neil's rules

and neil rules.Time travel the last 2 nights to places deep within the period I "came of age". Some type of emotional/molecular relationship between you and the music of that time in your life. musical dna, if you will. Watching Neil Young morph into an "Old Man" is a wonder. As if he wrote about and set about becoming that song. But also more than that. I first saw him in the now demolished Richfield Coliseum in 1978-79 with Crazy Horse during "rust never sleeps". Life by his rules. Still is. Signs up at the Shea's Theatre to remind us of the irony. No alcohol sales while the music plays. No cells or recording devices. A few more no's from a man who once didn't understand the meaning of the word that let the show flow from him to us. He can't lose concentration, he can't move very fast, but he scorches on the guitar. What's left of his hair bobs up and down and side to side just like rust never sleeps.

Johnny Mellencamp still retains an ignitable temper that still says "fuck you" "i fight authority, authority always wins. Poor bastard was clearly sick with some cruddy cold but he rocked on. Sat so close I could read their lips and say Gesu ndhuit once in a while. Rumor has it that he has been inducted into the Hall of Fame for 2008. It was a good on-your-feet kinda show. Los Lobos covered a Cream song and I felt the channeling of Stevie Windwoods voice right there at the Civic Center.
Spooky.
Does it get any better than this?