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

Maybe from here?

https://www.highresaudio.com/en/album/view/kbwtf9/neil-young-homegrown

The early version of A Man Needs a Maid from Live at Massey Hall with the "Heart of Gold" medley was something of a revelation. He prominently sings "a man feels afraid" (and does introduce it as something like a musical of his life).

finally getting around to listen to it and this is extremely otm

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

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 18 June 2020 19:30 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's so very specifically part of that ditch trilogy sound! very weird but very welcome.

absolutely nuts that neil has had an album of this quality just chilling in the archives for nearly half a century

absolutely nuts that neil has had an album of this quality just chilling in the archives for nearly half a century

otm. Pretty sure I posted this on one or more other Neil threads, but it's bonkers to me how he held back things like "Vacancy" but decided the world needed to hear "T-Bone." The '80s for Neil were the recording-career equivalent of pruning one's record collection before a move, and then after you've moved, you realized you threw out everything in the "save" pile and kept everything in the "trash" pile.

an argument to be made that Neil's late 80s/early 90s renaissance was kicked off by him starting work on the archives — he starts plucking old songs out to re-record, and maybe just hears that vintage stuff and is like "oh yeah, that's how you do it." but he obviously didn't get to everything ...

speaking of: lol has there been any update on Archives vol 2 lol ?

it's coming out in August! at least it's listed on his timeline as coming out 8/21/20. think it'll happen?

i don't know, they're gonna have to design a whole new file cabinet and then figure out how to convert it to a website

this is real photograph of me enjoying archives vol. 2

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cg8G6jbWYAE8hv4.jpg

dang nice

listening to my vinyl for the first time, wow "Mexico" just totally slayed me, so sad and gorgeous and lost

yeahhhh, so good. might be my favorite neil piano song now!

I guess I’m the only person underwhelmed by this album. I will admit to being a casual Neil fan compared to some of you itt, but the record sounds underwritten and inconsequential to me. Take away the songs that sound like sketches for larger ideas, the incoherent spoken word piece, and the 5 minute predominantly-instrumental blues jam (foreshadowing “T-Bone?”), and what’s left are mostly songs we’ve heard before, and in far better arrangements (this “White Line” in particular doesn’t hold a candle to the Ragged Glory version). I like “Separate Ways,” “Try” and “Vacancy,” but even these don’t come close to the highlights on any of his classic albums.

Also, it was my understanding that 100% of this album has never been heard before in any form. Can one of you Neil experts illuminate me on exactly how this version of “Star of Bethlehem” differs from the version heard on Decade?

this “White Line” in particular doesn’t hold a candle to the Ragged Glory version

This is insane to me. The Ragged Glory version is a garage band work out, which is great, because Crazy Horse is the ultimate garage band. The feeling of the song is obscured by the feedback and the galloping pace, making it sound triumphant.

The Homegrown version exposes this all as false bravado. Neil talks hopeful but doesn't really believe that the day is really breaking. He sounds more like he is breaking down. And Robbie Robertson's accompaniment is a master class; restrained, respectful, embellishing where he should. It instantly goes next to Charlie McCoy's playing on Desolation Row as some of my favorite ever.

Interesting! I like your take on this version even if I don't hear it the same way. I guess I never really put a lot of stock in the lyrics one way or another. My criticisms are mostly about the way this thing sounds. I think RR sounds out of place and think he overplays during the verses. This song doesn't need a bunch of bluesy bends.

yeah I think this is the definitive White Line

but they are both great takes, very different and they coexist well

People have been hating on Robbie the dude for so long we are starting to underrate Robbie the musician and songwriter

do I think Robbie takes too much credit for the Band? yes

Do I think those lunatics would have gotten anywhere near to what they accomplished without him? no

he's a fantastic player

Robbie sounds awesome on "White Line" — I was wondering if it was a first take ...

Yeah I love this White Line too, plus Robbie Robertson -> The Last Waltz -> another Neil white line

"That ol' white booger is a friend of mine"

I guess another way to look at it is the Ragged Glory version is the beginning of the coke party and the Homegrown version is the end.

im a little bit underwhelmed by the album. this period of Neil is one of my favorite of any artist at any time - tonight's the night and on the beach are by far my favourite Neil Young albums. I don't think this is anywhere near either of them. I'm not dismissing this as a curio but it's somewhere between that and a "real" album in my mind

I'll also raise my hand as underwhelmed. I blame Neil's terrible handling of his catalogue.

It's still early days, but Homegrown may not be as good as OTB or TTN but it's not embarrassed to be in the same room with them. I'd say it's as good as TFA at least, which is nothing to sneeze at.

I think Homegrown is the worst Ditch album. Of course the worst Ditch album is still a B+/A-

my sense is that over time songs like Homegrown and White Lines will come to be more closely identified w/ this record and it will sound more coherent and singular in the catalog

like I'm digging it all the way through but knowing those other versions gives it a little bit of a "compilation" feel and I think that will burn off

As much as his Seventies catalog goes,it's more or less in the same quality as Comes A Time imo: not his best but not his worst (American StRs and Bars) too

I'm going to live with Homegrown for the next 25 years and get back to you guys.

Homegrown is a good thing, as far as i was told

xpost otm

I don't like the sound quality of the Spotify version, it's very understated, Kansas almost sinks into a big nothing. This White Lines version i fucks with, but Mexico is too short!

Vinyl sounds pretty good to me.

Yeah I still have to get a decent record player for the living room. Don't want no big ass speakers though. What I need is a record player i can hook up to the sonos.

Arrived a few days ago, played it twice in the car today (which points to my general wariness).

Overall, I like it fine. The only thing I'd 100% scrap would be "We Don't Smoke It No More," which to me is generic and a pretty weak joke. "Florida," I don't know. I guess it works okay in context. If this were Zuma or After the Gold Rush, its presence would be a problem for me.

The first three songs are good. Not outstanding, but they work together well on an album. I can't remember how I felt about "Love Is a Rose" 40 years ago, but I like it a lot here. "Homegrown" I was always indifferent to. I'm not sure if these are the original versions or not--if they aren't, I can't tell the difference (or I've forgotten).

"Kansas" and "White Line" I quite like, and after initially thinking I wasn't going to like "Vacancy"--Neil lumbers every which way--I do. Matches my mood these days, anyway.

I've always thought "Little Wing" was great--absent any context, for me the one indisputably great song here. (I should check back to see if I voted for it in the Neil Young poll 10 years ago--if I didn't, I should have.) My only quibble is it belongs to another album.

"Star of Bethlehem" is like "Love Is a Rose"--sounded good today, better I'm guessing than it used to.

Probably my biggest reservation is that it took so long to put out a record with only eight unreleased songs--or seven, depending how you feel about "Florida." It feels a little anti-climactic.

What was I hoping for? I wanted it to make 45 years vanish and turn me back into a 15-year-old, about to buy American Stars 'n Bars (the first Neil album I bought when it came out). That's not too much to ask for, obviously. In a weird way, the thing I find most moving about the album--most in the moment--is "For Carrie." I assume that was the original dedication, and I'm glad he kept it.

This take of "Homegrown" is the original recording. The ASnB version is from a Crazy Horse session later in '75 or '76.

This album has totally rekindled my fandom. I love it. I've purchased Tuscaloosa, OTB, and Roxy on vinyl in the last week.

Ditch Quadrilogy, baby. Nothing else quite gets to that spastic weirdness.

I'm with clemenza, almost down to the assessment of the specific highs and lows. Largely underwhelmed by the album, though I'm glad it exists and I'm glad I bought it.

when i listen i reflexively skip past florida and we don't smoke it no more. it cuts the album down to less than 30 minutes, but it flows so nicely.

I love the 1-2 punch of Florida and Kansas.

clemeza and Paul Ponzi please report to the doghouse..dog...house

ftr i do like florida, i just think it would sound better as a weird dispatch in the middle of something like le noise. the content of his dream/story definitely fits in with homegrown, but musically it's a patch of discordance in an otherwise cozy album.

Still loving this album though the other day I popped “Live Rust” on and remembered how much more I prefer the near-visceral thrills of Young with Crazy Horse over solo NY. Though I will go down fighting defending pretty much any and all NY forever. Still have to relisten to ”Trans”, though. It’s been a minute.

ftr i do like florida, i just think it would sound better as a weird dispatch in the middle of something like le noise. the content of his dream/story definitely fits in with homegrown, but musically it's a patch of discordance in an otherwise cozy album.

I'm a huge fan of songs that are happy landing spots after noisy, rough, or stressful songs, like "Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)" after ". . . And the Gods Made Love". Kansas is like a warm hug after the nightmarish Florida.

The one album I think "Florida" would make the most sense on would be Journey Through the Past.

T/S: Homegrown Side A or Homegrown Side B?

Separate Ways
Try
Love is a Rose
Homegrown
Florida
Kansas
-
We Don't Smoke It No More
White Line
Vacancy
Little Wing
Star of Bethlehem

very tough, at least for me!

Fuck, I forgot Mexico on Side A!

that might tip the balance toward Side A for me

I was thinking about this over the weekend. I think "We Don't Smoke It No More" is my least favorite song so that might make me lean toward Side A, but this is very hard.

also my least fave. in general i'm not a big fan of the singalongs designed to make the people in a mid-70s arena crowd yell "woo", although neil's versions of those kind of songs are my favorite

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oCF4TSXS4us/XwiF_2A31BI/AAAAAAAAZ68/oyq8slHcX9Qj9x5O3KTiGd8nogdgkp_fQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/nya-florida-letter.jpg

!