Who doesn’t like Rockabilly, especially when it shows up in the strangest of places? This started out as just another concert. It was a fine mid-summer evening and before going into the Pacific Coliseum we were hanging out in a small park toasting a few fatties as we would do on such occasions. In due course we get along and go inside and find ourselves some good seats. We didn’t really know what to anticipate but the stage was certainly one of the strangest I had ever seen at a concert. There was a giant sized small television with rabbit ears; it was like a little black and white portable set that was inflated to colossal size. Or maybe we all were shrunken. There was also a white piano, and an electronic drum kit. This was a Neil Young solo gig, and we weren’t really sure what to expect. You never do at one of his shows, and this night turned out to be no exception. Soon all this funny stuff starts being broadcast on this big little TV. There is some announcer guy in a suit interviewing people about the upcoming show and stuff and it’s all kinda surreal.
Eventually Neil appears on stage and gets right into it with Comes a Time. It’s a great show and he mostly plays guitar with mouth harp and one or two songs on the piano. Lots of classics like: Down by the River, Old Man, and Helpless. But lots of newer rocking things too, like Powderfinger, and My My, Hey, Hey. He even threw in Transformer Man which was still really new at the time, and accompanied himself with a drum loop he played first on the electronic kit. All in all two really fine sets; with this wacky interviewer going on the TV in the set break. He is talking to a couple of chicks in poodle skirts and bobby socks who say that they are here to see the Shocking Pinks. He thinks that they are crazy, and keeps telling them “no this is a Neil Young concert” and the whole shtick is pretty funny.
The concert ended with Sugar Mountain, and the place is just screaming for an encore, but Neil leaves the stage. The really cool thing is that we see on the TV the interviewer is following him with a Handy-cam back stage trying to get a story. They go all the way down to Neil’s waiting limousine without anything. Neil gets in and it drives off with the reporter and camera running after. Then… the limo stops and backs up. The rear window rolls down and Neil sticks his head out and says “do you guys still want to rock?” The place goes wild. He then says “how far back do you want to go?” The lights are still out in the coliseum and the TV switches to clips of current TV footage with the number1983 superimposed over them; then 1982, with footage from that year; and so on and so forth, counting down backwards all the way to 1956 or thereabouts.
We can just see some movement on the stage but the lights are still out. Then the stage lights go on and up there is a six piece rockabilly band dressed in… yep shocking pink tuxedos and Neil himself all in white. Neil and the Shocking Pinks. They jump into a full third set of what was Neil’s brand new album, Everybody’s Rockin’. Jellyroll Man, That’s All Right, Wonderin’, Kinda Fonda Wanda, Bright Lights Big City, Get Gone, Everybody’s Rockin’, Do You Wanna Dance? This was just so cool. I had not even heard that he had a new record in the works, until it was released the following month. What a great concert; one of the truly memorable ones.
The LP itself was a pretty short recording clocking in at about twenty five minutes in length and it got really bad reviews. It had followed on the heels of Trans which was another very uncharacteristic sound for Neil that also got poor reviews. Both albums were actually used as the basis of a lawsuit filed against Neil by his record company for producing music that was not representative of his other work and un-commercial in nature. Neil counter sued and in the end things were settled and the record company apologized.
As far as the critics go… sure the songs were quite simple, a mix of classics and some original tunes. This music isn’t supposed to be complicated folks… just fun. I thought the music and delivery were pretty great. I think if you were fortunate enough to see a Neil and the Shocking Pinks show you might have a different and more positive view of the album. Every so often when I go on a rockabilly jag that is one piece of vinyl I always dust off and spin.