SAN DIEGO — Neil Young was barely a minute into the opening number of his sold-out solo concert on Tuesday night at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, when he sang: "People my age, they don't do the things I do."
Damn right, they don't!
Rock stars who are his age — Young turns 78 in November — don't do the things he does.
A defiantly singular artist who has always gone against the grain, this two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee continues to thrive by repeatedly defying expectations and by following his muse wherever it takes him — the more unexpected, the better.
Young's dogged refusal to play it safe holds even more true today than in 1995, when he recorded Tuesday's opening song, "I'm the Ocean." It appeared on the album "Mirror Ball," on which he was accompanied by the members of Pearl Jam.
The original version of "I'm the Ocean" is a taut rocker, with blazing electric guitars, galloping drums and spirited supporting vocals by Eddie Vedder.
Young's pensive, slowed-down solo rendition on Tuesday sounded — much like him — older, wiser, more weathered but still restless, still probing for the next wave ahead. In place of the amped-up, high-voltage album version with Pearl Jam, it featured just three instruments: acoustic guitar, harmonica and Young's perpetually reedy voice.
Prior to his recently launched 2023 Coastal Tour, Young had last performed "I'm the Ocean" on stage in 1997 on a concert trek with Crazy Horse, his most long-lived band. It was no accident he chose to open his Rady Shell concert with a song many casual fans may not have expected or, perhaps, even recognized.
And it was no accident his set here also featured "Throw Your Hatred Down," and "Song X," two rarely heard "Mirror Ball" gems that sounded markedly different in such a stripped-down format. Young's fifth selection, "If You Got Love," was resurrected for this tour for the first time since 1986, while "Prime of Life" — which came midway through his 88-minute performance — was last in his set list in 1994. (The full set list appears below.)
"Prime of Life" was one of several songs from his elegiac 1994 album with Crazy Horse, "Sleeps With Angels," which was largely inspired by the suicide of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. It, too, sounded radically different at Tuesday's understated, more-is-less solo performance and Young clearly relished the opportunity to give it a new airing.
Campfire hootenanny
The Rady Shell's sound system was so pristine that Young, a notoriously finicky audiophile, praised it aloud. Apart from a few songs on which he strapped on his vintage Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, he performed at a near hush as he alternated between acoustic guitars and piano (a grand, a mini-grand and an upright model) to a pump organ.
Young was clad in blues jeans, an unbuttoned, long-sleeved blue work shirt, a black "Earth" T-shirt and a train conductor's cap. He shuffled on stage from one instrument to another, sometimes changing his mind in mid-stride and turning around. At one point, he suddenly mimed the strumming of a guitar to alert a stage crew member that the next song would not be performed on a keyboard after all.
On several occasions, he asked the audience: "What's your favorite planet?"
At first, it seemed like an offhanded inquiry. But each time he repeated the question, it took on a greater resonance, culminating with his penultimate song of the night, "Love Earth," which quickly became a mass audience sing-along.
By turns contemplative and playful, Young achieved a remarkable degree of intimacy. With admirable skill, he transformed his concert at the bayside venue into what often felt and sounded like a campfire hootenanny for the more than 7,000 concertgoers.
"We've got lots of time — up to a certain point," Young said, a remark that referred to both his performance and life itself.
The Canadian-born music legend has at least 45 studio albums to his credit. Of the 17 songs he essayed Tuesday, a majority were obscurities from albums he acknowledged had come and gone in a near-instant.
That is precisely the impetus for this tour, which he announced last month by noting he would be focusing on songs he had rarely done before, if ever, live.
After performing his fourth number, the lilting "On the Way Home" — a 1968 chestnut by his first band of note, Buffalo Springfield — Young reminded his audience that his concert was designed to surprise.
"Some of these songs, you (have) never heard," he said. "Nobody ever did anything with them, but they were just fine. They were in the can."
Near the end of the concert, Young again referenced his selection of lesser-known material following his impassioned version of "Ohio," the classic 1970 protest anthem he recorded with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the aftermath of the fatal shootings of four Kent State students by the National Guard during an anti-war demonstration.
"I didn't sing this very much (before this tour)," he said. "But it kind of grounds me with all the songs (I'm doing that) you don't know."
Young's commendable refusal to be a human jukebox makes him a welcome anomaly, especially given how many graying rock icons are happy to deliver their greatest hits, unchanged, night after night after night.
Not this grizzled veteran, who is now embarked on his first tour since 2019, and who last performed a solo concert in San Diego in 1992. By coincidence, it was held at the same bayside park that is now home to the $85 million Rady Shell, which opened three years ago.
Young's 1992 concert found him debuting six new songs, which had not yet been released at the time, as well as delivering intriguingly rearranged versions of some of his best known material.
On Tuesday, he performed at least nine songs that — while not new — were largely unknown to all but his most ardent devotees. He also transformed his guitar-driven "Like a Hurricane" — a mid-tempo, guitar-driven 1977 romper that has been covered by both Roxy Music and Adam Sandler — into a pump organ dirge that was startling and revelatory.
While Young doesn't take as many artistic liberties with his songs as, say, Bob Dylan, their durability and his enthusiasm for recasting them are key reasons he has remained a vibrant creative artist.
And his concert-closing triumvirate — "Heart of Gold" and the encores "Love Earth" and an oh-so-tender cover of Ian & Sylvia's "Four Strong Winds" — underscored his timeless appeal anew.
At 77, Neil Young is still a force — 53 years after recording "Old Man," his prescient song about youth and aging. Long may he run.
Neil Young San Diego set list
"I'm the Ocean"
"Homefires"
"Burned"
"On the Way Home"
"If You Got Love"
"A Dream That Can Last"
"My Heart"
"Song X"
"Throw Your Hatred Down"
"Prime of Life"
"When I Hold You in My Arms"
"Like a Hurricane"
"Ohio"
"Don't Forget Love"
"Heart of Gold"
Encores
"Love Earth"
"Four Strong Winds"
