NEIL YOUNG : CARNEGIE HALL

  1. Down by the River

  2. Cinnamon Girl

  3. I Am a Child

  4. Expecting to Fly

  5. The Loner

  6. Wondering

  7. Helpless

  8. Southern Man

  9. Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing

  10. On the Way Home

  11. Tell Me Why

  12. Only Love Can Break Your Heart

  13. Old Man

  14. After the Gold Rush

  15. Flying on the Ground Is Wrong

  16. Don't Let It Bring You Down

  17. Cowgirl in the Sand

  18. Birds

  19. Bad Fog of Loneliness

  20. Ohio

  21. See the Sky About to Rain

  22. Sugar Mountain

Label : Colosseum Records

Time : 76:40

Venue : Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York, USA

Date : December 5, 1970

Quality : Audience Recording (B+)

Review (Old Grey Cat) :  Recorded in December 1970 by Reprise for a live album that never materialized, this intimate acoustic set features an astounding wealth of golden-hued nuggets. Take "Southern Man": Yes, it's minus the driving electric guitars. And, yes, it's excellent. Dedicated to George Wallace, the anger and bitterness are supplanted with sadness and near-resignation. "Southern change is gonna come at last ." Unlike London 1971 "new" songs are few and far between  - "Wondering," "Old Man," the first known performance of the still-unreleased gem "Bad Fog of Loneliness" and "See the Sky About to Rain." Don't let that sway you, however. One truly stupendous highlight: the very first "dope/acid rock song" he ever wrote - "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong." Accompanying himself at the piano, he launches into the audio equivalent of a honey-slide. It may be wrong, but you'll be flying in your living room .

Review (BigoZine) : Very good audience recording. While fans have enjoyed Neil Young's 1974 Bottom Line show (circulated as Citizen Kane Junior Blues), another show many fans are familiar with is the December 5, 1970 show at Carnegie Hall. In Neil Young: The Definitive Story Of His Musical Career, Johnny Rogan wrote: The performances at Carnegie Hall in December (4th-5th) were regarded by Young as some of the most important of his career. Young even stated that he would have gladly played for free, just for the pleasure of performing at that prestigious venue. The seriousness with which Young took those performances were evident in some of his adverse comments to the audiences. He demanded silence between songs and when one punter shouted for a song, Young gave him this stern reply: "Listen, let me tell you one thing. As a performer, when you play Carnegie Hall you look forward to it for a number of years. I don't take playing here lightly at all and I think that you should have enough faith in me to know that I would plan ahead and include all of the songs that I thought you'd want to hear. That's OK at the Maple Leaf Gardens. but I'm not Grand Funk Railroad." [Ed: For this set, he stopped early on Clancy. According to the book Shakey, Young was upset at some noisy fans and called for an intermission.] .The intimacy that Young achieved during these solo gigs were mainly due to the fact that all his songs were presented in their bare acoustic form. While the electric Down By The River had ended the sets with Crazy Horse during the early part of the year, it was suddenly transformed into the opening acoustic number of his Carnegie set. There were other surprises too, most notably the acoustic versions of Cinnamon Girl, The Loner, Cowgirl In The Sand, Ohio and Southern Man, all of which were previously well known electric cuts. Young appeared effortlessly to transform them into an acoustic framework, without losing ay of the power or emotion that characterized the original electric versions. Carnegie Hall was a personal triumph and fully demonstrated Young's ability to take his own show on the road without the necessity of a backing group. During that Carnegie concert, Young introduced a couple of new numbers, including Old Man and Bad Fog Of Loneliness. A two-CD version of this show has also circulated among fans but the sound is very rough. While Young's voice is clear on this version, the taper seemed to have turned the recorder off between songs so some between-song banter is missing.

Review (BootlegZone) : This show was also professionally recorded by Neil for a possible live album release. Recorded by long-time CSNY engineer Bob Halverson. The master tapes still remain in Neil's vaults.