Rolling Stone Australia — July 2017

¥AFTER 1969’srock operaTommy,theWhowantedtoreturntotheir

rawrootswithalivealbum.PeteTownshendhatedtherecordings

theymadeontheirU.S.toursomuchhethrewthemontoabonfire.

ButeverythingclickedbackhomeinEngland,infrontof2,000rav-

enousfansattheUniversityofLeeds,wherethebandtorethrough

38 songs, including a nearly 15-minute “My Generation”. Townshend

latercalledit“thegreatestaudiencewe’veeverplayedto”. ANDY GREENE

THE WHO

FEBRUARY 14, 1970 UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

¥IN EARLY 1970,Neil Young had final-

lybecomeastarthankstothehuge

successofCrosby,Stills,Nashand

Young.Duringaquickbreakfrom

that band and from recording his

third solo LP,After the Gold Rush,

Young decided to introduce his new

fans to his other band, Crazy Horse

• whose garage-rock thrash sound-
  edthecompleteoppositeofCSNY–
  on a run of clubs, theatres and the oc-
  casional junior-college auditorium.
  “WhenNeilplayswithCrazyHorse,
  he goes into this other place and
  plays deep from inside,” says drum-
  mer Ralph Molina. “He becomes Neil
  Young, the real Neil Young.”
  It was a sound no one had heard
  before.Whileotherearlyjambands
  like the Allman Brothers played with
  virtuosic professionalism, Crazy
  Horse produced raw chaos. Each
  night began with a brief solo acous-
  tic set before Crazy Horse came on-
  stage.Songslike“DownbytheRiver”
  and“CowgirlintheSand”sometimes
  stretchedtonearly20minutes,
  Young trading unhinged solos with
  guitarist Danny Whitten. “Danny
  had a strong musical presence, prob-
  ably just as strong as Neil,” says bass-
  ist Billy Talbot. “We started doing
  songslonger,whichNeilhadnever
  done before.”
  In March, Bill Graham booked
  them at the Fillmore East for four
  showsintwonights,wherethey
  sharedabillwithMilesDavisand
  the Steve Miller Band. Each night,
  Whitten sang “Come on Baby Let’s
  Go Downtown”, a song about scor-
  ing heroin, which he’d started using
  heavilyaroundthistime.Onenight
  backstage, Young wrote down the
  phrase “I’ve seen the needle and the
  damage done” on a sheet of paper.
  Within two years, Whitten was
  dead, and Young’s song about him,
  “The Needle and the Damage Done”,
  would appear onHarvest,the best-
  sellingalbumof1972.“Itwassucha
  loss,” said Young. “[It taught me] you
  can’t count on things. You just can’t
  take things for granted. Anything
  couldgoatanytime.” A.G.

1970 WINTER AMERICAN TOUR

NEIL YOUNG

AND CRAZY

HORSE

52 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com July, 2017

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Townshend

in 1970