While he’d played a handful of shows since the pandemic, the specter of Covid and the risk of large gatherings were enough to keep Neil Young from touring behind the three new albums he put out in that period. When he finally did do a brief West Coast run in 2023, it was in his tried and true format of wandering around a stage between instruments and touching on his entire career. And being him, he commemorated it with a live album as fast as the pressing plants could make them.
Before And After is presented as a single track, but thankfully still indexed for each song (unlike a recent Paul Simon project). The idea is that in this age of shuffle and immediate gratification, this should be experienced like a performance. And that’s what it is, though taken from a handful of shows, with the audience mixed very low when they’re heard at all.
The setlist leans predominantly on less obvious choices, beginning with “I’m The Ocean”, transformed from its Pearl Jam thrash into a rumination along the lines of side one of Rust Never Sleeps. “Homefires” is rediscovered from the Archives, and is a clever segue to “Burned” from the first Buffalo Springfield album, then “On The Way Home” from the last. The token rarity is “If You Got Love”, yanked from Trans at the last moment and here executed on his trusty pump organ. Now at a piano, a slightly stumbly “A Dream That Can Last” goes backwards into “My Heart” by way of “Birds” in between. “When I Hold You In My Arms” is reclaimed from the post-Toast era into a love song along the lines of Storytone. “Mother Earth” is pump organed, as is “Mr. Soul”. “Comes A Time” sounds just like it did on Live Rust, and it’s a very fast segue into “Don’t Forget Love”, the sincere salutation from Barn.
This is a sentimental journey, certainly, an intimate visit with Neil. While it doesn’t present a complete show—which could well appear on his website at any time—Before And After should sate anyone still hoping and waiting to see him in person.
Some people didn’t have to wait that long, as Neil reconstituted Crazy Horse—still with Nils Lofgren, swapping piano and guitar with Micah Nelson from Promise Of The Real—for a private gig in Toronto at a billionaire’s birthday party a month before the release of
Before And After. The set consisted of the
Ragged Glory album in order, excluding “Mother Earth”, and was released five months later as
Fu##in’ Up, just in time for a full-fledged Horse tour. (It was also included as a premium for those who paid the hefty ticket prices.) By this time both members of the rhythm section were 80 years old, but it’s Neil who seems to struggle the most, botching the lead on “Country Home”, switching verses on the title track, and straining to hit high notes in the original keys. “Love To Burn” starts to slow down at the ten-minute mark, and probably not on purpose. He does, however, nail the harmonica solo on “Days That Used To Be”—no small feat, since it never had one before.
For some reason every song here save “Farmer John” was given a new title, along with a numeric prefix, counting down from 8 to 1 and back to 9 for “Love And Only Love”, where they finally sound warmed up. It’s also unknown why the few encores weren’t included, but that’s Neil for you. Way Down In The Rust Bucket is far better overall, and not just on the shared songs.
The Crazy Horse tour ended sooner than expected, for “health reasons”, and with a lot of irons in the fire, a year went by before the solo tour was commemorated with a film directed by Daryl Hannah, with a matching soundtrack. As with its older brother,
Coastal begins with “I’m The Ocean” and closes with “Don’t Forget Love” (albeit an extremely short version), and doubles up on a few other songs. In between, it’s a similar grab bag.
“Love Earth” benefits from audience participation and timely stomping, and he switches to electric for “Prime Of Life”. We just noticed that the hook of “Throw Your Hatred Down” would be used again in
“Shock And Awe”, and
“Vampire Blues” is interrupted by an amp glitch that doesn’t derail his tempo. Speaking of which, the first physical copies of the album managed to escape quality control; “Expecting To Fly” is done on piano at a soundcheck, and sung in a much lower register, where he stays for “Song X” and “I Am A Child”. (When the “official” streaming version on his site appeared after a delay, it had these songs mixed without vocals.) All in all, that much more enjoyable than
Before And After, though neither is The One To Have.
Neil Young Before And After (2023)—3
Neil Young With Crazy Horse Fu##in’ Up (2024)—2½
Neil Young Coastal Soundtrack (2025)—3
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