“A little love and affection in everything you do.”
As with his entire career, that was the phrase practiced and preached a fair number of times throughout Neil Young’s performance of Greendale. Unlike most aging rock stars, clinging to the glories of yesterday, Young feeds enigmatically off his present creative energies, and the word “rehash” holds no grip for his art. Through his prior music with Pearl Jam, Crosby Stills & Nash, Booker T & the MGs, Friends and Relatives, and his trusty band Crazy Horse; continual change and experimentation is vital to Neil Young as his growing songbook.
Greendale, Young’s latest album, serves as a social commentary that portrays a small-town tragedy evolving into a metaphor for the world’s problems. Greendale also serves as a two-hour theatrical production involving a cast of close to forty, and like more grand musicals, Cats or Phantom of the Opera, its legacy has burgeoned with time. On the road this winter for close to a month, and a performance before a three-night run at the grand Radio City Music Hall, Young and his fleet pulled into the not so grand Oakdale Theater. In eco-friendly Greendale fashion, Young’s touring caravan of trucks and busses are using alternative fuel made from recycled cooking oils, known as Biodiesel. Touring with such a large ensemble, Young dares not come off as a hypocrite, and not practice what he preaches – along with a little love and affection and a souvenir Showbill handout for all attendees.
Young and his road beaten Crazy Horse partners (drummer Ralph Molina, bassist Billy Talbot, and guitarist/keyboardist Frank Sampedro) walked onto the stage to a respected standing ovation. Sampedro, who wasn’t involved in the recording sessions of Greendale, would play a more subtle role in the mix, applying a dreamy whirl on keyboards, which allows for Young to achieve a thinner guitar sound. Talbot and Molina, perhaps the most sensitive players to be found anywhere, kept their egos, as always, intact, and followed their fearless leader with precision and focus.
Grandpa, the crowd favorite character in Greendale, was played by longtime Young guitar tech Larry Cragg, and seemed to be a dead on natural for lip-synching to Grandpa’s lines in the musical, as shown from the big screen behind the stage on the first song, “Falling From Above.” The stage props, looking nothing more elaborate than a high school play, featured an old house and a town jail cell, allowing for Young and Crazy Horse to supply the colorful narratives. Although Crazy Horse is perhaps one of the most unpredictable bands – some nights the best band in the world, other nights the most disjointed; it’s quite ironic the quartet played the score to a musical, which involves precise timing and little margin for error. Tonight, throughout the ten-song cycle, Young nailed the narratives, keeping the actors unhinged from their roles and keeping the story of afloat.
“Devils Sidewalk” featured a Satan character dancing jovially across the stage until he coaxes Jed Green into shooting police officer Carmichael. Backup singers, which included wife Pegi Young, led in timely harmony to the blues tune. A sign that read “Clear Channel – Support our War” made its way to the big screen, and got the anti-corporate crowd pumped. “Carmichael,” a tribute to the fallen police officer featured Young bending and grinding his guitar chords in gritty garage rock fashion, with Molina pounding with vigor and groove. The narrative musical format has Young mimicking the voice of different characters as the conversations are lip-synced on stage behind him. The sixth song, “Bandit,” was the goosebumper in the set, as Young sat alone with his acoustic guitar, and allowed for his squeaky, yet riveting voice to hit its trademark tenderness, urging the crowd into an uproar.
Young was well conditioned to keep the story moving, despite constant outburst from the crowd. Although he would talk in between songs, a rare treat, the talking was all narrative and had nothing to do with the particular days events, perhaps no different a rap than the prior shows on the tour. Clearly the groove appeared to be on and the latch to focus was intact, as he let the Greendale story let loose from within.
“Grandpa’s Interview” showcased some of the “best” acting of the musical, and featured some poignant lines, that lambasted the aggressiveness of today’s corporate media as Young proclaimed from the mouth of Grandpa- “It ain’t a privilege to be on TV and it ain’t a duty either.” “Bringin Down Dinner” moved Young to his famous pump organ, for a welcoming slow number that set the tone for the final two energetic songs, the last of which was “Be The Rain.” Perhaps the most enduring tune of the whole Greendale saga, “ Be The Rain” allowed the entire cast to get up on stage singing one of the few choruses in the whole repertoire. It’s a celebration of protagonist Sun Green, venturing north to save the wildness in Alaska. In the parade of flashy characters on stage, Ben Young, Neil’s spastic, quadriplegic, cerebral-palsied, non-speaking son, joined the cast in a triumphant finale.
After a standing ovation – Young would thin it out and bring back Sampredro( on guitar), Talbot and Molina for a little Rust Never Sleeps style Crazy Horse. The band ripped through versions of “Hey Hey, My My,” “All Along The Watchtower,” “Powderfinger,” and “Rocking In The Free World.” As the crowd continued to stand and applaud, a second encore was granted with a run of more Crazy Horse staples – “ Don’t Cry No Tears,” “Country Home,” and “Love And Only Love.” Although the tickets didn’t come cheap, there was no mistaking after this three-hour-plus performance, everybody left feeling as if they were let in on something special. Educated and entertained from a once in a lifetime performance that will come to better identify our world during these rough social, economical and political times.
