Weld

Certain Songs #1280: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – “Love and Only Love (Pittsburgh 02-17-1991)”

July 31, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Arc-Weld
Year: 1991

Recorded at the Civic Auditorium, Pittsburgh on February 17, 1991

The first time I saw Neil Young & Crazy Horse was on the Smell The Horse Tour. It was at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on Saturday April 6, 1991. Jay drove Manny, Byron & I in his van, listening to the initial dubs of the Miss Alans Discordia shows the previous weekend on the way up.

At that time, I wasn’t in a great headspace: the second version of Sedan Delivery had just fallen apart, I was going back to CSUF to finally finish my degree, and I was also dealing with a lingering breakup, as well. And in fact, I was originally going to go the next night in Sacramento w/ John, Sherilyn & Doc — a show with way better tickets — but ditched them because I didn’t want any kind of responsibility at all, not even driving, which I was going to do, cos I had the best car. It was also a Sunday night show, and I had to be in class at 9:00AM on Monday.

Certain Songs #1279: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – “Welfare Mothers (Landover, MD 02-27-1991)”

July 30, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Arc-Weld
Year: 1991

Recorded at the Capitol Center, Landover, on February 27, 1991

Sure, the version of “Welfare Mothers” that was on Rust Never Sleeps was great — and its placement on side two between “Powderfinger” and “Sedan Delivery” was a great way to lighten the otherwise heavy mood created by the former and set up the noisy surrealism of the latter — but it wasn’t quite deranged enough.

I mean, sure, screaming “welfare mothers make better lovers” over and over again is already setting a high bar of derangement from the get-go, which is why it’s impressive they were able to go right over the top on the Smell The Horse tour.

Certain Songs #1278: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – “Crime in the City (Pittsburgh 02-17-1991)”

July 29, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Arc-Weld
Year: 1991

Recorded at the Civic Auditorium, Pittsburgh, on February 17, 1991

I don’t know if it’s still available this way, but when Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s second live album, Weld, came out during the insanely overstuffed with great music autumn of 1991, there was an extra disc attached to it called Arc.

And one of the coolest things about the packaging of Arc-Weld all of the pictures accompanying the CD, Neil Young looks totally possessed. Check the cover and he’s out of his head playing his guitar while the rest of Crazy Horse are deep into a groove. On the back cover, Neil is kissing his guitar, thanking it for all of the insane noises that he was able to coax out of it that evening.