cowgirl in the sand, and Everybody knows this is nowhere -- with Crazy Horse and Jack Nitzsche thrown in for good measure. Sad to say, but the album is a rather big disappointment. "Everybody knows" is perfunctory. "Winterlong" stumbles along. "Wonderin" is trying to figure out how to be more than half a song. The Danny Whitten penned "Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown" is a fun ride with a rollicking push and pull feel. There's a briskness to the playing on this song which I'd hoped would have been evident on "Everybody knows." That leaves "Down by the River" and "Cowgirl." Both can be found on the Everybody Knows album (and Decade), clocking-in, respectively, at 9:13 and 10:06 minutes. The live versions add, respectively, 3 and 6 minutes. For "Down by the River" this extra time dooms the song. There is far too much 4/4 drumming and plodding bass to listen through. (Molina, a pretty straightforward drummer to begin with, never pushes the band into being more aggressive by using some of the rhythmic ideas that can be found on the studio versions of the songs.) The song grinds to a halt for a long section. It feels like Young and Whitten and the boys are trying to explore the central musical ideas of the song rather than attack them ferociously as they do on the Everybody Knows album. Hell, even CSNY rips-up the song better on this live TV-show version (check that host!). "Cowgirl" escapes this problem, thanks to some shredding guitar work. Maybe it's just the lack of creativity on Molina's part, but I also think the long format of these versions don't play to Young's and Crazy Horse's strengths. I'm sure there are more live treats in the vaults, and I'm looking forward to them.