Recorded at London's Rainbow Theater in November of 1973,
Somewhere Under the Rainbow captures
Neil Young at the height of the
Tonight's the Night era, having finished that tumultuous album just months earlier and already taking the material to the stage.
The Santa Monica Flyers,
Neil's backing band on this tour, consisted of pedal steel player
Ben Keith, bassist
Billy Talbot, drummer
Ralph Molina, and
Nils Lofgren jumping between piano, guitar, and even occasional accordion. As with so many of the entries in
Neil Young's Official Bootleg Series,
Somewhere Under the Rainbow circulated as a rough audience recorded bootleg for decades before this official release, and professional mastering can only polish the raw sound quality to a certain point. For this kind of live document, the imperfections are part of the charm. Though boomy renditions of "Albuquerque" and "Mellow My Mind" sound like they're transmitting from the other side of a football field, there's a warm gelling of the vocals and instruments that doesn't happen with more defined multi-track recordings. Anyone deep enough into the
Neil bootleg rabbit hole is probably already aware of
Roxy Tonight's the Night Live, a far clearer recording of a club date that happened a few months after the Rainbow gig.
Roxy has the same backing band and a similar set list, but the two nights carry significantly different energies. While
Neil seems to be in loose, jokey form on both,
Somewhere Under the Rainbow tones things down for a string of acoustic numbers that weren't a part of the more rocking
Roxy date. This begins with a long, ghostly take on "Tonight's the Night" (the second time in the set the band plays the tune), the
Buffalo Springfield-era song "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong," the always moving "Helpless," and several others. The night ends with a burning rendition of "Cowgirl in the Sand."
Neil's voice cracks a little, and there's an especially wobbly quality to the way the band moves through the 12-plus-minute jam on the song, but it works with the rest of the set.
Somewhere Under the Rainbow manages to feel intimate and hushed even when it's rocking hard and spilling out messily. All of the Official Bootleg Series releases are valuable documents of various phases of
Neil's career, but this one has a personality that sets it apart. ~ Fred Thomas
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