Collectors Music Reviews

One Stop World (Mainstream MAST-122)

The Boarding House, San Francisco, CA – May 24th, May 27th, & May 28th, 1978

Pocahontas (a), Human Highway (b), Already One (b), Comes A Time (a), Birds (a), My My Hey Hey (b), Cowgirl In The Sand (b), Shots (a), After The Goldrush (b), Thrasher (b), The Ways Of Love (b), Out Of My Mind (b), I Believe In You (a), Ride My Llama (b), Sugar Mountain (b), Sail Away (b), Homegrown (c)

a= May 24th, 1978 early show, b=May 27th, 1978 late show c=May 28th, 1978 early show

Neil Young played at The Boarding House in San Francisco May 24th – 28th, two shows a day for a total of ten shows.  They were performed completely solo with no trace of Crazy Horse.  He was joined onstage only by three tall wooden Indians.  Each of the shows was taped, but for One Stop World Mainstream collected songs from the ten shows and collated them into one.  Although the obsessive collector in me would really like to have a “definitive limited edition ten disc set” of the entire series, this is intelligently thought out and enjoyable.This small venue (300 capacity) produced some very interesting shows and a phenomenal list of songs making their debut:  “Hey Hey My My”, “Out Of My Mind”, “Powderfinger” (which was only played once in the May 26th late show and Mainstream unfortunately didn’t include in this collection), “Ride My Llama”, “Shots” (released on 1981′s Re-ac-tor), “The Ways Of Love” (released on 1989′s Freedom), and “Thrasher”.  In fact three songs (“My My Hey Hey”, “Thrasher”, and “Ride My Llama”) recorded during this engagement were used for Live Rust, although not the actual performances here.  The sound quality of the tapes is very good to excellent.  The two tapes used for the majority of the release are sonically very close to identical and the edits between the tracks are seamless.  The third tape source used for the final track “Homegrown” is very distant and thin sounding, rating merely fair.  Young is in a laid back and chatty mood with the audience and isn’t even bothered by the heckler before “Birds”.  “We Want Steven Stills” someone shouts.  After some boos from the crowd he replies, “I am Steven Stills”.  Overall this is a nice title and recommended.  (GS)

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