Neil Young's 2024 Tour with Crazy Horse: A Legendary Performance

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"Neil Young's 2024 Tour with Crazy Horse: A Legendary Performance"

Larry Mishkin discusses the creation of the song "The Music Never Stopped" by Bob Weir and John Perry Barlow. Weir explains his collaborative process with Barlow, where they developed lyrics together over the phone, inspired by Barlow's description of a scene from Wyoming. Weir also reflects on the importance of lyrical and musical cohesion, and the song's debut and history of performances, including at venues like the Great American Music Hall and the Palladium. The discussion transitions to Neil Young's recent tour with Crazy Horse, highlighting the band's performance and Young's energy despite his age. He also mentions upcoming events and concludes with a focus on the Grateful Dead's performance of "St. Stephen" and other songs from 47 years ago.

Grateful Dead

April 30, 1977 (47 years ago, tomorrow)

Palladium

NYC

Grateful Dead Live at The Palladium on 1977-04-30 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Audience Tape

This is another good show from 1977, but the recording quality is actually not bad considering this is an audience recording. Since then the show has been commercially released as the first volume of the Grateful Dead Download Series if you want to hear the crisper soundboard recording.

Highlights from this show are the first set Mississippi Half Step and even Looks Like Rain is played with a passion that is moving even if the song always is not. In the second set, the Dead start off with a Scarlet Begonias>Fire on the Mountain (pretty good), swing into a fun mid-set Good Lovin (common for that time, but for the last 15 years, it was almost always a set closer as an alternative to Sugar Mag) or an encore tune (send everyone home with a smile), Friend of the Devil , Estimated Prophet. And then they blow the doors off the place with a St. Stephen>Not Fade Away>Stella Blue>St. Stephen sandwich that must be heard in full to be truly appreciated. It’s pretty awesome to hear Stella Blue transition back into the St. Stephen, an unusual pairing to say the least. Close with a Saturday Night and then yet another 1977 Terrapin Stationencore.

INTRO: Music Never Stopped

Track #2

0:00 – 1:26

Hunter Weir tune, released on Blues For Allah (Sept. 1,1975).

Bob: As a lyricist I’m glacially slow. I can generally get the job done, but it takes too damned long. So I like to work with people who have a little more facility with that—you know, John Barlow, Garrett Grant, Robert Hunter.

Or I may have a general notion of the color of the rhythm and the harmonic or melodic development, and I’ll sit with a guy and we just fire blank verse at each other until we start to corner that color—and then often the song will fall right out of the sky. Other times, I may have no notion of where the song wants to go, in which case I’ll let whoever I’m working with surprise me. . . .

“The Music Never Stopped” is a song that we wrote over the telephone. I had this business going [plays opening guitar riff, Example 13 below]. So I played this over the phone to John, and he just started spitting stuff at me. The first line came out, “There’s mosquitoes on the river / Fish are rising up like birds.” He was living in Wyoming at the time on a ranch, and he started describing a situation that I’d seen with him, where it was late summer on a dry year and things were hot and kind of dull and dead.

So where are we going to take this? Well, first I figured the verse is going to have to be twice as long as I originally figured, because if you’re starting with an image that thick, you have to get into some detail about it. “It’s been hot for seven weeks now / Too hot to even speak now / Did you hear what I just heard?” That last line came after some deliberation. It’s a pregnant line, sort of like a leading tone in a harmonic development.

The success of the endeavor, if you’re working with a lyricist, depends on how closely the lyric marries the music. With Barlow or Gerrit Graham or whoever, there’s a lot of back and forth. I guess I get to be the decider, because the words are going to have to come from my lips. And so I have to be able to tell the story.

I have to be that character, because my job is to get the hell out of the way and let the character tell the story, musically and lyrically. When I’m standing in front of the microphone, I may look like me, but I’m not.

If the character arrives with a really defined face and features, then it’s easy for me to do my job.

Fun version because almost always a first set closer and here it is opening the show. Love that.

236 times

First: August 13, 1975 at Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA, USA

Last: June 28, 1995 at The Palace of Auburn Hills

The Palladium:

The Palladium (originally called the Academy of Music) was a movie theatre, concert hall, and finally nightclub in New York City. It was located on the south side of East 14th Street, between Irving Place and Third Avenue.

Designed by Thomas W. Lamb, it was built in 1927 across the street from the site of the original Academy of Music established by financier Moses H. Grinnell in 1852. Opened as a deluxe movie palace by movie mogul William Fox, the academy operated as a cinema through the early 1970s.

Beginning in the 1960s, it was also utilized as a rock concert venue, particularly following the June 1971 closure of the Fillmore East. It was rechristened the Palladium on September 18, 1976, with the Band live radio broadcast,[1] and continued to serve as a concert hall into the following decade.

In 1985, the Palladium was converted into a nightclub by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, after their success with Studio 54. Japanese architect Arata Isozaki redesigned the building's interior for the club.[2]

Peter Gatien owned and operated the club from 1992 until 1997.

The Palladium closed in August 1997 following its purchase by New York University.[3] In August 1998, the building was demolished in order to build a twelve-story residence hall that students affectionately referred to as Palladium Hal

The Dead also played there when it was called the Academy of Music in a series of seven shows on their way to Europe for the ’72 tour. One of the those shows, the entire March 28, 1972 performance plus selections from March 25, 1972 and March 27, 1972 were released as Dick’s Picks Vol. 30

This five night Palladium run, of which today’s show was the second, is famous for a lot of reasons including the part of 1977 when the Dead put together a string of some of their best shows ever, peaking on May 8, 1977, just over one week later, at Barton Hall in Ithaca, NY. All five of these shows are well played, great tunes, and a very grooving feel that you can still pick up off of the CD or down load 47 years later. I had most of these shows on tape and wore them out from so much playing. Love that they previously released this show as Download Series Vol. 1 and the new Dave’s Picks release, No. 50!!, is the May 3, 1977 show including some extra songs from the next night as well as the annual Dave’s Picks Bonus Disc that is even more songs from the May 4th show). If you are not listening to Dave’s Picks, you are missing out on quality recordings of some of the best shows ever.

How hot was the band, check out this extended jam at the end of ½ Step, the second to last song of the first set (ending with a great Promised Land) and be sure to listen for Jerry and Keith going back and forth throughout this clip:

SHOW No. 1: Mississippi ½ Step

Track #11

7:06 – 9:29

Garcia/Huner tune released on Wake of the Flood in 1973. Also live versions included on Steal Your Face, Dick’s Picks Vol. 1, Without a Net and who knows how many other Dick’s/Dave’s Picks releases, etc. If you want to hear it, you can find it, easily.

First performed July 16, 1972 at Dillon Stadium in Hartford, Connecticut. Followed "Me and My Uncle" and led into "Sing Me Back Home," which closed out the first set. A staple of the repertoire ever since.

236 times (exact same as Music Never stopped!)

First: July 16, 1972 at Dillon Stadium, Hartford, CT, USA

Last: July 6, 1995 at Riverport Amphitheater Maryland Heights, MO

Music News:

Neil Young Tour

SHOW No. 2: St. Stephen

Track #1

0:00 – 1:49

Blah Blah Blah, everyone knows about St. Stephen. Dead’s Fluffhead apparently. Because of its true melodic nature and strong lyrics, it existed long outside and after the end of Primal Dead. Still only played a total of 187 times:

First: May 24, 1968 at National Guard Armory, St. Louis, MO, USA

Last: October 31, 1983 at Marin Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium, San Rafael

But post Dead hiatus year, they started making song sandwiches often based around this song. This four song sandwich at the end of the show is so good that I had to feature all of it at the expense of some other really great tunes like Bertha, Peggy O, Looks Like Rain, Promised Land, and any tune in the second set.

This sandwich is just too cool to ignore or not give it proper due. Here is the first layer change:

SHOW No. 3: St. Stephen>Not Fade Away

St. Stephen

Track #19

4:10 – end

INTO

Not Fade Away

Track #20

0:00 – 1:15

Great switch out of St. Stephen and into an amazing opening jam of NFA. I wanted to try and catch the opening lyrics but the jam went on for almost 4 minutes which is too long even for these extended clips.

MJ News

Check out this next transition that they pull off seamlessly:

SHOW No. 4: Not Fade Away>Stella Blue

Not Fade Away

Track #20

14:15 – end

INTO

Stella Blue

Track #21

0:00 – 1:30

Beautiful how they downshift on cue from the raucous NFA into the gentle and beautiful ballad mode required for Stella Blue. Jerry’s voice is so strong and clear. Really a treat.

Not even getting to the last tune of the encore today. Not enough time but had to close out the episode with the final sandwich transition, from Stella back into an immediate upbeat St. Stephen that is so strong I told Dan we could not edit out any of it! What a great (almost ending) to such a great show. Deadheads walked out knowing there were still 3 more to go! Like going to bed and already being told the next day is a snow day!

Thank you all for listening. Please be sure to join us next week when I am joined by Rob Bleetstein of Grateful Dead Radio (show host), Pearl Jam radio and he is also the Curator for the New Riders of the Purple Sage. He is joining us to discuss, among other things, the newly released NRPS live album “Hempsteader”. If you haven’t heard it yet, check it out. I’m looking forward to hearing from Rob how this was all put together and what the NRSP are up to these days.

Also, a Birthday shoutout to very good buddy, Sam who is turning old tomorrow. At his age, the actual number doesn’t matter but we love him anyway.

ENCORE: Stella Blue>St Stephen

Stella Blue

Track #21

7:50 – end

INTO

St. Stephen

Track #22

Start - end

.Produced by PodConx

Deadhead Cannabis Show - https://podconx.com/podcasts/deadhead-cannabis-show

Larry Mishkin - https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin

Rob Hunt - https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt

Jay Blakesberg - https://podconx.com/guests/jay-blakesberg

Sound Designed by Jamie Humiston - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-humiston-91718b1b3/

Recorded on Squadcast