Crazy Good

EXTRAORDINARY 1984 BROADCAST RECORDING FROM NEIL & THE HORSE in 1984, Young toured with both the International Harvesters during the annum s second leg, while earlier, in February, he stepped out, briefly, with Crazy Horse. The 1984 California Club Tour was a 2-date, 4-show residency at Santa Cruz s Catalyst Club, across the 6th & 7th of the month, with two shows played on each day. The late show on the 7th was recorded for FM Radio Broadcast, and is released here, in its entirety, for the first time on CD. A quite extraordinary show for a number of reasons, not least the dynamic performance the band gave, but even more enticing, is that the audience and those listening in on the wireless, were treated to no less than five previously unreleased cuts. Kicking off with a pair of such in Rock, Rock, Rock and So Tired , the group pepper the rest of the gig with three further gems absent from any NY albums, both then and now: I Got A Problem , Stand By Me and Touch The Night .

The third new studio album of Paul Simon's post-Simon & Garfunkel career was a musical and lyrical change of pace from his first two, Paul Simon and There Goes Rhymin' Simon. Where Simon had taken an eclectic approach before, delving into a variety of musical styles and recording all over the world, Still Crazy found him working for the most part with a group of jazz-pop New York session players, though he did do a couple of tracks ("My Little Town" and "Still Crazy After All These Years") with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section that had appeared on Rhymin' Simon and another ("Gone at Last") returned to the gospel style of earlier songs like "Loves Me Like a Rock." Of course, "My Little Town" also marked a return to working with Art Garfunkel, and another Top Ten entry for S&G. But the overall feel of Still Crazy was of a jazzy style subtly augmented with strings and horns…