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Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Neil Young Performs 1983 Deep Cut ‘My Boy' for First Time in 42 Years
Neil Young revisited one of the most personal songs in his extensive catalog during a special benefit concert on Friday night (May 23), delivering the first live performance of 'My Boy' in more than four decades. The show, a solo acoustic set held on the grounds of Ontario's Lakefield College School, marked Young's first full performance of 2025 and supported restoration efforts for a historic 116-year-old cottage nearby. Despite the cold and rainy conditions, attendees paid up to $1,500 for tickets to witness the intimate 18-song performance. More from Billboard Demi Lovato Marries Jordan 'Jutes' Lutes in California Wearing Vivienne Westwood Wedding Gown Billy Ray Cyrus & Elizabeth Hurley Make Red Carpet Debut as a Couple Fans Choose MGK's 'Cliché' as This Week's Favorite New Music While the set featured classics like 'Heart of Gold,' 'Comes a Time' and 'Sugar Mountain,' it was the mid-show performance of 'My Boy' that drew audible emotion from the crowd. Originally released on 1985's Old Ways, the banjo-led ballad is a tribute to Young's eldest son, Zeke. The song had not been performed live since the 1983 Solo Trans tour. 'Why are you growin' up so fast, my boy?' Young sang. Hours earlier, he had posted a vintage photo on social media of himself with Zeke and his late father, renowned Canadian journalist Scott Young. 'Practicing for Lakefield, I was playing 'My Boy,' thinking about my own dad. I knew he must have heard this song,' Young wrote. 'My dad was a great guy and Zeke is a wonderful son. I think 'My Boy' is my favorite recording of all the ones I have done.' Young also surprised fans with rarely played tracks like 'Love/Art Blues' (last performed in 2008) and the CSNY deep cut 'Name of Love,' which hadn't been seen on a setlist since 2014. He closed the show with 'Old Man,' although a printed setlist hinted at two intended encore tracks — 'Throw Your Hatred Down' and 'Rockin' in the Free World' — that were likely scrapped due to inclement weather. The show comes ahead of Young's Love Earth Tour, which launches June 18 in Sweden. The U.S. leg kicks off Aug. 8 in Charlotte, North Carolina. While the setlist remains under wraps, the tour is expected to spotlight tracks from his upcoming album Talkin' to the Trees, which arrives on June 13 via Reprise Records. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
The Independent
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Neil Young risks trying our patience on ‘Oceanside Countryside'
For greying Gen X indie kids like me, slipping back into 1970s Neil Young records feels like stretching our arms into the sleeves of our old checked shirts. As the Godfather of Grunge, his raw, plaintive, ornery spirit underpinned the Nineties indie scene and any party that ended with guitars out likely included singalongs of 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' (covered by St Etienne in 1990) or 'Hey Hey, My My'. Equal parts sensitive acoustic strummer and snarling electric cynic, he was the elder statesman who allowed us to indulge our hippie dreams and sneer at them. But has this latest collection of Young's 'lost' recordings been released to indulge fans, or to sneer at us? In the wake of his self-important shilly-shallying over appearing at this year's Glastonbury Festival (at last check, he's coming) it seems greedy to drop an album containing no new songs. Versions of these 10 tunes have already come out in the relentless flood of confusing, multi-format material that flows from Young's archives (they have appeared on Rust Never Sleeps, Hawks and Doves, Comes a Time, Live At Massey Hall 1971 and Archives Vol III). Online fan forums are filling up with annoyed collectors admitting that 'Neil's really trying my patience with this one'. For the more casual listener, the backstory is that these lovely country rock songs were all recorded in 1977 and intended to be released as a complete album, ahead of 1978's Comes a Time. The first five songs were recorded in Florida, with Young playing most of the instruments, and the next five were created in Nashville with a full band. Younger fans looking for a primer ahead of Glastonbury could do worse than download it and kick back to the classic, mandolin-flecked yearning of 'Sail Away' and 'Goin' Back'. The song 'Pocahontas', which has appeared on three previous albums in various forms, places a slightly more urgent strumming higher up in the mix, intensifying Young's tale of Native Americans fleeing European colonisers who 'killed us in our teepee, cut our women down'. One of the USPs of this release is that these are all original 1977 mixes, making it maddeningly essential for completists. Maybe you can hear the crackles of the late 20th century if you strain for them? There is a bristle of metal treble in the guitars. Young sounds like he's standing farther back from the mic – like a man outdoors, gazing up at the aurora borealis which he hymns with his creaky old barn door hinge of a voice. The lesser-known track 'The Old Homestead' (which first appeared on Hawks and Doves) finds the spooky theremin wafting to icy prominence as Young brings a rasp to his campfire ghost story of a naked horse rider galloping away from the shifting menace of the FBI and prehistoric birds. 'It Might Have Been' is a full band number. It's a mellow toe-tapper that leans warmly into the country vibe: frayed fiddle lurching tipsy heartache over 4/4 guitar chords, with drums rattling like shot glasses on a tin tray. You can almost taste the chewed straw in your mouth. Lyrically it mines Young's regular themes of regret and yearning: dreams slipping through his hands. 'It's not too late to set things straight,' he sings. 'Let's never say 'it might have been'.' Young increasingly feels like an artist determined to monetise every last syllable of recorded music in his vaults. Oceanside Countryside will be released in both clear and black vinyl versions, which feels hypocritical coming from a man who's soap-boxed all his life about environmental destruction and corporate greed. Ethical issues aside, I know I'll tune in to watch Young's Glastonbury set this summer. I'll pull on an old shirt and, I suspect, forgive him for all this nonsense. At least until he tries to sell us his Live at Glastonbury 2025! album.
