What's this? A bootleg album with a picture on the cover that may have actually been taken in the same year as the performance on the album! And no typos in the tracklisting (I'm not counting the missing apostrophe in Tonights the Night, even though they correct that themselves for the reprise/encore version)?! There is the small matter that Neil's band for this performance were known as the Santa Monica Flyers, not Crazy Horse, but you can't have everything.
The album seems to have been bestowed with almost-legitimate status by virtue of a widely-syndicated allmusic review that begins,
The early concerts at which Neil Young played material from his yet-to-be-released Tonight's the Night album are legendary for their supposed uncompromising nature. Here we have one of them, taken from a November 15, 1973 show at Queens College in New York.
Well, kind of. In this case, the truly legendary early shows were those that took place in England a week or two before this New York one. As Paul was kind enough to burn me a copy of the 3rd November gig at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, I can compare as directly as is possible 35 years after the event. The UK shows were more uncompromising because they didn't open with released Neil Young material — as this bootleg does — but just went straight into nine songs from Tonight's the Night, the whole album apart from the 'lighter' songs. Goodbye Waterface, meanwhile, only has six of them, and more 'hits'.
It's still a good listen, but, if you can, get the Manchester bootleg (which sometimes goes under the title Speakin' Out according to Pete Long's Ghosts on the Road). You'll hear the Manchester audience gradually losing their rag, just as they had with Bob seven years earlier. A prickly lot, you Mancunians.
Back cover of CD with track listing
Wikipedia explanation for this album's name
Rate Your Music entry for this album
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