Arrow Unbroken

September 27, 2018 3:22 PM

After a remarkable 33-year run, Broken Arrow, the venerable journal of all things Neil Young, ceased publication four years ago. Now, every single issue of Broken Arrow has been indexed, catalogued, and made available for free browsing and downloading at the equally venerable Neil Young setlist site Sugar Mountain.

Broken Arrow started as a black-and-white 16-page fanzine (look at cute, scruffy Neil on that cover!), and eventually reached nearly 80 full-color pages by its 131st issue. It's a cut above the average rock fanzine, in that it not only celebrates Young and his music, but offers good-natured, good-humored criticism of this important, erratic, ever-fascinating artist.

Dig through the archives and you'll find everything from setlists from the Ragged Glory tour to interviews with Crazy Horse guitarist Frank "Poncho Sampedro to backstage photos of Buffalo Springfield in 1967.

Full disclosure: I published one review and one long essay in Broken Arrow, toward the end of its run.

posted by Dr. Wu (12 comments total)

Very cool! I love Neil Young but I'm not a superfan and never heard of this.
posted by rhizome at 4:43 PM on September 27, 2018

git yer lyrics & tabs at HyperRust.org. It's All One Song!

(when I have a moment I'll glance at their reviews for the Trans era tour;)
posted by ovvl at 5:03 PM on September 27, 2018

ovvl, you're not the only fan of TRANS in the house. Give me a few hours and I'll ramble on about how great and underrated it is...
posted by Dr. Wu at 5:13 PM on September 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

Trans rules and so does this post. Even if the killer synth pop isn’t to your liking, the songs are legitimately great and the album closer “Inca from Peru” is signature sound NY.
posted by porn in the woods at 5:51 PM on September 27, 2018

Metafilter: More barn
posted by stevil at 6:03 PM on September 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

Thanks for this post. I love Neil but I am not a fan who reads Broken Arrow.

Saw Neil last night at the Capitol Theater in Portchester. He still rocks. Love Lucas Nelson and the Promise of the Real his back up band these days. (Lucas is Willie's son)
posted by AugustWest at 6:51 PM on September 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

I was literally listening to the live cuts from Trans on YouTube yesterday. Love it but the audience looks rather confused.
posted by octothorpe at 7:41 PM on September 27, 2018

(I was actually kinda confused by Trans, but I enjoyed Neil & Nils jumping around in the live footage of Sample and Hold)
posted by ovvl at 7:56 PM on September 27, 2018

Neil Young is great live because he's more than willing to lose the audience instead of just going through the motions of basically playing 30 year old greatest hits album.
posted by Yowser at 10:53 PM on September 27, 2018

Who else is gonna bring you a broken arrow. Who else is gonna bring you a bottle of rain.
posted by terrapin at 5:00 AM on September 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

Who else is gonna bring you a broken arrow. Who else is gonna bring you a bottle of rain

Phil (but I like Neil's voice better. Let Phil sing?)
posted by AugustWest at 8:52 AM on September 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

Neil Young is great live because he's more than willing to lose the audience instead of just going through the motions of basically playing 30 year old greatest hits album.

See also: Bob Dylan.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:49 PM on September 29, 2018