Neil Young, ‘The Greatest Living Canadian’, has put together a huge and varied musical oeuvre in the last thirty-five years. His work with Crazy Horse has mainly been distinguished by the unparalleled guitar sound that Young and Crazy Horse guitarist Poncho Sempedro manage to produce.Jim Jarmusch has always been a tireless admirer of Young – he had him write the score of Dead Man and also reserved a walk-on part for him. Neil Young in turn asked Jarmusch to film several of his concerts during the 1996 world tour. Jarmusch did so, partly on 16mm and 35mm stock, but mainly, ‘proudly’, on 8mm. The music – from classics such as ‘Like a Hurricane’, ‘Tonight’s the Night’ and ‘Stupid Girl’ to new works, was recorded in crystal clear Dolby stereo; as Jarmusch himself says, ‘made loud to be played loud’. What is made especially clear is how much the musicians have managed to keep their rock ‘n roll dynamic and alive for three decades: by repeatedly rediscovering the song together.The Jim Jarmusch approach is emphatically that of a fan. Despite interviews with, e.g., the father of Neil Young and historical material from 1976 and 1986, Year of the Horse is far from an historical documentary. It is impossible to provide a survey of the history of these musicians, they argue themselves, ‘and certainly not for an arty hipster from New York’.
