Neil Young Sets Release Date for Vintage Seventies Bootlegs

On April 14, years after first hinting they were coming, Neil Young is lastly launching 2 Seventies performance bootlegs. The initially one, High Flyin’, is a series of recordings from his 1977 under-the-radar Santa Monica, California summer club tour with the Ducks, a supergroup of sorts including bassist Moby Grape’s Bob Mosley, guitar player Jeff Blackburn, and drummer Johnny Craviotto. Check out a sneak peek of “Little Wing” right here.

The Ducks never ever played outdoors Santa Monica, and all 4 members took turns singing lead. Their sets just included a handful of Young originals, consisting of “Mr. Soul,” “Sail Away,” and “Long May You Run. “I simply play my part,” Young informed a press reporter at the time. “This band isn’t simply me and some other people who back me up…it type of advises me of the time I remained in Buffalo Springfield.”

Under The Rainbow, on the other hand, was taped on November 5, 1973, at the Rainbow Theater in London, England. This was the Tonight’s the Night trip, where Young was backed by the Santa Monica Flyers, that included the guitar player Nils Lofgren, pedal steel guitar player Ben Keith, and the Crazy Horse rhythm area of drummer Ralph Molina and bassist Billy Talbot.

The trip came simply a year after the success of Harvest changed Young into a super star, however he’d just recently lost Crazy Horse guitar player Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry to heroin overdoses and remained in a state of deep grieving. The programs were notoriously inebriated, careless affairs where the majority of the set originated from Tonight’s The Night, which wouldn’t be launched for well over a year. “People booed every night,” Lofgren informs Rolling Stone. “They were incensed. They’d scream ‘Play ‘Old Man!’ Where are the hits? We put on’t desire this!’”

Making matters even worse, the Eagles opened every night with a tight set of consistencies and crowd-pleasing hits like “Take It Easy” and “Desperado.” Melody Maker spoke for many fans with the heading “Go Home Neil Young!” “I paid £2.50 to see Neil Young and came away with a love/hate relationship,” composed one fan, “Hating Neil Young, however enjoying the Eagles…All I can state is that the reports need to hold true. The genuine Neil Young is dead.”

When audiences grew specifically antagonistic, Young would assure to play “something you’ve all heard prior to.” He’d then continue to play “Tonight’s The Night,” the basic program opener, for a 2nd time. There were even some nights when he played it 3 times. “It was just insane,” recalls Lofgren. “He’d start pounding the piano and screaming about Bruce Berry selling his guitar and sticking it up his arm. I’d leap up on the piano, start kicking it, and play guitar with my teeth while Neil was going off on this extemporaneous rap poetry. It was a healing, commiserative experience since we were trying to deal with the fact that all our friends and heroes were starting to drop dead.”

Young played a series of lucrative arena dates in America earlier that year. Big money offers were starting to come in for a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young reunion tour. To Elliott Roberts, Young’s manager, spending time playing combative theater gigs in England was simply madness.

“After every show, Elliot would grab Neil and take him to the back of the bus,” says Lofgren. “Everyone was drinking tequila and smoking Thai weed. He’d go, ‘Neil, listen! Right now, I can get you a car. I can take you to Heathrow. I can take us back to the States. We can do Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young shows and make millions of dollars. This is madness. You’re going to lose like 10 grand to be over here for a few weeks. What are you doing? This is crazy!”

As Lofgren remembers it, producer David Briggs would often intervene at this point. “He’d grab Elliot and be like, ‘Get the hell away from my singer, man!’” Lofgren says. “‘This is beautiful. This is powerful shit. This is art! Get the fuck away from him. Don’t you know what we’re doing here?’”

Unfortunately, they didn’t have the foresight to record any of this art, meaning the only way to hear any of these UK Tonight’s the Night shows for the past 50 years was via bootleg. Thankfully, super fan Pete Long — author of the indispensable Young book Ghosts On The Road — taped the Rainbow show. His recording is the source of Under The Rainbow. “That’s great, great, great news,” says Lofgren. “That tour blew my mind. I’m glad that someone had a tape that Neil and his team could doll up. It’s just fabulous.” (Here’s a recording of “Human Highway” from the show.)

In 2018, Lofgren joined Crazy Horse after the retirement of guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, reuniting him with Talbot and Molina for the first time since the Tonight’s The Night tour. The new lineup of Crazy Horse has recorded 3 albums with Young (2019’s Colorado, 2021’s Barn, and 2022’s World Record), though they’ve played a mere seven concerts because of the pandemic.

On March 31, Crazy Horse are releasing All Roads Lead Home. It’s a collection of songs written and taped by Lofgren, Molina, and Talbot. It was developed mostly without Young, though he did contribute the track “Song of the Seasons.”

Here are the total track listing for High Flyin’ and Somewhere Under The Rainbow.

The Ducks’ High Flyin’
Side 1
I Am a Dreamer
Younger Days
Gypsy Wedding
Are You Ready For The Country?
Hold On Boys

Side 2 
My My My (Poor Man)
I’m Tore Down
Hey Now
Wide Eyed and Willing 
Truckin’ Man
 
Side 3
Sail Away
Gone Dead Train
Silver Wings
 
Side 4
Human Highway
Your Love
I’m Ready
Little Wing
Car Tune
 
Side 5
Windward Passage
Leaving Us Now
Mr. Soul
 
Side 6
Two Riders
Honky Tonk Man
Sailor Man
Silver Wings

Somewhere Under The Rainbow

Side 1

1. Tonight’s The Night
2. Mellow My Mind
3. World On A String
4. Speakin’ Out
5. Albuquerque

Side 2

1. New Mama
2. Roll Another Number (For The Road)
3. Tired Eyes
4. Tonight’s The Night – Part II

Side 3

1. Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
2. Human Highway
3. Helpless

Side 4

1. Don’t Be Denied
2. Cowgirl In The Sand