Way Down in the Rust Bucket

Way Down in the Rust Bucket is a live album and concert film from Canadian-American rock musician Neil Young and his band Crazy Horse, released on February 26, 2021. It is Volume 11.5 in the Performance Series of Neil Young Archives.

Way Down in the Rust Bucket
Live album by Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Released	February 26, 2021 (2021-02-26)
Recorded	November 13, 1990
Venue	The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, California, United States
Genre	Hard rock[1]
Length	142:37
Label	Reprise
Producer	Neil Young David Briggs
Neil Young chronology
Neil Young Archives Volume II: 1972–1976 (2020) Way Down in the Rust Bucket (2021) Young Shakespeare (2021)
Crazy Horse chronology
Return to Greendale (2020) Way Down in the Rust Bucket (2021) Barn (2021)
Archives Performance Series chronology
PS11: Bluenote Café (2015) PS11.5: Way Down in the Rust Bucket (2021) PS12: Dreamin' Man Live '92 (2009)
CD cover
Singles from Way Down in the Rust Bucket
"Country Home" Released: February 16, 2021 "Don't Cry No Tears" Released: February 16, 2021 "Homegrown" Released: February 19, 2021[2]

Recording and release

The album was recorded on November 13, 1990 at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, California, where the band was warming up for their upcoming Ragged Glory tour. The show consisted of three sets and an encore, featuring most of the recently released Ragged Glory as well as older fan favorites and deeper cuts.^[3] Guitarist Poncho Sampedro remembers the show fondly in a March 2021 interview for Rolling Stone:

"Let me go on record as saying that I think this Way Down in the Rust Bucket is the best Crazy Horse record we ever recorded. I love it! I love this record. Neil plays great, unbelievably great. He's just electrified. "Country Home" sounds like a country tune I never heard in my life. He just takes it to all kinds of different levels. He nails "Cortez." He nails "Danger Bird" and "Over and Over." He's just playing so good and the band played really good. We'd go onstage and we played "T-Bone". We'd played that song at a birthday party for one of Pegi's friends and then we played it there. We never played it too many other places. It was just fun. We played "Homegrown," and at the end, people were throwing weed on the stage since it's a big weed-growing community. We were having fun. It was all about the beginning of a new era. We were becoming alive. I just don't see it as a warm-up. It doesn't hit me like that. We played "Cortez" and it sounds so beautiful. When I hear Neil play it with other people, it just doesn't sound the same to me, ever."^[4]

Due to a temporary power loss, the multitrack recording of "Cowgirl in the Sand" was damaged; it was decided to remove the song from the CD and LP running order (which also allowed the release format to be limited to two CDs/four LPs). "Cowgirl in the Sand" appears only on the DVD version, with dropout sections augmented by lower-fidelity FOH mix. ^[5]

Young announced the release on his site on January 1, 2020 with the intention to release it that year along with Greendale Live, which was later retitled Return to Greendale, a 2003 rock opera that also features Crazy Horse.^[6] This album was initially scheduled to come out on October 16, 2020 before being postponed to January 15, 2021^[7] and later February 26. Young has previously shown all the concert video footage of this show as part of the Movietone section of his Archives website.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	85/100[8]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
And It Don't Stop	A−[9]
Clash	9/10[10]
Rolling Stone	[11]
Tom Hull – on the Web	B+ ()[12]

Way Down in the Rust Bucket was met with acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 85 based on 7 reviews.^[8]

Track listing

All songs written by Neil Young except as noted.

Disc one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Country Home"		9:13
2.	"Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze"	Neil Young, Frank "Poncho" Sampedro	5:40
3.	"Love to Burn"		13:54
4.	"Days That Used to Be"		4:56
5.	"Bite the Bullet"		3:58
6.	"Cinnamon Girl"		4:04
7.	"Farmer John"	Don Harris, Dewey Terry	6:01
8.	"Over and Over"		10:20
9.	"Danger Bird"		10:26
10.	"Don’t Cry No Tears"		4:22
11.	"Sedan Delivery"		5:44

Disc two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Roll Another Number (For the Road)"		4:45
2.	"Fuckin’ Up"	Neil Young, Frank "Poncho" Sampedro	5:12
3.	"T-Bone"		6:44
4.	"Homegrown"		4:46
5.	"Mansion on the Hill"		5:58
6.	"Like a Hurricane"		12:56
7.	"Love and Only Love"		13:16
8.	"Cortez the Killer"		11:24

DVD

• "Country Home"
• "Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze"
• "Love to Burn"
• "Days That Used to Be"
• "Bite the Bullet"
• "Cinnamon Girl"
• "Farmer John"
• "Cowgirl in the Sand"
• "Over and Over"
• "Danger Bird"
• "Don't Cry No Tears"
• "Sedan Delivery"
• "Roll Another Number (For the Road)"
• "Fuckin' Up"
• "T-Bone"
• "Homegrown"
• "Mansion on the Hill"
• "Like a Hurricane"
• "Love and Only Love"
• "Cortez the Killer"

Personnel

Neil Young and Crazy Horse

• Neil Young – vocals, guitar
• Ralph Molina – drums, vocals
• Frank Sampedro – guitar, Stringman, vocals
• Billy Talbot – bass guitar, vocals

Engineering and production

• Neil Young, David Briggs – production
• John Hanlon – recording, mixing
• Jenice Heo – art direction & design
• Frank Gironda – direction

Charts

Chart performance for Way Down in the Rust Bucket

Chart (2021)	Peak position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[13]	9
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[14]	19
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[15]	12
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[16]	35
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[17]	45
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[18]	32
French Albums (SNEP)[19]	99
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[20]	7
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[21]	5
Irish Albums (OCC)[22]	27
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[23]	24
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[24]	17
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[25]	34
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[26]	18
UK Albums (OCC)[27]	18
US Billboard 200[28]	109
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[29]	15
US Folk Albums (Billboard)[30]	5
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[31]	4