December 1970, and Neil Young now aged 25 had been in the eye of a storm of success and disillusionment. First off his marriage had fallen apart, by June his role in the super-group that was CSN&Y and had debuted their hugely successful album 'Deja Vu' had finished their June tour with what was to be the first of their repeated bust ups. By contrast to that by the end of summer his own solo album 'After The Gold Rush' had ripped up the charts and had made him just about the hottest property of the year. His gigs at the Cellar Door in December had to be seen as a sublime end to the mayhem. But it wasn't because then came the slipped disc putting him out of action for months. And if you can walk through that series of doors you'll most likely survive the rock and the roll that comes in later years.
The highly rated 'Cellar Door' and part of Young's archive recordings have been just released for streaming by Warner Brothers. Whether Young's notoriously prickly views on digital downloading have softened is difficult to tell, maybe he see's streaming as a good option to encourage sales, or maybe Warner Brothers have made it clear for him. Yesterdays post on the results of Iron Maiden's South American file sharing turned album sales should be enough to remind all record labels it's not good enough anymore to just dangle the bauble before the fans, but reach out and prove how good an album might be. The gold rush then might just be waiting.
So here it is then, Neil Young's 'Live At The Cellar Door'. Listen to it now (before someone decides no you can't do that). And if you dig, go and buy it on December 10th in all manner of versions, CD, vinyl and download.
