Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts at Deer Lake Park

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All along the Navajo Trail
burnouts stub their toes on garbage pails

Ambulance Blues

Frankly, I was wondering which Neil would turn up. Would it be grumpy Neil? Would he decide to sing the whole first side of one of his lesser-known albums? Would his voice be up to it? So, when he opened with Ambulance Blues, I was relieved, I immediately forget the hassle to find parking, the draconian security check (apparently my backpack was too big and not the right shape),and the maze -like journey to get a beer because: ………

Ambulance Blues, a relatively obscure track from the “On the Beach” album is one of my favourite Neil songs never mind that it is almost 10 verses long , doesn’t really have a chorus, just alternating verses with different chord structures and he then follows it with “Cow Girl in The Sand” and he continues that way all night the old and the new and the sometimes forgotten and when he hits the chorus of Harvest Moon the guy beside me who knows all the words to every song and also likes to play air guitar, he joins in and so does his partner/girl friend who sings harmony along with the rest of the crowd and just then a yellow moon rises above the trees, no big birds flying but still…. and I’m thinking Neil has super powers and later when he hits the opening riff of My, My, Hey, Hey, I’m transported back to Pine Knob Michigan 1978 and Star Wars has been released the year before so Neil’s roadies are dressed as Ewoks and there are two giant speakers on each side of the stage and when the roadies are finished and the stage is empty, there is silence, then we hear the opening chords of Sugar Mountain and Neil’s voice and we can’t tell where it is coming from until there is movement on top of one of the giant speakers and yes it’s Neil shaking off a blanket and how he got down from there I don’t know but here he is now many year’s later and he hasn’t lost the magic and I know that this is a run on sentence because Copilot keeps telling me but I’m thinking and I know it’s a tad puerile but I’m thinking “bugger off Copilot, stop bothering me, I can work it out myself and AI and all that other crap we don’t need will never write anything close to what Neil can write”

and he hasn’t burnt out,

he hasn’t faded away.

Taking part in Open Link over at dverse

(not sure if this qualifies as a poem, a haibun maybe?)

16 thoughts on “Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts at Deer Lake Park”

  2. memadtwo's avatarmemadtwo

    I saw the “Rust Never Sleeps” tour at Madison Square Garden all those many moons ago. A loud zoo, unforgettable. Thanks for bringing it back to me. I have to say “Powderfinger” is my favorite from that album. (K)

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  4. kim881's avatarkim881

    It’s a cross between a prose poem and a haibun, I think, Jim. I’m a Neil Young fan too, and regret that I never got to see him. I enjoyed your prose-poem-bun very much and felt like I was there.

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  6. Lisa or Li's avatarLisa or Li

    OMG I love this, JIM. You took me there. Papa Neil does have magic. “On the Beach” is an underrated album and one I love. When the cosmos accommodates you, you know you are doing something right. “Sugar Mountain” always brings a tear to my eye listening to album. Hearing him coming out of nowhere with it after the concert from on high had to be a religious experience. I’ll never listen to that song again without thinking of your experience ❤

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