Neil Young was in unusually reflective mood throughout 2023. Off the back of a solo acoustic summer tour, he issued the Before And After album – a collection of deep catalogue cuts re-recorded on his own. Less than two months on from wrapping up the acoustic shows, he was at Los Angeles’ Roxy, site of some legendary Tonight’s The Night-era gigs, to play both that album and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere in full, with a four-man Crazy Horse in tow. And in November, during a secret gig held at Toronto’s Rivoli, in celebration of the 50th birthday of Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss, Young and the Horse played most of their 1990 album, Ragged Glory. It’s this latter performance that’s been released under the name Fu##in’ Up (on clear double vinyl as a Record Store Day 2024 exclusive; black vinyl as a standard pressing), even though, as the 68-minute, nine-song document reveals, Young and his long-running band aren’t putting a foot wrong.
Marching into the future with “an unparalleled power”
The first release of new Neil Young recordings this year (issued in February, Dume revisited the sessions that resulted in 1975’s Zuma), Fu##in’ Up marks the 55th anniversary of Crazy Horse’s first ride together, on 1969’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The thick, distorted, fuzz-laden sound that Young worked up with the original Horse line-up of Danny Whitten (guitar), Billy Talbot (bass) and Ralph Molina (drums) eventually earned him the nickname “Godfather Of Grunge”, and it was with Ragged Glory – released at the height of the grunge era – that Young, then vaunted by Seattle grunge pioneers Pearl Jam, returned to claim the title.
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At that time, and with Crazy Horse barely 20 years old, Ragged Glory seemed about as heavy as things could get for Young and his on-again, off-again outfit. Which is what makes Fu##in’ Up such a welcome addition to their legacy. With longtime Horse member Nils Lofgren and Promise Of The Real collaborator (and Willie Nelson’s son) Micah Nelson sharing guitar duties, and the indefatigable Talbot/Molina rhythm section spurring the group on, Fu##in’ Up more than lives up to its billing as an album that sees Crazy Horse “march into the future with an unparalleled power”.
Achieving “new prowess in their playing”
From the opening notes of Ragged Glory’s Country Home (here renamed City Life), that power is immediately apparent, the Horse creating a vortex of sound through which Young’s 1953 Les Paul – “Old Black” – cuts like barbed wire, as if seeking to carve out a space for Young’s vocals to survive within the maelstrom.
