neil young

xp Tooscaloosa: preferred title.

“One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know. Then we tried to remove the tusks. . . . But they were embedded so firmly we couldn’t budge them. Of course, in Alabama the tusks-are-loosa, but that is entirely ir-elephant to what I was talking about.” Groucho, in Animal Crackers (1930)

Homefries: preferred title.

I will continue to dream of a stoned jam session that gets titled Honey Slider

Times Square (Neil Young & the Restless, 1989) - Unreleased Studio Album/Sessions.

Wasn't there a complete & sequenced Island In The Sun that Geffen rejected? Imagine this could be that.
Yes, some relation to JI (whatevs tracklist will be)---xpost Stereogum links to interview cited: According to a 1995 interview with Young, the album — which was at one point referred to as Island In The Sun — was offered to Geffen Records before Trans. “It was a tropical thing all about sailing, ancient civilisations, islands and water,” he said.

Oops, Stereogum's quote links to another quote (of a Mojo interview).

There was a Times Square bootleg — if I remember right it was mostly not very exciting rough mixes of Freedom + El Dorado stuff. But at some point he put up a cool outtake of Fuckin Up from those sessions, a really nasty power trio sound.

RIP Elliot Mazer

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/elliot-mazer-engineer-producer-dead-1125570/

assuming Polar Vortex from the Hoffman thread is from the Minneapolis shows that are now coming out as Timeless Orpheum

Times Square (Neil Young & the Restless, 1989) - Unreleased Studio Album/Sessions.

This might be the one on the list I’m most excited about hearing. If it ever comes out.

There was a Times Square bootleg — if I remember right it was mostly not very exciting rough mixes of Freedom + El Dorado stuff. But at some point he put up a cool outtake of Fuckin Up from those sessions, a really nasty power trio sound.

For a long time this was my very favorite Neil Young music. Even now it nearly is.

As mentioned elsewhere, it was mastered and delivered to WB/Reprise, and they rejected it, presumably with suggestions as they didn't ask him to scrap it altogether, just to make some changes or adjustments that would make it more commercial (and I think give them something that was more or less a single). In WB's defense, this resulted in "Rockin' in the Free World," which is much better known than anything that came out of these sessions

The bootleg was made possible by an acetate of the original Times Square LP. It's not rough mixes at all but it sounds very rough because the acetate was audibly worn and it's very possible a tape copy was made (as well as a copy or copies further generations away) which then became the source tape for the bootleg. I'd say the latter is very plausible because the music plays at the wrong pitch and speed on the bootleg. If you apply the same correction to every track, the tracks that overlap with Freedom will consistently match in speed and pitch.

With that in mind, it's actually easy to recreate the Times Square LP without any generational loss on all but one track. Most of it's on Freedom, and Eldorado will have two crucial outtakes plus an unedited version of "Don't Cry" (which is just how it was on the Times Square LP). The only track missing is "Boxcar," which is NOT the version on Chrome Dreams II (released 20 years later) - it's very obvious that version is a completely new recording. For "Boxcar," the only available source is the bootleg, but you'll have to pitch correct it, which should be easy - again every track was off by the same amount, so whatever adjustment you'd need to make on any track that was ultimately released, you can make on "Boxcar."

we need a special ILX in-joke 12" pressing of "Boxcar" b/w "Doghouse"

I just don't understand why, if he wants to release this stuff, he doesn't just ... release it. Like, do one a month or something.

He seemed responsive to one dying fan who wanted to hear his stuff before he couldn't...you'd think the pandemic what have driven the point home.

he's releasing a lot of stuff, guys!
Homegrown, Archives II and Return To Greendale all came out last year ... he's got a triple disc live album coming out in a couple weeks ... bootleg series starts in the spring ... and that's not counting the full live shows he put up on NYA ... and the outtakes that just went up over there as well.

sorry ... for all ... the ellipses

Can I ask a stupid question? If he’s had all this stuff sitting around all these years, why has he been so slow to release it? It really isn’t that hard is it?

Ok that was three questions sorry

This may sound snarky, but it's not meant to be: are you a relatively new fan? This is kind of how he is, and if you've been following his music for the past 20 or 30 years, it's not a surprise. Jimmy McDonough first wrote about an archival project around 1989 for the Village Voice - it started off as "Decade II," but when they realized how much stuff they had and how much of it would be good to release, it blew up into the "Archives" box set, and for nearly 20 years, it was a running joke where they had this big box set in the works or ready to go, but there'd always be an excuse NOT to release it. Back in 2003, critic Greg Kot asked his manager Elliott Roberts (now deceased), and Roberts said he personally killed a tentative release date because in his mind, it was the kind of thing you released when your career was over. So when it was announced in 2009, it was a huge deal partly for that reason - there was only vague hope that it would ever see the light of day.

I’m an old fan but I’ve never paid much attention to anything related to his business side. I asked my question because I’ve seen references to the Decade II thing and the archives for years and never bothered to look into what was holding them up. The “this is what happens when musicians die” explanation make some sense.

On the other hand, I've heard artists as varied as Stevie Wonder (supposedly) and Brian Eno (very recently) indicate they want their unreleased stuff destroyed when they died, and that would be a huge shame. Neil Young is most definitely closer to the end of his career than to the start, but even if he wasn't he's got so much stuff in the can that it doesn't exactly feel like scraping the bottom in desperation whenever he deigns to release it, not least because he keeps releasing new stuff, too. The closest parallel is probably Prince, and he's also the perfect example of life getting in the way of your plans (or lack thereof). Granted, I think the Prince estate (whoever they are) have released some great sets since his death, but I'd much prefer to have Prince around, too, to enjoy the spoils and benefit from the publicity, all while making new music.

I just hope that Neil Young and a lot of these old folks have some backup plan in place, some kid who knows where and what everything is.

I can't recall his name, but I know that Neil has an archivist guy...would imagine in his 40s or so?

I remember reading, around the time that the "Bowie is ... " exhibit opened, that Bowie had at least a couple of people in charge of his physical and musical archives, organizing and itemizing every last thing (from shoes in storage rooms to studio sessions) in a easily accessible computer data base.

this say joel berstein is in charge (not that he's much younger than neil) tho i swear i read about another guy - with a more computer/technical background - maybe tyler knows

another one just went up on NYA today — the 1971 solo Young Shakespeare Theater show ... due out 3/26. "Performance Series 3.5," haha

haha i got a notification on my phone from the app that "tell me why" from that show was up, but it didn't say the whole show was

i tried to listen to it but the app crashed my phone

xp i think bernstein has come and gone as the lead archivist over the years — not sure exactly how much input he has in to what actually gets released.

oh and it's just one song up for that new thing right now ...

still kind of weird that he's putting another solo show from this period out — Massey Hall and Cellar Door kinda cover the vibe. And there are supposedly even more from this era coming out in his Bootleg Series. great stuff, obviously, but not radically different from show to show.

yeah, it's like he was certainly a consistently great solo acoustic performer back then but unless it's something like bottom line where it's bringing something to the table i'm not that interested

crazy horse live boots i feel like can all have different vibes, different jams etc

plus, if I'm looking correctly, there is no song in the tracklist of young shakespeare that isn't represented in either massey hall or cellar door (or, in some cases, both)

yeah it's pretty much "The Set" he was playing at the time. Maybe he tells some great jokes.

SECRET NEW ARCHIVES RELEASE: Having Fun With Neil Young On Stage...

Stoned, incoherent ramblings, exclusively at the Neil Young Archives!

I've realized I don't want to hear anyone's unreleased material.

then you're definitely missing out when it comes to neil young

"unreleased" with Neil has meant different things over different years

a lot of that stuff on Homegrown that came out last year was unreleased

now it's released. . .and it's good!

it's a weird thing to say about NY

you're assuming Neil's unreleased material was unreleased for the same reasons most artists unreleased material is unreleased

Sure, I know a lot of his material he shuffles: bits recorded in 1975 end up on albums released years later.

but he has a ton of unreleased stuff on all this that's just better than stuff that was released is what i'm saying

because he is a weirdo

Yeah, Dylan and Neil could almost swap their catalogs for their respective (at the time) unreleased stuff and still be major artists.

some of the previously-unheard songs in the Archive releases are among his very best, yep. it's staggering.

Alfred, you gotta hear Neil's original synclavier demo for "Doghouse"

did you hear the Four Tet remix of "Doghouse"?

"unreleased" with Neil has meant different things over different years

a lot of that stuff on Homegrown that came out last year was unreleased

now it's released. . .and it's good!

It's OK, they definitely made the right choice not releasing it at the time though.

I love Homegrown. That and Chrome Dreams are two genuinely great lost albums. Hitchhiker is very good too, but unlike Homegrown, I can't say Hitchhiker and Chrome Dreams should have been released back in the day since they were quickly and thoroughly cannibalized for other albums. American Stars 'n' Bars is a mixed bag but Rust Never Sleeps is one of my absolute favorites by anyone. (Tonight's the Night vies with it for my favorite Neil Young album now - I'm glad it was released, but I wish Homegrown had been put out there too, like in 1976 or 1977.)

Even On the Beach was out of print for 20 years, and that album is not only one of his best, it *had* been released!

I wish he'd pick up the pace, but TBH given what's been released already, I don't feel that unsatiated either. I'm sure there are more surprises that'll reward the fans (I didn't know about Hitchhiker, and maybe Toast will help redeem the lull at the turn of the century?), but I'm not expecting any more lost masterpieces. Great live albums/compilations are another thing, but Homegrown, Chrome Dreams and Times Square are the only shelved albums I'd ever put on par with his greatest LP's, and again releasing the latter two would've meant Rust Never Sleeps and Freedom as we know them wouldn't have happened.

(actually, it's not a lull so much as a solid dip in quality)

there's Oceanside Countryside which is probably closer to Hitchhiker

the Bottom Line show is a real gem, an important one (not sure if it's there's more than on the bootleg)

I think there's the full synth version of Trans but not sure if that's real or coming out

I wonder if there's more from the Mirror Ball sessions? I'd be into that

I really like Hitchhiker, great vibe