Neil Young - Arc Weld

ARC WELD

ARC

WELD


Here was my train of thought one week in 1991. I was still on the high that was Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s Ragged Glory and I caught wind that Uncle Neil was getting ready to release a live album of the Ragged Glory tour. And I heard that the album would feature an initial limited edition offering called Arc Weld, a three-disc box set that contained the proper live release and a third disc featuring nothing but Neil’s guitar feedback. For some reason, I thought “Hey, that sounds awesome!” and put my name on the list for that first-come/first-serve 25,000 copy release.
I’ve listened to the feedback disc Arc probably two or three times since then.
It’s the equivalent of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music or so I’ve been told. And after hearing Arc two or three times, I have no interest in hearing Metal Machine Music.
As far as the real musical selection of this release, Weld features Neil and the Horse at their most raucous. There’s plenty of feedback, plenty of grit, and plenty of repetitiveness. I remember going into this release looking forward to the Arc section because so much of Weld had been done before on other releases. The moment I realized that Arc was a piece of shit, I was forced to tangle with Weld.
It may be the most guitar-oriented release of Young’s career and most of the songs feature endless soloing and shenanigans. I still prefer Live Rust to it, but it was hard for me to believe at the time that a man of Neil’s age could return to fuzz in such fashion. But my absolute favorite part of the album comes during “Welfare Mothers” when guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro repeatedly yells “Mom! I’m hungry!” Poncho’s a big dude, so the visual in my head is quite humorous.
Arc Weld was released on this day in 1991. It was the first Neil Young album that didn’t crack the Billboard 100 charts in 22 years. You can get Arc as it’s been re-issued as a single disc offering, but you’d be a fucking retard if you did.