Rust Never Sleeps (1979)

Documentary covering Neil Young's October 22, 1978 concert performance at the Cow Palace.

Director:

Neil Young

Stars:

Neil Young, Ralph Molina, Frank 'Pancho' Sampedro

Cast

Credited cast:
Neil Young	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ralph Molina	...	Himself
Frank 'Pancho' Sampedro	...	Himself
Billy Talbot	...	Himself

Storyline

Documentary covering Neil Young's October 22, 1978 concert performance at the Cow Palace.

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Plot Keywords:

performance | rock 'n' roll | san francisco california | musician | folk rock | 

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Taglines:

A Concert Fantasy

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Genres:

Documentary | Music

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 September 1980 (Denmark)

Also Known As:

Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Rust Never Sleeps

Filming Locations:

Cow Palace, San Francisco, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Crest Productions, Shakey Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Neil Young got the title "Rust Never Sleeps" from new wave band DEVO. (There are also shots of a crew member wearing a DEVO yellow suit in this film.) Young & DEVO would later appear together in Young's 'follow-up' film, "Human Highway".

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Connections

References Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

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Soundtracks

The Loner
Written by Neil Young
Performed by Neil Young and Crazy Horse

User Reviews

One of the best concert films of all-time

Neil Young is one of the best singer-songwriters of all-time, in my opinion second only to the master, Bob Dylan.

Rust Never Sleeps, showcasing Young's work from 1967 - 1979, is an awesome experience for true rock music afficianados. Young starts things off with 'Sugar Mountain' one of his most enduring songs and moves through his legendary repertoire with ease, occasionally slipping into routine, but overall the acoustic half is excellent, 'My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue) being the highlight. In the second half he brings out his long-standing backing band, Crazy Horse, and the really shine, where Young provides awesome guitar solo after another, 'Powderfinger', one of his best songs (and he has written over 800 songs!) is given a great reading, with 2 impassioned solos. 'Like A Hurricane' is one of his most famous (and best) songs, and the soloing is amazing. 'Cortez The Killer' is spoiled only by the coda being sung in a cod-Jamaican accent, but is still great, 'Tonight's The Night' is revived in a much cleaner, but less haunting reading, with a striking solo and the show ends.

What makes Rust Never Sleeps a classic concert movie, is sure as Hell not the style, Young's choice of shots is questionable at best on occasions, and the back stage snippets are redundant. 'The Last Waltz' was released the previous year, and Young appeared in that too, and ones feels that if Young had approached HIS film in the same way, with cross-cutting of interviews, it could be equally as good as Scorsese's majestic masterpiece.

But the songs are awesome, any Neil Young fans would love this movie, and as a testament to Young's live power, it is almost as good as the many excellent bootleg tapes/CDs available, and deserves a DVD release.

Incidentally, the elusive Neil Young lifetime retrospective (32 CDs!) will also include DVDs and Rust Never Sleeps the concert film, may become redundant soon, as many previous and latter live performances were even better than this.

In the meantime, all you Young fans MUST see this brilliant concert film.

Mac