"It relates to my career," Neil Young once said of the title Rust Never Sleeps. "The longer I keep going, the longer I have to fight this corrosion."

That simple statement explains more than a few entries on Neil's resume. Like his 1983 synth record Trans. Or the 1991 noise construct Arc. And, of course, Rust Never Sleeps, the bizarre, theatrical tour/movie/ album that serves as one of the most popular chapters in his musical history.

It's certainly one of the quirkier chapters, as the new DVD of Young's self-directed concert film Rust Never Sleeps brings home.

A twisted mish-mash of science-fiction cheese, '60s hippie-era nostalgia, Alice-in-Wonderland staging, standup comedy and -- oh yeah -- more than a handful of Young's finest songs played by his longest-serving and most beloved backing band, the two-hour video is remarkable both as a concert and as a piece of performance art.

Of course, like a lot of art, it's hard to tell exactly what it all means. Rust's stage is decorated with giant road cases -- which are raised to reveal giant Fender amplifiers. The roadies are tiny hooded figures with glowing red eyes -- reportedly modelled after the Jawas in Star Wars -- who lurk and scurry around the stage in packs, emerging to position a huge microphone like they're planting the flag at Iwo Jima or whack an overgrown tuning fork on the stage. The soundmen have lab coats and coneheads. Announcements from Woodstock play between songs. The audience is outfitted in 3-D glasses. A comedic emcee emerges mid-show to deliver a monologue on rust. Another guy, clad in a yellow DEVO coverall, rappels down from the ceiling to crash the party, only to be overpowered and carted away by the "Road Eyes." Maybe some of it has a point -- something about the lingering echoes of the '60s, the impending invasion of punk, the overgrown adolescent playground of rock, and so on -- but mostly, it just seems like a bunch of self-indulgent lunacy that could easily swamp the average rock band.

Thankfully, both Young and his endearingly amateurish backing trio Crazy Horse are way above average here. Young, skinny as a scarecrow and sporting a shaggy haircut, opens up with an acoustic mini-set, delivering superb versions of Sugar Mountain, I Am a Child, Comes a Time, After the Gold Rush, Thrasher and My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue). Then Crazy Horse -- guitarist Frank (Poncho) Sampedro, bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina -- join him for a magnificently loose and glorious set of rockers like Sedan Delivery, Cinnamon Girl, Like a Hurricane and Welfare Mothers, along with more poignant fare like The Needle and the Damage Done, Lotta Love, Powderfinger and Cortez the Killer. By the time they close with Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) -- followed by a gorgeous encore of Tonight's the Night -- you can almost believe Neil's claim that "rock 'n' roll can never die."

At least, not as long as he's around to scrape off the barnacles every now and then. (More on Neil Young)

Tuesday, October 8, 2002

Quirky Young chapter captured