Regardless of one's opinon on them, POTR sure do know a lot of songs -- this was on stage wednesday night on the drum riser behind the bass player:
That version maybne was on the 12-inch single? later available on the Lucky 13 comp. Don't think it was the version on the Trans album. But I could be wrong. Crazy Horse guitarist Poncho Sampedro recalled, "Next thing we knew, Neil stripped all our music off, overdubbed all this stuff, the vocoder, weird sequencing, and put the synth s*** on it."
I think POTR gets a bit of a bad rap around here. They are not perfect, granted. They have a dumb name for starters, and Lukas gets a bit too noodle-y on guitar solos for my taste, but Neil clearly has a great time playing live with them and that definitely counts for something. I just saw the 2 shows they did in Port Chester this week and they only repeated 3 songs over the 2 nights. Night one they opened with a 20-minute "Like an Inca" and last night they did "Albuquerque"!!! If they and Neil keep breaking out gems like that while drastically mixing up the setlists, I'll tolerate Lukas occasionally playing guitar with his teeth.
I’ve just noticed that Fillmore East and Massey Hall are finally available to buy individually as 24/192 on the NYA Download Store
They won me over at these two shows. I have been critical of them but they played great the last two nights, and Neil obviously was having a great time and was energized playing with them.
You my friend need your ears tested. It's woeful. A 2 Year Old could write a better song. And those backing vocals are so off key its a total joke. Thank God he has a magnificent legacy of other songs.
Yeah. That's OK. Sometimes irony goes MIA in forum discussions. I have such huge respect for Neil's legacy. But I wish he would, like, say, Dylan and Bruce, recognise when the muse has departed - even if it's for a long time or forever. But he's Neil. And Neil will do what he wants!
There's a similarly-impressive list of songs available at karaoke night at my local pub, complete with autocue. (My point being that setlist diversity has never been an indicator of excitement at Neil's gigs, unless approached with a trainspotter-type mentality. When we look at Neil's most musically exciting tours over the years, they are rarely those with the most varying array of songs. Intense focus seems a more significant quality). He's still come out with some gems in recent years, songs he wouldn't have gotten to without passing through some more underwhelming ones in the process.
I love this post. Lately more and more I've completely dropped and surrendered all of my inclinations to be critically negative ("the congas aren't working...") in favor of letting it all ("it's all one song") wash over me for as long as Neil or I have left. That, and gratitude. It's not gonna last forever for any of us.
Both Peace Trail and The Visitor were valid works with several good to very good and borderline great songs. Hey, we all have our opinions...and Neil has lost much of his fan base, but they'll come back around someday. NYF
Sorry.. I read it too quickly. I get it now and totally agree obviously. My apologies but let my post stand in lieu of anyone else who actually does think its wonderful
IMHO those albums contain some of his worst ever recorded songs. Only the songs "Peace Trail" and "Show Me" were above average on the former album and "Already Great" and "Children of Destiny" were the standouts of the latter album. "Peace Trail" contains some songs which I consider to be THE worst songs he's ever written and recorded. They are laughable. "The Visitor" was a step up in quality but way short of the mark still. All IMHO.