Photo: Thanira Rates
Following the chaos at last week’s chaotic smack-fest that was the Libertines’ British Summer Time show, and the nauseating pop vapidity of McBusted the following day, Neil Young and Crazy Horse arrived to rescue the BST series of events which has received a mixed reception this year.
An excellent line-up throughout the day, which saw Montreal natives Half Moon Run demonstrate why there is such a buzz surrounding their ascent to prominence, and The National cement their status as one of the most impressive live bands currently at large, lays the groundwork for Neil Young and Crazy Horse take to the stage just before eight o’clock.
Anyone who has seen this group of musicians live before will be able to vouch for the fact that from the first chord of thunderous distortion to the last pillar of eardrum piercing feedback there is something truly titanic about Crazy Horse as a live spectacle. The remarkable thing is this statement has been true for over 40 years.
Opening with 'Love and Only Love' from 1991’s Tour de Force Ragged Glory (which, unsurprisingly, is revisited on a number of occasions), it’s a good ten minutes of erratic soloing and extending jamming before Young even approaches the microphone.
Physically, Young is not a man who has chosen to age gracefully - thankfully. The inverted beauty of Neil Young is he has only ever been about the music; there’s never been sex appeal or product endorsements to detract from the songs. So when he walks onto the stage with a baseball cap reversed, overgrown, feral white mutton-chop side burns and a snarled expressions each time he opens his mouth, you actually feel a perverse sense of relief, for Neil Young in 2014, as in 1971, simply doesn’t give a fuck.
The band’s set manages to do justice to the quartet’s imperious body of work too. 'Barstool Blues' sounds as fresh as it does at the end of side one of Zuma, more recent additions to the Horse’s pantheon such as 'Psychedelic Pill' stand shoulder to shoulder with the monolithic and imperious 'Down by the River', and perhaps most excitingly of all, the one new song in the set, 'Who’s Gonna Stand Up for Mother Earth?', sees Young don a Telecaster and plug the environmental cause that he's always been an avid proponent of.
The new arrangement of 'After the Goldrush', which is transformed from the famous piano ballad to a full band guitar driven country-rocker, also stands out as being perhaps the set’s biggest surprise- clearly at 68, Young’s spirit for shape-shifting reinvention remains as alive as ever.
Was there really any doubt that Young’s show would be anything other than a triumphant demonstration of the beauty of primal, ferocious rock ‘n’ roll? At one point Young picks up the acoustic guitar and serenades Hyde Park with a rendition of Bob Dylan’s 'Blowing In The Wind' but it’s another Dylan title that would sum up the mood at British Summer Time tonight... 'Forever Young'.
Below: 9 exclusive photos of Neil Young at Hyde Park
