neil young

That's a great interview, thanks Tyler!

thanks, fun to talk to Billy!

here's a little crazy horse mix I made this week, too: https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/702450351410954240/through-hills-and-valleys-over-creeks-and-rivers

nice!

I'm going to see Harvest Time at Alamo Drafthouse this weekend. Looks fantastic.

"Chevrolet" is so great.

Don't read this if you want to see Harvest Time cold.

First thing that made me happy: in a theater that seats ~200 (196 to be exact, if I counted rows and columns correctly), I'd guess there were 70 or 80 people there tonight. I've been in a lot of near-empty theaters the last three years, so I thought that was pretty great. (The venue added two more screenings after their first two.)

Towards the end, I started thinking they could have cut maybe 20 minutes: a couple of jam-type things I didn't recognize (not sure if they were actual songs), and when you circle back to "Words" for the fourth time, I thought once again I'd never make it through Peter Jackson's Beatles film. But that was about it.

I questioned returning to "Alabama" a second time (which I love, by the way; I love "Sweet Home Alabama" even more, and love that Neil was smart enough to cry uncle and start playing Skynyrd's song live), but then it cut to CS&Y in the studio laying down backing vocals, and that was great. I thought Stills and Crosby were living under a mountain of cocaine at this point, but they seem perfectly lucid and musically engaged in the film--Stills gets off a good line later where he calls Neil on stealing from himself. I also think Stills in a black cowboy hat is one of the coolest looks ever. I love "Are You Ready for the Country"; I think like "Cripple Creek Ferry" and "Till the Morning Comes," it's one of those throwaways that captures Neil's early-'70s genius as well as anything. The most moving few minutes for me was Neil recording "A Man Needs a Maid" with the London Symphony Orchestra playing right alongside him; I'd probably always taken it for granted that the song was constructed through transcontinental overdubbing. And Neil beaming when they get it right (he was initially unhappy because he thought the LSO was lagging by half-a-second) is beautiful. The two Elliots are both in the film, Mazer and Roberts, though of course not in the same room, because that's never happened. Neil's deadpan intro to the film--the Neil of today--killed me; almost Bidenesque in its rambling, aw-shucks, is-he-losing-his-memory? folksiness. (Funniest line in the film proper was Neil saying the only thing he had to hide from the world was the fact he was a rich hippie.) There's a scene with a kid DJ (or something) in Nashville that's great, including "Maggie May" playing in the background. I so wanted Neil to say something about the song--he does bob his head a couple of times.

I'm glad drugs are minimized; except for maybe Chet Baker in Let's Get Lost, watching someone high on screen has always had minimum appeal for me. Tim Drummond (I think) pulls out his drug paraphernalia at one point, and Neil is clearly high when playing "Out on the Weekend" on the banjo, but I think that's it.

Maybe it was intentional to lead up to "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man" right at the end, but they wait so long, they almost seemed tacked on out of a sense of obligation. I wouldn't have missed them (liked hearing "Journey Through the Past" much more). Only song MIA: "The Needle and the Damage Done." Not sure what that means.

The little bit of Carrie Snodgress is touching. I wanted more, of course.

Oh--Neil's ginormous muttonchop in profile when he plays "Out on the Weekend" is reason enough in and of itself to see the film.

Wish they had provided captions when Neil was talking to the LSO conductor. In the space of a few seconds, did manage to pick up the names of Art Tatum, Ravel, Debussy, Merle Haggard (I might have misremembered that one), and Pink Floyd, who to that point Neil says he hadn't yet heard.

Some excellent new interviews up on YT. A few weeks old at the most. Sorry if these've already been posted. Great to hear him open up about process an his past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu5qoYtMw94

Something's not right, he's smiling, not scowling.

New album's fine and loud. "Chevrolet" is long and loud (it's good).

Maybe Rubin will introduce Neil to Candace Owens too

Has this been posted before? Just saw it today, from the SNL dress rehearsal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwuhk5W3_q0

I think I posted it here somewhere, along with the other rehearsal clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiey2l4mLBc

Three dear, old friends and bandmates for over 50 years, Ralph Molina, Billy Talbot and Nils Lofgren, kept writing and recording songs in their homes during the ongoing pandemic and are proud to share this collection of their music. Their lifelong friend and bandmate Neil Young, added a special track to complete this 10 song compilation.
For friends with deep bonds, though at times on different paths, they found that, All Roads Lead Home.
ALL ROADS LEAD HOME is available for pre-order now and is out
March 31 on NYA Records via Reprise Records.
CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER
CLICK HERE TO STREAM "YOU WILL NEVER KNOW"

All Greedy Hand Store purchases of ALL ROADS LEAD HOME come with free hi-res digital audio downloads from the
Xstream Store © at NYA.
ALL ROADS LEAD HOME track listing:

1. RAIN - Billy Talbot
2. YOU WILL NEVER KNOW - Nils Lofgren
3. IT’S MAGICAL - Ralph Molina
4. SONG OF THE SEASONS - Neil Young
5. CHERISH - Billy Talbot
6. FILL MY CUP - Nils Lofgren
7. LOOK THROUGH THE EYES OF YOUR HEART - Ralph Molina
8. THE HUNTER - Billy Talbot
9. GO WITH ME - Nils Lofgren
10. JUST FOR YOU - Ralph Molina
take a ride
"CHEVROLET (radio edit)"

from Michael Galluci's review of Molina, Talbot, Lofgren and Young's All Roads Lead Home, in Ultimate Classic Rock:

...Since none of the album's 10 tracks include pairings of any two of the artists, All Roads Lead Home essentially plays like four solo records collected in a single home. That makes for a scattered and occasionally unfocused listen, already a characteristic of recent Young and Crazy Horse albums. And without leader Young at the helm, the LP often comes off like something thrown together by a local bar band in their spare time.

There is some ragged appeal to the setup: Guitars crackle and pop, and split duties mean everyone is free to explore new musical avenues. Not that anyone here strays too far from their folk, rock and country comfort zones. That solo intimacy rarely translates to the one-take, mistakes-and-all spontaneity heard on recent Young and Crazy Horse albums, however.
,,,Still, the best songs arrive as individual moments (Talbot's weather-beaten voice on "Rain," the slide guitar assisting Lofgren throughout "You Will Never Know"), rather than as a satisfying whole, though Molina's "Look Through the Eyes of Your Heart" comes closest to classic Crazy Horse, complete with a savage guitar solo. It's enough to tide over fans until Young's next album with the band – which, if recent history is an indication, will be here before long.

I just read about the "CSG mix" of the 1968 s/t which was quickly replaced by a mix without Haeco-CSG processing -- has anyone here heard it? Is it worth seeking out? Just a curio?

just a curio, I used to have one, the different mixes (only a few tracks iirc? sounded more muted to me

you're talking about the pressing with just his pic on the cover and no "Neil Young" title on top, right?

yes and no

The first release of the album used the Haeco-CSG encoding system. This technology was intended to make stereo records compatible with mono record players, but had the unfortunate side effect of degrading the sound. Young was unhappy with the first release. "The first mix was awful", he was reported as saying in Cash Box of September 6, 1969. "I was trying to bury my voice, because I didn't like the way it sounded".[2]
The album was therefore partially remixed and re-released without Haeco-CSG processing. Most of the songs from the original album were re-released as-is, only without the Haeco-CSG processing. Only three were remixed, which were replaced on the master tapes: "If I Could Have Her Tonight",[3] "Here We Are in the Years", and "What Did You Do to My Life?".[4] The words "Neil Young" were added to the top of the album cover after what was left of the original stock had been used up, so copies of both mixes exist in the original sleeve. Copies of the original mix on vinyl are now rare and much sought-after by Neil Young fans who believe that the remix diminished the songs, especially "Here We Are in the Years".

that's one revision i'm a fan of.

i was in a position to have access to a lender of a copy with the original mixes in advance of committing to buy it and was very appreciative of the opportunity to save myself fifty bucks. glad i held onto my $5 70s reissue with the replacement mixes, which i will definitely agree sounded clearer and just overall better.

(granted this was all over a decade ago, so take that however)

xxxpost that is an extraordinarily bad ranked list of Neil Young albums, I don't know how you could do much worse

xxp you can tell by the matrix numbers, I definitely had the early mix and I agree w/Austin and not the "Neil Young fans who believe that the remix diminished the songs"

anytime i visit ILX and see this thread and the yearly rolling obituaries thread in close proximity i get brief panic attack.

this is one thread where i don’t have that reaction, i must think of neil as immortal. i guess it will be pretty shocking when (if?) i’m proven wrong

Allmusic today:

Somewhere Under the Rainbow 1973 Review by Fred Thomas [-]
Recorded at London's Rainbow Theater in November of 1973, Somewhere Under the Rainbow captures Neil Young at the height of the Tonight's the Night era, having finished that tumultuous album just months earlier and already taking the material to the stage. The Santa Monica Flyers, Neil's backing band on this tour, consisted of pedal steel player Ben Keith, bassist Billy Talbot, drummer Ralph Molina, and Nils Lofgren jumping between piano, guitar, and even occasional accordion. As with so many of the entries in Neil Young's Official Bootleg Series, Somewhere Under the Rainbow circulated as a rough audience recorded bootleg for decades before this official release, and professional mastering can only polish the raw sound quality to a certain point. For this kind of live document, the imperfections are part of the charm. Though boomy renditions of "Albuquerque" and "Mellow My Mind" sound like they're transmitting from the other side of a football field, there's a warm gelling of the vocals and instruments that doesn't happen with more defined multi-track recordings. Anyone deep enough into the Neil bootleg rabbit hole is probably already aware of Roxy Tonight's the Night Live, a far clearer recording of a club date that happened a few months after the Rainbow gig. Roxy has the same backing band and a similar set list, but the two nights carry significantly different energies. While Neil seems to be in loose, jokey form on both, Somewhere Under the Rainbow tones things down for a string of acoustic numbers that weren't a part of the more rocking Roxy date. This begins with a long, ghostly take on "Tonight's the Night" (the second time in the set the band plays the tune), the Buffalo Springfield-era song "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong," the always moving "Helpless," and several others. The night ends with a burning rendition of "Cowgirl in the Sand." Neil's voice cracks a little, and there's an especially wobbly quality to the way the band moves through the 12-plus-minute jam on the song, but it works with the rest of the set. Somewhere Under the Rainbow manages to feel intimate and hushed even when it's rocking hard and spilling out messily. All of the Official Bootleg Series releases are valuable documents of various phases of Neil's career, but this one has a personality that sets it apart.

Hoping to get my copy of both the new boot series releases today. I've heard absolutely glowing things about the Ducks one too.

What's the other one?

https://neilyoung.warnerrecords.com/en/the-ducks-high-flyin-2cd/093624855736.html

This is the first official release by The Ducks - a short lived group that Neil played with in 1977. The Ducks featured Neil (guitar, harmonica and vocals), Bob Mosley (bass and vocals), Jeff Blackburn (guitar and vocals) and Johnny Craviotto (drums). Mosley was an original member of Bay Area band Moby Grape; Blackburn had previously fronted his own band and co-wrote with Neil the classic track “My My Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)”.

The band played several shows in Santa Cruz, CA and other California venues during two months in 1977, and this 3-LP, 2 CD, 25-track live album features highlights from those shows. The set lists were very democratic, with each member of the band taking the lead in turn. 5 Neil Young songs are showcased, including a rocking version of “Mr. Soul”, plus beautiful renditions of “Are You Ready For The Country”, “Little Wing”, “Sail Away” and “Human Highway”.

this Ducks thing is ok so far but definitely not crucial.

it's so funny, the opinions are kind of all over the place.. some hate the Rainbow one and love the Ducks, others hate the Ducks and love the Rainbow one. Guess it depends on which Neil you like most. I'm just glad to have an official Ducks release.

Haven't been following non-jazz reissue/archival stuff but saw that Neil had a few things out today:

- Head-scratching he issued the 73 show, the sound is so dog shit (has to be the same boot that's gone around for years).

- The Ducks release might be the best one he ever did

— Jeff Conklin (@avantghettonyc) April 14, 2023

I can see warming to this Ducks but that second opinion is absurd.

haha not endorsing that at all, just sharing one i saw.

i mean, as long as, say, Citizen Kane Jr. Blues exists i don't know how that second opinion can even be real

Ducks is low-stakes but very enjoyable. the neil tracks are obviously head and shoulders above the other songwriters, but I think it's a good listen. Actually kinda preages the Bluenotes in some ways.

"sound is dogshit" on the rainbow release — yeah, duh, it's an audience tape bootleg. (and it's not that bad, conklin clearly has gone audiophile, haha).

it's not that bad

ha, you would know <3

(and it's not that bad, conklin clearly has gone audiophile, haha).

haha yeah, he's been tweeting more and more about audio equipment so that might be it. you'd think a guy with a love for jambands would be able to deal with AUD better that he is

i need my neil young bootlegs to be tone poet levels of audiophilia bliss!

Man I love citizen Kane jr, I never knew I'd need a whole Neil album with the audio quality and ambience of "baby what you want me to do" from Broken Arrow but there you have it.

Listening to the Somewhere Under the Rainbow release, I like it. It's a killer performance and yeah, a boomy audience tape, but I don't think it sounds all that terrible. Sure I wish this show was the same quality level as the Roxy show, but I'll take what we can get. Kind of hilarious to read the negative Amazon reviews throwing a fit about the sound quality, it's literally called a "bootleg" ffs.

Finally getting to The Ducks one as well, this is great. Killer sound quality and great performances. It's so weird to see people complain about the non-Neil songs on this, they still sound good to me. And even when he isn't singing, Neil's guitar playing cuts through so well (like on "Hold On Boys").

Neil Young goes to a record store in 1972, finds his own bootlegs, complains to the clerk, calls his manager...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-3rFhXVrvI

WOW! This is amazing. Neil Young has just dropped this on NYA! There’s not even been an announcement or mention, a fan has located it… enter ‘outtake’ in the keyhole search button.https://t.co/mbjQwOnqHe or the NYA app. pic.twitter.com/GG7jTVS6bI

— Kev (@kev__1987) May 23, 2023

cool stuff, but those have been on the NYA for over a year

OFFICIAL RELEASE SERIES VOLUME 5

Set for release on July 14, and available for pre-order beginning today, Neil Young's OFFICIAL RELEASE SERIES VOLUME 5 is a stunning collection of four albums that begins with the exciting renaissance that came with the release of FREEDOM in 1989, and continues on the unequaled exploration of collections RAGGED GLORY (1990), WELD (1991) and ARC (1991). In many ways, it is a musical travelogue of how Young saw the future and opened up creative worlds for the use of sound and originality which had not been used before.

The OFFICIAL RELEASE SERIES VOLUME 5 is available as a vinyl box set of the original four albums on 9 vinyl LPs and the 4 CD releases now issued on 6 CDs. The vinyl and CD box sets are numbered, and the LPs are pressed on 180-gram vinyl. The vinyl box for the four albums is in a telescoping box, and the CDs are in a slipcase.
All Greedy Hand Store purchases come with free hi-res audio downloads from the Xstream Store © at NYA.

In Neil Young's extensive career, this period of music came at a definite turning point. The 1990s were almost ready to start, and Young had recently returned to his long-time home at Reprise Records. It definitely appeared to be a joyous and jubilant moment for the man who had recently celebrated the 21-year anniversary of a solo career that had never stopped progressing. The first album in VOLUME 5 is aptly named FREEDOM, and includes the song "Rockin' in the Free World."

RAGGED GLORY (1990) was a non-stop celebration for the music Neil Young & Crazy Horse are still creating at full force, and was recorded at Young's Broken Arrow Ranch in Northern California. The 10-song original album is expanded for this re-issue with 4 rare tracks. “Interstate” and “Don’t Spook The Horse” were both B-sides to singles. “Box Car” and the 12 minute “Born To Run” are both previously unreleased versions. The 4 additional songs have resulted with the album expanded to 3 LPs and 2 CDs.

WELD (1991) is one of the most groundbreaking albums of Neil Young's history. It's a live album recorded with Crazy Horse after the release of RAGGED GLORY. It was from a wildly creative period of the band's history, and as Neil Young has often done, gave notice that he was a rock & roll originator who could never be second-guessed.

ARC (1991) is the live companion collection to WELD, and at the time generated the kind of musical notoriety that has often marked Young's creations. ARC is a 35-minute outburst of feedback, improvisation, guitar solos and vocal fragments. This marks the album's first release on vinyl.

FREEDOM Tracklisting:

1. “Rockin’ In The Free World” (Live Acoustic)
2. “Crime In The City (Sixty to Zero Part 1)”
3. “Don’t Cry”
4. “Hangin’ On A Limb”
5. “Eldorado”
6. “The Ways of Love”
7. “Someday”
8. “On Broadway”
9. “Wrecking Ball”
10. “No More”
11. “Too Far Gone”
12. “Rockin’ In The Free World” (Electric)

RAGGED GLORY – Smell The Horse Tracklisting:

1. “Country Home”
2. “White Line”
3. “Fuckin’ Up”
4. “Over and Over”
5. “Love to Burn”
6. “Farmer John”
7. “Mansion on the Hill”
8. “Days That Used To Be”
9. “Love and Only Love”
10. “Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)”
11. “Interstate”
12. “Don’t Spook The Horse”
13. “Box Car”
14. “Born To Run”

WELD Tracklisting:

1. “Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)”
2. “Crime in the City”
3. “Blowin’ in the Wind”
4. “Welfare Mothers”
5. “Love to Burn”
6. “Cinnamon Girl”
7. “Mansion on the Hill”
8. “Fuckin’ Up”
9. “Cortez the Killer”
10. “Powderfinger”
11. “Love and Only Love”
12. “Rockin’ In The Free World”
13. “Like A Hurricane”
14. “Farmer John”
15. “Tonight’s the Night”
16. “Roll Another Number (For The Road)”

ARC Tracklisting:

1. "Arc (A Compilation Composition)"
Neil Young's OFFICIAL RELEASE SERIES VOLUME 5 takes its proper place now in the career-exploration march of a true adventurer, both in the music he makes and the care and consideration in how it is presented to the public. Even with all the achievements and advancement in sound, it still feels like things are just getting started.

https://neilyoung.lnk.to/DSTH?eml=2023June2

is the depersonalised link to "preorder/listen here"

Any chance that Ragged Glory/Smell the Horse is getting a separate release? Already have the rest and not sure I want to spend $60 just for the one extra disc...

If you buy it now, you will guarantee that those 4 tracks are included in the next Archives box.

For which I will thank you.

"Down the Ragged Glory hole" would have been a much better title for an expanded edition imho

xpost - haha they absolutely will be in that next Archives box for sure, when it hits in 2026

I don't own physical copies of any of that stuff anymore and Young's remasters have genuinely sounded great, so I'm on board for this one.