Rust Never Sleeps [Live]

Neil Young, Crazy Horse | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Reprise / Wea
• ASIN: B000002KDG
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,960 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #76 in Music > Rock > Singer-Songwriters

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Young has recorded many live albums, but none capture his two dominant musical personalities with as much power as 1979's Rust Never Sleeps. The acoustic side opens with "My, My, Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue)," a devastating anthem about the state of rock & roll. Comparing the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten to the late Elvis Presley, Young delivers perhaps his most famous line: "It's better to burn out than to fade away." Side 2 demonstrates the emotional power of Young's hard-rocking quartet, Crazy Horse, with the scathing political songs "Powderfinger," "Welfare Mothers," and the loud reprise of "My, My, Hey, Hey." --Steve Knopper

Product Description

Never one to follow protocol, Neil's 1979 album featured new songs recorded live during his '78 tour with Crazy Horse. The now legendary record (with a title inspired by Devo and a sound invigorated by the punk movement), was originally split into separate acoustic and electric sides, and possibly best exemplifies two very different sides of Young. Includes Thrasher; Powderfinger; Hey Hey, My My (into the Black) , and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Driving rock April 26, 2002

By Bill R. Moore

Format:Audio CD

Neil Young's Rust Never Sleeps is an archetypal rock album that is simply essential. Split into acoustic and electric sections with the excellent classic songs My My, Hey Hey (Into The Blue) and Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) serving as bookends, it incorporates all of the elements that make Neil Young great into a single, immediate, excellent album. It has been noted that this excellent effort - with its electric/acoustic format - was based upon the groundwork laid down by Bob Dylan on Bringing It All Back Home; and this is true, though the acoustic and electric sides are swapped here. Starting off the album with its absolutely memorable acoustic riff, My My, Hey Hey is a nearly perfect song that has become a Neil Young anthem. The next song is Thrasher, which is one of Neil's best songs in my opinion, and quite underrated - a very personal song about his artistic integrity, this album features one of his most beautiful vocals, and some of his best lyrics. Other acoustic winners include Pocahontas, another perennial Young classic, with its wild lyrics and imagery. Sail Away is a similary beautiful folk song. Things start to heat up with the excellent Powderfinger, a truly astonishing song packing quite a lyrical punch. It's quite an unspoken and political statement such as Neil has not often made since - as are the next two song: Welfare Mothers (with its obvious title), and Sedan Delivery (a song about the drug trade.) All three are excellent. The album closes out with a reprise of the first song, this time in electric form. A slightly lyrically-altered cousin to its acoustic guise, this raw and in-your-face version lacks the polish and precision of the acoustic version, but has a charm all its own. It closes out with one of the electric hard rock jams that make Neil's live shows so great. This is a great album - one of Neil's finest - as it enscapulates all that is great about him - gentle, rolling acoustic songs, imaginative lyrics and stern lyrical statements, hard rocking proto-punk/grunge rockers - and puts them all onto this one great canvas. Musically, it's great; and, lyrically, this is where Neil really started to blossom as one of the finest and most unique voices in rock. Simply put, an essential album all around.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Young Thrashes & Rocks But Never Rusts on Brilliant Album August 11, 1998

By [e-mail]

Format:Audio CD

"Thrasher," track 2 on this CD, may be the greatest song I've ever heard. I don't say things like that all the time; I might say it in regard to "A Day In The Life" or "Don't Worry Baby" or "I Want You" (Elvis Costello's) ... and for me "Thrasher" belongs in the same league. It's not a slick performance; it was actually recorded live in concert with the applause mixed out (like much of the rest of this album) with only Neil on vocal, harmonica, and acoustic 12-string guitar. But it's very sophisticated, in conception, language, musicality, and execution, and more important it drips with drop-dead beauty, not to mention meaning. Alone it's worth the price of this disc, but other major works abound (the amazing "Pocahontas," "Ride My Llama," "Powderfinger," the pair of "My My, Hey Hey" classics). The punkish Crazy Horse stompers "Welfare Mothers" and "Sedan Delivery&qu! ot; don't really do it for me, but who cares? Along with "On The Beach" and "Tonight's The Night," I'd say it's the pinnacle of Neil Young's achievement as an artist.

43 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Rock and Roll Reveille, 1979 January 19, 2004

By Rocco Dormarunno

Format:Audio CD

When most rock music was mired in bands with no faces, with no known musician's names, and extremely little talent, like Kansas, Styx, Journey, Neil Young heard the wake-up call coming from the punk world. And although his own "Tonight's the Night" (1975) was a howling, screaming, raw, powerful tour de force, perhaps he even recognized a need for a rock and roll shot in the arm for his own music. The result was "Rust Never Sleeps".

In a weird way, this album sounds like a greatest hits sort of collection, with one side displaying his accoustic talents, and the other his gritty electric prowess. Of the accoustic tracks, "Pochahontas" (sp?) is the most unique because of its strange combination of haunting despair for the plight of Native Americans which turns into a love song for Pochahontas and all things Americana (the Astrodome, Hollywood, Marlon Brando, etc.). It's the most inventive song on this side, although all the accoustic tunes are engaging and mellow without being sleep-inducing like most 1970s accoustic work.

The second side has one of Neil Young's best electric ballads he's ever written, "Powderfinger". By saying it's his best electric ballad, I realize that this includes a body of work which features "Like a Hurricane", "Down by the River", "Cinnamon Girl", etc. But really, in terms of lyrics and musical brashness, nothing beats this song.

Finally, the album is framed by the songs "My, My, Hey, Hey" and "Hey, Hey, My, My". These book-ends, one accoustic and one electric, are by far the most revealing insights into the rock industry ever written. Better than Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" or "Have a Cigar, these two songs signal the end of one era of rock and roll--"The King is gone but he's not forgotten" and the heralding of a new age "Rock and Roll can never die". With rock and roll in Neil Young's hands, we can be assured of that.