Any Neil Young fan (I was once a huge one) knows he marches to his own drummer, is true to himself, and does whatever he wants, when he wants, at any time. That includes changing musical styles and sounds. Young has released more than 40 studio albums and a handful of live ones over the span of his career.
In early 1988 he was apparently feeling a bit cynical about the turn the music industry had taken towards commercialism and corporate sponsorships of tours. Young didn’t like it, wouldn’t be a part of it, and made an album about it titled ‘This Note’s For You.’ It was released on April 11th. What set it apart and gave it its sound was the use of horns, lots of them.
A tour followed and it came to the Poplar Creek Music Theater in Hoffman Estates, IL on August 16th. Tracy Chapman opened, general admission lawn seats were $17. Trevor Thompson came along for the show, we sat about halfway up the hill, looking almost straight down to the stage, tucked under the pavilion.
The announcer mispronounced Chapman’s name, fitting, no one came to see her and her one hit, “Fast Car.” Bring on the big boys.
Young has said he was channeling Mike Bloomfield on this tour, accurate, as Young’s playing was blistering and sharp. The only member of Crazy Horse in the band was Frank “Poncho” Sampedro on second guitar and organ. There were six, count em’ again, SIX horn players!
Off they went on a nice August night, the set list heavy on material from the current album. They also performed songs from deep in Young’s past with a band called The Squires, that only the biggest ‘Rusties’ (ardent Young fans) would recognize. Also, true to Young’s form, they played as yet to be released songs, '‘60 To 0’, which would show up on the ‘Freedom’ album in 1989, and ‘Days That Used To Be,’ which was part of 1990s great album, ‘Ragged Glory.’
Six songs in, they kicked into another one never heard before, ‘Ordinary People.’ Apparently, this song had been around but never released. Nearly 20 minutes long, the story builds with each verse (see attached at bottom). One line in particular made me feel like Young knew part of my family history. “He was dealing antiques in a hardware store.’ My dad owned a hardware store, my mother ran an antique shop in the back part of the warehouse! This song didn’t make it to an album for 19 years, finally showing up on ‘Chrome Dreams’, a shadow of the live version we heard that night.
My favorite song from ‘This Note’s For You’ did not make the set list, a peppy, happy one titled "‘Sunny Inside.’
The very last encore was ‘On The Way Home’ the old Buffalo Springfield song. Young commented, “I didn’t get to sing lead on it back then, but I do tonight.” It was a GREAT version with the punch of those horns! A perfect way to end the night. This one and ‘Ordinary People’ stuck with me forever, I relied on memory to keep them in my head, until…
2015, when a two disc live album was released from the tour, titled ‘Bluenote Cafe.’ On it is the superior version of ‘Ordinary People’ AND, of all the shows they did on that tour, the version of ‘On The Way Home’ came from THE show Trevor and I saw at Poplar Creek! I told you it was great that night!
A once off album, a once off band lineup, a once off tour. Man, it was SO good.
