A close call

Shortly into his third song at Carnegie Hall last night, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” Neil Young suddenly stopped playing and yelled “wrong!” Barry and I looked at each other and thought “oh, no, he’s not going to do that to us again, is he?” At least this time we had a great on-street parking space right outside of Carnegie Hall. But it turned out that what was wrong was that the audience’s clapping, which from where Mr. Young was sitting sounded off-beat, was a distraction. So everyone stopped, and he resumed the performance. WHEW!

It was a great show! I did not take notes, other than to quickly grab a pen and scribble “Only Love” on a piece of scrap paper. But I was able to quickly pick up the full set list on-line this morning:

Set 1
1. From Hank to Hendrix
2. On the Way Home (Buffalo Springfield song)
3. Only Love Can Break Your Heart
4. Love in Mind- grand piano
5. Mellow My Mind- guitjo
6. Are You Ready for the Country- tack piano
7. Someday- tack piano
8. Changes (Phil Ochs cover)
9. Harvest
10. Old Man

Set 2
11. Goin' Back
12. A Man Needs A Maid- grand piano
13. Ohio
14. Southern Man
15. Mr. Soul (Buffalo Springfield song)- pump organ
16. Needle of Death (Bert Jansch cover)
17. The Needle and the Damage Done
18. Harvest Moon
19. Flying on the Ground Is Wrong (Buffalo Springfield song)- tack piano
20. After the Gold Rush
21. Heart of Gold

Encore
22. Comes A Time
23. Long May You Run

And here is the review from this morning’s New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/08/arts/music/temperamental-neil-young-starts-run-at-carnegie-hall.html

When we left Carnegie, the temperature was still in the high 20s, so we got home before the sub-freezing temperatures set in. We slept later than usual this morning and it will undoubtedly take a few days to get back on track, but it was totally worth it! Long may he run.

On a completely different topic, something in the news reminded me of a really funny incident that happened some years ago. Shortly after we moved to New York City, some Sharon friends whose two sons must have been around 8 and 10 years old at the time spent a few days with our family. While the parents attended a wedding, Barry, the girls and I went with the boys to see a movie followed by lunch at a kosher fast-food hamburger restaurant in Queens. There are no such restaurants in the Boston area, so this was a real treat for the boys. The older boy quickly ate two burgers and asked for a third. I was a bit concerned but he was quite convincing so we bought it. When everyone was finished eating, we piled back into the car to head back to our house. Before we even got on the highway, the boy said “I think we need to pull over.” Sparing the details, he left part of that lunch by the side of the road. But he had a great spirit, and got back in the car with a grin and said “I knew that third burger was too good to be true!”

As I am sure you all know, following a December ruling by a federal district judge, same-sex marriages could be legally performed in the state of Utah. About 1000 marriage licenses were issued during the first two weeks after this ruling, but on Monday of last week, the Supreme Court ordered a halt to same-sex marriages in Utah. Those thousand couples are probably wondering if the ruling was “too good to be true.” Unfortunately the stakes are quite a bit higher than an upset stomach. Whatever your opinion of this issue, it is clear that there is a human toll on the couples, and in some cases, their children.

It is just noon, and the temperature is about 10^o. I have to decide if I feel up to leaving the house to go to my last music class.

If you are anywhere in the northern half of the country, STAY WARM!

Love,

Rebecca