Imagine, if you will, that Capitol Records chose years ago to put out the Beatles' "White Album" on compact disk when the format was in its infancy, and for whatever reason decided not to invest the funds to put out a double CD, instead choosing to cram the entire thing onto one CD, and advertising it as a "specially low-priced single disk." But in doing so, they found that the whole thing wouldn't fit onto a standard disk, so they hacked about a minute or so out of "Revolution #9" (thinking nobody would notice), eliminated or shortened the silence between songs (if any), and nickel-and-diming the album until it fit just under the time limitations of a single disk. Then pretend that Beatles fans were too blinded by their fanaticism for the album to objectively criticize, let alone realize, the absolute horror of this corporate hatchet job. If this fictitious story sounds too weird for you, then now you know how I feel seeing five-star review after review here, when Warner-Reprise has performed the ultimate sin right under all our noses.

I only recently started amassing a CD collection of Neil, preferring to stick to the vinyl. I figured there will eventually be a remaster job of these albums, although with Neil you never know, and I could wait until then. But I broke down and went ahead and bought "Live Rust" on CD, which is one of my absolute top 10 favorite albums of all time. Knowing the guitar majesty of "Cortez the Killer" on this album better than I know my own date of birth, and having heard it countless times note-for-note, I immediately fast-forwarded to that track and waited for my world to be sonically blown to bits by the digital clarity of the CD, which happened indeed. For about four minutes.

And then I stopped cold. I stared out the window. I was frozen, playing air guitar to notes that were no longer coming out of the speaker, singing guitar parts in my head that weren't happening. "Am I getting that progressed into Alzheimer's already?" I thought, or is this some sort of a defective joke? Well, my Neil fan faithful, I'm here to tell you: the actual track of "Cortez" is approximately a minute and a half shorter than not only the vinyl version, but a minute and a half shorter than THE TIME GUARANTEED TO ME ON THE CD INSERT by good ol' Warner-Reprise. And where did this extra 90 seconds come from? well, it was right there in the LEAD GUITAR parts of the song, right prior to the "hate was just a legend" lyric. They have AXED a huge section of Neil's guitar lead, digitized it out to save space, and done God-knows-what to the rest of the album to give us a low, low price.

I frantically fast-forwarded the track to the end and compared the ending times on my CD player to the one on the CD cover. I was right. And I was disgusted. Then I started REALLY losing it: who was responsible for this? And why in the living name of God could any self-respecting Neil fan put up with the absolute desecration of one of the greatest recorded versions of one of his most jaw-droppingly gnarly songs?

I for one took the CD back. It took me a while to explain to the clerk why, but he chalked it up to a bad mistake on WB's part. Personally, I think their strange urgency in reissuing four of his least-selling albums "remastered with the original cover art" on CD is unusually nice, but I would much rather have a full-blown remastered version of "Live Rust" than anything else in his catalog. Especially now that I know about this hatchet job that sits on the shelf indefinitely, with no plans to improve on it. And Reprise, while you're at the task of putting that 90 seconds of guitar bliss back into "Cortez" that you so thoughtfully took out, go ahead and put out some other songs from that tour that weren't on the original CD to restore my faith in corporate America, because this is more of a disgrace than Watergate, "read my lips", and Monica's dress put together. Get the President on the horn.

I am 30, and bought the vinyl, Live Rust, when I was 14 at a used record store. It was cheap, so I took a chance. I still vividly remember listening to the first side of album one, the acoustic stuff - After the Gold Rush, I am a child, etc - in my parents' den. I was blown away by the beauty and expressiveness of Neil's songwriting, and am to this day. In particular, Sugar Mountain takes me back to the times I went to Six Flags as a kid, and thought being on those rides and staying up til midnight was the best life could ever get.

In addition to the mellow songs, there are some louder, electric ones that are incredible as well, with Cinnamon Girl and Like a Hurricane being good examples. This album definitely has the 'live' thing going for it, and when you hear these cuts you won't settle for the studio versions anymore - it's cool to hear Neil connect with the audience - "When I get big, I'm gonna get an electric guitar. When I get real big".

I kid you not - there is not a dud on the album. It is just incredible, and capable of providing pleasure worth orders of magnitude more than its price. I actually am typing this review because I would love to think someone bought this album as a result of it and enjoyed it as much as I have over the years (in CD format now, of course!)

After reading Garbageman's review, where he points out the butchering of "Cortez", I decided instead to pick up the DVD "Rust never sleeps". It is the same concert (Oct 22, 1978), and as I write this, costs exactly the same as this CD. It includes the complete Cortez, a few extra songs (Thrasher, Welfare Mothers, Tonight's The Night), and of course, visuals (which are sometimes tacky, it must be said). The audio of course uses a lossy codec, but I find it excellent -- with a 5.1 system it will probably be superior to the CD. And if you want the CD anyway, it is "fair use" in most countries to rip the audio and burn a CD for your own private use.

I haven't heard the CD: I give it 3 stars because Amazon requires some sort of rating, the DVD gets 5 stars, and the truncated Cortez would be sufficient to take away two stars for me.

I'd never say that one album I own is the best, but I can certainly say that I have never heard better than "Live Rust."

I remember sitting in a friend's home in 1979. He pulled out two new albums. One was "Rust Never Sleeps." (The other one was Dylan's "Slow Train.") I remember thinking that it was some of the greatest music I had ever heard. Funny thing is, babies who were born on that day in 1979 are now ((can you believe it?)) 21 years old. And I'm still thinking the same thing about this music. To me, "Live Rust" (along with "Rust Never Sleeps") is like the ultimate rock experience. In the first set, you hear the vibrancy of Young's acoustic guitar, harmonica, and vocals in the live setting. (Not to mention how the lyrics speak right to you, make you stop and think/consider/wonder.) Then, the second set adds Crazy Horse and you get the hard rocking, god-father-of-grunge experience.

The thing that really grabbed me all those years ago was how the song(s) "My My Hey Hey" and "Hey Hey My My" tied the acoustic and the electric statements together and gave us Young's observations on this phenomenon we call rock and roll. Both are included on "Live Rust."

I'd like to go on and tell you about my other favorite cuts on this album, but that would be all of them. 5 stars? Make mine 500.

If you buy it, you will listen. Maybe even for 21 years.

Folks, this might possibly be the greatest album ever recorded, live or in the studio. I put it right up there with "Live at the Fillmore" or Eat a Peach," "Appetite for Destruction," "Are You Experienced," or any Zeppelin album. From top to bottom every track is outstanding and at its best. I think that Neil masters acoustics live with his "Unplugged" album and his electric side live with "Weld." This is the total synthesis of the genius and talent of both sides at the pinnacle of his outstanding and still ongoing career. Its hard to describe just how well this album flows or how powerful each track is. I think that the original "Tonights the Night" is more noteworthy emotionally than musically. On "Live Rust," "Tonights the Night" becomes in all out musical masterpiece with at least as much emotion. "Comes a Time" may be my favorite Neil Young song, and its really nice to have it here for anyone who doesn't have the means to by every Neil Young album. I know no one my age (17) who knows much about Neil Young and I think its a shame cause once you really hear his music and understand what he's all about its hard to find someone better. Phish and Widespread are cool but there are few more talented than this guy. This is a great album to discover many aspects of Neil Young and the more that do, the better. Buy this album.