Neil Young: Cortez the Killer-Live Compilation, Vol. 1 and 2

Cortez the Killer-Live Compilation, Vol. 1

1. Los Angeles, 10-24-78
2. Oakland, 3-20-99
3. Chapel Hill, 2-28-91
4. Princeton by-the-Sea, 4-14-96
5. Hamburg, 4-29-03
6. Nagoya, 3-3-76
7. Austin, 6-5-10

OU: "Neil’s played that black Les Paul since before I started working with him. He calls it Old Black, but it’s a ‘53 gold-top that used to have a trapeze bridge...For the highest volume, we have both the tone and the main volume on 12, and that second volume knob is at about 9.9. When it’s really compressed and breathing and screaming, that’s what’s going on. You can hear it on Cortez. If we push it past 9.9, the sound goes away. The next button down moves his volume to 10, which just cleans it up." -Larry Cragg (from www.neilyoung.dk)
Cortez the Killer is arguably the quintessential Neil Young song: a simple, yet definitive melody anchored by a rhythm that simultaneously picks you up, and gently lays you down. The song has been performed acoustic and electric, with and without a band-and works every time. I put this live compilation together after comments I read on DIME several months ago asking if on existed. Mainly for my own listening pleasure, I thought it might be kinda’ fun to listen to the song’s development over the years. The challenge was finding versions of CTK (performed well over 400 times according to Numbers on the Site) that were unique in their own way. There’s only so much one can do to a 3 chord, 8 minute song, but, Neil manages to find something new every time he plays it.
First up, the 10/24/78 performance at the LA Forum. A rare uptempo version, Crazy Horse settles into a fantastic, loping groove that chugs along beautifully. You could dance across the water to this one. Neil’s lead is perfect, right up to the descending three notes introducing the reggae coda. IMHO, the best Cortez ever. Second (and my other best Cortez ever), is the acoustic solo performance from 3/20/99 at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre. Listen to the audience reaction as it slowly realizes what’s in store. The highlight of this performance is how Neil, with just a guitar and harmonica infuses the song with so much sadness and melancholy, and gets that high lonesome sound that’s both thrilling and heartbreaking. Next up, the 2/28/91 Chapel Hill performance that for many is the best Cortez ever. Taken from the 1991 ArcWeld tour, the Ragged Glory treatment may well be the best context for the ultimate power and message of the song: loss and conquest. And then loss again. Princeton-By-The-Sea, 4/14/96. 22 minutes and 48 seconds. Gawd, get me another beer and, sure, I’ll have a hit of that. Turn your listening device up to 11, if you haven’t already. The Hamburg 4/29/03 performance is notable for the extra, ad-libbed (?) lyrics, "the ship is breaking up on the rocks, with the sandy beach so close, so close" Another spot-on acoustic performance with a clear beginning, middle and end. Played on 12-string, that Em-D-Am progression just keeps ringing through the night. And closing out the festivities is the third public performance of Cortez on 3/3/76 in Nagoya, Japan. Betcha’ didn’t think you could clap along to Cortez, in double time! Neil and Crazy Horse kill it of course. Oh, to be in the audience that night and to hear a classic in its infancy performed live. And finally, we come to Austin on June 5, 2010. Zuma11 says it all, "turn off the lights, turn up the volume, stop multi-tasking and give Cortez a listen." Exactly.
So please, enjoy and what’s that? I can see him now, I can see him coming...look at him dance...

Lineage: WAV > CD-R > FLAC (8)
Notes on SQ: All Audience Recordings the SQ is nonetheless Ex+ throughout. Watch out for the jump in volume between Hamburg and Nagoya, though.

+++
Neil Young-Cortez the Killer, Live Compilation, Vol. 2
Neil Young solo, and with Crazy Horse, Dave Matthews Band, and the Lost Dogs

0201. NHK Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 1989-04-29 (unknown taper)
0202. Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, FL, 2010-09-22 (vegetated recording)
0203. The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA, 1990-11-13 (unknown taper)
0204. The Fox Theater, St. Louis, MO, 1999-04-14 (unknown taper)
0205. Ahoy, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2001-06-21 (dutchtaper recording)
0206. Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountainview, CA 2006-10-21 (unknown taper)

Lineage: WAV > CD-R > FLAC (8) > DIME
Notes on SQ: All Audience Recordings, the SQ is Ex/ Ex+ throughout.

OU: "The song is typical of the Zuma album-simple, big chords and a bass that sometimes becomes very powerful and fades again. The song repeats the chords Em7, D and Am7sus4 while Young adds his signature solo riffs throughout. It is played in Young's favored "double drop D tuning", or "D modal tuning" (DADGBD) - standard guitar tuning with top and bottom strings tuned down a whole tone" Also of note is that the song fades out after nearly seven and a half minutes as (according to Young's father in Neil and Me) an electrical circuit had blown, causing the console to go dead. In addition to losing the rest of the instrumental work, a final verse was also lost. When producer David Briggs had to break this news to the band, Young replied "I never liked that verse anyway."
(from wikipedia 2010)
I’ve been fascinated with Cortez the Killer since I first heard it in 1975. As wonderful as the original studio version is, it’s the song’s live performances that demonstrate Neil’s songwriting and performing gifts. The song has three chords, 173 words and is an eight minute metaphor of innocence lost. The simple yet insistent melody captivates as the singer describes an idyllic, uncomplicated society where people worked together, men were straight and strong, and women were beautiful destroyed in the end by a stronger and mysterious outside world. But in the final verse, though, we learn that it is the singer, as Cortez, who has forsaken his lover: "I still don’t know how or where I lost my way." The death of a civilization as cautionary tale for the death of a relationship. Every time Neil tells that story onstage it’s as powerful as the first time 35 years ago.
We open with one of the liveliest performances of Cortez I’ve ever heard-with the Lost Dogs in Tokyo on April 29, 1989. Rick’s and Chad’s rhythm section bounces along quite nicely. The first guitar break is a thing of beauty, but that second guitar break lifts this performance into the stratosphere. Next, we enjoy the September 22, 2010 Clearwater performance. After playing CTK for over three decades, Neil still finds a way to make those chord changes fresh. As if he’s playing it for the first time. Again. Off we go to California for the Catalyst performance on November 13, 1990 in Santa Cruz. I lived there on that date and I still don’t know how or why I wasn’t at that concert. But thanks to Memorex and the intertoobz we can all be there. A gorgeously rendered performance follows: the Fox Theater on April 14, 1999 in St. Louis. The ‘99 solo tour was a thing of beauty with Neil at the top of his game, reinterpreting old songs and introducing new classics. June 21, 2001. Rotterdam. Turn off the lights, put on the headphones, crank the volume and smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. If you haven’t heard this performance, this is 23 minutes of your life you’ll go want to relive over and over. And we end this volume with the extraordinary October 21, 2006 Bridge Benefit performance with DMB. This acoustic version has all the tension and urgency of any electric Cortez. Check out Boyd Tinsley’s mesmerizing violin. I love how Neil gives the song completely over to the band-it’s a melodic and rhythmic tour-de-force.
As Neil says, "It’s all one song," and yet, in a way, it’s not. Neil Young, thank you. Indeed.
Enjoy, 1chucho

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