Album Review: Neil Young & Crazy Horse, F*#!in Up

This isn’t an album of new Neil Young songs, but a live recording of a secret gig, recorded at Toronto’s small and sweaty Rivioli venue in November 2023. On the night, the gnarly old rocker was joined by his equally wizened old bandmates in Crazy Horse, Bally Talbot (bass), Ralph Molina (drums) and Nils Lofgren (guitar), as well as Micah Nelson, son of legendary outlaw Willie, on guitar and piano, and the set included an almost-complete rendition of their classic 1990 release, Ragged Glory – only that album’s closing track, ‘Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)’, is missing.

Young, however, has renamed the original tracks, so the searing ‘Fuckin’ Up’ becomes ‘Heart Of Steel’ and ‘Love And Only Love’ becomes ‘A Chance On Love’. Only the sole cover, the raucous, ramshackle ‘Farmer John’, retains its original title.

It quickly becomes clear that 78-year-old Young and his equally pension-entitled cohorts can still rock out like bands a quarter of their age. Ragged Glory was one of the prolific Canadian’s best records and it still sounds wonderful 34 years later, with the toe-tapping singalong of ‘Broken Circle’ (formerly ‘Over And Over’), the gorgeous ‘Walkin’ In My Place (Road Of Tears)’ – formerly ‘Mansion On The Hill’ – and the rollicking ‘Feels Like A Railroad (River Of Pride)’ (formerly ‘White Line’) amongst the highlights.

Like most Crazy Horse gigs, it often veers into self-indulgent territory, with more guitar solos than the entire Metallica back catalogue seemingly crammed into one song, and tunes regularly soar past the 10-minute mark. A near-13-minute ‘Valley Of Hearts (Love To Burn)’ does test the patience, somewhat.

Young claims to have made this “for the Horse lovers” and in that he has succeeded admirably. While it’s not exactly one for Neil newbies, this remains a cracking live album from one of the best rock acts ever to have graced the planet.