NEIL YOUNG : DOROTHY CHANDLER PAVILLION 1971

  1. On The Way Home
  2. Tell Me Why
  3. Old Man
  4. Journey Through The Past
  5. Cowgirl In The Sand
  6. Heart Of Gold
  7. A Man Needs A Maid
  8. Sugar Mountain
  9. Don't Let It Bring You Down
  10. Love In Mind
  11. The Needle And The Damage Done
  12. Ohio
  13. See The Sky About To Rain
  14. I Am A Child
  15. Dance Dance Dance

Label : Shakey Pictures Records

Venue : Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, Los Angeles, California, USA

Recording Date : February 1st, 1971

Release Date : May 6, 2022

Length : 57:40

Review (AllMusic) : With his Official Bootleg Series, Neil Young reclaims performances that have been circulating as unofficial audience tapes or low-quality bootlegs for decades, cleaning up audio from the best possible sources and recapturing moments that had beforehand been covered in a muted haze. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 1971 is a crisp, studio-quality rendering of a solo set Young performed in Los Angeles on February first, 1971. Before this official release, the show was one of Neil's more bootlegged, surfacing under multiple titles like Young Man's Fancy or I'm Happy That Y'all Came Down, since 1971. Much like the spellbinding Carnegie Hall 1970, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 1971 finds Young alone with a guitar (or occasionally at the piano) running through material from the recently released After the Gold Rush, and sprinkling in a few tunes yet to be released on record. Soon-to-be classics like Harvest's "Old Man" and "Heart of Gold" show up, and he doesn't have the lyrics completely finished for "A Man Needs a Maid." As with the Carnegie Hall set list, there's a strong performance of "See the Sky About to Rain," which wouldn't see commercial release for a few more years. The similarities in song selection to the Carnegie Hall show make sense, as this gig happened only a few months later. Here, however, Neil sounds more relaxed in a less high-pressure venue. He mumbles casually through song introductions and approaches the tunes playfully, as if pondering the possibilities of his songwriting in real time. At one point he even tells the audience not to waste their energy applauding between every song. "You can just clap real loud at the end, and it'll be cool," he smirks. That laid-back attitude encapsulates the feel of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, capturing a master songwriter in the middle of an early phase of brilliance, but in a moment where he sounds especially comfortable and at home on-stage. Less obsessive fans might not see the necessity in seeking out more than one live recording from a window of time when a lot of Young's shows were fairly similar. Young completists will of course need to hear the clarity of this recording, and will appreciate the subtle nuances in every joke, slight variation in delivery, and minor shift in presentation that separate this show from any other.

Review (Clash Music) : Being a Neil Young fan, you take a lot for granted. Anyone who is getting into Young now is spoilt for the amount of quality there is in his back catalogue. Its all there, laid out before you. It's hard to forget this when listening to these 'lost' live performances from the 1970s. To us, we can sing along with every track, as we've heard them all countless times - but you forget that the audience might have never heard the majority of these songs before. Neil Young opens the 'Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 1971' set with 'On The Way Home' from the last Buffalo Springfield album, then 'Tell Me Why' from 1970s 'After The Gold Rush'. Then he plays 'Old Man' and 'Journey Through The Past'. The audience are into them, but at the time of the gig they weren't released. Neil Young plays a stripped back version of 'Cowgirl In The Sand' before proving his comedic chops at the finish by saying "I've written a lot of new songs. I'll be doing most of them tonight". The audience applauds. Without missing a beat Young replies: "You don't got to do that. You can just clap real loud at the end. That'll be really cool. Don't waste your energy". Then he launches into a new song. 'Heart Of Gold.' After that he plays 'A Man Needs A Maid.' Looking at the set list its easy to see the quality. We've heard the majority of these songs countless times and their importance has been reinforced by critics. As I'm doing now, but its hard to remember that at the time of this gig only a third of the songs had been released. 10 songs of a 15-song setlist would be release over the next three years over four or five different albums. 'Sugar Mountain' wouldn't get an official release until 1977. I'd love to know what the audience thought about these songs when they walked out. Did 'Needle And The Damage Done' stick in their heads as much as 'Ohio' or 'I Am A Child'? I guess we'll never know, but this is one of the joys of listening to 'Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 1971'. Not only is it chocked full of bangers and future classics, but what was going through the audience members minds when Young played them 'See The Sky About To Rain' for the first time. The rest of the set is culled from 'After The Gold Rush,' 'Harvest', 'Time Fades Away', 'On the Beach', 'Last Time Around' and 'Four Way Street'. Its an exceptional set that is almost too much to take as its banger, after banger, after banger. Listening to it in 2022, its impressive how Young picked so much new music. You'd expect him to play 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' or 'Southern Man', but no, he opts for two-thirds new material. This has to be respected. Partly because this is a dream set list for a lot of Young fans in the present, but also the confidence in his songs. Young's not going to play much from his released albums and focus on unreleased music. As usual for the time the set closes with 'Dance Dance Dance.' This is one of the great 'lost' Young songs. It was originally recorded for a Neil Young and Crazy Horse album that never happened. So, the song went unreleased. Crazy Horse then recorded it for their 1971 debut album. The way Young plays it here makes you lament its lack of official release. This is another reason to admire Young. He sits on a classic song as he's already moved on and the momentum for future releases is increasing. It's one of his best songs. Here, though, at least it gets an adulation is deserves. 'Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 1971' is a wonderful snapshot of where Young was in 1971. He was gearing up to release the biggest album of his career, and the next two or three albums after that. He was a confident, and consummate, performer who knew the audience would love these new songs as much as the ones that made them buy the ticket in the first place. And he was right. In 2022 it feels like a masterstroke. This might not be as an essential album, but it's one that definitely requires your respect and an hour of your life.