In the excellent "I Want My MTV" book, Jim Burns (one of the guys behind the show)  says that during the taping of Unplugged in the Ed Sullivan theater, Neil Young suddenly became agitated and ran outside, jumped over a police barrier and hoofed it down Broadway. He never came back to finish the show. Has anyone heard that tale before? I don't remember the show being cut short or anything weird happening, so could he be referring to an aborted taping of the show which was subsequently reshot on a later date? I can't find anything about it online. It's certainly a great story if it's true. 

Someone probably told him that Lynyrd Skynyrd just pulled into the parking lot and would be looking for him. 

KaBoom Crash!  But seriously folks, Craig will be here through next Thursday...don't forget to tip your waitresses!

Gimme 3 steps...

I heard that story before. I think he did come back but after a few hours. Might have been also mentioned in his biography "Shakey". I have a bootleg of a solo show in the early 70's where he stops in the first song berates the front row that if they don't shut up he'll leave cause " I'm not All together right now." Then he goes into different song.

And he left the Stills Young Band tour leaving Stills a note saying something to the effect that things that start spontaneously end the same way. Told stills "eat a peach" it was in Georgia. Weird guy.

The "official" story, if it can be called "official" is that Young was very unhappy indeed with the band during the recording session, and, understandably in that situation, insisted on doing lots of retakes. After a while he got to the point where he walked out for half an hour to get his head into a better place before coming back and trying again.

Any of us who've been in a recording or practice session that we've found particularly trying or just couldn't get into for some reason must know what that feels like.

In the end the recording session simply didn't work. A second try a month later did.

That is weird. No way around it and I am a fan... BUT the stuff about leaving Stills in the lurch is way beyond weird. It is poor character, IMO. I've heard stories about Robert Fripp making demands of the audience. I think it had to do with smoking, back when you could. I sort of understand that.
I used to play sometimes with a guy who would get upset with people who talked etc instead of giving him all their attention when he was playing... but those days are LONG gone. There was a time in the late 60s and early 70s when an audience would sit or stand and listen but my guess is they were actually too high to talk,
J