Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Santa Monica Civic
recorded nov. 1969
broadcast 28 mar 70 KUSC-FM, Los Angeles
Master 7″ reel (3.5 ips) > metal cass. > DAT > CDR > Flac
Download FLAC: Google Drive
1. on he way home (beg slightly cut)
2. i am a child
3. everybody’s alone
4. i believe in you
5. birds
6. nowadays, Clancy cant even sing
7. blank tape
8. down by the river
9. wonderin’
10. band intros and “first time playing in L.A.” comment
11. baby, lets go downtown
12. station i.d. “mountain tuning” comment
13. cinnamon girl
14. cowgirl in the sand
15. everybody knows…
16. winterlong
themidnightcafe.org 
12.10.2018. Many thanks for your message. All the best from Verona. Luca.
Hi. Thanks for sharing this. Just an FYI- according to Sugarmtn.org this show is from 3-28-70. Neil didn’t play there in 11-69 as he was on tour with CSNY. Just wanted to mention it. Can’t wait to hear this.
Interesting. The notes I have show it was recorded in November of 69 but broadcast on the radio in mary of 1970. He was in California in 69 at that time with CSNY so he could have done a solo show then. I wonder which one is correct.
Your guess is as good as mine. He certainly could have played a solo show. I wouldn’t put anything past Neil lol. I don’t pretend to be a definitive source for anything but I have found Sugarmtn to be the most reliable Neil source. I tried to look it upon Etree but it’s down again. Setlist.fm lists it as being from 3-28. It’s hard to be sure when you have conflicting info and a band that is not as meticulously documented as the Dead. Regardless, I’m really loving the Neil you put up today. It’s amazing – I have about 500 Neil shows and I didn’t have these so again, thank you so much. Really kind of you.
Much confusion here, I’ve always gone with the 2 date approach, Seems unlikely that it would have been broadcast in ‘real time’ There were lots of live radio gigs and sessions in that era, but relatively few were broadcast live. Difficult and stressful enough with 21 Century kit. Even the recording of live albums was in its infancy.
Two principal sources for this, got a feeling you might have posted the other one here under the ‘broadcast date’. Might have been somewhere else, too lazy to check.
Neither source is particularly fantastic. From memory both suffer from a very limited dynamic range and are also rather ‘noisy’. Could have been the venue PA, the recording or the radio reception. If the stated lineage is correct then there would appear to be no issues from a recording perspective.. I recall thinking it had more the characteristics of a AM broadcast than an FM. I guess it was on one of those local (weak) FM stations which were everywhere in the US seemingly even back then. In recent times we think of FM as high budget, high qual regional or national broadcasting (in UK anyway), back then it seems every uni or community centre had there own station. Good thing too, it has left us with a wonderful legacy of student/enthusiast broadcasts and recordings, not least of the classic ‘blues revival’ of the early 60s
You mentioned that back in the old days there were lots of live radio shows but relatively few were broadcast live. In the smaller cities and shows like KBFH that is 100% correct, no doubt, but in the larger cities there were many shows that were indeed live warts and all. I know in SF the Dead did a bunch of radio shows that were broadcast live in the moment. The Airplane too. NYC radio stations had them too. For this show (for now) I am trusting Sugarmtn and Setlist.fm is correct. I want to see what Etree says when it comes back up. Even though I wouldn’t put it past Neil to do something like this, I don’t believe he played a solo gig in the middle of the very first CSNY tour. Possible, sure but unlikely especially since Neil definitely played there 3-28. The setlist is identical albeit the last couple of songs from the boot is out of order and there are missing songs. However, there is memorabilia that exists – http://www.sugarmtn.org/show.php?show=197003280. Just my opinion. As you said, much confusion. Can someone ask Neil about this? lol.
Thanks, interesting, of course there were many live Jazz broadcasts etc in NY and i’m sure this was also true for other cities. Many of these however were very simple single suspended ceiling mic, now available for your SACD player (lol), still i have very many of them and love ’em all.
I have no issues taking Sugar Mountain as a ref, and often do. I really don’t take any notice at all of setlist.fm. It seems to be based primarily on other peoples ‘recollections’ and in my experience is full of errors and inconsistencies.
My ‘opinion’ such as it is was based primarily on notes etc in file postings i downloaded and read many moons ago. Of course it isn’t a solo gig, rather one with the horse. It could be that the 69 date had something to do with informal recording or rehearsal schedules for the second solo album. It is not uncommon for Neil to play gigs with the lineup of the time in the vicinity of where he is based/recording or just hangin’ out. A recently released prof live recording of Tonight’s The Night is a good ilustration of this.
I’ve no agenda or special knowledge of this at all. As i’ve said b4 I don’t read the books. Any knowledge i’ve gained over the years has come from a more chaotic random process of absorption!
It would be helpful prob to know at least something about the nature of KUSC-FM, of whom i’ve never heard in any context.
Very interesting to read your thoughts above. I have extremely limited knowledge of the Dead (from any era) compared to many around here.
I just remember putting both sources of this on my pocket player a while back, and not being particularly struck by either.
Yeah it is a pretty rough listen to. I also have never heard of that station. I agree with you on Setlist.fm which is why I really wanted to see what Etree says about it but unfortunately it is down again. For me the fact that the 3-28 show is so well documented with memorabilia and the same set list (albeit with missing songs and the last two out of order) leads me to believe this is the correct date. However as I said earlier I do not pretend to be the definitive source for anything.
Thanks for this. I have this from 2 sources and this is slightly better version. More dynamics and less noise.
Thanks Mat and thanks to Michael Kass and Dylandave for their notes.
Pingback: Neil Young Shows by Date |
Just the dialogue/comments here alone are amazing! Thanks for this Mat!