Recently we filmed a few songs at a rehearsal mostly for posterity and our own amusement, my son (the drummer) is off to Uni at the end of this month and we won’t be playing or rehearsing for a while so we picked a couple of our favourite tunes to jam out a bit. We got decent basic versions down so for a little sweetening and ‘just cuz’ we overdubbed some stuff so these videos are a core live performance with some esoteric stuff added later.
This song requires a little context… If you’re not a fan of Neil Young and Crazy Horse and don’t dig long spacy stoner rock jams then this one may be a pass for you…
Flat awkward vocal pronunciation, questionable tuning, intonation, note choices and other Neil Young anachronisms are to be found here in all their “ragged glory”. I, like many went on a pretty long and enjoyable Neil Young jag in my developing guitar years and I was pleased as punch when my son ‘discovered’ Neil Young this summer and this song “Cortez the Killer” is one we both are really into both musically and politically. For me the allure is the free form soloing and the fact that there are no comfy blues licks and safe scales to fall into make playing it a completely fresh experience every time and really force me to be present and in the moment when we play it and that is where I wish my playing could be all the time…
Both songs also feature my MOD Duo for effects and I’m loving it’s fizzy and smurchy Big Muff simulations and the lush Shiroverb which gets that spacious Neil live album sound into our small room…
Here is Cortez:
