13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Awesome Neil Young caps a blisteringly hot day at Hyde Park
*****
True to his belief that it's better to burn out than fade away, Neil Young broke Hyde Park's strict curfew on Friday night. The sound was shut off by the venue, which meant that though the band could be seen playing the closing moments of Rocking' in the Free World on the giant screens that bookend the Great Oak stage, not a note could be heard.
This was a genuine powerhouse of a set by Young. Backed by the Chrome Hearts - Micah Nelson on guitar and vocals, Corey McCormick on bass and vocals, Anthony LoGerfo on drums and Spooner Oldham on Farfisa organ - he delivered a two-hour-long set that fused classic songs with newer material. Perhaps characteristically, he opted not to play anything from the band's recently-released studio album, Talkin' to the Trees.
He opened with Ambulance Blues, a rarely-heard song from his 1974 album, On the Beach. Its caustic line, originally written about Richard Nixon - 'I never knew a man who could tell so many lies' - had relevance in 2025, given Young's loathing of Donald Trump. Young had previously pledged that his run of shows would shape a 'summer of democracy'.
He strapped on his electric guitar for a lengthy, bewitching Cowgirl in the Sand, from his 1969 debut, his guitar lines weaving hypnotically with those of Nelson.
Later songs ranged from Cinnamon Girl to a reliably rowdy F——— Up (prefaced by Young telling the audience, 'Sometimes we do things wrong, sometimes we do things right'). Southern Man was followed by Young, solo and acoustic, on Needle and the Damage Done, which Randy Newman, no less, has described as the Canadian's finest hour.
Harvest Moon and the plaintive After the Goldrush were audience singalongs, Young underlining his green credentials by updating a line in the latter so that it became 'Look at Mother Nature on the run/in the twenty-first century' from the original's 'nineteen seventies'. Not for nothing does the current tour go under the banner of 'Love Earth'. Be the Rain sees Young complaining bitterly that 'corporate greed and chemicals are killing the land'. His passion, his willingness to speak out, remain undimmed. Long may he run.
Throughout the set, it was on electrifying numbers such as Love to Burn, When You Dance, Hey Hey My My, Name of Love, Throw Your Hatred Down and Rockin' in the Free World that Young, Nelson and McCormick, clustered together in front of LoGerfo, achieve an intensity that recalled Young's old band, Crazy Horse, at its most compelling.
The sledgehammer power of Rockin' in the Free World, its repeated false endings and Young's unmistakable lead-guitar work capped a punishingly hot afternoon at Hyde Park that also featured Van Morrison, the highlight of whose own set was an awesome Summertime in England, and a buoyant Yusuf/Cat Stevens, who played his song The Little Ones, originally written in response to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in support of Palestine.
Among the other support acts were Amble, a contemporary folk band from Ireland, who went down particularly well.
