Neil Young

Neil Young's second film is a faithful chronicle of one of the performances in his 1978 Rust Never Sleeps Tour (October 22 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco), a nearly two-hour concert during which Young with and without Crazy Horse presents a good selection of his best material dating back to "Sugar Mountain" and some excellent new songs, including "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" (done acoustically) and "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" (done electrically). That's the good news. The bad news is that the show features some silly production ideas that distract from and even trivialize the performance. The concert takes seven minutes to get started, as cowled figures with glowing eyes, similar to the Jawas in Star Wars, scurry around the stage setting up giant props and the PA plays Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" and the Beatles' "A Day in the Life." The "roadeyes," as Young calls them, return throughout the show, along with attendants in white coats, dancing men in robes and conical hats, and a stage announcer who blathers on about "rust-o-vision." For once, however, home video proves superior to the version in your local theater: at home, you have a fast-forward button. Still, the odd staging and Young's almost total lack of audience rapport make Rust Never Sleeps an odd viewing experience, despite the "live greatest hits" set list and strong performances. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide