All the kudos
Neil Young
earned for
Rust Never Sleeps
he lost for
Live Rust
, the double-LP live album released four months later.
was the
soundtrack
to
Young
's concert film
(he had wanted to give it that title, but
Reprise
vetoed the idea, fearing confusion with the earlier album), and likewise was recorded October 22, 1978, at
the Cow Palace
in San Francisco. But much of the
album had been recorded on the same tour, and
repeated four songs from that disc; besides, since
had released the career retrospective
Decade
in 1977, critics felt he was unfairly recycling his older material and repeating his new material. In retrospect, however,
, now a single 74-minute CD, comes off as an excellent
live album and career summary, starting with the early song
"Sugar Mountain"
and running through then-new songs like
"My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)"
and
"Powderfinger."
is effective in both his acoustic folksinger and hard-rocking
Crazy Horse
bandleader modes. The various distractions of the concert itself and the film, such as the pretentious props and cowled roadies, are absent, and what's left is a terrific
concert recording. ~ William Ruhlmann