The Neil Young Archives - Part Two

 THE NEIL YOUNG ARCHIVES BOX SETS – PART TWO

 By Raymond Benson

Continuing from Part One, we now take a look at Neil Young Archives Volume II, which was released in late 2020 to subscribers of Neil’s Archives website, and in early 2021 to the public. The period covered by the set is from the second half of 1972 to spring 1976. Differing from Volume I, the second box contains ten CD disks instead of eight, and there were no DVD or Blu-ray editions. However, a “deluxe edition” contained a 250-page book.

The years 1973-1975 were, at that time, thought of as Neil’s “lost weekend” period. It was when he released three consecutive albums that he later dubbed the “ditch trilogy” because some critics had said the artist had fallen “into the ditch” with sub-par releases that were not commercial successes. And while it’s true that the albums Time Fades Away (1973), On the Beach (1974), and Tonight’s the Night (1975) were not big sellers compared to Neil’s big hits of After the Gold Rush (1970) and especially Harvest (1972), they did all right. Furthermore, in hindsight, On the Beach and Tonight’s the Night are now considered by Neil’s hardcore fans, and critics who retro-review them, as masterpieces that are among Neil’s best works. Personally, I rank On the Beach as my number two Neil Young album behind After the Gold Rush!

Neil apparently got back on track with the general public in later 1975 and into ’76, and he would then enter a very fruitful and prolific period in the late 70s, which will be covered in Archives Volume III.

That said, Volume II is mostly wonderful. It’s my favorite of the three Archives sets that have so far been released. Was it a troubled period for Neil Young? Not when compared to his difficult years of the mid-1980s! In fact, 1972-1976 was filled with some of Neil’s most heartfelt and soul-searching work. The overnight success he achieved between 1969-1972 with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and with the two hit albums of Gold Rush and Harvest, suddenly made Neil a multi-millionaire. He hadn’t expected it and he wasn’t prepared for it. Added to all this fame was the fact that he lost close friends to heroin addiction (Danny Whitten of Crazy Horse and Bruce Berry, a beloved roadie), was over-indulging in alcohol and drugs (but never heroin), and dealing with a troubled personal relationship that was spiraling (with Carrie Snodgress). Neil took a deep dive into depression and uncertainty. Hence, his pain and angst all comes out in the music produced during the period. And we know that’s what makes good art.

Once again, as in Volume I, there were some repeat disks included that had already been released separately and there was a lot of studio material that had appeared on the various albums from the era. Still, what we hadn’t heard before is well worth the price of admission.

Disk 1: Everybody’s Alone (1972-1973). After the release of Harvest in the spring of ’72, Neil was recuperating from back surgery at his ranch in northern California. That didn’t keep him from recording demos in his home studio, and this disk presents many of them that are simply fabulous. A few are songs we’ve never heard before, such as “Come Along and Say You Will,” recorded with the backup band he dubbed the Stray Gators. A major tour was planned for early 1973, so a lot of these rehearsals appear here. The so-called “Time Fades Away Tour” of ’73, however, was pretty much a disaster. Neil and the band members apparently didn’t get along and Neil’s voice went out part-way through the tour. The live album Time Fades Away was recorded on the road, and Neil considers this his worst album. While I didn’t mind it at all at the time, and I still like parts of it, it’s true that this work doesn’t reflect Neil’s best. Other, better unreleased live material from the tour appears on Disk 1, though. At the end is an unreleased track from aborted recordings with CSNY in May 1973. “Human Highway,” which would be recorded again later by CSNY and by Neil himself, is simply gorgeous here.

Disk 2: Tuscaloosa (1973). This is one of the Archives disks that had been previously released separately (in 2019). It was recorded live with the Stray Gators, early in the ’73 tour while Neil’s voice was good and the band was gelling. This is pretty good stuff, and miles beyond the Time Fades Away live tracks. Why Neil didn’t release this back in 1973 instead of Time is a mystery. Half of it is Neil solo and acoustic, and the other half is with the band.

Disk 3: Tonight’s the Night (1973). Not to be confused with the album released with the same title. In May of ’73, Neil put together a band he dubbed the Santa Monica Flyers and recorded tracks that would end up as Tonight’s the Night, the album. However, the sessions were middle-of-the-night drunken debaucheries, apparently, with Neil’s voice cracking and the band playing in slow motion. The songs are hard-hitting, dark, foreboding, and meant as a “wake” for Neil’s friends who had died. He held back the album until early 1975, when some members of The Band heard it and convinced him to release it instead of his planned recently-made studio recording, Homegrown (see Disk 7). So Tonight’s the Night came out to the public in June ’75, two years after its production. Rolling Stone loved it, but just about everyone else didn’t (except for the fans who “got it”). This Archives disk contains some of the tracks from the album as well as outtakes and unreleased recordings, such as when Joni Mitchell popped into the studio and they recorded her song, “Raised on Robbery.” While the unheard tracks are welcome, there is too much here that we already have.

Disk 4: Roxy (1973). Another Archives disk that had been previously released separately (in 2018). This is a live concert presentation of the Tonight’s the Night material from around the time that album was recorded. The performances are sloppy, like the album tracks, but that’s what gives the darker material its charm. Neil is in sideshow barker form, probably drunk, and the album is certainly entertaining from an anthropomorphic standpoint! But in terms of the box set, it’s a superfluous disk.

Disk 5: Walk On (1973-1974). Now things get interesting as Neil records his studio album On the Beach, one of his greatest works, in my opinion. While there are tracks from the album included here, there are a few unreleased ones that are of note, like “Bad Fog of Loneliness” and “Traces.” Despite the familiarity of much of this disk, it’s very welcome after the over-saturation of Tonight’s the Night on the previous two disks.

Disk 6: The Old Homestead (1974). Easily the best disk in Volume II, it contains mostly unreleased material. Demos, recordings with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (their big summer tour was in 1974), and songs we’ve never heard before. Crazy Horse had also revamped with a new guitarist, Frank “Pedro” Sampedro, so Neil was doing some recordings with them as well. Neil was definitely out of the “ditch.” All great stuff.

Disk 7: Homegrown (1974-1975). This studio album, recorded in late ’74 and early ’75, was meant to be the album release of 1975. However, as noted above on Disk 3, Rick Danko of The Band allegedly convinced Neil to shelve Homegrown and release Tonight’s the Night instead. So Homegrown went into the vault. Over the next few years, though, Neil would cherry-pick some tracks from it and place them on other albums such as American Stars ‘n’ Bars (1977) and Hawks and Doves (1980). The other songs, though, are unheard! Frankly, I feel Homegrown should have been released in ’75, with or without Tonight’s the Night in the mix! The only issue here is that Homegrown had been previously released as a separate Archives disk in early 2020, making it the third gratuitous disk in the box set. Still… it’s quite worthwhile for those who had not purchased it earlier.

Disk 8: Dume (1975) covers Neil’s recordings with the new Crazy Horse lineup in the making of the 1975 album Zuma. Neil and the Horse are back, rocking and rolling, with some of the best material this outfit ever made. Yes, there are plenty of tracks from Zuma here, but also some outtakes and unreleased recordings. All fantastic stuff. Play it loud.

Disk 9: Look Out for My Love (1975-1976). Another great disk in the set, it includes more recordings, heard and unheard, with Crazy Horse. Neil also teamed up with Stephen Stills for a duo tour and album (Long May You Run, 1976), so some sessions from that are here. CSNY reformed briefly for a possible studio album, and there are a couple of discarded tracks from that, such as an updated version of “Human Highway” (compare it to the one on Disk 1!).

 

Disk 10: Odeon/Budokan (1976). In the spring of 1976, Neil and Crazy Horse went on a tour to England and Japan to promote Zuma. There are recordings here from the concerts at the Odeon in London and at Budokan in Japan. The tracks start off with Neil solo acoustic, and then the Horse joins him and they rock out. All great stuff, as these shows are considered legendary in the Neil/Horse mythology.

And then it all ends in the spring of ’76. Volume III actually begins with even more live material from the Odeon/Budokan shows, so it’s odd that these were separated into two different Archives sets. But more on that next time.

In closing… Even though Volume II had some redundant disks and material, the unheard stuff is absolutely marvelous… and it showcases Neil at a time when he was first devolving and then evolving into a triumphant artistic excellence that was not appreciated as such at the time.

To Be Continued. 

The Neil Young Archives - Part One

THE NEIL YOUNG ARCHIVES BOX SETS – PART ONE

By Raymond Benson

As a longtime fan of Neil Young, easily one of my favorite musical artists, I was overjoyed when his Archives project was set in motion, promising to release to the public gems from the vault—unreleased recordings and live material—that would document Neil’s life and career.

Neil has painstakingly documented that career since the beginning. He must have somehow knew he would be a major artist, so he kept everything. His career has also been such that his official album releases did not necessarily reflect a chronological progression. For example, his album recorded with the “Santa Monica Flyers” (as he dubbed them), Tonight’s the Night, was recorded in May of 1973, but it was held back and not released until two years later. Many of his studio albums were recorded piecemeal, sometimes using tracks recorded years earlier curated with a handful of newer tracks. American Stars ‘n’ Bars (1977) is a good example of this. Side One of that album consists of material recorded in 1977, but Side Two consists of earlier tracks recorded as far back as 1974.

The Archives project was going to be a very strict chronological journey through Neil’s years, and he teased us about it first in 1993 with the compilation album Lucky Thirteen. There were hints and clues that the Archives were coming, but then it turned out Neil decided to release his unreleased material in spurts along with the promised box sets. The first true Archives release came in 2006 with a live album recorded with Crazy Horse entitled Live at the Fillmore East 1970. This was followed in 2007 with a solo acoustic recording, Live at Massey Hall 1971. The first box set, Archives Volume I, was finally released in 2009. We would have to wait until 2020 to get Volume II, and then four more years to get Volume III (2024). There are still at least one, maybe two, volumes left to go. And in-between the releases of the box sets have been many standalone releases, some included in the box sets, but most of them not. These standalones also include what Neil calls “Special Releases” of albums that were recorded but never released, such as Hitchhiker (recorded 1976, not released until 2017).

Today I will concentrate on Neil Young Archives Volume I, which covers the decade 1963-1972.

First, I’d like to make it clear that the Archives are amazing presentations. The sound quality of all the tracks have been remastered and engineered such that they are the best sounding audiophile-pleasing renditions of familiar and unfamiliar versions of Neil’s music.

The frustrating thing about the Archives boxes, though, and this is true especially of Volume I and Volume II, is that Neil decided to include in the boxes disks that had already been standalone Archives disks. The thing is, his hardcore fans (like me) were going to buy the standalone releases as well as the box sets, so that meant we ended up with duplicate disks in some cases.

Another annoyance is that there is often too much “previously released” material from his studio albums over the years on the box sets. This is especially true of Volume I. Neil may have taken some fans’ criticisms to heart, for in Volume III, there are no duplicate Archives releases and very little previously released tracks from studio albums of that period.

That said, the Archives boxes are still a fan’s delight.

Volume I was released as a CD-only box, a CD and DVD box, and a CD and Blu-ray box. At the time, the cost of the Blu-ray box was quite prohibitive and limited, and today it sells for hundreds of dollars on the second hand market. While I would have wanted to view all the wonderful videos and films included in the Blu-ray box, I went with the CD-only box in all three cases of the Archives volumes. I’ll leave it to someone else to discuss the videos.

Disk 1: Early Years (1963-1968). Covering Neil’s beginnings from 1963 to 1968, both in Canada and Southern California, I find this disk truly fascinating. The first thing we hear are both sides of Neil’s first single record, recorded in 1963 with the band he began in high school, The Squires. “Aurora” and “The Sultan” are terrific surf-guitar instrumental pieces showcasing Neil’s burgeoning skills on the instrument. Other studio recordings by The Squires follow, but these were unreleased at the time. One of these is “I Wonder,” recorded in 1964, but is an early version of a song Neil later revamped and re-recorded with Crazy Horse as “Don’t Cry No Tears” from the 1975 Zuma album! In 1965, Neil teamed up with friend Comrie Smith and recorded some duos—all unreleased but featured here. Next up are a series of demos Neil recorded in late 1965 for Elektra as an audition. These have appeared on bootlegs in the past, but here they sound great. Just Neil and solo guitar, demoing such classics as “Sugar Mountain,” “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing,” and several tunes we never knew. Finally, the disk closes with some of Neil’s work with Buffalo Springfield, recorded 1966-1968. Some of these tracks are direct from the three official studio albums by the Springfield, some from the archival Buffalo Springfield Box (2001), and a couple of unreleased tracks.

Disk 2: Topanga 1 (1968-1969). Neil was living in Topanga Canyon during the Buffalo Springfield period. In ’68 as the Springfield was disintegrating, he began working on his first solo album, Neil Young. Here we get several tracks directly from that album, some outtakes (different versions), and a couple of unreleased early versions of songs that would appear later. There is also early work with Crazy Horse that would appear on Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969). This disk suffers from too much material we already owned.

Disk 3: Live at the Riverboat 1969. A wonderful solo live acoustic set recorded in Toronto in early 1969 to promote the release of Neil Young, which first appeared in late 1968 and then re-released with a different pressing and cover in January 1969. An earlier standalone Archives release, Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968 (released 2008), had a similar set, but Riverboat sounds more confident. Good stuff.

Disk 4: Topanga 2 (1969-1970). The year 1969 was a big one for Neil. His work with Crazy Horse came into fruition and it was also when he joined Crosby, Stills and Nash to form CSNY. This disk contains more from Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, beginning recordings from Neil’s 1970 studio album After the Gold Rush, and live and studio work with CSNY, including an unreleased mix of “Helpless.” Again, a lot we already own, but a bit more variety.

Disk 5: Live at the Fillmore East 1970. This disk with Crazy Horse had already been released as a standalone in 2006, as mentioned above. Why was it included in the box when most of us already owned it? Who knows. That said, this is a GREAT live recording of the early Crazy Horse when Danny Whitten was second-guitar and vocalist. It rocks the house with material from Everybody Knows This is Nowhere and more. If you didn’t already own the standalone release, then this is a very welcome disk to have.

Disk 6: Topanga 3 (1970). This contains more direct tracks, different versions, and outtakes from After the Gold Rush, some unreleased live material with CSNY (“Only Love Can Break Your Heart” is absolutely wonderful), and other miscellaneous tracks recorded during the year. Still heavy on stuff we already owned, but enough variety to be an enjoyable listen.

Disk 7: Live at Massey Hall 1971. This solo acoustic live performance is one of Neil’s best. As mentioned above, it had already been released as a standalone disk in 2007, so its inclusion here is superfluous. Nevertheless, it can be counted as a live performance for the ages, recorded in early 1971 during a massive tour. He does Buffalo Springfield stuff, material from his three albums, and a couple of CSNY tracks. Truly remarkable.

Disk 8: North Country (1971-1972). In 1971, Neil purchased the Broken Arrow Ranch in northern California, so he moved there to live for many years. The home also contained a recording studio, so much of his next album, Harvest (1972), was recorded there. Some tracks were also recorded in Nashville. This disk covers this period with too many previously released tracks and a few outtakes/different versions. The rare “War Song” single Neil did with Graham Nash closes out the disk, and we’re left in the middle of 1972. Volume II would pick up the second half of that year.

The box comes with a poster-size “archives” chronology and a small booklet of liner notes. The DVD and Blu-ray editions also contained the soundtrack album Journey Through the Past (1972), which up to that point had never been released on CD. It’s a shame that was not included in the CD-box. A missed opportunity and unfair to purchasers of the CD-box! Live videos and the complete experimental film of Journey Through the Past could also be seen. The Blu-ray edition also contained many “hidden tracks” of unreleased material. The Blu-ray and DVD editions of the set are now out of print and hard to find, but as I understand it, much of the Blu-ray material is available (for a subscription) at Neil’s online “Neil Young Archives” website at www.neilyoungarchives.com.   

To Be Continued with Volume II…!

Review of Criterion's Blu-ray of Scorsese's "The Last Waltz"

 My review of The Criterion Collection's new Blu-ray/4K Ultra release of Martin Scorsese's THE LAST WALTZ is up at Cinema Retro. 

A Journey Through Music and My Favorite 20 Concerts

By Raymond Benson

  

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m heavily into music. I’m a musician as well as a fan. I’ve been to a lot of concerts in my lifetime—not as many as I would have liked—and I missed some of the classic bands of the 60s and 70s simply because I was living in an area of the country where the big bands didn’t play. The supergroups only toured to the big cities. I grew up in a small town in West Texas and went to college in Austin, Texas. Austin got a lot of great acts, but in those days the supergroups went only to Dallas or Houston or maybe San Antonio. Still, I managed to see many of my favorite bands in the 70s. I didn’t hit many concerts in the 80s, I was too busy and my lifestyle didn’t allow for the late nights. However, in the 90s I started going again, especially after my family moved to the Chicago area—where everyone toured. I’ve seen dozens and dozens of bands, and here are my twenty favorite shows—in chronological order—as I remember them.

1.      CHICAGO (1971; Odessa, Texas). Everyone remembers his or her first concert, and this was mine. It was very early ’71, I was a sophomore in high school, fifteen-years-old. The album Chicago III had just come out, and I was heavily into the band at the time. Those first three Chicago albums will always be their best, when they were practically an experimental rock band with horns, before they sold out and went commercial/Top-40 radio. I went with a guy I hardly knew, but he was sixteen and had a driver’s license. It was an amazing experience. The band was in top form and they played everything I wanted to hear and more. I saw them twice more in the next four years, but this was the best.

2.      TRAPEZE (1972; Odessa, Texas). Trapeze was a British power trio led by bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, who later went on to be lead vocalist of Deep Purple. The band was produced by John Lodge of the Moody Blues and they recorded on the Moodys’ label, Threshold. For some reason, Trapeze was big in Texas and especially in our neck of the west. I probably wore out my copy of their 1971 rocker, Medusa. Lo and behold, they came to Odessa (the opening act was either Sugarloaf or Foghat, I can’t remember!). At any rate, Glenn Hughes owned that stage. He was an incredible performer, powerful vocalist, and darned good bass player. For hard rock power trios, Trapeze was one of the best.

3.      SANTANA (1973; Odessa, Texas). I was a huge Santana fan in high school and college, especially when Carlos moved into jazz fusion after becoming a disciple of Sri Chinmoy. Carlos Santana was influenced by John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra; they collaborated on an album in ’73, and Santana’s band was playing cosmic jazz fusion that was very different from “Oye Como Va.” I loved it. The 1972 album Caravanserai was out, and it was before the album Welcome. This was the tour that was captured on the Japanese triple-live-album, Lotus—Live in Japan, which could still stand as my favorite Santana record. I was in the know when Santana played in early 1973 in Odessa—supposedly the result of a truck breakdown in the area—so they decided to do a show. It was spur-of-the-moment and was advertised beginning the day before the concert. Thus, there wasn’t a huge crowd at the Ector County Coliseum that night, and most of them were expecting “Oye Como Va.” The audience got something very different. Most people didn’t like it. Carlos, wearing a white suit and his hair cut short, was unrecognizable. But I knew. I was totally into what the band played that night. Truly spacey and out there, it still stands as one of the best shows ever—even if I was one of the few who appreciated it.

4.      JETHRO TULL (1975; San Antonio, Texas). I was a Tull fan all through high school and still am today. The first chance I got to see them, though, was when I was in college at the University of Texas at Austin. The closest the band came to the city was San Antonio, so I went to see them there when I was a sophomore. It was the War Child tour, January 1975. What an amazing, energized show. Ian Anderson was in his prime then, and he danced and jumped around like a madman. They even did a good portion of Thick as a Brick. I’m so glad I got to see them at least once in the 70s, for I wouldn’t see Tull again until thirteen years later. I’ve seen Tull many times since the mid-90s and have become friends with Ian. I even wrote a little biography about the band that was published in 2002. But nothing I’ve seen since will equal that show in ’75.

5.      SHAKTI (1976; New York, New York). I was lucky enough to be in New York for a couple of months that spring (I took a semester off from college to do an off-off-Broadway musical), and happened to notice that John McLaughlin was playing at the Bottom Line with a group called “Shakti.” I was a big Mahavishnu Orchestra fan, so I decided to check it out. Shakti, as it turned out, was McLaughlin’s new group, made up entirely of Indian musicians, including L. Shankar (Ravi’s son) on violin. This was their premiere performance! A lot of luminaries were in the audience; in fact, Carlos Santana was sitting at the table next to mine. Well, I’d never heard anything like Shakti. It was all-acoustic Indian jazz fusion, but it was as “electric” as anything McLaughlin had done with Mahavishnu. It was one of those shows from which you leave with your jaw dropped. I saw Shakti again a couple of weeks later, opening for Weather Report, but that first night was more intimate and exciting.

6.      GENTLE GIANT (1976; Austin, Texas). Wow. One of my favorite progressive rock bands of all time, and did they put on an incredible show at the Armadillo World Headquarters. They received a tremendous response from the crowd, too, and apparently the band members still remember this particular night as being one of their best gigs. It’s very possible that this is my most favorite concert of all time. These guys were sickeningly talented; they could play each other’s instruments (and in fact, rotated around the stage to do so!). The term “math rock” wasn’t invented then, but it’s something that could be applied to the Giant’s music. Very intricate, complex, and accessible at the same time. I saw them again a year later—still great, but it couldn’t match the novelty of that first outing.

7.      TALKING HEADS (1978; Houston, Texas). They were on tour for their second album, More Songs About Buildings and Food, and they weren’t very well known yet. I knew of them, though, and owned their first two records. It was a small club, don’t remember the name, but I was six feet from the stage, looking up at David Byrne and company as they rocked the house. Very possibly the most energetic show I’ve ever seen. I was bouncing up and down like a madman. I really wanted to see the band in the 80s but had to suffice with the film Stop Making Sense to experience that era. Still, the raw, stripped-down sound of the early Heads was something to behold.

8.      BRUFORD (1980; New York, New York). Again at the Bottom Line, drummer Bill Bruford brought his progressive jazz-rock band to the States, and I was particularly interested because the keyboard player was Dave Stewart, of whom I was a huge fan (from his work in Egg, Hatfield and the North, and National Health). That alone is what made this show so great for me personally, for I also got to meet Dave afterwards. We’ve remained friends and correspond now and then. Too bad Bruford was a short-lived band, for they were truly excellent.

9.      PAUL McCARTNEY (1989; New York, New York). A friend of mine at the time, Chris Whitten, was McCartney’s drummer, so he got my wife and me in to see a VIP “rehearsal” of the band before their world tour supporting the album Flowers in the Dirt. The rehearsal was held at a Broadway theatre. Wow. Intimate and very, very good. It was my first time to see a Beatle. We also saw the regular tour show at Madison Square Garden a few months later—still great, but it didn’t match the uniqueness of that very cool rehearsal opportunity. Thanks, Chris!

10.  THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS (1990; New York, New York). I had just discovered the band and owned their first three albums. Shortly before we moved away from New York, the band came to the Beacon Theatre, so I went with a friend. Those two guys did it all, no sidemen. It was such a fun show—funny, eclectic, and totally rocking. While I like the band a great deal, they’re not particularly one of my favorites these days—but this show elicited such a good time that it made the top 20. 

11.  GONG (1997; Chicago, Illinois). I never thought I’d see the original lineup of Gong, since they had disbanded in 1975. However, Daevid Allen and company got back together (only Steve Hillage was absent, but they had a good sound-alike on guitar), and performed the Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy, live and in front of my eyes and ears. I kept nudging my friend next to me, saying, “I can’t believe I’m hearing this live.” For those of you who know the albums, then you’ll appreciate what I’m saying. The band also featured Pip Pyle on drums, also from Hatfield and the North and National Health. Psychedelic, man!

12.  PORCUPINE TREE (1999; Chicago, Illinois). Representing the 90s new wave of progressive rock, Porcupine Tree hit the waves that decade and recharged the prog scene along with a few other new bands. At this time they were sort of a mix of Pink Floyd and... I don’t know, it was new. The band eventually morphed into more of a prog-metal band and I became less interested, but Steven Wilson, the leader, is still a frikkin’ genius. This show blew my mind. Saw them several times in the early 2000s, too.

13.  NEIL YOUNG (1999; Rosemont, Illinois). I’d wanted to see Neil Young since high school, and I finally got the chance. This was a solo acoustic show in a theater (not a huge venue), and it was perfect in every way. The sound was fantastic, his performance was heartbreaking, and I sat there in awe the entire evening. At one point I had tears in my eyes. Since then, I've seen him with Crazy Horse and with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but solo acoustic Neil is the best.

14.  SPOCK’S BEARD (2000; Chicago, Illinois). Another one of the new wave of progressive rock bands, I saw them while Neal Morse was still the leader/songwriter (he left in 2002 to go solo). This was one of those shows where I was only a little familiar with the music—I had, I think, one CD—but I walked away totally jazzed, ready to buy every CD they had out. And I did. Spock’s Beard was the 90s’ answer to Gentle Giant. I lost interest after Neal left, but this was another one of those shows from which you leave truly impressed.

15.  YES (2002; Chicago, Illinois). I’d seen Yes a few times, even in the 70s when they were huge. But this was the best Yes concert I ever saw (for once, the “first” time wasn’t the one for the history books). It was the highly-touted “classic lineup reunion” (Anderson, Howe, Squire, White, Wakeman) and they were spectacular. The sound—ever so important for a Yes concert—was great. Every member was in top form, and they played all the classic numbers I wanted to hear. Again, it was one of those perfect shows. I took my son, Max, who was thirteen at the time; and we met several members of the band afterwards.

16.  MAGMA (2003; Trenton, New Jersey). This was at NearFest, a prog-rock festival that used to be held annually on the east coast. Magma is a French avant-garde “Zeuhl” band (look it up) that originated in the 70s; these guys mesmerized the audience from the opening notes to the very end. They sing in an invented language as if they were from another planet, and the music can only be described as “Klingon Opera.” Really, I’d never seen anything like it. From then on, I was a Magma fan.  

17.  SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA (2003; Chicago, Illinois). Another legendary 70s progressive band, this time from Sweden, was led by my friend, the late Lars Hollmer. I couldn’t believe they got back together (after breaking up in 1980) and actually came to Chicago. I had gotten to know Lars by correspondence, so it was great to finally meet him in person. I volunteered to be a roadie for the show, so I hung out with the band all day. The music? Well, if you know the band, then you’ll know that it is complex, funny, and Zappa-esque. The audience came away stunned.

18.  TEMPEST (2003; Racine, Wisconsin). Well, I’m not sure if it was 2003 or 2004, but I’ve been a fan ever since and I try to see them every year that they come through the Chicago area. Led by Lief Sorbye, Tempest is Celtic rock at its best. Hard-stomping Irish reels on electric instruments. Too cool for words. They just celebrated their 25th anniversary this year, and it’s a mystery why Tempest has never made the real big time, despite several albums on a fairly major label. They certainly deserve more fame and fortune, although they seem pretty happy doing what they do.

19.  ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA (2006; Chicago, Illinois). Alas, I never got to see Frank Zappa, but seeing his son Dweezil and band perform Zappa music was the next best thing. Former Zappa band members—Steve Vai, Terry Bozzio, Napoleon Murphy Brock—were also in the band. It was great to hear that stuff live. One poignant moment was when Dweezil accompanied his father (who was on film, projected on a screen behind the band) in a dual guitar solo. Zappa was one of the 20th-Century’s great composers, and I hope he’ll go down in history in the same breath as Beethoven, Bach, Beatles... :)

20.  PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI (PFM) (2014; Chicago, Illinois). This progressive rock band was Italy’s most successful outfit in the early 70s. Supposedly they were the first Italian band to have international success. I never thought I’d see them either, but here they were, live and in person. Very Gentle Giant-like, only with Italian lyrics. Simply put, this was also an amazing show. They’re getting up there in age, but the guys didn’t act like it. A once in a lifetime experience? I hope not!

And there you have it. Many other bands and shows were memorable, and I saw some truly legendary people such as Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, Richard Sinclair, Kevin Ayers, National Health, Steely Dan, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Keith Jarrett, Return to Forever, The Cure, The Roches, Ozric Tentacles, SimakDialog, and more. The ones I wish I’d seen?—Hendrix, Soft Machine, The Beatles, Zappa, Hatfield & the North, Miles Davis, and Charles Mingus, to name a few.

Keep on rockin’.