THE 1976 ‘JOEL BERNSTEIN TAPE’
and the search for the interview tape
by Scott Sandie
Note:
This previously unpublished article was originally written in 2019 and
completed during COVID lockdown in 2020.
Songs For Judy, the eleventh release in the Neil Young Archives Performance Series, hit the stores on December 14th, 2018. Consisting of 22 acoustic songs taken from the 1976 US tour the performances arguably captured Neil Young at the height of his formidable powers. That year saw Young undertake a stunning series of short tours; to Japan and Europe in the spring with Crazy Horse; the famously aborted Stills-Young summer tour; then in the Fall came a couple of warm up shows with Crazy Horse – he was said to be trying out his voice after some vocal problems – followed by an epic 19-date US Tour with Crazy Horse. These US dates were similar to the spring shows, with a handful of solo acoustic songs on guitar, banjo and piano followed by an hour or more of electric mayhem with the band. And it was from these 19 acoustic sets that ‘The Joel Bernstein Tape’ was carefully culled.
What’s the story behind this famous old collectors tape?
THE BACKGROUND
Songs For Judy was based on the near-legendary 1976 US Tour concert compilation tape made privately by Joel Bernstein assisted by Cameron Crowe. Joel and Cameron studiously listened to the recordings from all 19 shows and included one performance of each song Neil had played acoustically, making up a tape of 22 songs. It was created post-tour for their own enjoyment and was subsequently only given to two members of the road crew as a ‘thank you’. The two crew members were specifically asked not to copy the tape. This took place around late 1976/early1977. Once the master compilation was completed and the two copies made nothing happened for the next few years. At that point the tape’s existence was known to only handful of people. Then in the early ‘80s – it’s proven impossible to be more accurate – a copy of the tape leaked out and started to circulate amongst certain major collectors. On each occasion the recording was provided on a strict ‘Do Not Copy’ basis. That remained the case for several more years with the tape being held by a tight circle of Neil Young collectors and heard only by a fortunate few. That changed in 1988 when the recording started to appear for the first time on general collectors’ lists (although hilariously often still accompanied by the ‘Do Not Copy’ legend!) The quality of the songs and the performances made it hugely popular with tape traders, and perhaps not surprisingly in early 1989 it appeared in the US for the first time as a vinyl bootleg LP, Days Of Gold And Roses. By then the tape had been given the name ‘The Joel Bernstein Tape’ and that title stuck.
I still have my own traded copy – perhaps from 1989 or 1990, I have no way of
checking – and it was always one of my
favourites. The performances, the many raps
between the songs and especially the inclusion of the fantastic unreleased
material made it a must-have concert tape.
Even two or three generations removed from the master the quality
remained excellent. It was the kind of
tape which was delightful to receive and it was an absolute joy to finally be able
to hear it. Even repeated listens didn’t
dull or dispel that feeling. There was something about this tape that just
felt different.
Over the years I played it a lot, copied it (of course) for anyone who hadn’t heard
it, and bought the Days Of Gold And Roses
vinyl bootleg, which I still have. It’s
on my music room wall right now, in one of those inter-changeable LP cover
display cases. I have the green vinyl
issue from Federal Records, which I
always tell myself is undoubtedly the original issue, although there are
several different printings and it may not be.
And at some point I also
downloaded a low generation digital copy from one of the big file-sharing
sites. But I hadn’t played it often or even
thought about it too much over years until the 2018 ‘Songs For Judy’
announcement, with the confirmation that it was to be based on that 1976
Bernstein tape. The memories of those
old tape trading days came flooding back and I immediately looked forward to
its release. 
THE LINER NOTES
Over
On the day that Songs For Judy arrived,
and before I had even played it, I read the liner notes and was delighted to
find that Joel Bernstein had explained in some detail the circumstances of the
tape’s original creation and eventual appearance in the public domain. Here’s part of what Joel wrote:
‘Cameron,
reading your account reminds me of just how much fun it was to do the listening
and our notes, and discuss each performance until we agreed "that's the
one." After you and I made our
selections, I went next door to Graham Nash's home studio, Rudy Records, and
transferred each song we'd chosen to reel-to-reel, then cut it together into
two reels, one for each side of a cassette. I made three cassette copies of the tape
compilation; two went to the two crew members who got me the audio feed of Tim's
PA mix each night. (Audio nerds: to
accomplish this required these adaptors: XLR > 1/4" > RCA > DIN.)
At the time, it seemed the right way to
repay them for taking the time to do that.
I cautioned them each not to copy the tape, and to keep it
in a safe place. A few years later, one
of them called to tell me he couldn't find his copy of the compiled cassette. A little later, a copy of a copy of a copy of
that cassette became the master tape for a bootleg LP; just what I'd been
trying to avoid. Years later, I was
interviewed for Neil's fan club magazine ‘Broken Arrow’ and was asked what I
knew about this (to fans) mysterious compilation, and told the story to the
journalist, who wrote a piece about it, after which the bootleg was referred to
as "The Joel Bernstein" tape.’
I was struck by Joel’s comment that the tape’s name was coined following an
interview with Broken Arrow. I immediately knew that was wrong. Having lived with the magazine for more than 30
years and edited it for almost half of that period I didn’t need to check to
know that without doubt no such information regarding the source or the naming
of this tape had been published at any time in the magazine’s 134 issue
run. That’s not intended as an idle
boast, it’s just that such a fact would have been far too important to be casually
forgotten. That interview and story would have been a major coup for the
magazine and one of the top all-time issues. A five minute search of the BA online archive (SugarMountain
is your friend) soon confirmed that Joel Bernstein had graciously allowed
himself to be interviewed by NYAS member and stalwart Bry Carter on two
occasions for the magazine. 
These were as follows:
On September 1st, 1983: backstage at The Meadowlands, New Jersey before A Shocking Pinks show. A transcript was published in Broken Arrow 14, February 1984.
On August 1st, 1988: backstage at Wembley Stadium before a Prince show. A transcript was published in Broken Arrow 33, November 1988.
As
I was already sure of before quickly re-reading these interviews, neither made
any mention of the 1976 tape compilation.
And yet I was keenly aware that Joel has an astonishing memory – often
in very great detail – for anything relating to Neil Young. Although by no mean infallible, if Joel
recalled he was interviewed by Broken
Arrow and talked to us about this tape there was a good chance he was
correct. What could the answer be? Were the original tapes or transcripts from
the above interviews incomplete, and had some potentially sensitive information
been edited out before publication? Or
could there be a third Bernstein/NYAS interview that had never seen the light
of day? Could the then editor Alan
Jenkins have considered the material too sensitive to print? That possibility seemed extremely remote,
although I knew that during those years Alan tried hard to not rock the boat with
Neil and especially Elliot Roberts. But
why would we interview Joel Bernstein and not print it?? If he had been unhappy with some aspects of
the interview it could have been suitably edited. It was unthinkable and baffling.
But
then, after a lot of reflection, strangely there was a faint niggle in the back
of my mind, something in Joel’s words rang a very distant, very old bell. And my thoughts turned to an old, dusty
filing cabinet currently stored thousands of miles away in my garage at home, which
contained many hundreds of concert tapes on ‘dodgy’ old cassettes...
THE
SEARCH FOR A POTENTIAL INTERVIEW TAPE
I was away from home when this news broke, but I fired
off three or four emails to old NYAS contacts who were involved in Broken Arrow
from the start. Bry Carter was the
logical person to have conducted this interview and was my first port of call. He recalled clearly the ‘83 and ‘88
interviews in broad detail, but had no memory of a discussion about the 1976 compilation
tape during either interview. He wasn’t
sure whether the BA interview transcripts were complete, although he thought
they wouldn’t be, and that due to the rambling nature of the interviews some
material would almost certainly have been cut. He told me fellow NYAS member Bruce Asam had
been present at the 1983 interview and Bruce quickly confirmed that the 1976
tape wasn’t part of that interview and he knew nothing about its origins. That seemed to rule out 1983. Unfortunately despite much searching neither could
find a copy of the 1988 tape to confirm if the BA transcript for that one was
complete. Bry suggested there could have
been an ‘off the record’ part of the discussion that either wasn’t taped or
transcribed, but felt sure he would have recalled that. I asked if there could be a third interview
that wasn’t printed in BA, but he thought not, rightly questioning why it would
be held back. I had no answer to that,
although I knew my tape cabinet at home might have one. But
that tantalising prospect would have to wait until my return.
THE ORIGINAL 1976 JOEL
BERNSTEIN TAPE
Encouragingly, coming out of these and other discussions several
interesting new facts had slowly emerged, going as far as detailing how the original
compilation tape was eventually copied and the name of the collector/trader to whom
it was given. Even after all these years
that information still came to me on a strictly ‘not to be disclosed’ basis. Although that seemed astonishing in the 2020s
I of course agreed to honour that confidentiality. The ‘Shakey’ hand still has a long reach! But then trying to nail down the timeline of
the tape’s history proved problematic, and only a very sketchy outline of ‘what
happened when’ appeared:
1976 – Tour takes place, ending in late November.
1977 – Early in the year Joel and Cameron Crowe meet and work on a compilation.
1977 – The tape is finished and copies made for the two crew members.
1978 – A year later one of the crew members copies his tape for a major collector.
1978 – From here on the tape is issued privately on a ‘DO NOT TRADE’ basis.
1988 – After a gap of 10 years the tape starts to appear on general trade lists.
1989 – First vinyl bootleg titled Days Of
Gold And Roses printed.
I first traded for it as a standard C90 cassette tape sometime
between early 1988 and July 1989. I have kept a lot of my correspondence from
those days, and whilst it’s impossible to be more accurate on the date, my
first copy was definitely a tape, and not a vinyl bootleg. I can still recall the excitement and pleasure
of hearing it for the first time. It was
easily one of the best tapes I ever received.
Even at second or third generation quality it sounded stunning and it was
played repeatedly. 
The first mention in Broken
Arrow was a review in issue 36
(August 1989) of 'Days of Gold And Roses', which was a new US vinyl bootleg in1989.
BA editor Alan Jenkins mentioned that
this had been circulating as a tape called 'The Joel Bernstein Tape'. My fading memory is that it was all very new
then and had only surfaced within the last few months, although there had long been
whispers about a ‘fabulous’ soundboard ’76 compilation held privately.
THE INTERVIEW TAPE SEARCH – MY TAPE CABINET
Some weeks later I got home from my trip at last and the next day opened up my tape cabinet. I was nowhere near being the biggest tape collector, but I still had several hundred, stored in an old metal filing cabinet. I could never bring myself to just throw them out. In a section where I kept non-concert, random stuff I found three tapes that held interest:
The 1982 Wembley Sound-check
The Joel Bernstein 1/8/88 interview
(the B-side is labelled ‘JB/Karl T. Himmel’)
An NYAS interview dated 7/10/86
The ’82 Wembley sound-check I knew well, and was notable for the rehearsal of “Love Hotel” which had received its only ever performance a couple of nights earlier in Birmingham. It was possible the tape could have something else tucked away on it. Back in the day some tape traders – especially if they were good buddies – would fill up a left space on the tape with something random. If they didn’t label it you would then get a pleasant surprise when the tape ran on at the end of the show and played something unexpected!
The 1988 interview tape was there as anticipated, but the October 1986 one I didn’t recall. It was on the second side of something labelled ‘Rocksat 5/4/89’ and a copy of ‘Eldorado 1989’. And strangely there was no sign of my copy of the 1983 interview, which definitely should have been there. I searched all the other sections and drawers for it, but to no avail. That one must have gone awol somehow. But I definitely didn’t know what the 1986 one was and it held much promise.
I got out the old tape machine player kept for these occasions and quickly checked
the Wembley ’82 sound-check, mostly on fast forward. It was interesting to hear Neil and the band
working on the arrangement. It sounded
very new. But there was definitely no
interview squeezed on. It did bring back
some wonderful old memories of standing outside a concert venue one afternoon sometime,
somewhere during a sound-check with a bunch of crazy people all with our ears against
a brick wall, desperately trying to decipher what was being rehearsed inside
and quickly jotting down notes on scraps of paper!
Next
up was the Joel Bernstein 1988 interview tape, recorded by Bry Carter backstage
before a Prince show at Wembley. Unfortunately
the tape slipped badly as it played, but as there was a chance the transcript published
in Broken Arrow had been edited I
slowly made my way through it. And in
fact there was definitely a lot more on here than published in Broken Arrow, which I now realised was actually
quite truncated. Some really good stuff
too; talk about Neil’s old ‘Elektra’ demos, some unreleased album material, a
mention of Area Code 615 and a chat about the version of “Pushed It Over The
End” that was released in Italy, which is what Joel ended with. Sadly, there was definitely no mention of
1976 and a compilation tape. As best I
could tell the recording sounded complete with what sounded like ‘a start’ and a
‘finish’, and there was no mention of going off the record at any point. Nor did I hear anything that resembled a
break or any other kind of clue that an edit had been made. I decided this one could ruled out, but because
the playback quality was so bad I knew it needed to be transcribed fully when
time allowed and I got it playing properly.
After
a break to recover from the misery of 1988 I slotted in this 1986 interview. I didn’t know – but soon learned – that this
was backstage at Madison Square Garden on October 7th, 1986 before a ‘Live In A
Rusted Out Garage’ show with Crazy Horse.
The tape was noisy and very rough, and it crackled and slipped a little,
before I heard a youthful but very recognisable Bry Carter’s voice, floating
down through all the years:
BC: Can we start at the
beginning and would you talk about ‘that’ tape [The 1976 Tour Acoustic
Compilation].
Bang! Carter goes right in for the kill with his first question. And here it is. Joel describing his famous compilation tape in October 1986 at a time when it was still in private hands and at least two years before it entered the public domain. The whole story, laid out by Joel for the NYAS.
JB: We’re talking about the
compilation tape I made in 1976 of Neil and Crazy Horse’s tour. I taped every show on that tour on cassette
and a mono PA mix on a Uher CR134 [portable cassette recorder]. There were some great shows in there and I
made my own compilation edit for my own use and enjoyment. 
Joel’s
talk is rapid fire and the tape quality is very bad and I rewind a couple of
times to try and catch it all. It’s
extremely difficult to follow, with a lot of background noise and I concentrate
hard for a few minutes, back and forward, back and forward. But as I continually do this that old film
quote ‘fast forward eats the tape’ comes to mind, and I listen for only a
minute or two more before switching off and carefully removing the cassette. So here it is.
I’ve had it all these years? Astonishing. I try to think it through and put it together
in my mind. Why on earth was this never
published in Broken Arrow? It would have been a very important, major
article for the magazine. Why did I
receive a copy possibly as early as 1989 (it came on the back of a tape with a radio
show, Rocksat ’89) which wasn’t in general circulation? And why does no one else seem to have or
remember this interview? I don’t have
the answers to these questions, and more investigation is required. But first things first, I need to get the tape
safely transferred to a digital format and then make a full transcript.
THE INTERVIEW TAPE INVESTIGATION
Subsequent detailed conversations with Bry Carter reveal that he had forgotten all about this interview, he thinks probably because it was never printed in the magazine. Once I talked to him about it the memories came flooding back. He is 100% sure that he submitted a detailed report of the show accompanied by his ticket stub and the interview tape. He was quite indignant when I suggested that on this occasion he maybe didn’t do a report. Anyone who knows Bry would agree it’s unthinkable – he always did the report! Somehow his package either didn’t make it through the post, or else the tape was in such poor condition that Alan Jenkins didn’t feel able to transcribe it, and over time it was abandoned and then lost. The latter is unthinkable too, as the content is stunning and would have been a major coup for Broken Arrow. So I tend to think it was lost in the post and was never received by the NYAS. Sadly Bry’s master tape is also long lost. He’s certain it was thrown out over the years with a large pile of concert tapes. That’s even more unthinkable too! He said he never traded the tape generally, but thought he may have only given it to ‘a couple’ of Neil fans he was close to. But he wasn’t sure how many or if I would have been one of them. That seems unlikely. We weren’t close friends then and neither of us think we traded tapes until later in the early 1990s sometime. So it’s something of a mystery how I ended up with my copy. Indeed it’s possible this is the only copy that has survived. I certainly don’t recall receiving the tape, and only when I heard it again did some of it sound familiar.
THE NAMING OF THE COMPILATION TAPE
Although the interview wasn’t published in Broken Arrow at the time (October, 1986) the information that Joel Bernstein had compiled this 1976 tape was clearly known within NYAS ranks from then onwards. Which suggests that Bry must have at least talked to Alan Jenkins and/or other NYAS members at the time, confirming that the original compilation in private hands was made by Joel Bernstein. The late Pete Long had a memory of discussing it with Alan Jenkins around this time and feels it may well have been Alan who wrote ‘The Joel Bernstein Tape’ on the original tape box. It’s likely that subsequent traders then started referring to it as ‘The Joel Bernstein Tape’ and the name stuck.
I
had the interview tape digitally copied and cleaned up as best I could. It was still rough, but much more
listenable. I made a transcript and was
able to decipher most of it accurately.
There were some occasions where it was still very difficult to clarify the
words being said, and sometimes there were two conversations going on at once. Even Bry himself wasn’t always able to tell
what was being said! But it’s 99% there.
The
interview is utterly fascinating, complete gold, some of it comedy gold. Bry Carter is heroic as literally a walk on
cast of stars stop backstage in the passing to talk to him. It’s hard to believe it’s happening, but he
handles it incredibly well in the circumstances. At one point Neil Young turns up and starts
to talk about the show’s set-list, and the changes he’s made for tonight
because David Crosby & Graham Nash will be joining him! He then discusses with Joel what he needs to
do with re-tuning the guitars. All this
with Bry standing recording, presumably with his mouth wide open and his eyes
falling out. And this is a fan who only flew
in on the afternoon of the concert and made it to the venue less than two hours
before curtain up! It’s astonishing
stuff.
Here’s the full transcript.
BRY CARTER:
NYAS INTERVIEW WITH JOEL BERNSTEIN -
BACKSTAGE AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, 7/10/1986
BC: Can we start at the beginning and would you talk about ‘that’ tape [The 1976 Tour Acoustic Compilation].
JB: We’re talking about the compilation tape I made in 1976 of Neil and Crazy Horse’s tour. I taped every show on that tour on cassette and a mono PA mix on a Uher CR134 [portable cassette recorder]. There were some great shows in there and I made my own compilation edit for my own use and enjoyment. Where I listened to every tape to find what I considered the best performance of that song on the tour, and then edited those songs together along with raps from particular shows that I thought were the best rap or relevant to the song. My favourite rap in there is probably the ‘Judy Garland’ rap from the Fox Theatre - the day before the Last Waltz - at the end of the tour. I made that tape up just specifically for my own use, and I made copies of it for Neil and for two of the sound people on that tour. One of them lost his copy of the tape and I don’t know if that’s the one that somebody stole, and that’s the one that all the copies have been made off of. They weren’t made from my own copy and they weren’t made from any of the other copies that I’m aware of. It just disturbs me that it was never meant for public consumption. It wasn’t something that Neil would authorise me to do – to make copies for friends or anybody. I’m sure collectors really enjoy it, there’s a lot of great performances on there. “Campaigner”, at the time there had never been an acoustic performance of that anywhere, or “Give Me Strength”. So you know I really enjoyed putting those on. “Mr Soul” from the Palladium was the only time he ever performed that acoustically since the early Seventies. So it’s a special one.
BC: I ran a few copies for people, and it’s a fantastic tape. And every person I did that tape for said it’s f*!#in' magic, absolutely great. Not just saying because it’s your collection but by the songs themselves.
JB: I’m telling you they’re what I considered the
best performances. I listened to, if
there were say 30 shows, I listened to 30 versions of “Old Man”, 30 versions of
“Heart of Gold”. And some of those songs
like “Mr Soul” were only done once, and that’s the version I included. “Old Laughing Lady” was done a number of
times. So however many times it was
performed I listened to it, and considered which was the best one. Cameron Crowe also helped me in the editing
after I’d got most of the selections done.
I never got around to the second half, the electric half of the show,
because it took quite a number of hours just to get the tape to the point that
you’ve heard it at, and to get into the electric part and find the best
“Hurricane” for example...
BC: Oh no, you can’t.
JB: You could just spend
hours and hours... But I still have the
master tapes of all those shows, and I occasionally put one on and listen. But anyway, I guess I’ve said all I can say
about it. it is disturbing that it’s
come in circulation, it was never meant to be that way.
BC: But I don’t think it’ll come out as a bootleg [Ha, ha ,ha. Ed] . Most people who have it and are serious collectors themselves.
JB: Well I would hope that
most of the copies they have are so generational by this point that they really
wouldn’t make, you know, a bootleg of quality enough that you would want to
press. [Ha, ha, ha. Ed] The original tapes were very high quality,
they were direct feeds from the board.
In any case, I have my master lists of dates each one is from and what
reel and what cassette it was from and all of that. So what else do you want to talk about?
BC: That is the sort of stuff we would like to find out about. When you have a chance to browse through the Wooden Nickels or Broken Arrows you’ll find that some of them are now really starting to get quite good.
JB: I was amazed looking at the Squires stuff. [BA issue 23. Ed] That was incredibly informative. I have the original 8x10 shot [the cover?] This was from the newspaper. We actually found an 8x10 that was sent to Neil of the shot itself. It’s pretty great that people are into it enough to find out all about this stuff.
BC: There’s some incredible stuff in there. In the last one of Broken Arrow there’s some stuff there, Alan Jenkins even managed to find out recording dates where there’s some songs that Neil’s never selected, he managed to find out what studio, somewhere in Tennessee, the House of David. If you look at issue 24 of Broken Arrow there’s some new songs there that he hasn’t actually released.
JB: Well he’s said that there were a number of songs in the country period that were never released.
BC: If you look at BA24, if you skip through that there’s an item – recording sessions – see those sessions there from House of David...
JB: “Depression Blues” is my very favourite of
the whole country period.
BC: I never heard that track. But it’s quite good to see that all the stuff there is available.
JB: ‘Hi Elliot’. Elliot Roberts. ‘This is another Broken Arrow. This is Bry Carter, Elliot Roberts’.
BC: I keep coming over every now and then,
Elliot.
ER: [with David Crosby beside him] I know, I
remember you.
JB: He was just showing me these unreleased songs
in the magazine.
ER: [Explaining to David Crosby] Neil Young
Appreciation Society.
DC: Wait a minute, no no no. He sent me these
Broken Arrows when I was in prison.
BC: [relying to David] That’s it. Yeah. That one there, number 5, mentions you quite specifically Joel, and it’s got a focus on Joel Bernstein here somewhere. Sorry about this!
JB: [looking through
magazine] There’s our focus on David
Crosby
DC: Yeah, I got
a bunch of those. It might have
been you who sent them to me. Whoever
runs this magazine. Sent me about five
of them. They were great. And a couple of Wooden Nickels too.
BC: What are you doing out? Are you okay?
DC: Yeah, I’m fine!
JB: He’s great.
BC: [shouting to a disappearing David Crosby] Can I have a chat with you in a few minutes?
DC: Ahhh, maybe!
JB: He’s a hard guy to get a hold of.
BC: Errr, I thought he was still in jail!
JB: Oh no, he’s been out for months. Lots of months.
BC: Can you say that again? David’s been out? Because the last few ‘Wooden Nickels’ there, they still think David’s still in jail.
JB: No, he’s been out of jail for a while.
BC: Oh no! [Neil Young walks up! Ed.]
NY: How you doin’ man? Haven’t seen you in a while!
BC: Neil.
NY: How are ya?
BC: Oops! Thank you very much. [Joel hands him back the magazine he’s holding]
[To Neil] How’s your shoulder?
NY: It’s great, everything’s fine. I mean I was in physical therapy for about
two months and now I’m working out in the gym and everything’s straight.
BC: You’re okay then?
NY: Yeah, I feel great. I’m back 100%, the hand and everything.
BC: Oh fantastic. What actually happened?
NY: It just deteriorated. The muscles and everything started giving up
in the shoulder and the nervous system in my left arm. I went back into the physical therapy thing,
got everything straightened out, now it’s all back together. The hand’s not hurting me and that’s
cool.
JB: (????) You couldn’t pick up the guitar.
BC: The rumours were you fell off a horse or fell out of a car. Which one was true?
NY: Neither one.
BC: Neither one, no, no?
JB: I know, You got run over by a drug truck!
NY: No, I didn’t do
anything. It was just a natural
degeneration from not exercising. So now
I have a trainer and I’m on a physical fitness program.
BC: Do you want to come train with me? I’ve just done a 56 mile run last week.
NY: A 56 six mile what?
BC: A 56 mile run.
NY: Oh you did?
Wow!
BC: Do want to come and do it sometime? I’ll get you through it. It’s hard work.
NY: That is hard work.
BC: I come over specially to see your show again and you just come up to me as if you’ve known me all your life sort of thing!
NY: Well you keep coming back, so you’re bound to
know me now. You talking to Joel about
some stuff?
BC: About everything really. So what are you planning to do tonight?
JB: We’re going over the entire panoply as it were.
NY: There’s a lot of stuff going on. Living theatre. But I’m going to lie down and get some rest
before the show. Really great seeing
you.
BC: Six new songs?
NY: There’ll only be five
tonight because we have Crosby & Nash with us and we can’t do “Inca
Queen”.
JB: Oh, no “Inca Queen”?
BC: We’ve got David & Graham with us?
??DC????: We’re doing it the way we said, we got a new
setlist.
NY: It’s all out there.
JB: OK, fine.
NY: After “Heart of Gold” it goes to the two
songs with them, instead of “Inca Queen”.
JB: So I’ll have the one song to re-tune the 45
to “Ohio” then. Right?
NY: Yeah.
JB: You’ll go to the piano, I’ll re-tune the 45
to D-modal?
NY: Alright.
Right.
JB: OK.
BC: Thanks very much Neil. Hopefully I’ll see you after the show. I’ve got a lot for you to sign, by the way. You have a rest, I’ve got a lot for you to sign afterwards if you don’t mind.
NY: Ok.
JB: See the logo on that shirt, that’s funny
it’s from Wembley Stadium.
BC: Pardon?
JB: I was just looking at this
photo. It’s a photo of Graham at Wembley Stadium on the cover of Wooden Nickel
here. I gave him that Buddy Holly shirt.
BC: Oh, right. The guys that do that, they’re Italians and
they’re working together pretty hard.
The first couple of editions they start off in Italian then they started
to go into English. The English might
not be that good, but their hearts are there and the sheer amount of research
they do 
JB: Uh huh, I know, and from such a distance it’s
not easy to do.
BC: And the last three Broken Arrows have really picked up, and they’re starting to come out with some stuff now that’s pretty incredible. I never new half the stuff and and that Squires’ one...
JB: Yeah, that’s fabulous. It’s great that they got that.
BC: And if you go through Klaas’s book, you’ve probably got all the tapes anyhow, but he is..
JB: Most of the tapes I have are, you know, copies of Neil’s own. Neil is very, very good at keeping his own. You know there’s not, I doubt there’s more than a few minutes of tapes of any interest at all that collectors have that he doesn’t have in his own vaults. He’s very methodical about that.
BC: What happened to ‘Decade 2’? Because last time I saw you, you said the artwork had all been done and...
JB: ...Well, the artwork wasn’t done, we were
assembling the artwork. I think he wants
to hold off on that for another couple of albums. When I last mentioned that to him I think he
has some ideas for it. You know he can’t
obviously do it whilst we’ve been, he was working quite hard on “Touch The
Night” in the earlier part of this year and the late part of last year, and he
basically went right from that into the rehearsals with the band for this
tour. We had full on band and crew
rehearsals starting mid-July for this, and rehearsed five or six days out of
the week, sometimes seven. Usually six
or seven days out of the week up until, ahh, September 7th or 10th.
BC: You know some of the stuff there is fairly old, I mean “I’ve Got A Problem” that was on the ’83 tour. So, how come he didn’t release the ‘Mediterranean’ album?
JB: ‘Mediterranean’ is from
1974. That’s just one of a number of
albums. ‘Homegrown’ never came out as an album. ‘Live In Japan’ and “Live at The Hammersmith Odeon’ album never came
out. There’s a number of albums, full
albums, that are completed that will probably never come out now. ‘Mediterranean’ will never come out as an
album, I guarantee it. And neither
will...
BC: See, because the latest album, I hate to say it, is quite weak. Perhaps I’ve heard all the songs before, but “Touch The Night” and that, which I’m quite used to, they’re strong songs but...
JB: You think it’s weak in song writing or
execution?
BC: Execution.
JB: Well I think that ahh, he made an attempt to,
ahh...[pauses]..
BC: ...Did he have a problem with Geffen, having to put another album out.
JB: Oh, no no no.
He just wanted to, ah, it wasn’t like he was forced to put out that
album. I think he intended to go in the
studio and having done the country period there were, both before and during
that period a number of songs that he didn’t feel that that band was the right
band for. Some of them like “Violent
Side” and I believe “Touch The Night” were, he recorded with Crazy Horse
originally
BC: Back in the Catalyst or wherever.
JB: Well, that was just a show, but he recorded
it at the studio in San Francisco first for a while, and wasn’t happy with
that, then went to New York and had a whole lot of other sessions there, ahhh,
I believe at the Power Station with Crazy Horse also and wasn’t happy with
that. So it was shortly after that he
began to about a half an album of very high-tech synclavier based music that
was almost like dance music. It was very
commercial and very dance music oriented,
and he only got about half way through that when he went down to see
Willie Nelson and came back a changed person and decided country was for
him. So all that sort of stuff was left
behind in that period. And when we were
at Farm Aid he saw Don Henley’s set and he was very impressed by it.
BC: Farm Aid 1 or Farm Aid 2 ?
JB: Farm Aid 2.
And that gave him impetus for the direction to, you know, let the
country stuff slide for a while and get unto this. This is a very highly technical album, ‘Touch
The Night’, I mean ‘Landing On Water’.
He put a lot of effort into it.
There are some songs I prefer better than others, but I wouldn’t fault
the execution. I think he got what it
was he was after in terms of the recording.
I think that’s what he wanted. I
don’t think he was unhappy how it came out.
BC: No, but it’s about the weakest album he’s done for a long, long time.
JB: Well, it’s the best selling album he’s done
since ‘Rust Never Sleeps’, so what does that tell you? In other words that tells you that you have
your own opinion. Most people might, for example, many people would say
‘Everybody’s Rockin’ or ‘Trans’ or ‘Hawks’n’Doves’, or you know, were weaker.
BC: Mind you having said that, some of those albums like ‘Hawks’n’Doves’ I hadn’t heard that for about four or five years, and as soon as I started playing it , I thought ‘crikey’ and it opened my ears. I played that fondly for a couple of days. ‘What a nice album this has turned out to be’, so this might grow on me
JB: Sometimes in retrospect you might like things
better. You might like some of the live
versions of these songs better than the recorded versions. I really should go and start tuning here!
BC: OK Joel.
JB: I should really get going I’ve got to
practice then I have to tune up.
BC: OK. If I don’t see you after the show, if I don’t see you.....Oh..... what happened with the European Tour? Any idea?
JB: I have no idea. I don’t know when we’ll be going there, or
not. I would think if we go there it’ll
be with this particular show instead of a country show or something.
BC; I mean had I known you were playing the Meadowlands last month I might have come over. But I just found out the tour dates and I’m only here for the one night.
JB: Oh I see.
If you could remember Bry to send me one of these (???? Magazine/tape
list???) it would be great.
BC: Keep it.
JB: Oh, ok.
Thank you!
BC: Thanks very much then Joel! Bye.
JB: [Joel shouts back] You know what you should do. It’s about seven now, and the doors are
already open. You should get your stuff
out in the house and find your seat and stuff, because security is going to
start getting very heavy around here in about five minutes.
BC: Right, ok.
JB: Then that pass will get you back after the
show.
BC: Thanks very much Joel!
NOTE ON TRANSCRIPTION
This was a very tricky transcript to make. Some of the conversation was very difficult to decipher. Generally there is a lot of background noise, talking over the top of talking, plus there is extraneous tape noise and hiss and also varying sound levels. Even Bry couldn’t sort out some of it or identify who was saying what. Sometimes I had to leave out a very small section of conversation or slightly paraphrase what I thought was being said. For example, at one point Neil identifies the medical term for his shoulder problem but I couldn’t confirm what he was saying. Is there a doctor in the house? Once this article is published I will make the tape available and will welcome corrections and improvements.
ORIGINAL JOEL BERNSTEIN TAPE TRACK LIST
Source: Pete Long, Ghosts On The Road, 2nd Edition
| 1 | Campaigner | Music Hall, Boston, 22/11/76 late |
| 2 | The Old Laughing Lady | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 early |
| 3 | Human Highway | Dane County Coliseum, Madison, 14/11/76 |
| 4 | Tell Me Why | Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, 15/11/76 late |
| 5 | After The Gold Rush | The Summit, Houston, 11/11/76 |
| 6 | Harvest | Music Hall, Boston, 22/11/76 late |
| 7 | Mr Soul | Palladium, New York City, 20/11/76 early |
| 8 | Here We Are In The Years | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 late |
| 9 | Journey Through The Past | Music Hall, Boston, 22/11/76 late |
| 10 | Heart Of Gold | Tarrant County, Fort Worth, Texas, 10/11/76 |
| 11 | White Line | Tarrant County, Fort Worth, Texas, 10/11/76 |
| 12 | A Man Needs A Maid | Palladium, New York City, 20/11/76 late |
| 13 | Give Me Strength | Palladium, New York City, 20/11/76 late |
| 14 | No-one Seems To Know | Balch Fieldhouse, Boulder, 7/11/76 |
| 15 | Mellow My Mind | Palladium, New York City, 20/11/76 early |
| 16 | Too Far Gone | Balch Fieldhouse, Boulder, 6/11/76 |
| 17 | The Needle & The Damage Done | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 early |
| 18 | Pocahontas | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 early |
| 19 | Roll Another Number | Music Hall, Boston, 22/11/76 late |
| 20 | The Losing End | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 late |
| 21 | Love Is A Rose | The Summit, Houston, 11/11/76 |
| 22 | Sugar Mountain | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 late |
On Songs for Judy tracks 1–9 & 22 were taken from Joel Bernstein’s original Uher tape recordings, the remaining tracks 10–21 weren’t Joel’s but were from Tim Mulligan’s multi-track recordings. In another alteration to Joel’s tape Neil changed the running order to chronological. In an excellent interview in UNCUT magazine Michael Bonner asked Joel how the original tape came about. Here’s what he said:
‘On Time Fades Away [tour] I remember thinking, ‘God, wouldn’t it just be great to have even just a PA mix as a souvenir!’ I was friends with Bob Sterne, Neil’s sound mixer, and Tim Mulligan, his PA mixer, so I asked if I could record the shows. Here’s some quick context. On the European and Japanese tour earlier that year, Neil had made multi-track recordings of Crazy Horse both in London at Hammersmith Odeon and in Tokyo at the Budokan. I believe the Odeon-Budokan album was finished and a release was planned. So a mono PA cassette is nothing to do with nothing. Neil’s already officially done what he set out to do on the tour. Tim Mulligan was recording the tapes as well, which would have been far superior to mine. There were multi-tracks from the shows in New York, Boston and Atlanta. I made a C90 and a C60; the acoustic set on one and the electric set on the other. I recorded 16 shows on a Uher CR 134 portable recorder; so 32 cassettes.
SONGS FOR JUDY TRACK LIST
| 1 | Songs For Judy Intro | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 late |
| 2 | Too Far Gone | Balch Fieldhouse, Boulder, 6/11/76 |
| 3 | No One Seems To Know | Balch Fieldhouse, Boulder, 7/11/76 |
| 4 | Heart Of Gold | Tarrant County, Fort Worth, Texas 10/11/76 |
| 5 | White Line | Tarrant County, Fort Worth, Texas 10/11/76 |
| 6 | Love Is A Rose | The Summit, Houston, 11/11/76 |
| 7 | After The Gold Rush | The Summit, Houston 11/11/76 |
| 8 | Human Highway | Dane County Coliseum, Madison, 14/11/76 |
| 9 | Tell Me Why | Auditorium Theatre, Chicago 15/11/76 late |
| 10 | Mr. Soul | Palladium, New York City, 20/11/76 early |
| 11 | Mellow My Mind | Palladium, New York City, 20/11/76 early |
| 12 | Give Me Strength | Palladium, New York City, 20/11/76 late |
| 13 | A Man Needs A Maid | Palladium, New York City, 20/11/76 late |
| 14 | Roll Another Number | Music Hall, Boston, 22/11/76 late |
| 15 | Journey Through The Past | Music Hall, Boston, 22/11/76 late |
| 16 | Harvest | Music Hall, Boston, 22/11/76 late |
| 17 | Campaigner | Music Hall, Boston, 22/11/76 late |
| 18 | The Old Laughing Lady | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 early |
| 19 | The Losing End | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 late |
| 20 | Here We Are In The Years | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 late |
| 21 | The Needle And The Damage Done | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 early |
| 22 | Pocahontas | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 early |
| 23 | Sugar Mountain | Fox Theatre, Atlanta, 24/11/76 late |
Although Neil made the running order chronological, he made no distinction between the early and late shows in Atlanta, mixing them up.
SOME RANDOM NOTES
Songs for Judy was the debut release on the new ‘Shakey Pictures Records’ label. Earlier in 2018 the Paradox soundtrack was released on ‘Shakey Pictures Inc’. Other non-Geffen releases since his return to that label in 1988 were: A Letter Home on Third Man Records, the Dead Man soundtrack on Vapor Records and Neil’s contributions to the Where The Buffalo Roam soundtrack on Backstreet Records.
The Judy Garland Rap comes from the late show at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta on November 24th. It was the last night of the tour. It’s hard now to imagine a time when Neil would do two shows on the same day, but it wasn’t that uncommon back then, and it happened five times on this tour. Judy Garland died in June 1969 and it seems unlikely Neil Young ever met her. Again in Michael Bonner’s UNCUT interview Joel reported that the second show that night started behind schedule at 1am, the band had all ‘imbibed and were on a particular plane’ and it was ‘an extremely rambling affair’. The rap was clearly one result of this intoxication.
The Days of
Gold And Roses bootleg on Federal Records contained only 17 of the 22
songs. The bootleggers left off “Journey Through The Past”, “Heart of Gold”,
“White Line”, A Man Needs A Maid” and “Sugar Mountain”. 
After its first performance in Austin “The Old Laughing Lady” had the ‘Guilty Train’ coda added for its remaining 11 performances, with Neil doing his best Boxcar Willie impression. Boxcar passed away in 1999.
Back to UNCUT again, Joel said he recorded 16 shows, using a tape each for the acoustic and the electric set, making 32 tapes. But there were 19 dates on the tour. Did he simply misremember, or were there three shows Joel didn’t record?
In Madison during ‘Like A Hurricane” Neil put his guitar down and moved over to the piano to hammer away there. Will that cut make it onto the mooted ‘Electric Songs For Judy’?
What’s a green Wurlitzer? ‘Oh, I know all those old songs. I still know
the changes. But sometimes I feel like a
green Wurlitzer.’ In the context it
would seem that Neil might be comparing himself to a Wurlitzer jukebox, forced
to churn out the same old songs over and over. But the famous ‘green Wurlitzer’ was an
electric piano made by the same company.
Production of these funky looking 64-key pianos started in the 1950s and
ran into the ‘80s. Most were portable with
legs that folded up and were popular for touring. Their sound could range from
soft and gentle, through a vibraphone-type sound by way of a sustain pedal, to
a punchy, hard driven tone when the keys were played hard. The green version was an option in one of the
rarer models and by all accounts it is now very collectible. But there’s no doubt Neil knew what it was,
as a (presumably green?) Wurlitzer was used on three tracks on 1974’s On The Beach; Neil himself played it on “See The Sky About
To Rain”, Ben Keith on “Revolution Blues” and Graham Nash for “On The Beach”. 
For completion here is Bry Carter’s unpublished review of that MSG show.
A
NIGHT TO REMEMBER?
Madison Square Garden, October 7th, 1986
Bry Carter Looks Back
BACKSTAGE INTERVIEWS
I hadn’t seen Neil since ‘84, when he was with the Harvesters. With a new album to promote and Crazy Horse
back in tow I was looking forward to seeing him again. I had just finished a stint working offshore
and had money to burn, so it was straight off to London. Travelling standby on a British Airways flight
going that evening got me in to JFK mid afternoon. Time was of the essence as the show was that
night. I shared a taxi with three other
guys into downtown New York City and a short
walk brought me to the hallowed old venue of Madison Square Garden. Not that it was difficult to find, as the
queues already stretched for what seemed like miles outside the venue. Apparently Neil and The Horse had just broken
the box office record. Can that be true?
As I didn’t have a ticket I
made my way to the stage door and asked to see Joel Bernstein. Joel eventually turned up with a breezy, ‘Hi Bry, what can I do for you?’ Ha Ha.
‘Any
chance I can get in?’ ‘Sure’ says Joel, ‘come on’.
So we walked down seemingly endless corridors, and eventually ended up
backstage, where I decided to try to carry on from where we had left off in 1983.
I had a few Neil related questions
ready, but thought I would start with a question on the 1976 compilation tape
which I had received a year or two earlier and I believed he had made from the
soundboard recordings. Joel confirmed he
had and explained what happened and how it had ended up in the public domain. I carried on with my questions and the
conversation was really interesting when Joel suddenly interrupted me, saying ‘Hi
Elliot’. It was Elliot Roberts with
David Crosby. I’m completely
amazed. Joel graciously introduces me to
both, telling Crosby I’m from the NYAS.
Elliot says he remembers me from last time and a surreal conversation
follows with David Crosby about receiving Broken Arrow in jail. I didn’t even know he was out of jail!
Elliot and Crosby soon move on. I clarify with
Joel how long Crosby has been out for, and as I try to clear my mind and go
back to my last question, I look up and in disbelief say out loud, ‘Oh no!’ It’s Neil, ambling past. And he stops and speaks to me! ‘How you doin’
man? I haven’t seen you for a while!’ My mind is whirring. What happens here? What do you say?? In a moment of complete inspiration I manage
to say ‘Neil’. And in my defence I did
well to get that out. Neil asks me how I
am. But I quickly recover and ask him
about his injured shoulder. Another
surreal conversation takes place as we
discuss fitness and training and I offer to take him on a 56 mile run. Incredibly Neil and Joel then discuss changes
to tonight’s setlist and the instrument changes that will require. It’s all mind blowing and ends when Elliot
returns and hustles Neil away to get ready for the show. I somehow carried on talking with Joel, my
mind racing and praying the tape recorder is getting all this.
THE SHOW
The lights go down and the curtain goes up and suddenly THE HORSE are on stage,
house lights blazing; Talbot, legs akimbo, in crisp white shirt and black
trousers, Molina in grey, hunched over his kit baseball hat reversed, and Neil
and Frank Sampedro grinning at each other.
The stage is set with the full garage layout and MSG erupts, it’s been
eight long years since most of this audience have seen Neil Young & The Horse
in action. It proves to be a night of
peaks and troughs, great high and low lows.
Frankly some of the material from Landing
On Water is, well, weak.
“Mr
Soul” kicks us off, great thudding bass from Talbot, which segues into “Cinnamon
Girl”. The audience like that a
lot. A stunning “When you Dance” leads into a
sombre “Tonight’s The Night”. It’s about
now the first of the clockwork large furry animals/spiders start making their
way across the stage, or at least the first time I’ve been distracted by them.
“Too Lonely”, a good sounding new song, was up next, before Neil mutters
something along the lines of “I’ve gotta couple of friends gonna play with
me”.
On walk Crosby & Nash to a stunned momentary silence, then a roar
reminiscent of a Joe Louis knock down emanates from the audience. The crowd are astonished to see David Crosby
back up on stage. ‘Hello’ says Graham, very
casually. And we get what was a superb
set of “Heart Of Gold”, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and a totally stunning
“Ohio”. Crosby sounds as if he’s never
been away and the pair grin from ear to ear as they deliver their trademark
soaring harmonies. Neil looks delighted
too. Another casual wave from Nash, a
beaming Crosby still grinning from ear to ear, and they saunter off stage. Redemption!
Things predictably dipped
after that but my first time live “Road of Plenty” picked it back up and it was
magnificent. Superb guitar and singing
from Neil with Crazy Horse rock solid behind him. The fun continued as he segued into a
brilliant “Cortez” which the crowd were totally into.
After
some more ups (“Long Walk Home”) and downs (the Trans and Landing on Water
material) it’s the final straight and The Horse get into their stride. It’s a ticker tape welcome all the way home as
they crank out a selection of heavy numbers, sending the crowd into
overdrive. The place is rocking to the
rafters as the final notes of “Hey Hey, My My” die away. Shiver me timbers, will the roof come down?
And finally it’s all over with “Prisoners of Rock’n’Roll”. What a show, what a night.
After the show I don’t see
anyone backstage but meet up with a couple of New Yorkers and we drink late
into the night until I have to get my Greyhound bus to Baltimore. Ever taken a flight from Baltimore?
Please take my advice. Don’t! It’s worse than Newark, New Jersey.
Bry
Carter