What's Your Favorite Planet?

Neil Young's Coastal Tour is selling out quickly but he never will

Warning: Most of what the skeptical cardiologist writes he considers unbiased and science-based. What follows is purely subjective, totally lacking in statistical analysis, and based on a weak “n of 1” observational study by a highly biased observer. The analysis lacks external validation and likely will only apply to huge Neil Young fans.

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It seems fitting that last Tuesday’s Wordle word was earth because that night at the Rady Shell on the San Diego Bay, Neil Young asked us three times “What’s your favorite planet?” and was not satisfied until the consensus answer was Earth, (arguably, a more acceptable answer than Uranus), and began singing “Love Earth” after teaching us how to sing its titular recurring phrase (which not surprisingly is love earth*.)

Love Earth began the encore portion of a wonderful Young concert on a glorious night, at a glorious setting, and by a glorious musician, singer and artist who is nearing the end of a 60-year musical journey which it has been my great pleasure to witness.

Because Neil Young is Neil Young he chose to play more obscure songs from his 45 album repertoire, most of which had not been played live previously. He is legendary for following his artistic muse which often means playing in genres or styles which are starkly different from what came before. On his current Coastal Tour of California beach towns  (first live touring since 2019) he is stripped down to playing (mostly*) by himself, singing and playing harmonica accompanied by guitars** or non-electric keyboards*

Following an opening set from Chris Pierce, Neil wandered onto the stage at 830 PM, beginning on acoustic guitar with “I’m the Ocean” the first song off his great 1995 album Mirror Ball which was recorded in 4 days with Pearl Jam (mostly sans Eddie Vedder.)

I’ve always liked the rumbling, noisy energy of “I’m the Ocean”. The lyrics are great but in the original are buried under a wall of sound. At Rady, however, with just Neil and his guitar, they stood out. (See here for more on what makes this song great.) It ends with the catchy lines  “I’m the ocean, I’m the giant undertow” repeated over and over.

An hour and a half later he had played two Buffalo Springfield songs (Burned from 1966 (per Young, the first recording he made in a real studio) and On the Way Home), three songs from 1995’s Sleep with Angels (A Dream that can Last, My Heart, and Prime of Life), another song from Mirror Ball (Throw Your Hatred Down) a song you can’t find on Apple Music or Spotify (If You Got Love), one of the greatest protest songs of all time (Ohio).

Of note, the two Jumbotrons flanking the stage were turned off for this performance. I don’t know why but have to assume this was another Neil Young idiosyncrasy.

Undertowingly Yours,

-ACP

N.B. Young’s last tour was in 2019. I couldn’t make it but summarized why I respect him and his music so much while attempting to sell my tickets to the Harvest Moon tour in a blog post.

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*Love Earth
And your love comes back to you
Love Earth
It's such an easy thing to do

Love Earth
Till the water and the sky is pure
From the birds in the sky
To the fishes deep in the sea

**Guitars. Young is one of the best and most innovative acoustic guitarists of all time (witness Harvest Moon, Old Man, etc.) and he played many of his songs on an acoustic 12-string, and some on “Hank”, his beloved Martin D-28 (previously owned by Hank Williams.) However he is also one of the greatest electric guitarists of all time (#17 per Rolling Stone in 2011) so fortunately for us, although this was billed as a solo “acoustic” tour, he did pick up an electric for Ohio and two other songs.

***Non-electric keyboards.

Neil played an 1885 Estey Pump Organ, for Like A Hurricane, something he last did live 30 years ago

This 1885 Estey is an amazing-looking instrument and from my seat, I got a Phantom of the Opera vibe.

He also played acoustic piano on several songs.