Neil Young's "Ditch Trilogy" Poll

pretty awesome record. thanks again. It was a blast to finally read Shakey and go through Archives vol 1 and the ditch trilogy. hope I'm still around for vol 2.

Found this on the Steve Hoffman forums. Kind of interesting:

I just ran across this thread today ... and joined so I could set the record straight, so-to-speak. I conceived and developed Compumix while I was chief engineer at Quad-Eight in the early seventies. It was the first successful console automation system in a time when floppy discs and other data storage media taken for granted today didn't exist. Compumix I (as it would be called later when newer technology was available) automated fader and two switch functions per channel for 16 channels. This digital data was turned into a bi-phase PCM data stream that was recorded on a spare track as the mix engineer worked. On a second pass, the engineer could select one or more channels to "update" (the use of -15 dB as a reference point was established by my design). This copied both original and updated fader moves to another spare track. Layers of updates could be bounced back and forth between these two tracks until the final mix was made. As in the case of Neil Young and "Time Fades Away", the mixdown would "run itself" and the board's output run directly to a disc cutter (as was done by Neil at the Lacquer Channel. I stayed at Neil's ranch for several days to help ... it was most enjoyable to hang with Neil. Anyway, the audio tracks themselves were never digitized ... all they "saw" was a VCA (dBx 202) between multi-track tape out and console line inputs. The audio path was all analog (the system could properly be called digitally-controlled analog). The drawbacks to Compumix were two: 1. obvious requirement for two "spare" tracks, and 2. a short time delay for every bounce of data between tracks. If it took 10 updates to "get it right", there would be small time lag in fader moves. But some other systems under development had serious issues with level stability and required pristine performance for the data channels on the recorder (ours could play error-free from a cassette!). The system sold very well, to clients like Advision London, A&M Records, Jack Clement Nashville, Mowest, Sound Labs (Armin Steiner), Ken Nordine, Neil Young, and others.

- Bill Whitlock, 25-year president & chief engineer for Jensen Transformers & AES Life Fellow

huh....that's interesting

i think david briggs called it the Compufuck.

I've owned Time Fades Away for a while but last week I saw a vinyl copy in almost perfect shape for $15 and I had to buy it. Very rare for me to do that, but i thought, if nothing else I want to give this record to somebody. And I'm listening now and it's in INCREDIBLE condition, I'm happy when new vinyl records out of the shrink wrap sounds this good. And though it'll always make sense why it's 3rd here, this is a brilliant record. Top, say, 7 Neil for me.

Has its very own Facebook group, just like Danny Whitten would've wanted:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/124529420890827/

ha! (I still joined)

I may too. I've joined Ball Four and general baseball-discussion groups, and also the Christgau-acolyte Expert Witness group (all-Wussy, all-the-time). The problem is I get bombarded via e-mail with notices. I've clicked "notices off" on the drop-down menus, and still I get them.

Where does the version of "Journey Through the Past" in Inherent Vice come from? I'm so used to the original, I thought at first it was a cover, then soon realized it was Neil.

Don't know but there's a previously unreleased version on The Archives Vol 1, maybe it's that one?

Yeah, it's the Archives version.

Then I have it...I should investigate my own records.

how does it differ from the Time Fades Away version? (ps I am not buying the Archives just to find out)

it's a full band version -- an outtake from the harvest sessions. it's great! i actually think that "journey" and the Harvest version of "bad fog of loneliness" in place of man needs a maid and there's a world would make for a stronger album overall. i like the orchestral numbers but they always seem out of place there.

word

Quite a bit different in execution--closer to country?

yeah, kinda breezy

have we done a big NY albums/songs poll, and if not why not, and when?

A World of Constant Strangers: The Neil Young Results Thread