Rust may not sleep, but time hasn’t worn away the appeal of Rust Never Sleeps, the “concert fantasy” film that captures Neil Young and his band Crazy Horse at San Francisco’s Cow Palace in late October, ’78. Directed by Young himself under the name Bernard Shakey, the film had a brief shelf life at the dawn of video and then disappeared for ages. It’s finally seeing a DVD release this fall, from Sanctuary/EMI.

Rust Never Sleeps, the album, is a genuine rock classic. It opens on the gentle “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)” and closes on the explosive “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black),” which drew a line from Elvis to the punk upstarts of its day. The record also included great tunes like “Welfare Mothers” and “Powderfinger,” and all that stuff’s here—and more.

The first half is Young in his awkwardly beautiful solo mode, pulling out various faves from his career to that point, while the second half has the mighty Crazy Horse roll out for some deliciously abrasive rockage—ragged glory, indeed. The whole show has an odd theatrical bent, as wizards, mad scientists, sleazy promoters, flying keyboards, Devo’s Boojie Boy and “road eyes,” stage hands done up like the Jawas from Star Wars, cavort among the oversized fake amps. Kinda like Genesis, only minus the prog rock. :

» Rupert Bottenberg