Tracks

1. "My, My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Bl

2. Sail Away

3. "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black

4. Welfare Mothers

5. Powderfinger

6. Ride My Llama

7. Sedan Delivery

8. Pocahontas

9. Thrasher

Performer Notes

Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Neil Young (guitar, vocals, keyboards, harmonica); Frank Sampedro (guitar, keyboards); Billy Talbot (bass); Ralph Molina (drums).
Filmed at the Cow Palace, San Francisco, California.
Personnel: Neil Young (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Nicolette Larson (vocals); Frank "Poncho" Sampedro (guitar, strings); Karl Himmel (drums).
Recording information: 1975-1978.
As far as pure songcraft goes, it's hard to beat this 1979 offering from Neil Young and Crazy Horse. By the end of the '90s, Young, Talbot, Molina, and Sampredo had refined their crushing sonic assault to the extent that they could bludgeon the listener with Wagnerian riffs and rhythms (the entropy hymn "Hey Hey, My My") or provide just enough grit to keep Young's far-out lyrics from ascending into the stratosphere ("Ride My Llama"). Songwise, RUST is a schizophrenic album. Young moves from the brilliant surrealist imagery of "Pocahontas," with its evocation of "Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me," to the sharp narrative perspective of the equally transcendent "Powderfinger" and the good-humored social commentary of "Welfare Mothers."

Professional Reviews

Q (1/03, p.64) - Included in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums Ever"

Q (8/93, p.107) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...it flows, it's got a couple of his strongest issue songs in 'Pocahontas' and 'Powderfinger,' and it's even rather good-humored..."

The Wire (pp.45-47) - "RUST NEVER SLEEPS represented a further textural shift in Young's guitar playing....The electric material on RUST NEVER SLEEPS is as punk as a well established major label artist could hope to be at the time..."

Mojo (Publisher) (11/01, p.151) - "Half-acoustic, half electric, the tracks ranged from beautifully affecting to menacing..."