Neil Young - Homegrown (June 19, 2020, at long last)

Good lord Mexico is gorgeous

What's cool about this record is that it sounds familiar, like it isn't really a lost album and actually was here all the time.

yeah, i'm sure someone else will write a nice piece about that, because i get very much the same feeling and i'm sure others do too. it's such an odd sensation, knowing half the songs already, but not in this form. even the songs i already knew well ("little star of bethlehem") sound so much more fitting here. why? i don't know. i liked it on stars and bars, i liked it on chrome dreams, i liked it on decade. but it sounds like it's at home on this record, finally.

So wild, I had NO IDEA that this was coming out, and I've just begun a serious Ditch kick. Stoked

"Try" is such a gift, right now. ben keith on pedal steel, emmylou harris doing backup vox, levon helm doing his thing, playing exactly what you expect and want him to play.

everybody is doing what i want them to do. it's fucking weird man

i want them to rule, and then they do that. if only life were always this easy!

I like how he has been trying to develop Separate Ways but has now released the original recording after all.

Played it on the 1993 & 2014 tours:

Torhout, Belgium, July 1993: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXWI2mKEgvM

Liverpool, July 2014 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP9MLuzaZCM

just gonna C&P this from the other thread:

just listened...man "Separate Ways" is a stunner, real lost classic

loved it on first impression, kind of Harvest but with the down and out druggie vibes of On the Beach?

Florida is something! N01z3 dr0n3

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, June 17, 2020 8:47 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Loving this. Go, 1975-Neil!!

― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, June 17, 2020 11:07 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

damn this is great

― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Wednesday, June 17, 2020 1:16 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

all her friends call her lil wayne

― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Wednesday, June 17, 2020 1:46 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

homegrown rules

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 3:12 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

an instant top-tier neil album for me. it's a weird experience, listening to it, because through my casual-to-intermediate fandom of his music, i've come across several of the songs, in different versions on other albums, or live. but these original versions are so fucking good! it sounds so good. the sound of mid-70s neil young is so warm, it's an instant comfort blanket

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 3:14 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

very cool to hear how part of Kansas follows the same melody line he would use later on Powderfinger...maybe a year later?

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 3:17 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

not even a year later! and also, of course, how "love is a rose" uses the melody line from "dance, dance, dance" a few years before. borrowed tunes, as it were :)

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 6:21 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

It's so fascinating to me when artists like Neil Young or Springsteen or Prince or Dylan or whomever can record albums worth of really good stuff, sometimes even their best stuff, and think, eh, and then shelve it for decades. I've always wondered if any artist can be so self aware or ego-free as to even distinguish their best albums from their worst, or if they're so busy going forward they don't even think about it. Like, I was reading the latest Tape Op, and there's a guy that worked on remastering "Band on the Run," and he's in the studio with Paul McCartney, and McCartney admits he'd never listened to the album as a finished artifact before.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 7:29 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

neil, prince and dylan, sure, but is that actually true of springsteen? i remember thinking, the first time i heard "tracks," that springsteen had an amazing ear for his own work and instinctively understood what to keep and what to discard. i still can't think of a single track on "tracks" that i wish he had included on one of his studio albums.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 7:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

holy shit, this album

"Homegrown" is an instant anthem, up there with any other tune of his you could name imo

"Florida" is maybe the weirdest fucking curveball he's ever thrown, which is saying a lot, love how it segues into "I woke up from a bad dream"

"Try" is perfect in every way

damn

― sleeve, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 8:59 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

yeah, honestly i don't like "florida" so much. but it really does stand out as a particularly experimental song for a musician in his position at the time

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 9:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

"try" otm

that's the one that jumped out at me on first listen. was it known before now? i know true neil young fans have been familiar with all this material for years, but "try" was new to me

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 9:40 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

When I first heard “Florida” I immediately thought : “This is his ‘The Gift’ “

― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, June 17, 2020 10:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

"florida" eventually turned into dead man and le noise, at least

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 10:54 PM (yesterday)

neil, prince and dylan, sure, but is that actually true of springsteen? i remember thinking, the first time i heard "tracks," that springsteen had an amazing ear for his own work and instinctively understood what to keep and what to discard. i still can't think of a single track on "tracks" that i wish he had included on one of his studio albums.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 7:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I think this is mostly otm but I do think there is a FAR better version of the River that can be made on a playlist with the alt tracks from the boxset than the original

"Florida" sounds like a lost SYR series mid-90's collaboration with Sonic Youth

each time it played last night I said, out loud, "what the fuck, Neil?"

"florida" really is a strange fucking story!

https://neilyoungarchives.com/album?id=A_089

It's such an odd feeling, listening to an album that feels like it should be familiar but isn't

yo i have the LP in my hands !!!!!

Nice! Assuming pressing is good, Neil's stuff usually is

yeah it's dead quiet and sounds great

When I first heard “Florida” I immediately thought : “This is his ‘The Gift’ “

i feel as if it's more like his "apes-ma"

Homegrown you must be a Pink Floyd album because you RULE

https://neilyoungarchives.com/album?id=A_089

iconic url imo

Don't really keep up with neil news but had a bit of a binge of his albums this weekend apropos of nothing and now I'm blessed with this today.

Separate Ways is the best track here imo

Florida reminds me of some of Jandek's spoken word stuff

this is really good but now I understand better Neil's observation about the middle of the road and heading for the ditch instead. well, except for "Florida".

Hi my name is Jordan and I'm listening to my first Neil Young and Bob Dylan albums today.

Ever !?!?! I mean, you could do worse than these new ones, but ...

whoa Jordan

whoa

Jordan also turning 12 today

lmao jordan!!!

lol I can see how someone who plays drums for a living would never have spent much time with those artists, enjoy!

lol fair enough, outside of the Most Famous Opening Snare Shot in Rock History, neither acts are particularly notable for their drumming. If anything, they're both famous for their looseness!

Yeah I didn't grow up with the Beatles either, I was only really exposed to most music through playing it or the radio (and I never listened to classic rock radio or whatever).

I first consciously heard 'Heart of Gold' when the Bad Plus did it as a closer, and sang it acapella & off-mic at the end. I was probably the only person who was like 'huh, pretty good song, who wrote that?'.

Obviously I've heard a song here and there, but never a full album.

(Josh, which song are you referring to?)

Like a Rolling Stone.

#rockism

i do not mean to post more about bob dylan in this neil young thread but most of dylan's drummers are all-time, including matt chamberlain on the new one? kenneth buttrey! jim keltner!

i mean i guess mentioning kenneth buttrey is on-topic

yeah Levon Helm whatta hack 🙄

Oh, there are astounding drummers on Dylan (and Neil) records - Levon on "Revolution Blues" alone! - those records are just not particularly known for their drumming.

I never grew up with the Beatles, either. I've mentioned it before, but my parents only had one Beatles album and it was "Yellow Submarine." They had one Dylan album, and it was "Self-Portrait." And they had one Stones album, and it was "Goat's Head Soup" (which was missing the LP). One day I discovered a copy of Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere," but it was on an 8-track reel-to-reel so I never heard it as a kid. Of this batch of quality acts, I listen to Neil Young the most by far. Followed by Dylan. Followed by the Stones, with the Beatles last, because in a lot of ways they are just a permanent part of the listening environment.

Keltner played with Neil too, he's great on Peace Trail

The bassline in 'Vacancy' reminds me of that one Radiohead song that has a similar bassline

i'm only now hearing this and goddamn if this isn't the neil young record i always kinda wanted

kind of Harvest but with the down and out druggie vibes of On the Beach?

oh, no wonder

First Dylan and Neil this week is cracking me up (no worries).

xps Punch-Up At A Wedding! I knew that bassline sounded familiar

that's funny, "Vacancy" was also reminding me of a song, but I was thinking it was another Neil song.

it's all one song, iirc

Yes, Punch-Up At a Wedding! Just came here to post that after flipping through a ton of Radiohead songs to find that riff.

that's funny, "Vacancy" was also reminding me of a song, but I was thinking it was another Neil song.

― time is running out to pitch in $5 (Karl Malone), Friday, June 19, 2020 11:59 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

was it "are you ready for the country" ?

YES

I've come around on this album.my wife got me the vinyl for my bday a month or so ago and I've grown to love it!

I listened to it a ton in spring and early summer, but not for a couple weeks now. I think I will be playing it a bunch this fall; it has that kind of feel.

I've played it quite a bit, often within the context of his other LP's from that era. Not Harvest and Comes a Time, but the other three surrounding it and in chronological order: so Tonight's the Night, then On the Beach, then Homegrown and finally Zuma. I just love the progression from one to the next, just beautiful.

This was the perfect album for me this summer, played it a lot in the car June & July... my first cautious forays into the outside world after months of fearful quarantine, driving around in the afternoon sun seeing which things in my city have been closed and abandoned and which have remained, feeling anxious & scared but also safe in my little personal bubble, feeling the gutpunch of everything that's gone wrong but trying to remain thankful for what I have, playing this album with the windows down. One of those time & place listening experiences I'll always remember.

otm. great timeless album. should have played it more often.

big LOL that Robbie Robertson is the only musician on the album not mentioned in the special thanks section of the liner notes

ahahahaha good catch

would not be at all surprised if “We Don’t Smoke It No More” is a winking nod to the honeyslider

I was just imagining if Neil tried to have it both ways back in '75, and put Homegrown out as the front half of a double w/Tonight's The Night as disc two. He probably had the clout to pull it off, and it vaguely makes sense as the most extreme of the big doubles of the era (Exile, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Physical Graffiti, Quadrophenia etc.).

Ultimately, going forward like that isn't Neil's thing, but it would have been an interesting timeline if he had.

ugh, that would have been kind of amazing

also, it would have been a highly RELATABLE double album. he's had so many concept-adjacent albums over the years, but homegrown+TTN makes 100x more sense than something like quadrophenia

yeah kind of funny that neil *didn't* put out a double album (aside from the triple Decade comp) any time in the 1970s ... he was one of the few major artists who really had the material for it!

right, and also i feel like he would have been a perfect fit for the kind of sprawling double-album that finds space for a few oddities/novelty tracks on it that are actually good, like a proto-pavement

nowadays his versions of those tracks (looking for a leader 2020) really are kind of bad (imo), but in prime ditch trilogy-era, they were all gold (imo)

You're not counting Journey Through the Past, I assume?

I feel like Tonight's the Night is its own universe and would not benefit by being part of a double album

Haha not counting journey through the past

the kind of sprawling double-album that finds space for a few oddities/novelty tracks on it that are actually good, like a proto-pavement

That's actually a pretty accurate description of Journey, which has ample sprawl and at least one great oddity ("Soldier"). It is, though, almost 100% previous-released songs, if not versions, including, maybe weirdest of all, "Let's Go Away for Awhile" from Pet Sounds--not a cover, the actual track.

The Wikipedia on this record talks about it being "rebuilt" for release, and a large number of other songs being recorded in the sessions. So is Homegrown 2020 the same mix and running order that would have been released in 1975, or is it a modern-day reappraisal?

Unless there's an acetate or tape copy in his archives, I think it's impossible to know. Since a few tracks were included on later releases, it's very possible whatever master tape that was assembled for Homegrown was dismantled and never put back together (and perhaps taken apart song by song). If that happened, he could've lost track of certain songs and maybe even remixed particular songs since there was no real reason to keep the old mixes to an album that wasn't going to be released imminently.

Although I get the feeling Neil keeps everything (especially the master tape of an unreleased album), and they could have rebuilt the record to match as closely as possible to the original master.

RARE DITCH PROJECT