neil young

Townshend's demos, since around 1968 or so, frequently featured full instrumentation, all played and recorded by himself. His first solo album, Who Came First, is actually all home demos, but he was so skilled an engineer (and surprisingly competent as a drummer) that they didn't sound like "home demos."

There are only 3-4 Quadrophenia demos that don't have drums, either because Pete wanted to leave Moon more freedom to come up with a part (unlikely, given how Moon is constricted on "Bell Boy"), or because he ran out of tracks. Fortunately, these demos were widely bootlegged, so the pre-futzed-with versions are easy to find. But it's baffling why drums were added, and they add absolutely nothing to the understanding of the creative process -- if anything, they detract from it.

tbh one of the reasons I don't like Townsend's demos too much is they often sound like the eventual who tracks but with Pete singing and a competent (but not Keith) drummer

Jonathan Demme RIP---how are his Neil docs? I liked his Robyn + Venus 3, haven't seen any others.

I have fond memories of Heart of Gold, even if it's mostly a straightforward concert film

Journeys is pretty good, I liked the parts where he drives around his old town.

digging this clip of Rio 2001 - Cortez - slowed way down, evoking Pink Floyd at this tempo

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

nice!
just posted this highly recommended comp from the 2003 european tour -- featuring an amazing 12-string, 10-minute Cortez. https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/161242399182/neil-young-eurotour-2003-rumors-are-a-flying

Reprise sez:

Neil Young will release a new studio album—which he originally recorded in 1976. The disc, dubbed Hitchhiker, is set for an August 4 release via Reprise Records and will be available on vinyl, CD and digitally.

The 10-track acoustic album was recorded live in the studio August 11, 1976, at Indigo Studios in Malibu, California. It contains some of Young’s best-loved songs plus two previously unreleased tracks.

The original session was produced by Young’s longtime studio collaborator David Brings with new post production by John Hanlon, who has worked with Young since 1990 and produced his most recent works, including Peace Trail, Earth, The Monsanto Years, etc.

As these songs were recorded in a single session, the resultant performances are breathtaking and passionate. The simplicity of a single voice and guitar captured here are as pure and powerful as the creator intended with only Young and Briggs in the room at the time of recording.

Many of the songs would not appear on vinyl until years later. The title track, for example, did not officially appear until 2010’s Le Noise and naturally sounds worlds apart from the original. The version herein of “Captain Kennedy” has certain raw spontaneity compared to the slightly gentler version that would eventually surface on Hawks & Doves in 1980.

Perhaps the most noticeable jewels in the crown of Hitchhiker are the two previously unreleased tracks that have remained in the vaults since 1976: “Hawaii” a soaring ballad and unlike anything else Young had recorded at the time. Side one closes out with “Give Me Strength,” which would be occasionally performed live in the mid-Seventies but now available here for the first time and may well be considered one of Young’s best long lost gems.

Hitchhiker Track Listing:
1. Pocahontas
2. Powderfinger
3. Captain Kennedy
4. Hawaii
5. Give Me Strength
6. Ride My Llama
7. Hitchhiker
8. Campaigner
9. Human Highway
10. The Old Country Waltz

stoked!!!!

haha, it's been pushed back a month from the first embargoed announcement ...

hell yeah

awesome

wouldn't exactly call "Hawaii" a "soaring ballad" -- it's more an enigmatic kinda thing akin to "The Old Homestead" I think. Great though!

isn't hitchhiker the track apparently a biographical recounting of neil's experience with different drugs?

yeah, released (in slightly rewritten form) on Le Noise.

I know this is heresy and I sorta feel bad saying it but... solo acoustic Neil is the segment of his catalog that I am least interested in

might be the same for me, but I'm still REALLY INTERESTED IN IT

esp if it is from 1976

I love his acoustic stuff. I wish I could hear pochantas and powderfinger again for the first time

totally.
Neil was peaking in '76: http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2016/11/18/neil-young-crazy-horse-us-tour-november-1976/

Whoa, no Bridge Concert this year

https://bridgeschool.org/concert/news.php

:( :(

maybe ever

:( :(

?!

I do worry about neil's health every time this thread gets bumped

tbh I have been expecting it since Peg & Neil split...I just had selfishly hoped they'd do a 'last' benefit show so we could say goodbye properly.

huh! neil just confirmed he'd be at farm aid this year, so I'm guessing it's not health related.
the post-divorce bridge concerts must've been awkward.

yeah the vibe of those letters was def like it was a divorce thing IMO

I wish I could hear pochantas and powderfinger again for the first time

― Karl Malone, Tuesday, June 13, 2017 12:15 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same, esp powderfinger

they used to share the stage together at various points in the night & she would sing on a few of his songs but the two post-divorce shows, their separate spoken moments felt somehow more perfunctory than ever and though they acknowledged each other and Ben and put a good face on everything, there was a sort of awkwardness since the audience knew & they knew we knew but no-one was saying anything

Peg played with the Survivors that first year after the divorce & it def felt like a sort of flag was planted somehow

Perhaps if they'd been able to talk, a bitchin' rendition of "Doghouse" could have followed...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_66lmPYTSDI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_s8rtCYsCY

Ah, those halcyon Doghouse days...

little did we know that the Doghouse ... was us.

Live. . . from the Doghouse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RKBUG9VLFU

well this is...something
going back to that living with war vibe i guess?

i didn't know he still worked with bolas??

“Children of Destiny” was recorded and mixed at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA, and produced by The Volume Dealers: Neil Young and Niko Bolas. Young, along with Promise Of The Real, and a 56 piece orchestra - 62 musicians in all – played together on the final piece. Al Schmitt recorded and mixed, while strings were arranged, orchestrated, conducted and co-produced by Chris Walden.

I misread that as "62 musicians in jail," which I thought would be a novel approach.

haha

for all of those wishing neil would mix the choral arrangements of living with war with the lyrical approach of the monsanto years and the overblown string arrangements of storytone.....you're welcome?

yikes.

ooff.

hats off neil, you've wrongfooted us all again

I misread that as "62 musicians in jail," which I thought would be a novel approach.

or a just punishment

yiiiiiiiiiiiiikes

^^^^^

seriously, that is maybe the worst neil young i've ever heard

if that was the first neil young song i ever heard, i would never listen to another neil young song ever again, no matter how much someone convinced me that it was better

i mean it's cool, most of all music really sucks, badly, it was just a bummer to see the neil name attached to it

check this out. this is actually better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8UY6nqPLpw

i'm not even joking, that is more interesting and more visceral. it triggers real memories, several, many different memories of what caused that noise and how that went down and the people that were there. that is a better sound recording , and much more concise to boot

to end this paper, my summary is that don't drink heavily and then listen to this new neil young song, 12 hours after you first heard it. it will make you mad and make you think of barf noises

jesus fucking christ does youtube make any money off of a single stream from the likes of me? maybe .00000001 cents? i want my .000000001 cent back

i love you neil, sorry