Year of the Horse

Year of the Horse is a 1997 documentary directed by Jim Jarmusch following Neil Young and Crazy Horse on their 1996 tour.

Eponymous album

Year of the Horse is also a live album by Neil Young & Crazy Horse released in 1997. It offers a different track list than the film.

This live album, in many ways could be seen as an epitaph for longtime Neil Young producer David Briggs who died in 1995 from lung cancer. This is reflected by the song choices which (outside of recent album cuts like "Scattered" and "Big Time") were among Briggs' favorites.

Track listing

All songs were written by Neil Young.

Disc one

Disc two

Personnel

Chinese astrology

Chinese astrology is based on the traditional astronomy and calendars. The development of Chinese astrology is tied to that of astronomy, which came to flourish during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD).

Chinese astrology has a close relation with Chinese philosophy (theory of the three harmony, heaven, earth and water) and uses the principles of yin and yang and concepts that are not found in Western astrology, such as the wu xing teachings, the 10 Celestial stems, the 12 Earthly Branches, the lunisolar calendar (moon calendar and sun calendar), and the time calculation after year, month, day and shichen (時辰).

Background

Chinese astrology was elaborated during the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) and flourished during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD). During the Han period, the familiar elements of traditional Chinese culture—the Yin-Yang philosophy, the theory of the 5 elements, the concepts of Heaven and Earth, and Confucian morality—were brought together to formalize the philosophical principles of Chinese medicine and divination, astrology and alchemy.

The Horse

"The Horse" is an American instrumental song by Cliff Nobles and Company. It was released as the B-side of the single "Love is All Right" and is simply an instrumental version of that song. "The Horse" made an improbable trip up the pop music charts, peaking at #2 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart (in June 1968) and the Black Singles chart. The song missed the top spot on the Hot 100 because of the success of Herb Alpert's "This Guy's in Love With You" from 29 June through 13 July 1968.

"The Horse" sold a million copies within three months of release, and attained the gold record award from the Recording Industry Association of America in August 1968. Ironically, even though Nobles is the title artist, he does not personally perform on the track. "The Horse" was simply "Love is All Right" without his vocal track. The horn section which is featured eventually became the group MFSB.

The track itself features a simple, unvarying rhythmic line played by different instruments, finished off each time around by a melodic, heralding horn section line.