Neil Young 40: Sugar Mountain

By now the continual teasing about the Archives had become maddening. Things weren’t helped by Neil’s insistence that the two installments in the “Performance Series” (Volumes 2 and 3 out of at least 12) that had already come out would be included in the Archives box when it finally, supposedly, would appear. To make things even more confusing, an installment dubbed Volume 0 (as in zero) was released with the explanation that it was not going to be part of the box set. (As it turned out, it was included in the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the box.)

Sugar Mountain was recorded over two nights in November 1968, from which the classic B-side that gave this collection its title had been recorded. It’s a fascinating document, captured at a point in his career where he was known (if at all) as the guy from Buffalo Springfield who had yet to release his first solo album. He mixes songs from the Springfield with his new originals deftly, interspersed with somewhat stoney commentary between songs. Each of the “raps”, some of which go on for a few minutes, is given its own track, which can be convenient. It’s a small room, so the performance is intimate, almost conversational. He manages to keep the crowd rapt for all eight minutes of “The Last Trip To Tulsa”. There’s even an early performance of “Birds”, which wouldn’t make an album for two years, and a demonstration of the melody for “Winterlong”, which was nine years away from record stores. And of course, the classic “Sugar Mountain” fits fine in its initial context.

Later eras would be heavily mined for release, which has managed to elevate Sugar Mountain in stature, but the selection from a repertoire that would only balloon exponentially is special. He wasn’t truly famous yet, making it a nice snapshot indeed. Even if the cover photo was from the year before.

Neil Young Sugar Mountain: Live At Canterbury House 1968 (2008)—3½