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Rust Never Sleeps

What's the best concert film? 

That's a tough one. It depends. Many would say Stop Making Sense, it's a good performance, but it is edited together from three separate shows. Others would say The Last Waltz, but the running order of the show has been altered, probably timed to give viewers a bathroom break during Neil Diamond's segment.

Consider, however, Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Rust Never Sleeps, filmed this week (10-22) in 1978 at the Cow Palace. It is a single show. Neil has some sort of concept in mind. the Jawas from Star Wars manage the stage. There are some gigantic trunks that Neil climbs around on. I guess he is a child, or maybe an action figure to fit in with the Jawas. The title was suggested by one of the guys from Devo. We get a flashback to Woodstock. It seems to be uncut. Note that there are some slow parts as Neil washes the spit out of his harmonica by sloshing it around in a bucket of water. It sounds like the bucket is miked. 

It's Neil's world, we're all just lucky to come along.

There are some Save for two songs, here is a video playlist.
Here is the playlist as released on Live Rust and Rust Never Sleeps. Some of those tracks were recorded at different shows. The most noticeable difference is in "Welfare Mothers", which underwent some changes between the movie and LP versions.
The whole film used to be available on dailymotion or some similar site, but has since disappeared. The adventurous of you can view it on a Chinese site.

With the advent of youtube and the like, a fan can find any number of bootleg videos which may be contenders for best show.

One that we recommend - or at least a scene of it for shits and giggles - is Rick Wakeman's Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It features Rick, his band, an orchestra, and choir. The storyline is acted out on ice....by ice skaters. Yep.

The high point is at the end, following "The Last Battle", wherein knights skate around and try to run each other through. They are all supposed to die, but one called in sick, leaving a lone knight to careen around aimlessly looking for a "plausible" way to join the others. 


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Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 27, 2021 at 2:44 PM

    That Wakeman video could pass for an outtake from Spinal Tap. I must see the entire Rust Never Sleeps Chinese video site viruses be damned.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 27, 2024 at 12:46 PM

    The greatest concert film is Ziggy Stardust in my opinion.

    ReplyDelete

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