Album Review: Neil Young & Stray Gators – Tuscaloosa (Reprise)

Neil Young’s archive series marches on with this latest concert recording from February 5^th, 1973.

At this time in his life, Neil Young’s professional career was at a highpoint with his fourth solo album, Harvest, released a year earlier, topping the album charts and giving Neil his first number one single in Heart Of Gold.

But Neil’s own life was in turmoil. His partner, actress Carrie Snodgrass had given birth to their son, Zeke in September of 1972, but Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten had died of a drug overdose several months earlier.

Tuscaloosa captures Neil and his Harvest band, the Stray Gators (Tim Drummond, Ben Keith, Jack Nitzsche, Kenny Buttrey) performing at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on the tour that would eventually produce Time Fades Away, a live album released later in ’73.

The 11 tracks included here are not the entire concert…Neil being Neil has decided to leave a couple out…but it is an excellent representation of where Neil Young’s head was at at this crucial point in his life.

It begins with a solo performance of Here We Are In The Years, a tune from Young’s first solo album, in which he sings about the idyllic life he’s made for himself on his ranch. It’s a theme he’s returned to over the years…check out Get Back To The Country on the criminally overlooked Old Ways album from 1985.

Part of the charm of listening to these vintage shows is hearing Young’s between song banter.

“I wrote this song about a dream I had one morning”, he tells the audience before After The Goldrush.

Lookout Joe, eventually released on Tonight’s The Night in 1975, is prefaced by Neil saying, “I’d like to do a song for all the soldiers coming home from Vietnam”. The song itself is a cautionary tale of life in the 70s as Young warns the returning vets, “the old times were the good times”.

Best of all is his intro to Heart Of Gold. Obviously struggling with the song’s commercial success, Neil tells the crowd that he had been offered the opportunity to make a commercial, which he turned down, recording the song as “Burger Of Gold”. He also warns not to clap for this story because, “most of it is not true”.

The Stray Gators are in fine form, particularly Ben Keith’s pedal steel on Out On The Weekend.  They also prove that they can really rock as the versions of Time Fades Away and New Mama show.

Stretched over three sides of vinyl (the fourth side of the disc is blank, but with a cool “Stray Gator” etching), the set ends with the autobiographical Don’t Be Denied.

“This is a song about an aspiring young folk singer trying to make good in Hollywood”, Neil tells the assembled fans.

Despite the craziness going on around him…roadie Bruce Berry would also be dead in a few months…Neil sounds strong and sober.

Drummer Kenny Buttrey would leave the tour in a few days, replaced by Jefferson Airplane’s Johnny Barbata (it’s him you hear on the Time Fades Away album).

While there are no previously unheard Neil Young songs included here, and most tunes, such as Old Man, Alabama and Heart Of Gold have multiple live versions out there, Tuscaloosa still is recommended.

Neil Young and The Stray Gators on stage in 1973 sound familiar and comfortable…like a favourite pair of jeans. Put them on one more time.

Marty Duda