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

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.

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