The performance comes between the release of AFTER THE GOLDRUSH and HARVEST and hot on the heels of DEJA VU, basically the last time Young's eminently enthralling man-child persona of "I Am A Child" and "Helpless" held sway over the obstinate, electric crank of TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT and RUST NEVER SLEEPS. The set is pure magic. Young still seems humble and shy, a guy who stumbled across an incredible gift for melody but possessed the worldliness to let his awkward talent breathe and warble as it was meant to.

Familiar songs have drastically different readings: the subdued "A Man Needs A Maid" comes off here as more of a cry for help than the potentially chauvinistic enigma on HARVEST and seeps perfectly into "Heart of Gold;" while the normally heavy "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "Ohio" are remade as acoustic dirges. The true treasures, however, are the never-released gems "Bad Fog of Loneliness" and "Dance Dance Dance," a song--with its lyrics of love and rainbows--that foregrounds Young's latent whimsy and sets up "I Am A Child" as the perfect closer for this disc. A must for fans of Young, '70s singer-songwriters, and rock in general, LIVE AT MASSEY HALL 1971 perfectly captures the moment just before Dylan's prophecy came true and Young took over pop music.