Year Of The Horse

by Neil Young

Albums In Order Review Series by Mike "Expecting 2 Fly" Cordova

In 2004 Rustie, Mike "Expecting 2 Fly" Cordova posted a series of articles on his experience listening to all of Neil Young's albums in chronological order. Here is one in the series. For a complete listing, see Albums in Order reviews.

Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:51:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Mike Cordova
To: rust@rustlist.org
Subject: Albums in order: Year Of The Horse

Neil's titles can be so confusing sometimes. The previous album, Broken Arrow, is the title of a song that is not on the album. Journey Through The Past is a song that is not in the movie of the same name nor is it in the soundtrack album. Human Highway is a song and a movie and again the movie deos not have the song in it. Year Of The Horse, the album, seems like it should be a soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch movie about Neil Young and Crazy Horse, but it's not. None of the performances in the live album are in the movie...

I've been savoring this album through repeated listenings, especially disc two. This live album is one of those that actually does not chronicle what the live shows in the 1996 tour were all about. But it's a good live album. I actually did not appreciate it when it was released as much as I do now because I had collected several good-sounding tapes of the tour as well as having attended one of the shows. Neil's live albums are all good though, and YOTH is no exception. There are a couple of acoustic performances with the band from Bridge 1996, some songs from the Broken Arrow album (Slip Away became a GREAT song live getting better as the tour progressed; I was disappointed that Music Arcade was not on this album though), a terrific electric Pocahontas, and a killer version of Dangerbird which by itself is worth the price of the album IMHO.

The start: I remember some discussions on Rust during the tour in which some Rusties talked about someone in the audience commenting about the songs that they "all sound the same" and Neil replying "it's all one song." And here it is, documented at the start of the album, though it sounds to me like Neil talking to himself.

The end: Is not Sedan Delivery the perfect way to end a live album like this?!

I very much enjoyed listening to Year Of The Horse today.

Mike - Expecting To Fly

For more of Expecting To Fly's reviews, see the Albums in Order series.