The song of “ American Stars 'N Bars » by Neil Young was recorded with Crazy Horse, Nicolette Larson and Linda Ronstadt, but was never performed live.
On April 4, 1977, Neil Young recorded the love song “ Hey Babe » on his Northern California ranch, with Crazy Horse, guitarist Ben Keith, violinist Carole Mayedo and singers The Bullets, aka Linda Ronstadt and Nicolette Larson. The song appears on the first side of the album American Stars 'N Barsbut there was no real tour for this album, and the song never entered his repertoire in the years that followed. It is one of only two songs on one of Young's solo albums from the seventies not to have been performed even once in concert.
That 47-year wait came to an end Tuesday night at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York. The big moment came six songs into the concert, which largely stuck to Monday night's setlist up to that point, although it did replace “ Harvest Moon ” by ” Tumbleweed » from the album Storytone from 2014. Watch this (unfortunately incomplete) video of “ Hey Babe “.
Later in the evening he performed “ War of Man » from 1992. It was the fifth song from Harvest Moon performed during the two concerts at the Capitol Theater. THE ” Down by the River » epic from the previous concert was not repeated, but he made up for it by ending the show with a raw rendition of “ Throw Your Hatred Down ” of Mirrorball. This song replaced “ Roll Another Number (For the Road) » on Monday.
Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts will make their next appearance on October 5 at the Painted Turtle benefit concert in Lake Hughes, California, where they will share the bill with Stephen Stills and John Mayer. It's an opportunity for Stills and Young to team up on songs from Buffalo Springfield, as they did in 2023's Light Up the Blues by resurrecting “ Everybody's Wrong “, “ On the Way Home “, ” For What It's Worth ” And ” Bluebird “.
If Neil Young plays “ Will to Love », he will finally have performed in concert, at least once, all the titles of his solo albums from the seventies. Here's a list of all the songs in his catalog that he has yet to perform in concert. If we had the power to choose his future setlists, we would opt for “ Fontainebleau “, ” We R in Control “, ” Driftin' Back “, ” Hawaii “, “LA Girls and Ocean Boys ” And ” Goodbye Christians on the Shore “. It seems incredibly unlikely that all of this would happen, but very few people saw it coming.” Hey Babe » before Tuesday evening…
