On April 4, 1977, Neil Young laid down the breezy love tune “Hey Babe” at his Northern California ranch, backed by Crazy Horse, pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith, fiddle player Carole Mayedo, and background vocalists the Bullets, a.k.a. Linda Ronstadt, and Nicolette Larson. The song appeared on Side One of American Stars ‘N Bars, but there was no proper tour for the album, and it never entered his concert repertoire in the years that followed. It was one of the only two tunes to appear on one of Young’s Seventies solo albums (along with “Will to Love”) not to get even a single live airing.
The 47-year “Hey Babe” drought ended Tuesday night at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York. The big moment came six songs into the set, which largely stuck to the script from Monday night up until that point, though he swapped out “Harvest Moon” for “Tumbleweed” from 2014’s Storytone. Check out this (sadly incomplete) video of “Hey Babe.”
Later in the night, he broke out 1992’s “War of Man.” It was the fifth Harvest Moon song performed throughout the two Capitol Theater shows. The 13-minute “Down by the River” from night one didn’t make a repeat appearance, but he made up for it by ending the show with a thrashed-out rendition of “Throw Your Hatred Down” from Mirrorball. It took the place of “Roll Another Number (For the Road)” from Monday.
Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts will make their next appearance Oct. 5 at the Painted Turtle charity show in Lake Hughes, California, where they’ll share a bill with Stephen Stills and John Mayer. It’s a chance for Stills and Young to team up on some vintage Buffalo Springfield songs, much like they did in 2023 at Light Up the Blues when they resurrected “Everybody’s Wrong,” “On the Way Home,” “For What It’s Worth,” and “Bluebird.”
And in the minuscule chance Young plays “Will to Love,” he will finally have performed every single Seventies solo album track in concert at least a single time. Here’s a list of every song from his entire catalog he’s yet to play live. If we had the power to pick his future set lists, we’d opt for”Fontainebleau,” “We R in Control,” “Driftin’ Back,” “Hawaii,” “L.A. Girls and Ocean Boys,” and “Goodbye Christians on the Shore.” It seems incredibly unlikely any of that will happen, but very people saw “Hey Babe” coming until it happened Tuesday night.
