Neil Young - Homegrown (June 19, 2020, at long last)

deserves a thread of it's own

1. "Separate Ways" 3:33
2. "Try" 2:47
3. "Mexico" 1:40
4. "Love is a Rose" 2:16
5. "Homegrown" 2:47
6. "Florida" 2:58
7. "Kansas" 2:12
8. "We Don't Smoke It No More"
9. "White Line"
10. "Vacancy"
11. "Little Wing" 2:10
12. "Star of Bethlehem" 2:42

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5zxOWgCVbA

Lots of enthusiasm for "Try" in the other thread. Maybe it'll grow on me--homegrow on me--but it seems kind of ordinary by mid-'70s Neil standards. "Mexico" another instance of him borrowing a title from a great song already out there (Jefferson Airplane)--Yo La Tengo do that too.

you're right, nobody should ever give a song a title that has been used before by another artist

rmde

"Try" is up there with any other 70's song of his, imo, it's perfect

On the other hand, Neil beat James Taylor to it by a year.

you're right, nobody should ever give a song a title that has been used before by another artist

rmde

Excellent point as always--if you read my post, I was clearly saying that it should never ever be done, not just dispassionately observing that Neil Young and Yo La Tengo do this.

Jesus, you're an idiot, buy. Please go back to pretending to file-kill me.

buy = guy

I agree that Try is not a masterpiece,definetely not up there with the best songs on Harvest and/or On The Beach, but it's a good song regardless: A lesser effort from Neil from that era is still better than most artists.

Same goes for the other songs from Homegrown (re-recorded later or played live) that is floating around imo.

I suspect that one reason he didn't release it is that he felt is wasn't his best.

Don't disagree--it's pleasant. But also, for me, instantly forgettable. I'm not sure I'd replace a single song from After the Gold Rush or Zuma with it.

I suspect that one reason he didn't release it is that he felt is wasn't his best.

I'll buy Homegrown, which has hardly been automatic for me with Neil after Ragged Glory (I've been catching up in fits and starts). It's Neil from right in the middle of his usually brilliant peak decade. But I think that's a valid point. Long-lost or delayed albums and films often have a certain aura that attaches to them over time that's out of proportion to what you eventually get. Maybe there was a reason they were lost or delayed in the first place that's much simpler than intriguing backstory.

he did shelve it for one of the greatest rock albums ever made so there's a lot of room for it to be really good

I'm feeling like it's going to be a mix between Comes a Time and Hitchhiker

What was the timeline? Which Ditch album took its place? I'm guessing Tonight's the Night.

yep TTN, Tyler posted his article on it in the Neil thread

https://youtu.be/eL_bqx4h6lU

Awesome guitar work.

yeah this is fucking great

Thumbs up.

here's my review/ramble! https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2020/06/15/neil-young-homegrown/

good stuff!
so excited.

not lost on me that our Lord and Savior saw fit to drop this at the beginning of father's day weekend.

very psyched for this

I've been pretty lukewarm on this just cuz I feel like I've gotten burned out lately on Neil and all of his "Neil-ness" and just a general sense of let-down over all of the lost album hype but so, goddamn if "Vacancy" and tyler's review haven't got me pumped!

Haha ums, between this and new Dylan, there will be a lot of big Dad energy this weekend.

Big Grandpa Energy.

The fact that it didn't leak already is a miracle

The fact that it didn't leak already is a miracle

Lotta stuff not leaking these days! Advances must all be on ... lockdown.

Well, some reviews were published..

We shall wait with Spotify on hold

Streaming tonight on the Archives

Hi
Hoping you’re all holding up & still showing up
music is medicine for the soul
Look after it
🎶
HOMEGROWN will be available on The Archives tonight 9pm PST
thanks for listening#NeilYoung #NeilYoungArchives #Homegrown pic.twitter.com/JVkb3x5etY

— Neil Young Archives (@NeilYoungNYA) June 16, 2020

what if neil pulls a "doghouse" rickroll here

Homegrown...HOME...GROWN

Stream gets stuck all the time or is it just me?

Good lord Mexico is gorgeous

What's cool about this record is that it sounds familiar, like it isn't really a lost album and actually was here all the time.

yeah, i'm sure someone else will write a nice piece about that, because i get very much the same feeling and i'm sure others do too. it's such an odd sensation, knowing half the songs already, but not in this form. even the songs i already knew well ("little star of bethlehem") sound so much more fitting here. why? i don't know. i liked it on stars and bars, i liked it on chrome dreams, i liked it on decade. but it sounds like it's at home on this record, finally.

So wild, I had NO IDEA that this was coming out, and I've just begun a serious Ditch kick. Stoked

"Try" is such a gift, right now. ben keith on pedal steel, emmylou harris doing backup vox, levon helm doing his thing, playing exactly what you expect and want him to play.

everybody is doing what i want them to do. it's fucking weird man

i want them to rule, and then they do that. if only life were always this easy!

I like how he has been trying to develop Separate Ways but has now released the original recording after all.

Played it on the 1993 & 2014 tours:

Torhout, Belgium, July 1993: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXWI2mKEgvM

Liverpool, July 2014 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP9MLuzaZCM

just gonna C&P this from the other thread:

just listened...man "Separate Ways" is a stunner, real lost classic

loved it on first impression, kind of Harvest but with the down and out druggie vibes of On the Beach?

Florida is something! N01z3 dr0n3

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, June 17, 2020 8:47 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Loving this. Go, 1975-Neil!!

― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, June 17, 2020 11:07 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

damn this is great

― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Wednesday, June 17, 2020 1:16 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

all her friends call her lil wayne

― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Wednesday, June 17, 2020 1:46 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

homegrown rules

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 3:12 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

an instant top-tier neil album for me. it's a weird experience, listening to it, because through my casual-to-intermediate fandom of his music, i've come across several of the songs, in different versions on other albums, or live. but these original versions are so fucking good! it sounds so good. the sound of mid-70s neil young is so warm, it's an instant comfort blanket

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 3:14 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

very cool to hear how part of Kansas follows the same melody line he would use later on Powderfinger...maybe a year later?

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 3:17 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

not even a year later! and also, of course, how "love is a rose" uses the melody line from "dance, dance, dance" a few years before. borrowed tunes, as it were :)

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 6:21 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

It's so fascinating to me when artists like Neil Young or Springsteen or Prince or Dylan or whomever can record albums worth of really good stuff, sometimes even their best stuff, and think, eh, and then shelve it for decades. I've always wondered if any artist can be so self aware or ego-free as to even distinguish their best albums from their worst, or if they're so busy going forward they don't even think about it. Like, I was reading the latest Tape Op, and there's a guy that worked on remastering "Band on the Run," and he's in the studio with Paul McCartney, and McCartney admits he'd never listened to the album as a finished artifact before.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 7:29 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

neil, prince and dylan, sure, but is that actually true of springsteen? i remember thinking, the first time i heard "tracks," that springsteen had an amazing ear for his own work and instinctively understood what to keep and what to discard. i still can't think of a single track on "tracks" that i wish he had included on one of his studio albums.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 7:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

holy shit, this album

"Homegrown" is an instant anthem, up there with any other tune of his you could name imo

"Florida" is maybe the weirdest fucking curveball he's ever thrown, which is saying a lot, love how it segues into "I woke up from a bad dream"

"Try" is perfect in every way

damn

― sleeve, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 8:59 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

yeah, honestly i don't like "florida" so much. but it really does stand out as a particularly experimental song for a musician in his position at the time

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 9:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

"try" otm

that's the one that jumped out at me on first listen. was it known before now? i know true neil young fans have been familiar with all this material for years, but "try" was new to me

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 9:40 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

When I first heard “Florida” I immediately thought : “This is his ‘The Gift’ “

― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, June 17, 2020 10:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

"florida" eventually turned into dead man and le noise, at least

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 10:54 PM (yesterday)

neil, prince and dylan, sure, but is that actually true of springsteen? i remember thinking, the first time i heard "tracks," that springsteen had an amazing ear for his own work and instinctively understood what to keep and what to discard. i still can't think of a single track on "tracks" that i wish he had included on one of his studio albums.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 7:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I think this is mostly otm but I do think there is a FAR better version of the River that can be made on a playlist with the alt tracks from the boxset than the original

"Florida" sounds like a lost SYR series mid-90's collaboration with Sonic Youth

each time it played last night I said, out loud, "what the fuck, Neil?"

"florida" really is a strange fucking story!

https://neilyoungarchives.com/album?id=A_089

It's such an odd feeling, listening to an album that feels like it should be familiar but isn't

yo i have the LP in my hands !!!!!

Nice! Assuming pressing is good, Neil's stuff usually is

yeah it's dead quiet and sounds great

When I first heard “Florida” I immediately thought : “This is his ‘The Gift’ “

i feel as if it's more like his "apes-ma"

Homegrown you must be a Pink Floyd album because you RULE

https://neilyoungarchives.com/album?id=A_089

iconic url imo

Don't really keep up with neil news but had a bit of a binge of his albums this weekend apropos of nothing and now I'm blessed with this today.

Separate Ways is the best track here imo

Florida reminds me of some of Jandek's spoken word stuff

this is really good but now I understand better Neil's observation about the middle of the road and heading for the ditch instead. well, except for "Florida".

Hi my name is Jordan and I'm listening to my first Neil Young and Bob Dylan albums today.

Ever !?!?! I mean, you could do worse than these new ones, but ...

whoa Jordan

whoa

Jordan also turning 12 today

lmao jordan!!!

lol I can see how someone who plays drums for a living would never have spent much time with those artists, enjoy!

lol fair enough, outside of the Most Famous Opening Snare Shot in Rock History, neither acts are particularly notable for their drumming. If anything, they're both famous for their looseness!

Yeah I didn't grow up with the Beatles either, I was only really exposed to most music through playing it or the radio (and I never listened to classic rock radio or whatever).

I first consciously heard 'Heart of Gold' when the Bad Plus did it as a closer, and sang it acapella & off-mic at the end. I was probably the only person who was like 'huh, pretty good song, who wrote that?'.

Obviously I've heard a song here and there, but never a full album.

(Josh, which song are you referring to?)

Like a Rolling Stone.

#rockism

i do not mean to post more about bob dylan in this neil young thread but most of dylan's drummers are all-time, including matt chamberlain on the new one? kenneth buttrey! jim keltner!

i mean i guess mentioning kenneth buttrey is on-topic

yeah Levon Helm whatta hack 🙄

Oh, there are astounding drummers on Dylan (and Neil) records - Levon on "Revolution Blues" alone! - those records are just not particularly known for their drumming.

I never grew up with the Beatles, either. I've mentioned it before, but my parents only had one Beatles album and it was "Yellow Submarine." They had one Dylan album, and it was "Self-Portrait." And they had one Stones album, and it was "Goat's Head Soup" (which was missing the LP). One day I discovered a copy of Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere," but it was on an 8-track reel-to-reel so I never heard it as a kid. Of this batch of quality acts, I listen to Neil Young the most by far. Followed by Dylan. Followed by the Stones, with the Beatles last, because in a lot of ways they are just a permanent part of the listening environment.

Keltner played with Neil too, he's great on Peace Trail

The bassline in 'Vacancy' reminds me of that one Radiohead song that has a similar bassline

i'm only now hearing this and goddamn if this isn't the neil young record i always kinda wanted

kind of Harvest but with the down and out druggie vibes of On the Beach?

oh, no wonder

First Dylan and Neil this week is cracking me up (no worries).

xps Punch-Up At A Wedding! I knew that bassline sounded familiar

that's funny, "Vacancy" was also reminding me of a song, but I was thinking it was another Neil song.

it's all one song, iirc

Yes, Punch-Up At a Wedding! Just came here to post that after flipping through a ton of Radiohead songs to find that riff.

that's funny, "Vacancy" was also reminding me of a song, but I was thinking it was another Neil song.

― time is running out to pitch in $5 (Karl Malone), Friday, June 19, 2020 11:59 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

was it "are you ready for the country" ?

YES

thank you. i've had a busy day and haven't had a chance to search for it, but that's it.

The Vacancy riff reminded me of World on a String.

Listened a few times today and actually the record it reminds me most of is Time Fades Away in the way both are more like notebooks of roughs, demos, ideas, some complete, some only partially finished and it's surreal like TFA is, though obv sadder and gentler.

I was surprised by how Ditch-y and fucked up it is, hard for me to imagine this would have been any bigger a hit than Tonight or On the Beach or TFA

yeah it feels a little like another angle on tonight's the night to me mainly for the presence of things like "florida" and "we don't smoke it no more"

Yeah, I think if he had fleshed out "Love Is A Rose" with a full band + Emmylou on backing vocals or something, he might've had a hit like "Heart of Gold" ... but really, there's nothing else that would've been a single, I don't think. Even On The Beach had "Walk On" ...

by the way, just got my Homegrown LP in the mail ... what a day, what a year.

gonna be honest, the "yes it do" in separate ways sticks out to me in a way that's annoying

I’m not sure I can mentally handle a new neil 70s album so I’m just gonna give this some time

I will say juggling a new '70s Neil album with a new Dylan (in his 70s) album on the same day is indeed kind of tough!

Yeah that too. It took me two months to process murder most foul. So

Did they coordinate release dates?

Ordered Neil today ($15), passed on Dylan ($25)--that doesn't make sense to me.

I've listened to the new Dylan four times today. Homegrown once. I've no energy for Neil. Maybe it'll come back.

Ordered Neil today ($15), passed on Dylan ($25)--that doesn't make sense to me.

I've listened to the new Dylan four times today. Homegrown once. I've no energy for Neil. Maybe it'll come back.

― Duke, Friday, June 19, 2020 4:56 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this but the reverse

Oh, Zing — I was responding to Duke’s post above

A little embarrassing for Neil, Dylan’s junior, to be putting out old music on the same day D puts out new music

...is it?

no

that would be the most hilarious reason for neil to postpone homegrown again, though!

Gotta be honest, when I was looking at something I saw mention of NY & Crazy Horse's "Colorado" and wondered if he had postponed it. Then I remembered it was released last year. I should give it another shot!

vinyl sounds gorgeous

Living the middle-aged dad life. Locked myself in the garage with a bag of weed and Homegrown. The ditch era is my fave Neil, some of my favorite music ever. So this is... like, totally, fuck YES. Even Florida.

^knows

Love how loud the drums are in the mix in Separate ways

Seperate Ways sounds like an On the Beach track

Very cool hearing this version of White Line after only knowing the ragged glory version for so long

And shit, “vacancy!” So good

A little embarrassing for Neil, Dylan’s junior, to be putting out old music on the same day D puts out new music

― calstars, Friday, June 19, 2020 8:30 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

surely there is a hastily assembled and unlistenable concept album about the pandemic just around the corner

Gonna Get Me An Antifa Facemask/Hey Now Hey Now Now

Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Get a Haircut

lol!

Deep Nasal Swab Sample and Hold

Like A Quarantine

i mean, neil has put out like 8 records since Bob's last album of original material

On The Bleach

i mean, neil has put out like 8 records since Bob's last album of original material

You say this like it's a good thing.

plant that bell and let it ring

Haters! Lol really loving this old, new to me album.

Hits me in the feels as the whippersnappers say (said?)

Florida

And, uh, looking up, they noticed the tumbling man coming through the air
And, uh, he, he came right down and landed right on them
And made an awful sound and, uh—
I ran over there, I could see that they were
They were really gone, you know
But on the ground beside them was this little baby, uh, dressed in
It just had a red blanket wrapped around it
So I picked it up and took it to my car
You know, over on the corner, which wasn't too far away
And I put it in the back seat
I don't know whether it was a boy or a girl
I, I didn't look, you know, I just put it down
It was sleeping and I looked and a crowd had gathered on the parking lot
This beautiful lady was coming down the street
And I, I looked at her, and she looked right at me and I—
She said, "That's my baby in the back of your car there"
I said, "Oh, no, no
No, that baby belongs to that, to that dead couple on the parking lot"
And, uh, she said, "No, no, you're wrong, you're wrong
What happened to them?"

"Florida" is maybe the weirdest fucking curveball he's ever thrown, which is saying a lot, love how it segues into "I woke up from a bad dream"

listening to this on headphones for the 1st time and I hadn't really noticed that segue before but WOW it just hit me, what an effect, the way "Florida" seems to cut out mid-sentence and then "Kansas" starts and "I feel like I just woke up from a bad dream"... I almost wonder if that's the idea behind recording "florida" in the first place, to have a piece leading into "Kansas" like that.

Reading the "lyrics" Karl posted, it seems Florida deals with the disintegration of his relationship with Carrie Snodgrass. The couple who had the child died and Neil is left alone to rescue/raise a child while a female stranger/fake mother attempts to make a claim on the child.

I would not be surprised if it was an actual dream Neil had. It has that dream-like logic/terror.

xxp yeah the segue is perfect and seems intentional

Can I just say how much I love the way this album sounds, how it was recorded, and how comforting I find that sound?

Wow, you got the Pono version? Cool!

But seriously, it does sound amazing in every way. And whoever mastered this, and Neil’s Official Release Series, should get a lifetime achievement Grammy.

And fun fact: “White Line” was recorded at Ramport Studios, which was designed and owned by the Who (who ended up only making two records there).

title track is such a fuckin jam, love that lurching Horse rhythm

super psyched for my vinyl to show up

xxp yeah the segue is perfect and seems intentional

― sleeve

also taken aback when the lyrics in "Kansas" mention "gliding through the air" (vs. the crashing gliders in "Florida"), I'm definitely sympathetic to the idea that they were intended as companion pieces

yeah, they were recorded on the same day (according to the liners)

6:32 PM
been playing with Harvest & Homegrown to make a single album (since I don't think either album is that strong on its own). how about this track listing:

Out On The Weekend
Harvest
A Man Needs A Maid
Heart of Gold
Kansas

Homegrown
Old Man
White Line
Vacancy
Star of Bethlehem

you don't like 'needle and the damage done'?

it's ok but I think I've heard it enough (I mean I could say the same thing for "Heart Of Gold" but)

and I wanted to keep it down to 10 songs. if I went to 12 I'd add that song plus "Little Wing", or maybe instead of the latter, "Deep Forbidden Lake", which I think is a Homegrown track as well

i like that idea, euler! and that tracklist absolutely rules (i really dislike A Man Needs a Maid, though. it's a weird sentiment to throw into a song that doesn't really suggest, it otherwise, and it's big and soaring with orchestral accompaniment.)

how does Separate Ways not make the cut??

also I feel like some people are underrating this album based on the fact that some of those songs were released later on various things they are still great songs and I think contribute to it being a great standalone album

There little doubt in my mind that had this album been released when it was originally going to be released it would be largely considered on par with the NY albums of its immediate era. At least as good as "Comes a Time."

it's better than that *or* TFA, imo

^^otm

It's great, regardless. Who is underrating it?

It definitely is, but I wouldn't count Comes A Time of this "immediate era" though. I feel like this era of Neil ends with Zuma, after that it's a whole different beast.

Euler, for one, he doesn't think it is strong on its own. Which, I couldn't disagree more with.

yeah i'd say that Homegrown just bolsters Neil's unbelievable mid-70s run — TFA > Tonight's the Night > On The Beach > Homegrown > Zuma is a set of LPs I'd put up against anyone else you'd care to name in the 1970s ... toss Hitchhiker in there at the end, too, it definitely fits tone-wise. And the fact that there's a whole other album's worth of songs from that period, too ... it's impressive!

Yeah, that's the grouping I always think about as one of the best runs of albums, well, damn near ever.

y'know, it's ok that someone underrates it. in fact, we actually need people to underrate it, so that we can like it more than average. it's just how the universe works

xp

it's better than that *or* TFA, imo

― sleeve, Friday, June 26, 2020 12:43 PM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

^^otm

― ACABincalifornia (voodoo chili), Friday, June 26, 2020 12:46 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah i'd say that Homegrown just bolsters Neil's unbelievable mid-70s run — TFA > Tonight's the Night > On The Beach > Homegrown > Zuma is a set of LPs I'd put up against anyone else you'd care to name in the 1970s

otm

I didn't mean Comes a Time was of its immediate era, just brought it up as a point of comparison. but I do sort of think of Comes a Time and Rust Never Sleeps as the twin, stylistically divergent (slick singer-songwriter and shambling rocker) ends of a Neil Young era. Next decade/era is a mess, followed by another pretty great four album run starting with "Freedom," which is at this point I think almost as iconic as the '70s run, albeit for different reasons.

Love his downhome accent on “homegrown”

many xp. "A Man Needs a Maid" marries a horrible, blown up egotistical idea with the revelation of real vulnerability underneath. The orchestral accompaniment helps make the contrast more dramatic, and I find the "When will I see you again?"s to be very moving. But it's true that Neil achieves similar through dynamic playing in more stripped down live versions. It's an interesting way into a breakup song. Like a several track section of Blood on the Tracks condensed into 4 minutes.

“Man Needs” is a great song with a horrible arrangement

I don't know. the clunkier parts occur while neil is expressing a shitty idea. it feels right.

Separate Ways sounds like Out On the Weekend, just not as good. I still like it!

I feel like a lot of ppl are PUA negging Neil

Keep your Harvest out of my Homegrown, please and thank you.

i'm just worried about all the ppl pegging Neil, hang in there buddy

hangneil

i'm just worried about all the ppl pegging Neil

No kinkshaming plz.

after the bum rush

Pocahaunches

Donghouse

The Losing End

Everybody Knows This Is Me Being Pegged

Harvest Moon

A man needs cottage cheese

The Dildo And The Ramage Done

Powderfinger (No Not In There)

KYfinger

Downed by the River

Pocahaunches

What have I done?

I love "A Man Needs A Maid" so much. his anger at the end of a domestic relationship with a woman is ugly & misogynistic: there's a shadow running through his days. but he was in love with her & still is. when will I see you again? I prefer the orchestral version because it amplifies the emotional indulgence. there's nothing to admire here, but in that there's beauty too.

I get how the lyrics and the overwrought orchestra turns people off, but that's what makes it fascinating. He speaks of going to the movies, falling in love with an actress... the orchestra puts him in a dramatic setting as if he's in the movie. The lyrics make him sound pathetic, in no way does he sound like a healthy person. It's supposed to sound TOO MUCH.

Love "A Man Needs a Maid," arrangement especially--I think the contrast between the small voice and the huge music is integral to the song.

The lyrics make him sound pathetic, in no way does he sound like a healthy person. It's supposed to sound TOO MUCH.

Yeah this is how I've always heard it. Its an ugly sentiment but it's always seemed clear to me that he's interrogating it, putting it out there as something he's ashamed of. It's an immature sentiment, and the arrangement echoes that, big and overdramatic and obvious. It's like he's trying to tell this narcissistic, childish side of himself: "look at how stupid you sound, you're not that important, dude". It's always surprised me when people take it literally, i've always read it as being totally self-aware.

i understand all that and that could very well be true. but i think there's also a possibility that as listeners who love the legendary Neil Young, we also assume that he's interrogating something or putting the bad statement up on a pedestal for all to see in it's ugly real glory (or whatever). but for me it just stands in the same space as the sentiments behind "stupid girl" (which i find more palatable because i like the song more and the stupidity is limited to just the partner, whereas neil is talking about all men needing a maid, which i have a hard time nodding along with). it doesn't mean neil young is canceled or anything, i'd just rather listen to his millions of other great songs

anyone wanna decode "welfare mothers"? that one always made me a little uncomfortable but on the other hand the lyrics don't make any fuckin sense so *shrug*. i do feel like he was always smart enough to undercut his own misogyny.

anyone know if there's an uncompressed digital download of this available or do i just need to get the cd?

Maybe from here?

https://www.highresaudio.com/en/album/view/kbwtf9/neil-young-homegrown

The early version of A Man Needs a Maid from Live at Massey Hall with the "Heart of Gold" medley was something of a revelation. He prominently sings "a man feels afraid" (and does introduce it as something like a musical of his life).

finally getting around to listen to it and this is extremely otm

It's such an odd feeling, listening to an album that feels like it should be familiar but isn't

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 18 June 2020 19:30 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's so very specifically part of that ditch trilogy sound! very weird but very welcome.

absolutely nuts that neil has had an album of this quality just chilling in the archives for nearly half a century

absolutely nuts that neil has had an album of this quality just chilling in the archives for nearly half a century

otm. Pretty sure I posted this on one or more other Neil threads, but it's bonkers to me how he held back things like "Vacancy" but decided the world needed to hear "T-Bone." The '80s for Neil were the recording-career equivalent of pruning one's record collection before a move, and then after you've moved, you realized you threw out everything in the "save" pile and kept everything in the "trash" pile.

an argument to be made that Neil's late 80s/early 90s renaissance was kicked off by him starting work on the archives — he starts plucking old songs out to re-record, and maybe just hears that vintage stuff and is like "oh yeah, that's how you do it." but he obviously didn't get to everything ...

speaking of: lol has there been any update on Archives vol 2 lol ?

it's coming out in August! at least it's listed on his timeline as coming out 8/21/20. think it'll happen?

i don't know, they're gonna have to design a whole new file cabinet and then figure out how to convert it to a website

this is real photograph of me enjoying archives vol. 2

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cg8G6jbWYAE8hv4.jpg

dang nice

listening to my vinyl for the first time, wow "Mexico" just totally slayed me, so sad and gorgeous and lost

yeahhhh, so good. might be my favorite neil piano song now!

I guess I’m the only person underwhelmed by this album. I will admit to being a casual Neil fan compared to some of you itt, but the record sounds underwritten and inconsequential to me. Take away the songs that sound like sketches for larger ideas, the incoherent spoken word piece, and the 5 minute predominantly-instrumental blues jam (foreshadowing “T-Bone?”), and what’s left are mostly songs we’ve heard before, and in far better arrangements (this “White Line” in particular doesn’t hold a candle to the Ragged Glory version). I like “Separate Ways,” “Try” and “Vacancy,” but even these don’t come close to the highlights on any of his classic albums.

Also, it was my understanding that 100% of this album has never been heard before in any form. Can one of you Neil experts illuminate me on exactly how this version of “Star of Bethlehem” differs from the version heard on Decade?

this “White Line” in particular doesn’t hold a candle to the Ragged Glory version

This is insane to me. The Ragged Glory version is a garage band work out, which is great, because Crazy Horse is the ultimate garage band. The feeling of the song is obscured by the feedback and the galloping pace, making it sound triumphant.

The Homegrown version exposes this all as false bravado. Neil talks hopeful but doesn't really believe that the day is really breaking. He sounds more like he is breaking down. And Robbie Robertson's accompaniment is a master class; restrained, respectful, embellishing where he should. It instantly goes next to Charlie McCoy's playing on Desolation Row as some of my favorite ever.

Interesting! I like your take on this version even if I don't hear it the same way. I guess I never really put a lot of stock in the lyrics one way or another. My criticisms are mostly about the way this thing sounds. I think RR sounds out of place and think he overplays during the verses. This song doesn't need a bunch of bluesy bends.

yeah I think this is the definitive White Line

but they are both great takes, very different and they coexist well

People have been hating on Robbie the dude for so long we are starting to underrate Robbie the musician and songwriter

do I think Robbie takes too much credit for the Band? yes

Do I think those lunatics would have gotten anywhere near to what they accomplished without him? no

he's a fantastic player

Robbie sounds awesome on "White Line" — I was wondering if it was a first take ...

Yeah I love this White Line too, plus Robbie Robertson -> The Last Waltz -> another Neil white line

"That ol' white booger is a friend of mine"

I guess another way to look at it is the Ragged Glory version is the beginning of the coke party and the Homegrown version is the end.

im a little bit underwhelmed by the album. this period of Neil is one of my favorite of any artist at any time - tonight's the night and on the beach are by far my favourite Neil Young albums. I don't think this is anywhere near either of them. I'm not dismissing this as a curio but it's somewhere between that and a "real" album in my mind

I'll also raise my hand as underwhelmed. I blame Neil's terrible handling of his catalogue.

It's still early days, but Homegrown may not be as good as OTB or TTN but it's not embarrassed to be in the same room with them. I'd say it's as good as TFA at least, which is nothing to sneeze at.

I think Homegrown is the worst Ditch album. Of course the worst Ditch album is still a B+/A-

my sense is that over time songs like Homegrown and White Lines will come to be more closely identified w/ this record and it will sound more coherent and singular in the catalog

like I'm digging it all the way through but knowing those other versions gives it a little bit of a "compilation" feel and I think that will burn off

As much as his Seventies catalog goes,it's more or less in the same quality as Comes A Time imo: not his best but not his worst (American StRs and Bars) too

I'm going to live with Homegrown for the next 25 years and get back to you guys.

Homegrown is a good thing, as far as i was told

xpost otm

I don't like the sound quality of the Spotify version, it's very understated, Kansas almost sinks into a big nothing. This White Lines version i fucks with, but Mexico is too short!

Vinyl sounds pretty good to me.

Yeah I still have to get a decent record player for the living room. Don't want no big ass speakers though. What I need is a record player i can hook up to the sonos.

Arrived a few days ago, played it twice in the car today (which points to my general wariness).

Overall, I like it fine. The only thing I'd 100% scrap would be "We Don't Smoke It No More," which to me is generic and a pretty weak joke. "Florida," I don't know. I guess it works okay in context. If this were Zuma or After the Gold Rush, its presence would be a problem for me.

The first three songs are good. Not outstanding, but they work together well on an album. I can't remember how I felt about "Love Is a Rose" 40 years ago, but I like it a lot here. "Homegrown" I was always indifferent to. I'm not sure if these are the original versions or not--if they aren't, I can't tell the difference (or I've forgotten).

"Kansas" and "White Line" I quite like, and after initially thinking I wasn't going to like "Vacancy"--Neil lumbers every which way--I do. Matches my mood these days, anyway.

I've always thought "Little Wing" was great--absent any context, for me the one indisputably great song here. (I should check back to see if I voted for it in the Neil Young poll 10 years ago--if I didn't, I should have.) My only quibble is it belongs to another album.

"Star of Bethlehem" is like "Love Is a Rose"--sounded good today, better I'm guessing than it used to.

Probably my biggest reservation is that it took so long to put out a record with only eight unreleased songs--or seven, depending how you feel about "Florida." It feels a little anti-climactic.

What was I hoping for? I wanted it to make 45 years vanish and turn me back into a 15-year-old, about to buy American Stars 'n Bars (the first Neil album I bought when it came out). That's not too much to ask for, obviously. In a weird way, the thing I find most moving about the album--most in the moment--is "For Carrie." I assume that was the original dedication, and I'm glad he kept it.

This take of "Homegrown" is the original recording. The ASnB version is from a Crazy Horse session later in '75 or '76.

This album has totally rekindled my fandom. I love it. I've purchased Tuscaloosa, OTB, and Roxy on vinyl in the last week.

Ditch Quadrilogy, baby. Nothing else quite gets to that spastic weirdness.

I'm with clemenza, almost down to the assessment of the specific highs and lows. Largely underwhelmed by the album, though I'm glad it exists and I'm glad I bought it.

when i listen i reflexively skip past florida and we don't smoke it no more. it cuts the album down to less than 30 minutes, but it flows so nicely.

I love the 1-2 punch of Florida and Kansas.

clemeza and Paul Ponzi please report to the doghouse..dog...house

ftr i do like florida, i just think it would sound better as a weird dispatch in the middle of something like le noise. the content of his dream/story definitely fits in with homegrown, but musically it's a patch of discordance in an otherwise cozy album.

Still loving this album though the other day I popped “Live Rust” on and remembered how much more I prefer the near-visceral thrills of Young with Crazy Horse over solo NY. Though I will go down fighting defending pretty much any and all NY forever. Still have to relisten to ”Trans”, though. It’s been a minute.

ftr i do like florida, i just think it would sound better as a weird dispatch in the middle of something like le noise. the content of his dream/story definitely fits in with homegrown, but musically it's a patch of discordance in an otherwise cozy album.

I'm a huge fan of songs that are happy landing spots after noisy, rough, or stressful songs, like "Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)" after ". . . And the Gods Made Love". Kansas is like a warm hug after the nightmarish Florida.

The one album I think "Florida" would make the most sense on would be Journey Through the Past.

T/S: Homegrown Side A or Homegrown Side B?

Separate Ways
Try
Love is a Rose
Homegrown
Florida
Kansas
-
We Don't Smoke It No More
White Line
Vacancy
Little Wing
Star of Bethlehem

very tough, at least for me!

Fuck, I forgot Mexico on Side A!

that might tip the balance toward Side A for me

I was thinking about this over the weekend. I think "We Don't Smoke It No More" is my least favorite song so that might make me lean toward Side A, but this is very hard.

also my least fave. in general i'm not a big fan of the singalongs designed to make the people in a mid-70s arena crowd yell "woo", although neil's versions of those kind of songs are my favorite

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oCF4TSXS4us/XwiF_2A31BI/AAAAAAAAZ68/oyq8slHcX9Qj9x5O3KTiGd8nogdgkp_fQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/nya-florida-letter.jpg

!

Maybe you're supposed to listen to this while watching The Wizard of Oz.

Side A of this smokes Side B, especially given that 1) the first two songs are excellent, 2) side B has more songs we've all heard before (3 as opposed to just two on Side A) and 3) side B has We Don't Smoke It No More

Vacancy is probably the only reason I will ever play side B of this ever again

Somebody definitely needs to stop smoking it.

I'm more likely to go to Side B of Homegrown than I am to go to AS&B or H&D for those same songs.

what is this weird obsession that good songs that have already been released now cease to be enjoyable?

it's like this weird "product" mentality

plus the version of "Homegrown" here smokes the other one

;)

I like all the different versions of the older songs (though I'm pretty sure Star of Bethlehem is the exact same version as the one on Decade), but they also serve to make this feel less like some big event to me somehow

Side or Side B? New songs or old songs? It's all because of that love for Homegrown, babe. That makes the world go 'round and makes the thread go separate ways.

should have said "Side A or Side B?" Better file this post away in the archive for a few decades.

what is this weird obsession that good songs that have already been released now cease to be enjoyable?

Not sure if that means me or not. Not really what I meant...I still love "Little Wing"; I can't pretend not to notice, though, that I associate it with another album. If Bob Dylan had stuck the Highway 61 version of "Like a Rolling Stone" on his new album (to use an extreme example), it wouldn't stop being what it is, and I'd still love it. But it wouldn't be ideal, either.

but they also serve to make this feel less like some big event to me somehow

I'll second that, too. This album has been hyped and hyped for years. 25% of it--the three songs in their original versions (I won't count "Homegrown"), I already have.

Anyway, I said I like the album, and I'm glad I bought it. What I don't understand--I went through this with the last Tarantino film--is that sometimes, with very large and revered names, that's not accepted as enough; it has to be a masterpiece beyond reproach.

honest q: are people saying that? i'm not sure i've read any piece on it other than tyler's. personally i wouldn't call it a masterpiece...(though i would be comfortable calling OTB and TTN and ATGR masterpieces and pretty comfortable calling EKTIN and Rust Never Sleeps masterpieces)...but i think it's just really great

i guess don't worry about it being a "big event" and just enjoy it for what it is — a (mostly new) Neil Young record from the mid-70s. No one is saying it's beyond reproach. maybe live with it a little while? I felt a little bit underwhelmed when I heard it back in March, but it might be what they used to call a "grower."

even if you somehow discount the tracks that surfaced elsewhere, 8 "new" peak-era songs from one of our greatest living artists isn't an event?

An event that feels a little anticlimactic, at least to me. (And, to be fair, the almost constant flow of new and rumored and abandoned Neil projects probably contributes to that.)

even if you somehow discount the tracks that surfaced elsewhere, 8 "new" peak-era songs from one of our greatest living artists isn't an event?

not to be a pedant but I count seven new songs and one of them is a spoken word piece. And part of my being underwhelmed could also be blamed on archival / reissue / remaster fatigue in general. It isn't exactly novel these days to see "unearthed" studio recordings from artists of this era. I mean, there are box sets of the stuff...

We are home, groaning itt

that ol' light whine is a friend of mine

we got lots of time
to groan together if we try

lol you squares are just not getting it

this is the FOLLOWUP TO HARVEST. it's a context thing. who gives a shit what happened to some of these songs afterwards? it was all 100% new when released. you can look through your shit-colored glasses of historical reassessment and alt-version snobbery, but the true heads all know what's up here.

y'all need to suck down some honey sliders and make like you've been eagerly awaiting this moment without any preconceptions, you are hippies who dig Neil and it is 1973, time to put the new album on.

this was recorded after on the beach was released

Paul go forth and be unhappy

xp whatever, you see my point. read Tyler's article!

same producer, same musicians, same cover artist, anyone seeing this back in the day if it had been released as planned would have seen the similarities immediately.

from Tyler's article:

“To be honest, I remember Harvest much more than I remember Homegrown,” Elliot Mazer says as he tries to cast his mind back to the sessions that began in November of 1974 at Nashville’s Quadrafonic Studio, the same spot where “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man” had been cut a few years earlier. And who can blame him? Harvest topped the Billboard charts for two straight weeks and ended up as the best-selling record of 1972 in the U.S. “It gave me a whole new career,” Mazer says.

But where the making of Harvest was relaxed and joyful, the Homegrown sessions were markedly different. “It was a different feeling — there was more stress,” Mazer recalls. “I didn’t think the songs were as good. He didn’t have ‘Heart of Gold.’ But believe me, you do not tell Neil Young that song A is not as good as song B.”

Mazer and Young had brought several of the Harvest musicians – loosely known as the Stray Gators – back into the fold: pedal steel master Ben Keith, ace session drummer Kenny Buttrey, and rock-solid/no-frills bassist Tim Drummond.

“Those guys lived off their ability to play well,” Mazer says. “The Nashville guys listen to the song. They hear a song and they communicate, saying, ‘You take the verses, I’ll take the choruses.’ There was always a meeting of the band. With Harvest, Neil just sat down with the songs, the guys played great, and he went ‘WOW.’ But Homegrown wasn’t quite like that, as far as I could tell.”

All her friends call her Little Whinge

At the risk of soliciting a heap of scorn, I definitely prefer Harvest (which I think has gone from being an album that was probably slightly overrated at the time to being--after Neil dismissed it in his notes for Decade--decidedly underrated). I will say, the opening to "Separate Ways" really reminds me of the opening to "Out on the Weekend."

In Christgau-speak, I'd give Homegrown an A-minus--that's a good, solid album. (As a point of comparison, my three A-plusses are Everybody Knows, Gold Rush, and Zuma, with a number of A's.)

Sleeve gets it.

A- is probably accurate, but people are complaining like it's a B-.

i feel the need to do a 60 seconds or less, gut feeling christgau style ratings rundown of neil's classic period in the homegrown thread. i am setting the timer AFTER i get the album names typed and in chronological order and if i don't get to the end, those are the rules. 11 albums, 60 seconds. 5.45 seconds per album. 0.1835 albums per second. 11 albums you know by heart. because if you don't know them all already, you're not even a fan. GO!

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere A
After the Gold Rush A+
Harvest A
Time Fades Away B-
On the Beach A+
Tonight's the Night A
Homegrown A-
Zuma A-
American Stars n Bars B
Comes a Time B+
Rust Never Sleeps A

ok that only took me 23 seconds, sorry to build that up so much

I have to join you:

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere A+
After the Gold Rush A+
Harvest A
Time Fades Away A
On the Beach B+ (kill me now!)
Tonight's the Night A
Homegrown A-
Zuma A+
American Stars n Bars B
Comes a Time B+
Rust Never Sleeps A

Left a few of yours as is--less than a minute.

Make On the Beach A-. I think it has undeservedly become this sacred album, but for "Ambulance Blues" alone, I can't rate it lower than Homegrown.

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere A
After the Gold Rush A
Harvest A
Time Fades Away A-
On the Beach A+
Tonight's the Night A+
Homegrown B-
Zuma B
American Stars n Bars B-
Comes a Time B
Rust Never Sleeps B

(I do understand ending that run with Rust, but I tend to stretch it out through Hawks and Doves and Reactor, both A-minuses for me. It all comes crashing down with the next one.)

I've been listening to reactor a lot lately,the closing track (shots?) is killer but I even enjoy the hell out of t-bone

fact: There are no C+ or below albums during the Neil Young undisputed classic era

(I do understand ending that run with Rust, but I tend to stretch it out through Hawks and Doves and Reactor, both A-minuses for me.

i considered going all the way to Trans (which i like better than the previous 2, but decided to cut them off, especially given the *absolutely impossible!* 60 second time limit

s/t being unfairly left out imo

that is a very fair opinion! but i'm going undisputed classic run, undisputeds only!

wait is "neil young" the "david bowie" of neil young ?

Missing Long May You Run (which ultimately is an EP of Neil curios saddled with Stills cocaine fantasies) as well.

uh oh

wait is "neil young" the "david bowie" of neil young ?

― budo jeru

i'm willing to say that yes, "neil young" is the "david bowie" of neil young

there's so much promise there and some damn good performances too

I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed American Stars N Bars when I finally checked it out recently.

Haven't listened to the debut in a while, but I've always loved "The Loner," "The Emperor of Wyoming," and "I've Been Waiting for You," and the there are other good ones too--A-minus? Not a big fan of Stills-Young, except for "Ocean Girl," which is (I know I'm alone on this one) one my 10 favourite Neil songs.

The Loner and The Old Laughing Lady are huge classics.

well, the part of “old laughing lady” with the chanting and funky drumming anyway

I kind of love that "Ocean Girl" is a rewrite of "War Song".

lol you squares are just not getting it

this is the FOLLOWUP TO HARVEST. it's a context thing. who gives a shit what happened to some of these songs afterwards? it was all 100% new when released. you can look through your shit-colored glasses of historical reassessment and alt-version snobbery, but the true heads all know what's up here.

y'all need to suck down some honey sliders and make like you've been eagerly awaiting this moment without any preconceptions, you are hippies who dig Neil and it is 1973, time to put the new album on.

THIS

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere A-
After the Gold Rush A+
Harvest B-
Time Fades Away A+
On the Beach A+
Tonight's the Night A+
Homegrown B+
Zuma B
American Stars n Bars B+
Comes a Time C
Rust Never Sleeps A+

I kind of love that "Ocean Girl" is a rewrite of "War Song".

Forgot about what a shock it was to hear "War Song" for the first time on Archives--basically the same song with new lyrics.

one of his very early garage band tunes on Archives has the melody for Barstool Blues can't remember the name offhand

"I Wonder" got retooled into "Don't Cry No Tears"--is that what you're thinking of?

That's the one. Was just checking, couldn't find a "Barstool Blues" soundalike, but now I remember the same surprise hearing "I Wonder" for the first time.

oops yeah sorry Don't Cry no Tears, been a long time since I listened to the box

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere A
After the Gold Rush A+
Harvest A-
Time Fades Away B
On the Beach A+
Tonight's the Night A+
Homegrown A-
Zuma A
American Stars n Bars B-
Comes a Time B
Rust Never Sleeps A-

As much of an unholy mess as it is, I'd probably give Journey Through the Past a B--for "Soldier," for an even more epically dirge-like "Words" than on Harvest, and for the way it previews what's coming down the road. The film is also a fascinating mess.

OK if we're doing this

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere B+
After the Gold Rush A+
Harvest A
Time Fades Away A
On the Beach A-
Tonight's the Night A
Homegrown B-
Zuma B
American Stars n Bars A-
Comes a Time B
Rust Never Sleeps A+

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere A
After the Gold Rush A
Harvest B
Time Fades Away B+
On the Beach A+
Tonight's the Night A+
Homegrown B+
Zuma A-
American Stars n Bars B
Comes a Time B-
Rust Never Sleeps A+

Hitchhiker - B+ if that counts

Can't say I expected anyone to rate ASnB over Zuma, but hey.

Zuma is uneven and lacks the pathos of previous Crazy Horse albums (maybe blame Pancho for this), also "Stupid Girl" is an abomination

AS&B is great

paul, coming in with the wrong takes left and right in this thread!

is there something I'm missing in the lyrics that makes "Stupid Girl" abominable?

it's not called "girls are stupid"...it's addressed to one person the narrator is calling stupid!

anyway it's a jam

i agree. i still wouldn't put it on a mixtape for someone i saw in mercedes benz or is a girl, though.

It's not just the lyrics (which are, come on, pretty dumb), it's the double high / low vocal, so grating

haha I can see that

xp oh ok, I like those vocals! Anyway I'm guessing maybe about half of neil's best songs have pretty dumb lyrics

surely a heart of gold could not even contract and relax to perform its primary function!

for real and what cowboy ever had anything to do with computers

it's not called "girls are stupid"...it's addressed to one person the narrator is calling stupid!

Yeah--I think the worst you can accuse it of is rock-star pettiness, Neil getting his back up over some perceived but specific slight, the kind of song Dylan wrote routinely in the mid-'60s (not all directed at a woman, but some were, I think). It's not a sweeping indictment of women. Wasn't Neil in general pretty good in that area during the '70s?

I know, "A Man Needs a Maid"...which is more complex, I think--because of the Carrie verse--than a quick reading suggests.

right...but you don't have to be a rock star or even petty to be upset with a person and vent in song. Maybe the slight was legit! We just don't know.

I think for the generally assumed baseline of 70s rock guys being terrible to women Neil was relatively good

Can't imagine him writing a lyric like the Faces' "Stay with Me."

He could, but it'd be about a car he only drove once.

Neil strikes me as someone who probably avoided a lot of potential groupie interactions by being weird and remote

Can't imagine him writing a lyric like the Faces' "Stay with Me."

― clemenza, Wednesday, July 15, 2020 9:06 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

He could, but it'd be about a car he only drove once.

― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, July 15, 2020 9:24 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Thank you.

That was great, yeah.

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere A-
After the Gold Rush A+
Harvest A
Time Fades Away A
On the Beach A+
Tonight's the Night B+
Homegrown A-
Zuma A-
American Stars n Bars B
Comes a Time C
Rust Never Sleeps A-

For me, every album in that rundown would get at minimum a solid A except Harvest (A-), American Stars 'n Bars (B+) and Comes a Time (B+).

is anyone else struggling to get hold of a vinyl copy of this? I've had one on order for nearly a month. Is Neil pressing them himself perhaps?

Home pressed is a good thing
Take that bell and let eewarpskopskip

mine came in the mail last week, ordered it around the time the album came out

the store I got it from (Deep Thoughts in JP/Boston) got 20 copies on release day and they were all gone within 48 hours

There's been a bandwidth issue in the vinyl industry for years and it's going to get worse

I'd imagine something like Homegrown is particularly in demand on vinyl

I'm in the UK, and my supplier said they would have copies available in "early July", and no sign.

I knew about that UMS, I think Record Store Day really exacerbates those shortages, perhaps even this year when that event was online only.

I should have just go the Pono version and a Pono to play it on!

i would like to know if the number of Pono listeners is greater or less than 500 people

Xpost - oh yeah everyone who puts out records talks about the RSD bottleneck

I guess what I should have said is the label probably estimated how many copies to press based on previous archives releases and there ended up being way more demand than anticipated

even WB can't just snap their fingers and make new vinyl appear in a week

this happened with Le Noise as well, Discogs prices on that are still completely insane

recent Neil LPs do seem very pricey, anything from Freedom onwards goes for ridiculous money. I was lucky to find a copy of Harvest Moon for £10 fairly recently.

I've come around on this album.my wife got me the vinyl for my bday a month or so ago and I've grown to love it!

I listened to it a ton in spring and early summer, but not for a couple weeks now. I think I will be playing it a bunch this fall; it has that kind of feel.

I've played it quite a bit, often within the context of his other LP's from that era. Not Harvest and Comes a Time, but the other three surrounding it and in chronological order: so Tonight's the Night, then On the Beach, then Homegrown and finally Zuma. I just love the progression from one to the next, just beautiful.

This was the perfect album for me this summer, played it a lot in the car June & July... my first cautious forays into the outside world after months of fearful quarantine, driving around in the afternoon sun seeing which things in my city have been closed and abandoned and which have remained, feeling anxious & scared but also safe in my little personal bubble, feeling the gutpunch of everything that's gone wrong but trying to remain thankful for what I have, playing this album with the windows down. One of those time & place listening experiences I'll always remember.

otm. great timeless album. should have played it more often.

big LOL that Robbie Robertson is the only musician on the album not mentioned in the special thanks section of the liner notes

ahahahaha good catch

would not be at all surprised if “We Don’t Smoke It No More” is a winking nod to the honeyslider

I was just imagining if Neil tried to have it both ways back in '75, and put Homegrown out as the front half of a double w/Tonight's The Night as disc two. He probably had the clout to pull it off, and it vaguely makes sense as the most extreme of the big doubles of the era (Exile, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Physical Graffiti, Quadrophenia etc.).

Ultimately, going forward like that isn't Neil's thing, but it would have been an interesting timeline if he had.

ugh, that would have been kind of amazing

also, it would have been a highly RELATABLE double album. he's had so many concept-adjacent albums over the years, but homegrown+TTN makes 100x more sense than something like quadrophenia

yeah kind of funny that neil *didn't* put out a double album (aside from the triple Decade comp) any time in the 1970s ... he was one of the few major artists who really had the material for it!

right, and also i feel like he would have been a perfect fit for the kind of sprawling double-album that finds space for a few oddities/novelty tracks on it that are actually good, like a proto-pavement

nowadays his versions of those tracks (looking for a leader 2020) really are kind of bad (imo), but in prime ditch trilogy-era, they were all gold (imo)

You're not counting Journey Through the Past, I assume?

I feel like Tonight's the Night is its own universe and would not benefit by being part of a double album

Haha not counting journey through the past

the kind of sprawling double-album that finds space for a few oddities/novelty tracks on it that are actually good, like a proto-pavement

That's actually a pretty accurate description of Journey, which has ample sprawl and at least one great oddity ("Soldier"). It is, though, almost 100% previous-released songs, if not versions, including, maybe weirdest of all, "Let's Go Away for Awhile" from Pet Sounds--not a cover, the actual track.

The Wikipedia on this record talks about it being "rebuilt" for release, and a large number of other songs being recorded in the sessions. So is Homegrown 2020 the same mix and running order that would have been released in 1975, or is it a modern-day reappraisal?

Unless there's an acetate or tape copy in his archives, I think it's impossible to know. Since a few tracks were included on later releases, it's very possible whatever master tape that was assembled for Homegrown was dismantled and never put back together (and perhaps taken apart song by song). If that happened, he could've lost track of certain songs and maybe even remixed particular songs since there was no real reason to keep the old mixes to an album that wasn't going to be released imminently.

Although I get the feeling Neil keeps everything (especially the master tape of an unreleased album), and they could have rebuilt the record to match as closely as possible to the original master.

RARE DITCH PROJECT