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Shopperworld - Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House, Ann Arbor Mi Nov 1968/+Dvda
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List Price: £15.99
Our Price: £8.98
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: Warner Bros. Records
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0093624983989
Format: Live
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Manufacturer: Warner Bros. Records
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Warner Bros. Records
Release Date: 2008-12-08
Studio: Warner Bros. Records
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Editorial Reviews:
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Recorded in Michigan in 1968, Neil Young’s Sugar Mountain concert at Canterbury House was performed during a transitional period for the singer-songwriter. Buffalo Springfield had recently dissolved and the 21-year-old Young was tentatively feeling his way towards a solo career. There are no orchestral embellishments here – it’s literally just Young, his guitar and a steady flow of stories and audience banter. Versions of “Mr Soul” and “Expecting to Fly” are stripped right down to the basics, and Buffalo Springfield tracks like "Broken Arrow" and “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing” are rendered more naked and honest in the same way. These songs are punctuated with newer material like “The Old Laughing Lady,” and "Birds" (which would show up on After The Gold Rush a couple of years later), as well as the singer’s often amusing anecdotes, which range from the rigors of owning a Bentley to being sacked from a bookstore for being high on “diet pills”. While not as immersive as Live At Massey Hall, Sugar Mountain is an alluring profile of a singer on the cusp of an outstanding career. --Danny McKenna
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Should have been his first solo album
Comment: Neil has frequently said he hated the production on his eponymous debut & hearing the tracks from that on this CD you understand why. Stripped down to their basics - along with glorious acoustic versions of Buffalo Springfield's best - they sound so much better. As with Massey Hall, the release of which was jettisoned in favour of Harvest, this should be "Neil Young". Ok so it's one for purists/completists but with the exception of The Old Laughing Lady all of the tracks are better than what appeared on vinyl 40 years ago
Customer Rating:
Summary: DVD just audio
Comment: Don't buy this if you are expecting a video of the performance. It is just a DVD with a single picture on the screen and audio.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not impressed
Comment: That's partly my fault in that I prefer electric to acoustic Neil Young, which isn't to say I don't enjoy a lot of it. However, this acoustic performance is one of the ones I don't. Unusually for Young on stage he hardly ever shuts up which wastes a lot of the running time and greatly distracted me from the music which I might, just might, have otherwise enjoyed.
I received it on Monday when I listened to it and copied it to my Ipod. Tuesday I listed it on Amazon marketplace and sold it on Wednesday. Didn't bother to watch the dvd. Hope my buyer likes it more than I did.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Early Neil Young solo concert
Comment: Buffalo Springfield could have been a very big band indeed. Nevertheless, due to infighting and Neil Young's continual restlessnness, they became a group lauded only by musos. Hence the slightly nervous and goofy chatter that punctuates this release; Neil Young's future was by no means certain. Indeed his first album would sell poorly and, just like Bob Dylan, would quickly release a magnificent follow up in an attempt to cancel it out.
This concert from 1968 predates that first album and indeed appears to be a very rare early solo venture fresh out of Springfield's security. The chatter shouldn't come as such a surprise, his humour was evident all through Massey Hall though in an albeit more subdued sense. The music is genuinely what counts and here we have such a collection of songs that we are only likely to hear Neil sing live on this cd/dvd and that makes it such an attractive buy.
On The Way Home kicks it off, the same as Massey Hall as it happens. The version here doesn't match up to that by any means, though the follow up Mr Soul is strummed to such a different beat to any I've heard that it immediately pricks one's ears up. The next two songs really raise the stakes though; an acoustic Expecting To Fly (without a doubt my favourite Sprinfield era Neil Young song) which is gorgeous, and a version of Last Trip To Tulsa which is far more urgent and less rambling than the album version.
There follows The Loner (like Mr Soul this is strummed in a quite unique style) and Birds which was eventually released as a piano version on After The Gold Rush. It sounds like it would have sounded at least as good if it had remained a guitar song. Another Springfield song follows (Out Of My Mind). For those unfamiliar with his demos on the Springfield box set, this will come as a revelation.
If I Could Have Her Tonight is followed by the familiar Sugar Mountain. Although previously released its still a beautiful song and its great to hear it in its context. I've Been Waiting For You, one of the better songs on his debut is here stripped down to its bare bones and sounds fantastic. The collection is rounded up by Springfield songs Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing (how wonderful to finally hear Neil's vocals on this one), Broken Arrow (the sound collage of the studio version is again stripped down to just an acoustic accomanpaniment, which seems impossible but he pulls it off with gusto) and also The Old Laughing Lady from his first album.
Overall, this is a compelling listen. I've tried to concentrate on the songs rather than the chatter. These 'raps' are quite charming but don't add anything to the experience other than to inform us that Neil was in a position where the future was a blank page and he was young, inexperienced (in a solo sense) and nervous. But it is such a cracking listen and the songs really hold up. He was clearly something of a songwriting genius early on and his voice is as pure as a mountain stream. The only reason I haven't awarded it 5 stars is because it simply doesn't measure up to Massey Hall 1971. That was so outstanding, a piece of perfection when Neil's star was in the ascendant. This is more an early and momentary glimpse into the shifting nature of Neil Young's muse, a trait that marks him to this day.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hissy Hall?
Comment:
This new release raises big questions about Young's overall CD catalogue. The usual excuse, that it is `one for the fans', is in no longer enough.
Firstly the extended `rap' between tracks is banal, twee, and completely unnecessary. Fortunately it is mostly in separate tracks and can be deleted. However this obliterates nearly half the length of the CD. Secondly, the tape hiss is so intrusive that when listening on an ipod, it spoils the quieter tracks. Thirdly, it has little of young's later guitar mix of finger picking and chords, and is mostly a sort of strum- along demo. Fourth, like Massey Hall, he has yet to master the coordination of voice, guitar and harmonica, which is absent, leaving gaps. Fifth, this version of the title track was released before, on Decade, so why do so again?
As a fan I don't regret buying it. It is amazing how the simple, chord changes and nuances developed into the full productions on subsequent albums.
However this album is no better than a below-average quality bootleg. By all means release it as a free tag-along to a high quality album, or as an extra in the forthcoming boxed set. However these ongoing ropey releases are gradually weakening Youngs exceptional back catalogue.
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