“Here I am with this old guitar. Doing what I do.” —“From Hank to Hendrix”
Ever since the Covid lockdown hit in March, 2020, people’s lives have been disrupted. Like most people, I encountered various lockdown-related challenges. I mostly cover vinyl and CD reissues and archival releases, so the idea of reviewing music from a download or a stream doesn’t work. Streaming is not the optimal way to listen to music and given the care that goes into the packaging of archival projects and reissues, the physical object itself is sometimes a major reason people buy reissues. Throughout the years I have written extensively about Neil Young, but during the pandemic, obtaining physical media of new Young archival releases and reissues became almost impossible. With the pandemic winding down and business getting back to normal, the good folks at Young’s record label caught me up with a number of releases from the period in question.
Although the following doesn’t constitute all of the physical music (and media) released by Young since March of 2019, it is eleven releases. There is only one vinyl album, one Blu-ray, and one release that goes back to 2018. Young’s archives are bursting with incredible music and historic concerts. Also, Young has released several albums of brand-new music during this period. His artistic well never seems dry. He writes new songs, records them quickly, releases them, and then is on to the next thing. He is like Picasso: restless, creative, inspired, uncompromising, exploring, working in different mediums, and always without a filter, searching.
Unlike many musical artists who create art as if they are launching a line of clothing, Young is a pure artist. His label Reprise (with a stop at Geffen, that didn’t work) has allowed him to work in this unconventional manner, while offering him the support and backing of a major record label. It is a partnership that hopefully continues indefinitely. Spending the last several months listening to these albums (and in one case watching a Blu-ray) has been a revelatory experience. Young’s singular talent and vast musical palette produce music that is timeless. Some of these recordings are more than 50 years old, but they haven’t dated. And the new music reflects an artist unwilling to rest on past laurels or pander to contemporary pop music conventions.
Toast (2022/Archive Series) This is the only release here we will cover on vinyl. Don’t be fooled by the fact that this is a seven-song album. This double-album, gatefold, vinyl release, mastered from the original analog tapes, is three sides of music and has the iconic Crazy Horse logo etched onto side four. Clocking in at more than 50 minutes, this lost Neil Young and Crazy Horse album (recorded in 2001/2002) is filled with all that makes the mixing of Young with the Horse pure musical magic and an album as good as anything the group has ever done.
While there are some quieter moments and more piano than usual in spots, there are also two sprawling gritty guitar improvisational tracks, each clocking in at more than ten minutes (“Gateway of Love,” Boom Boom Boom”) and two of more than seven minutes (“Goin’ Home,” “How Ya Doin’?”). The album was scheduled to be released in 2001 or 2002, but instead Young released the solo album Are You Passionate? This is a must-have for Neil Young and Crazy Horse fans and a wonderful addition to any vinyl library.
World Record (2022) As ragged and glorious as ever, the most recent album from Neil Young with Crazy Horse (Nils Lofgren, Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina), is a two-CD, gatefold set that comes with a booklet and was produced by Rick Rubin. Rubin is an interesting choice for Young and the Horse. While Rubin has worked with veteran artists, often stripping away as much musical backing as possible to present an artist in a stark, bare bones acoustic environment, he uses some of the same aesthetic approach here, but leaves in the gritty electric gallop and fuzz of Young and the Horse.
This is a very personal album for Young. The artwork depicts his family. A picture of his father, Scott Young, is on the cover and on the inside are pictures of his mother, nicknamed Rassy, brother Bob, and half-sister Astrid. With his latest album, with backing from his favorite group, Young remains irreprehensible and indefatigable, with no signs of resting on his past ragged glories.
Barn (2021) This Neil Young with Crazy Horse (Nils Lofgren, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina) album is a companion to a film directed by Young’s wife Daryl Hannah. After listening to this album (which includes a poster), you can see why Young wanted to make a companion film. First off, this is a strong album and one of the most focused Young and Crazy Horse releases in years. As for the songs, Young tackles a lot of heavy subjects, but the various themes are explored and reflected with a variety of emotions. One has to believe that Young knew how good this album was and wasted no time getting back on the Horse to record World Record with a major producer, Rick Rubin.
Time Fades Away (2022) Time Fades Away came at very critical juncture for Young in 1973. The album came on the heels of Young’s massive breakout success with Harvest. His backing band is the short-lived Stray Gators (Jack Nitzsche, Ben Keith, and Tim Drummond). Graham Nash and David Crosby also contribute. Kenny Buttrey was the original drummer and was eventually replaced by John Barbata. Barbata and Nash are the only surviving members, and all of the key players worked with Young on a variety of projects.
Oddly, there are no songs here from Harvest. The album is a live album of previously unreleased material, something musical artists simply didn’t do at that time. This album was an early indication that no matter how successful certain albums would be for Young, he would follow his muse and strike out in bold new directions, often confounding his fans, critics, fellow musicians and record company executives. The CD packaging is an exact replica of the original LP packaging, including the poster.
Songs for Judy (2018/Archive Series/Performance Series) Neil Young’s appearance in the film The Last Waltz is both iconic and somewhat infamous. Leading up to that concert at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on November 25, 1976, Young was on a tour that November and this collection of performances from that month comprise the 23-track, single disc, gatefold package, with the sound originally recorded on cassette by Joel Bernstein. This reissue was produced by Young, Bernstein, David Briggs, and Cameron Crowe. Fly-on-the-wall, alternating recollections between Bernstein and Crowe are included in the booklet. These acoustic performances constitute the first set which was acoustic material. The second set of each night was Crazy Horse backing Young on electric instruments.
The title of this release may be a bit confusing. Anyone who doesn’t check the song selections might think this is some kind of tribute to Judy Garland, in the vein of Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, a 2006 album from Rufus Wainwright. It isn’t. The title comes from a story Young tells at the beginning of the concert. At a previous show, Young actually hallucinated that he saw Garland right up front watching the show. It’s hard to tell if this was some sort of dream Young had, a drug-induced or tour-weary hallucination, or some kind of inexplicable divine happenstance.
Regardless, what we have here are performances of Young, with just guitar or keyboards, from a range of his ’70s peak. These shows very much capture Young, after the ill-fated CSNY reunion (which began as a Stills-Young album), which resulted in the Stills-Young Band album Long May You Run, released in 1976. “Long May You Run” is on here, as well as music from Buffalo Springfield. There is a wide selection of material here from Young with Crazy Horse and from his most popular solo albums of the 1970s as well as more obscure and even new material from that time. This is yet another archival release that proves Young has better stuff still sitting in his archives than nearly everything on the charts for the past 10 years.
Citizen Kane Jr. Blues (2022/Archive Series/Official Bootleg Series) The solo acoustic live album was recorded at New York’s fabled Bottom Line in New York in 1974. The intimate Greenwich Village club was the perfect venue for this somewhat lo-fi recording. The intimacy that existed at this club between artist and audience was almost unprecedented, especially with just a lone voice and a guitar performing songs of such brutal, raw honesty. Young performs “Helpless,” and a number of tracks from the just completed On The Beach (“Revolution Blues,” “Motion Pictures,” Ambulance Blues,” and “Walk On”). There are some other songs that would become Young staples of the era.
This show came about due to Young’s going to the venue to see Ry Cooder, whom he had heard about through Jack Nitzsche. Young brought along his guitar and was anxious to play his new songs. Given the looseness of the times, unplanned and unannounced, he took to the stage and this is the one and only recording (on cassette) of the show. While not as lo-fi as some other works by Young, this is still a pretty unpolished work, but one that allows the listener to get up close and personal with the artist.
Royce Hall 1971 (2022/Archive Series Official/Bootleg Series); Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 1971 (2022/Archive Series) Both of these discs are Neil Young solo acoustic releases, with Young on guitar, piano, and harmonica. These performances are from January 30th and February 1st. Young had grown considerably in a short time and his ease and confidence are evident on both releases. Other than some tweaking of the order of the setlist, the only difference in song selection between the two releases is that “Down By The River” is only included on the Royce Hall 1971 CD. The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 1971, gatefold package may be a bit more relaxed, but basically, these concerts catch Young at such an early solo peak that Young fans will simply have to have both.
Carnegie Hall 1970 (2021 Archive Series/Official Bootleg Series) It’s hard to believe this solo acoustic concert (with Young playing guitar, harmonica, and piano) has never been officially released. Recorded from what was one of Young’s most bootlegged concerts, the two-CD set is actually of the early show and not the more widely booted midnight concert. This is Young in his early-’70s peak. The songs are heartbreaking and timeless and Young performs them with all he’s got. His humor and youth shine through, and the audience probably didn’t realize it’s witnessing something truly historic. The material here is obviously mostly from his early albums, a period that may be the most beloved by a large cross-section of his fans who will cherish this official bootleg release.
The Ducks, High Flyin’ (2023/Official Bootleg Series) Along with Young, this band included Jeff Blackburn, Bob Mosley (an original member of Moby Grape), and Johnny Craviotto. This two-CD set (with gatefold packaging) comes from one of Young’s most short-lived groups, who only performed live shows in and around the Santa Cruz, California area in 1977. The vibe is California bar-band cool and that’s not a put-down. Young is content blending in as just another member of the band, as each member shared equally in taking the lead on songs. Young’s lead contributions were “Mr. Soul,” “Are You Ready For The Country,” “Little Wing,” “Sail Away,” and “Human Highway.” This release is due in April.
Neil Young and Promise of the Real, Noise and Flowers (2022/Archive Series) On June 21, 2019, Elliot Roberts, the longtime manager of Neil Young, died at the age of 76 in Los Angeles. This Blu-ray chronicles various performances of Neil Young’s tour with the Promise of the Real, that were to pay homage and remember Roberts. These glorious live performances are befitting Roberts’ outsize legacy. Young seems to have purposely chosen some of his more beloved songs. He opens with a riveting version of “Mr. Soul,” dating back to his Buffalo Springfield days.
He moves through “Helpless” from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and such works he recorded with Crazy Horse as “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.” “Are You Ready for the Country?” and “Alabama” are also iconic and timeless songs included here. “On The Beach” and “Winterlong” now can be viewed from a new perspective, while “Comes A Time” and a ferocious “Rockin’ in the Free World” reflect two musical and lyrical sides of Young that neatly sum up his whole career. “Hank to Hendrix,” could almost be Young’s autobiography in miniature.
This is a dazzling film, mostly filmed in black and white, at twilight or night at European outdoor summer festivals. The film has a nouvelle vague, stark beauty and honesty that is very revealing. Young tears through some of these numbers, like a teenager still possessed with the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll and music in general. This is yet another excellent addition to the Shakey Pictures canon.
And speaking of Judy Garland, the next archival release from Young, due in May, will be Somewhere Under The Rainbow, featuring the Santa Monica Flyers, a double-LP, live album recorded in November of 1973 at the Rainbow Theatre in London. The group is somewhat of a quasi-Crazy Horse in disguise and features Nils Lofgren, Ben Keith, Billy Talbot, and Ralph Molina.
