neil young

did you grab it on CD or 4x(!) LP? i'm limited on budget, wondering if i should go all the way and spring for the vinyl...

Damn, that's spectacular - what a band. Pumping! Neil looks like he's loving it too.

In Shakey he talked about how he was doing calisthenics in the dressing room to get his body in the place it would have been if they'd been doing the song in an actual concert (end of the main set iirc), which helps explain how wired & intense it is.

did you grab it on CD or 4x(!) LP? i'm limited on budget, wondering if i should go all the way and spring for the vinyl...
― nomar, Sunday, November 22, 2015 1:34 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Man would love vinyl but double CD was on sale for 17.99, vinyl box is 95, I gotta kid Neil

Shakey also has a story of visiting Neil during the recording of what would become "El Dorado" and describing the volume as so loud it was unbearable.

All those ordinary people
Buying' box sets in the neon light
All those PONO people
Downloadin' them hi-res files
All the Neil people
Unsubscribin' from Spotify

According to Shakey, Neil was inspired to do Eldorado after watching The Kids Are Alright.

xp

I hate him for leaving "Cocaine Eyes" off Freedom.

What I don't get is why "Don't Cry" was edited for Freedom. I can't imagine the extra seven seconds of whomping guitar was a dealbreaker for Reprise.

Wiki says that Sampredo and Niko Bolas insisted on it.

Sorry in advance, but Neil has become a meme for all the wrong reasons...

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/12295329_1149105518451225_3265641725980756513_n.jpg?oh=b96dd836d7cf56bfe36bd18a9fb1cf87&oe=56F4CBF8

is that neil's new backing band? what an innovator!

woah, the anti-PONO lobby are in a mood

I really wish Neil had never gotten mixed up w that Bolas guy I think he is p mediocre 80s hack

helps explain how wired & intense it is

http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/11-23-2015/ASl-TA.gif

Niko Bolas? Like a lot of guys of his era he recorded some superstar shit, but he's OK. Didn't he and Neil call themselves the Volume Dealers?

Ha, wiki:

Among his most notable production works are Neil Young's This Note's for You, Freedom and Living with War, Warren Zevon's Sentimental Hygiene and Melissa Etheridge debut self-titled album. Bolas' trademark technique is clear and loud recording of vocals. The same can be said of his talent at recording other musical instruments - in the early 80s, Bolas collaborated with legendary American hard rock band KISS, on their album Creatures of the Night, recording Eric Carr's drums.

i dunno, maybe it's just that era. but shit like too far gone off freedom just pales in comparison to the version on the original chrome dreams bootleg

probably more the era than the producer, but it's probably worth noting that bolas and briggs had a mutual loathing society going on for a while.

This was during the period when Neil thought the sun rose and set on digital. Only took him four or five albums to realize he didn't like it.

(Not that digital recording itself was the problem, but engineers new to digital would frequently crank the high frequencies into the painful range for "clarity" and "definition.")

This was during the period when Neil thought the sun rose and set on digital. Only took him four or five albums to realize he didn't like it.

wanna say Ragged Glory was digital

you are correct, DDD

yeah, recorded at "Plywood Digital" which always sounds kinda hilarious to me.

Was This Note's For You his first DDD recording? Or was it something earlier (Landing on Water sounds like it might be).

I know that, in addition to Eldorado, Freedom, and Ragged Glory, Arc-Weld and Harvest Moon were all-digital, all the time.

really have zero problem with ragged glory's sound ... might have to pull out harvest moon to see if it seems less than perfect.

Niko Bolas is responsible for putting together the band on that SNL clip and I think he also did the mix.

yeah I don't think those records sound bad

otoh I like the Freedom take on "Too Far Gone" more than the Chrome Dreams take so don't trust me

really have zero problem with ragged glory's sound

It's one of my favorite albums of all time, and while I'm listening to it, it sounds fine.

But then I'll listen to Broken Arrow and think, wow, RG could've/should've sounded like this.

Everybody's Rockin' was analog mix, digital recorded iirc (or if that makes sense).

just like they used to do at sun studio!

"If Elvis had lived, all his '80s stuff would have been digital!"

which is probably true

All of his 80s stuff would have been horrible...BUT:

I bet we would have gotten an ill-conceived Elvis Rap song which I am not legit mad doesn't exist.

I'm sorry what's this thread about?

Niko Bolas is a cool name though, admit that.

the elvis rick rubin album might've been pretty good.

and/or elvis' run of 3 of 4 james bond movies.

All Tom Petty on the bass, all Rubin trying to make Elvis do Nick Cave songs.

"Got dammit, this "Tupelo" shit ain't make no sense"

It's a damn shame we got cheated out of the silliness that would likely have been 80s Elvis

i wonder his "Living in America" would have been?

Niko Bolas is a cool name though, admit that.

Sounds like something a smoker would cough up.

def sounds like your drug connect

Niko Bolas sounds like a bad guy in an '80s action movies. Either the actor or the character.

was that the name of Alfred Molina's character in Boogie Nights who's cranking Sister Christian and snorting coke and lighting off firecrackers?

Bass on Don't Take Your Love Away From Me = Kraftwerk's The Model

Loving this.

So I was checking the booklet of the Lucky 13 comp to see if the live versions of "Ain't It the Truth" and "This Note's for You" are the same ones on the new Blue Note Cafe album (they are) and I fell into a Neil Young-obsessive rabbit hole.

---

The then-unreleased tracks on Lucky 13 (released in 1993) are listed as "From Reprise Records Neil Young Archives":

Sample and Hold (extended version)
Depression Blues
Get Gone (live)
Don't Take Your Love Away from Me (live)
Ain't It the Truth (live)
This Note's for You (live)

The last two also say "original Blue Note Cafe recordings," which seems to imply that the Blue Note Cafe album was already planned 22 years ago.

---

The Lucky 13 booklet artwork features a random list of what are apparently all the songs recorded during the Geffen era, including 27 titles which had not been released as of 1993. 10 or 11 (*) of them have since been released in some form:

Amber Jean*
Beautiful Bluebird*
Big Pearl
Daughters
Farmer's Song
Fingers
Grey Riders*
Hillbilly Band
If You Got Love
Interstate*
Island in the Sun
It Might Have Been*
Johnny (same as "Johnny Magic" from Fork in the Road?)*
Leavin’ the Top 40 Behind
Love Hotel
Nothing Is Perfect*
One of These Days*
Rainin’ In Paradise
Razor Love*
Rock Rock Rock
Silver and Gold*
So Tired
Soul Of A Woman*
That's Alright Mama
Time Off For Good Behavior
Winter Winds / Turbine
Your Love Again

(The Old Ways track "My Boy" is listed as "Mr. Boy," which sounds more like something from the Devo session.)

---

The publicity for Blue Note Cafe says that it features seven unreleased songs, which isn't strictly true:

Soul of a Woman (on "A Treasure")
Bad News Comes to Town
Ain't it the Truth (on "Lucky 13"--it's the same recording)
I'm Goin' (b-side of 1988 "Ten Men Working" single)
Crime of the Heart
Doghouse
Fool for Your Love (on "Road Rock")

Meanwhile, they didn't mention "Welcome to the Big Room," which is otherwise unreleased as far as I can tell.

---

It's all one song.

yeah, always interesting that the first officially released music from the Archives came out on Geffen! really, Lucky 13 could easily be an 80s disc in Archives, Vol. 4 or whatever.
don't think I've ever heard
Big Pearl
Daughters
Hillbilly Band
Island in the Sun
Love Hotel
Winter Winds / Turbine

and in Shakey it says the original "Razor Love" is the best Trans-style tune Neil ever did.

oh shit you mean that razor love from silver & gold was synth originally? damn i could just hear that in my head

i'm totally getting into this bluenotes thing

i remember being kinda underwhelmed by "ordinary people" when chrome dreams II came out because it was so hyped (whereas "hitchhiker" off le noise totally lived up to the hype), anyway i thought it was kinda a cod-dylan epic as played by the saturday night live band but now I guess i think it's kind of genius even though that description holds true.

yeah, i don't know if ordinary people is a masterpiece, but it's entertaining for sure
"some are saints and some are JERKS!" always makes me laugh.

i was actually listening at the bus stop today to get to my downtown job and the way this ends is the best

"Downtown people
tryin' to make their way to work
some are saints and some are jerks
everyday people
stoppin' for a drink on their way to work"

then he just exclaims:

"ALCOHOLIC PEOPLE!"

*guitar solo*

i dunno it's great like he's cheering on alcoholics keep up the good work

also after making such a big deal about not taking endorsements in "This Note's For You" he gives Michelob free product placement in the lyrics

haha, yeah -- "the michelob night," there's a phrase that could only have been written in 1987-88.

Maybe also thinking of Michelob Jazz Night or Nights, a great late 80s jazz-meets-rock TV series (L. Cohen with Sonny Rollins, awes; Nick Cave showing his ass via pompous "The Mercy Seat," but Charlie Haden had no prob & looked amused; Al Green playing disgusted cowbell at Sun Ra & Arkestra while Syd Straw laughs wildly: nevertheless, sounded great on my audio tape, sorry Al; Miles Davis! But don't think Neil was ever on there, alas).

"the michelob night," there's a phrase that could only have been written in 1987-88.

LOL, so true