Neil Young's ongoing Official Bootleg Series dusts off live material from across the master songwriter's long and winding career, with the first few volumes focusing on solo shows from the early '70s. For
Neil superfans, collections like
Carnegie Hall 1970 will be essential, capturing the nerves, excitement, and discovery of the early phase when
Young was blooming into the superhuman talent that would result in some of his most celebrated albums. Royce Hall 1971 focuses on a gig at the UCLA campus near the end of a solo tour, with
Young playing songs from
After the Gold Rush, the yet-to-be-released
Harvest, and a smattering of tunes from earlier records or ones that were years away from commercial release. In banter between songs,
Young sounds relaxed to the point of being almost aloof, starting to explain the origins of his songs but often stopping short before finishing his stories and just beginning to play. As with other volumes of the Official Bootleg Series that spotlight these solo shows, the highlights on Royce Hall 1971 come when
Young plays hushed, stripped-down renditions of songs that tended to explode in their full-band arrangements or even more intimate readings of some of his gentler tunes. Rockers like "Cowgirl in the Sand," "Ohio," and "Don't Let It Bring You Down" are gripping in these minimal versions, and soft songs like "I Am a Child" or the melancholy piano ballad "Love in Mind" take on an even more vivid bittersweetness than their album versions. The set list and musical delivery are almost identical to
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 1971, another volume in the Official Bootleg Series recorded just nights after Royce Hall 1971. Because of the near interchangeability of these releases, only completists will need to collect every volume of the series. Despite their similarities, each volume is an excellent document of any given night on-stage with
Neil Young, and Royce Hall 1971 finds him in just as fine form as the best of his solo performances from this time. ~ Fred Thomas