Neil Young played the first of four performances at New York's Carnegie Hall Monday night, and apparently he wasn't pleased with the audiences behavior at times. The New York Times reported that Young wasn't impressed with the crowd's offbeat clapping during his performance of "Ohio," a song he wrote after the 1970 Kent State shootings and recorded as a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
"Wrong!" he overtly explained. "It's something that you probably don't know, but there's a hell of a distance between you and me."
Although Young is a master of acoustics and the tempo of his own work, it might have been a little bit abrupt to address his fan-filled audience in such a manner, although he can pretty much do whatever he wants. Despite his distaste with the crowd's rhythm, he was also bothered by the apparently audible chatter, especially up in the balcony.
"You guys finished?" Young said. "No, you paid real good money to get in here, so you should be able to listen to each other."
Young did take the opportunity to pay tribute to fellow songwriters, including Phil Ochs with the song "Changes" and Bert Jansch with "The Needle and the Damage Done," his take on Jansch's "The Needle of Death," a song about heroin use and lost connection.
In the end, he did graciously accept the applause and cheering ovation after playing hits like "After the Gold Rush" and "Heart of Gold." Young's last of the four reportedly sold out performances at Carnegie Hall will be on Friday.
