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List Price: $13.98 | | Label: Reprise Records
Salesrank: 6331
Released: November 14, 2006 |
| Our Price: $6.63 |
| Used Price: $4.40 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Live at the Fillmore East Track Listing:
1. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
2. Winterlong
3. Down By The River
4. Wonderin'
5. Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown
6. Cowgirl In The Sand
Editorial Review:
The first release of Neil Young's archive performance series.
Description of Live at the Fillmore East:
For years, fans of Neil Young and Crazy Horse have been waiting for an official chance to hear Crazy Horse live with original leader Danny Whitten, the insanely talented guitarist who died of a heroin overdose in late 1972, inspiring Tonight's the Night. Tuned-in fans have been awaiting this very set for at least a dozen years, as it was originally to be tacked onto the end of a Decade-style triple CD of outtakes. Thankfully, this well-recorded live set from the infamous Fillmore East was well worth the wait. Here are scorching, extended takes of "Down by the River," "Winterlong," and "Cowgirl in the Sand," each propelled by guitar interplay so delightful you have to keep rewinding to hear it again. In fact, bits of it seem to prefigure the ways that Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine would feed off each other in the band Television, only with less of a sweet edge. But the world doesn't need any more arguments that Young was a proto-punk; what the world does need is at least a dozen more releases from Neil's archives! And hopefully, with this awesome live album, the floodgates have truly been opened and there are many more to come, in the vein of Dylan's Bootleg series. This disc is worth it alone for the version of "Wondering," a tune not officially recorded until many years later in Neil's weird '80s rockabilly phase. --Mike McGonigal
Live at the Fillmore East Reviews:
Live at the Fillmore East 
2009-06-12 - Live at the Fillmore East being a live album by Neil and Crazy Horse from 1970 but it was not released until 2006. When it was released it was met with great reviews by the critics and Allmusic and Rolling Stone gave it 4 stars and I agree and I also give this album 4 stars. The sound quality is amazing and it sounds like one is transported back in time and being at the actual concert. 4/5.
Play It Loud 
2009-03-25 - I have at least five different bootlegs of this show. This official release is sooo much better sounding. Classic band, classic performance, Danny Whitten dies soon after and it's never the same. Get this disc!
Those guitars.
2008-12-04 - Sure, Cinnamon Girl isn't here, but Down By The River and Cowgirl In The Sand ARE, and they more than make up for whatever was left out. Those guitars, man. Is there anything better than the guitars on these two numbers? No. I could play them every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of them. Hey, maybe I will.
Good, Not Great
2008-11-09 - I was at this show, so I am thrilled to have this CD, and without any hesitation I also bought a copy for my friend with whom I went to the show, hitchhiking in from CT. This recording comprises selections from one of the most amazing nights of music I have ever experienced - and there have been many - with outstanding sets from the Steve Miller Band (then a new power trio), Miles Davis (a little out of place but an interesting juxtaposition, precisely what Bill Graham tried to achieve with such lineups), and Neil Young, in a transcendent moment, having recently established himself as a major artist.
This CD captures some of that transcendence, especially in "Cowgirl In The Sand," but it could have been so much more. This is only about half the set, and key songs like "Cinnamon Girl" and "The Loner" have been omitted. Other reviewers mention these and other songs were left off because of the lower sound quality of their recording. I wish the producers of this album would not have been so fussy. I would rather have had a recording of the complete performance, warts and all. The vast majority of fans of live rock recordings are willing to forgive such inconsistencies in quality in order to have the complete performance. I wish the producers of this type of recording would understand this, after having seen and heard these pleas for decades.
That said, it's great to listen to this CD and hear what I heard so many years ago. Three of these songs, "Winterlong," "Wonderin'," and "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown," are new to me (well, pretty much - it's been forty years) and are revelations. "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere," not really the best song from the album of the same name, is solidly performed here. "Down By the River" seems a little tentative compared to the album version, but "Cowgirls In The Sand" burns, and when they're done the band has nothing left. This album reminds me of the album "East-West Live" by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, put out by their keyboardist Mark Naftalin a dozen years ago. That featured three different versions of that classic jam, which gave listeners an opportunity to experience part of the piece's evolution. It demystified the "original" version from the band's second album, but furthermore illuminated the piece. Whatever version of a performance of a musical composition is originally released enters the public consciousness and becomes known as the definitive version; "East-West Live" and similarly this version of "Cowgirls In The Sand" stand as reasonable alternates to the "definitive" version everybody knows. And everybody knows this is nowhere, though it's a great place to visit.
Excellent
2008-07-01 - This album is full of stunning performances. The solos in "Cowgirl in the Sand" are as desperate and passionate as you will find on any recording.
The sound quality is great.
"Live at the Fillmore East" is not an inexpensive album, but the music certainly merits the price. People are complaining about only 6 songs, but two (River and Cowgirl) account for 25 minutes of music. I'd love to hear the entire concert, but what is released here is great, energetic music.
