Neil Young: Sugar Mountain

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Elly Roberts reviews

Neil Young: Sugar Mountain
Distributed by
Warner BrothersCover

  • Released: December 2008
  • Rating: 10/10
  • Vote and comment on this album:View Comments

Early Neil. Just the start.

In this case, the word Rap doesn’t refer to the current musical genre, thankfully. It’s used to describe Neil (Percival) Young’s inter-song banter and wanderings, which are many, as you can see from the tracklisting. It’s all part of Young’s comedic on-stage charm.

As with previous lo-fi offering Live At Massey Hall 1971, moments like this are rarely caught. This November 9/10 1968 Michigan University gig (now released almost 40 years to the day it was recorded) with only acoustic guitar, captures ‘Shakey’ on prime from, though the songs aren’t quite as stunning, but the quality of Young’s performance is still exceptional. It also highlighted his masterful use of quivering falsetto which has become his trademark.

By 1971 he had classics like Old Man, Helpless, A Man Needs A Maid, Heart Of Gold, which were then still be to be revealed to an unsuspecting world on his career defining Harvest album (1972).

Sugar Mountain Live At Canterbury House in Ann Arbour Michigan , when he was only 23, was intended to support the launch of his solo career with Sugar Mountain. He’d barely left the legendary, if short lived, Buffalo Springfield six months earlier, so things were at a stage of testing the water. His old band mates were still very much a part of psyche as he often makes fond references to them. Recording and sound quality, which was still embryonic for live shows in ‘68, is remarkably excellent, done on a TEAC two track tape recorder.

The setlist includes gem Mr. Soul by Buffalo Springfield and material that would surface on later solo albums, so this gig can be considered an experiment to reveal how he would operate away from his previous band dynamic. Probably, little was know about his stage persona at this stage of his career, though he pulls it off with flying colours. He knew it was being recorded, so may have showboated a bit. A definite learning curve, of massive importance, thankfully, it was recorded, for posterity, if nothing else.

But that shouldn’t deflect from the fact that this an excellent release, pointing to a time, not too far away, that he’d find his solo mojo and become one of Canada’s greatest country-folk-rock exports and legends who still dazzles us with fantastic albums like After The Goldrush, Harvest Moon, Prairie Wind and more recently Chrome dreams 11.

Of the setlist, the major highlights are opener On The Way Home, The Last Trip To Tulsa, Sugar Mountain, and obviously Mr.Soul.

File under: As they said back then…’Outta sight man!”

Weblink:neilyoung.com

The full list of tracks included are :

1. Emcee Introduction
2. On The Way Home
3. Songwriting Rap
4. Mr. Soul
5. Recording Rap
6. Expecting To Fly
7. The Last Trip To Tulsa
8. Bookstore Rap
9. The Loner
10. ‘I Used To…’ Rap
11. Birds
12. Winterlong (excerpt) & Out Of My Mind Into
13. Out of My Mind
14. If I Could Have Her Tonight
15. Classical Gas Rap
16. Sugar Mountain – Intro
17. Sugar Mountain
18. I’ve Been Waiting For You
19. Songs Rap
20. Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing
21. Tuning Rap & The Old Lady Laughing – Intro
22. The Old Laughing Lady
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