Because The Night

Neil Young: "Long May You Run" (Reprise); 10,000 Maniacs: "Because The Night" (Elektra)

The 'Unplugged' tide continues unabated as those kindly people at MTV provide needy Rock Stars with free live albums to supplement their old age pensions. Neil Young is someone who'll rage long and hard against the dying of the light without any help from media monopolies, thank you very much, and 'Long May You Run' is a timely reminder of the joys of his non-electric set, complete with a winning reference to the Pet Sounds classic 'Caroline No' (Memo to all Demo Parade hopefuls: a Beach Boys quote will do you no harm at all with yours truly) and a title which has provided many a hard-pressed hack with an ideal ending to virtually any piece about the great man. Not so succesful is 10,000 Maniacs' attempt at the Patti Smith/Bruce Springsteen classic. Natalie Merchant just sounds too prim and virginal to become swept up in the monumental passions described and demanded by this song, with the result that she sounds rather like a novice nun half-heartedly attempting the breathy bits of 'Je T'Aime' at a convent karaoke night.