
The tour would continue through mid-January 1970, with
the new year spent mostly on the European continent. Neil Young would return to
California for a solo gig on KQED radio in San Francisco on February 19 and
then embark on a tour with Crazy Horse on February 25.
The sets of the '69 tour from New York's Fillmore, The Fabulous Forum
in Inglewood, California and a return to the Auditorium Theater would serve as
the smash live LP 4-Way Street, released April 7, 1971.
I am only beginning to truly appreciate live LPs. The
nuances of a live show when one is there bring the music alive for me, but a
studio album is sacrosanct and I've never really appreciated the miscues, hoots
and hollers from the audience, and the less than perfect harmonies apparent in a
live LP, and despite my more recent appreciation, 4-Way Street indeed has some
ragged edges. Stephen's "For What It's Worth" rewrite at the end of
"49 Bye Byes" is embarrassingly bad, and Neil's contributions seem
dated somehow in retrospect. Yet somehow, the live set contains sublime, real, moments
from the '70 tour: David's haunting solo "Triad" and the almost
surreal harmonies on "Lee Shore" and "Laughing;" the
vital electric jams on "Southern Man" and "Carry On;" Neil's gorgeous acoustic takes of "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "On
The Way Home;" Stephen's "Find The Cost of Freedom" and a
passionate reading of "Black Queen" in which he withers a couple of
giggling fools in the audience with the great line: "One thing the blues
ain't, is FUNNY." Graham Nash pulls together the harmony and adds a sweetness to the mix that without his input would sound muddled and flat. What live LPs do, is to bring a moment in time
alive, and this is why for so many, 4-Way Street is the definitive CSN&Y
LP.
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