Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Year Of The Horse - Live (1997)

“Year of the Horse” is a 1997 documentary directed by Jim Jarmusch following Neil Young and Crazy Horse on their 1996 tour. It´s also released as a live album in 1997. It offers a different track list than the film.
This live album, in many ways could be seen as an epitaph for longtime Neil Young producer David Briggs who died in 1995 from lung cancer. This is reflected by the song choices which (outside of recent album cuts like "Scattered" and "Big Time") were among Briggs' favorites.
As Neil Young's second double live album of the '90s, “Year of the Horse” could seem a little redundant to anyone who isn't a die-hard fan. After all, the album “Weld” was useful since it appeared ten years after the release of “Live Rust”, Young & Crazy Horse's first double live album, and it captured them at their peak. “Year of the Horse”, however, appeared merely five years after “Weld”, and in between those two records, Young had only released two albums' worth of material that suited these high-voltage, improvised performances. These factors didn't matter since Young decided to allow Jim Jarmusch to make a film documentary about his 1996 tour, and Year of the Horse is the album that was released to coincide with the movie. (It's not really a soundtrack, since these performances don't appear in the film.) It is true that there are many songs here that haven't made Young's previous live albums, but the performances themselves aren't particularly remarkable they sound like tired, meandering variations of “Weld”. There are enough strong moments to make “Year of the Horse” worthwhile for die-hard fans, but it's too predictable to appeal to anyone else.


Disc one
01. "When You Dance"  - 6:20
02. "Barstool Blues"  - 9:02
03. "When Your Lonely Heart Breaks"  - 5:04
04. "Mr. Soul"  - 5:05
05. "Big Time"  - 7:28
06. "Pocahontas"  - 4:50
07. "Human Highway"  - 4:07

Disc two
01. "Slip Away"  - 10:52
02. "Scattered"  - 4:00
03. "Danger Bird"  - 13:34
04. "Prisoners"  - 6:40
05. "Sedan Delivery"  - 7:16 (omitted on LP)

All songs were written by Neil Young.

Credits
Neil Young: guitar, piano, harmonica, vocal
Pancho Sampedro: guitar, keyboards, vocal
Billy Talbot: bass, vocal
Ralph Molina: drums, percussion, vocal

Art Direction, Design – Gary Burden, Jenice Heo
Engineer – Hausmann, John
Management [Direction - Lookout Management] – Elliot Roberts
Mixed By, Mastered By – Mulligan, Tim*
Photography By [Back Covers] – L.A. Johnson
Photography By [Inside] – Jim Jarmusch
Photography By [Photos Cover] – Lars Larsen
Producer: "Horse

Notes
Recorded On tour in 1996
Genre:  Country-Rock, Live
Length:  84:22

© 1997 Reprise Records