Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps
August. 15,1979Concert film covering Neil Young's October 22 1978 concert performance at the Cow Palace with nearly 20 songs (including two versions of "Hey Hey, My My," his nod to the punk movement), acoustic and electric (with long-time companions Crazy Horse), dating back to his Buffalo Springfield days ("I Am a Child") and continuing through popular solo numbers like "Cinnamon Girl" and the extended "Like a Hurricane."
Reviews
Rust Never Sleeps (1979) *** (out of 4) Neil Young and Crazy Horse take the stage at the Cow Palace for this show that took place on October 22nd, 1978. Many Young fans consider this tour to be one of his best and we get many classic tunes including: Sugar Mountain, After the Gold Rush, My My Hey Hey (both versions), The Needle and the Damage Done, Cinnamon Girl, Like a Hurricane and Welfare Mothers. It seems this tour was highly thought of but at the same time this film seems to draw some heat. This was my first time viewing it and my first time seeing any Young performance from this era and I must admit that I really liked it. I agree with some of the negative press that the filming was quite poor as much of the concert doesn't go to film very well as it's dark, grainy and at times the camera doesn't seem to know what it wants to focus on. There's a stage act going on but none of this is captured very well. Having said that, the music is certainly the most important thing here and the performances are terrific. Young does some solo numbers, which are excellent as are the stuff with Crazy Horse. Some of the highlights including a rocking version of Like a Hurricane and a very somber The Needle and the Damage Done. Even some of the lesser known tunes come off extremely well. Young's vocals are very good and the guitar playing is tops as usual. The film kicks off with some Hendrix and Beatles so that's never a bad thing.
I come from germany and i have seen the video on TV in 1997. I was a neil young fan before, but i have never seen a concert like this. "It makes me feel free". And if i hear rock- musik like this, i don`t need drugs to fly away.
All rock and roll fans should see "Rust Never Sleeps" . Neil Young is incomparable to any one else in music . Fans should also seek out "Neil and Me" written by his father , Scott Young. Even though it's over 20 years old the concert film has not lost any of its power - get ready to watch it over and over.
As far as song selection goes, this is probably the best Neil Young concert movie out there. "Sugar Mountain", "After the Gold Rush", "My My Hey Hey", "Cinnamon Girl", "Like a Hurricane", and "Tonight's the Night" are all featured here. The only problem? This movie could have been trimmed by at least 15 minutes. Do we really need to see people dressed up like Jawas setting up the stage?