In the spring of 2003, my wife and I were going to a Neil Young concert at Falkoner Center, Copenhagen – the Capital of Denmark. We were both excited, me because it was my first ever solo concert – I’d been to several others with Crazy Horse and Booker T and The MGs, and my wife because it was her first one ever.
Greendale was on the menu, and at that point I didn’t know the songs, so that was another new aspect for me.
Neil was in a good mood and we were surprised that he was so talkative. We were spellbound by the stories and the excellent songs.
At one point, someone in the audience shouted out loudly, “Rock’n’Roll!” Neil looked up in the direction of the corner where it came from and answered back in a feisty way, “Whadd’ya mean??? I am fucking Rock’n’Roll…did you pay too much?? I’ll pay you twice to go home!!!!”.
The crowd was cheering and laughing and the guy went quiet….for a while.
Neil played his Greendale set and then there was a 15 minute break.
Then he came back for a second set and played a number of his fantastic songs. He was still talking a lot, and we enjoyed his very good mood. At one point he was talking about the theater here and mentioned that he was playing here in ‘77 with the Horse. He asked if anyone had attended the show, and guess who yelled out “YEAH!” ?? Exactly the same guy from the first set. Neil looked up with a little grin on his face, answering back, “Oh, now I get it.”
He played on and later was preparing a song, changing guitars and searching for the right harp. When he was just about to start the song, our friend in the crowd shouted again…this time, “NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE!!!”
We all went quiet, waiting for Neil’s reaction. He set down his guitar and took another, looked up in direction of the shouter and said, “For you, my old friend…anything!!” and he played The Needle And The Damage Done.
Martin Bülow