NEIL YOUNG IN EUROPE ’76 WITH CRAZY HORSE (1976) West German concert poster

Np [West Germany], 1976. Vintage original 23 x 30.25″ (58.5 x 77 cm.) German concert poster. Folded (as issued), near fine.

Scarce and highly collectible original first printing concert poster advertising legendary Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s 4-date German tour during March 1976. Coming immediately on the heels of his March 1976 Japanese tour, the German shows were part of Young’s March/April European tour, commencing in Oslo, Norway on 15th March and ending at the Glasgow Apollo on 2nd April, 1976.

Save for a few concerts in the UK, this was Neil Young’s first full European tour as a solo artist and was primarily set up to promote the release of the Zuma album. Recorded at Broken Arrow Ranch in Redwood City under the guidance of producer David Briggs, Zuma (named after Zuma Beach in Malibu, where Young owned a house), was released on 10th November, 1975, on Reprise Records.

With the backing of a reunited Crazy Horse, Frank Sampedro replacing the late Danny Whitten, Zuma was the first album after the famed “Ditch Trilogy”, comprising the albums Time Fades Away (1973), On the Beach (1974) and Tonight’s the Night (1975), and had an overall more upbeat atmosphere, with a combination of country-tinged rock acoustics and lumbering hard-rock pieces similar in style to songs on the Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere album from 1969.