The Neil Young Archives, Bev Davies photos, and notes on 12 (or so) essential Neil Young releases from the last 8 (or so) years

Neil Young & The International Harvesters, Oct 17, 1984, at the Pacific Coliseum, by bev davies, not to be reused without permission

The takeaways today will be, (1), the Neil Young Archives website is really quite something, and (2) his recent output includes abundant terrific new recordings and several solid, fascinating archival releases. Even without considering the ongoing Crazy Horse tour, it's actually a really great time to be a Neil Young fan.

Truth is, Young is always someone who comes and goes, with me. I have never lost respect for him -- but occasionally I've meandered off, trusting that when I came back to him, there'd be stuff I cared about. Probably the lowest ebb came around the time of Living With War, in 2006, where, clearly spurred on by the state of the world, he was aiming for something direct and topical, but it seemed on that album like he was throwing songs out there in draft form, without much craft, kinda taking advantage of his being-Neil-Young-and-all to just put out whatever the hell he felt like.  

Neil Young and his cousin, by bev davies, backstage at the Pacific Coliseum, July 30, 1983, not to be reused without permission

Some people might argue that Neil Young has always put out whatever the hell he felt like, I guess, but when they gripe thus, they're probably thinking of albums that he clearly put a lot of work into. Some of his least well-received albums ("the Geffen lawsuit years") now seem like weird-ass masterpieces, if you want to follow an artist with integrity down a rabbithole where he's putting a lot of care and craft and creativity into something really singular, regardless of whether the public understands or appreciates it. I don't know some of them very well (should I revisit Landing on Water?) but a couple of the albums that people almost regard as jokes have become favourites of mine. Check out "Payola Blues" by Neil and the Shocking Pinks, if you've missed that (I'm providing Youtube links for the benefit of readers who have not signed up for the Archives yet, but all of this can be better streamed, ad-free, on his site). And Trans, especially, is a fascinating record for how much art and vision he's brought to it, and if you understand where he was coming from, trying to bridge the gap between himself and his non-verbal son Ben, it seems a high point of ambition and engagement, an album worth thinking about over forty years later. 

Neil Young with the Shocking Pinks by bev davies, Pacific Coliseum, July 30, 1983, not to be reused without permission

Anyhow, my previous period of engagement with Neil, before the current spurt, started around 2012; I  thought Americana was brilliant, and though I was mildly irritated to find that tickets I bought for the Americana tour turned out to be for the Psychedelic Pill tour, released later that year, with nary an Americana song on the setlist, I thought Psychedelic Pill was pretty great, too, luckily. "Ramada Inn," in particular, was maybe  the most effective jammin'-with-the-Horse tune he'd put out since the days of Broken Arrow in the late 1990s (another favourite, well worth your time if you like the vibe of Young jamming with the Horse; it was enhanced further when that tour was documented by Jim Jarmusch in Year of the Horse). But for whatever reason, I "got off the horse" for a few years thereafter. It wasn't a judgment on where he was at, because some of it I flat out didn't notice. Maybe it was just that I overdid the bingeing on him when I last saw him live? And like I say, I trusted he would abide. 

Neil Young with the Shocking Pinks by bev davies, Pacific Coliseum, July 30, 1983, not to be reused without permission

Because Neil Young abides. That's actually an understatement, considering has released something like 28 live, archival, and new studio albums since 2016. It could be quite intimidating, but take my advice: it's worth the plunge. And the Archives are a great way to do it. I only signed up to the Archives -- or, rather, got my wife to sign me up as a birthday present -- so we could get a pre-sale code for the Deer Lake Park shows. Then I looked into the "filing cabinet," on the website, which features streamed versions of almost every official Neil Young release, along with abundant outtakes, official boots, and rarities. It's a bit more user-friendly on the desktop site than the Android app, which requires a bit more time scrolling to find the specific album you want to hear, but for about $25/ year, you can stream all the Neil Young you could possibly want for as long as you want. It's kind of like standing in a record store listening booth, putting on album after album, to see if you dig it, only there's so much material to hear that a physical record store would close down around you before you made up your mind what to buy. It didn't take long to figure out that I needed to check out SEVERAL of the albums I'd ignored since 2012... 

So I did. And damn, there are some fine releases that he's put out since I last paid attention -- much of it archival/ live, but not all of it; and most of it is also available on vinyl or CD (though Neil Young vinyl tends to go out of print quickly and stay out of print, so if you do want this stuff on record, I recommend acting without much delay; ten years ago, when it could be found at any store, I balked at Psychedelic Pill as an $80 triple-LP set, but now it's out of print and unlikely to turn up for less than $200). I've barely looked at the other sections of the website, like the Times-Contrarian (Neil's newspaper!), but this is mostly because the music itself is so compelling. You can even hear streamed versions of his early surf material with the Squires (see below) and the Rick-James fronted R&B group the Mynah Birds!

The top 11 albums I've checked out so far, that have merited repeated plays (and in some cases physical media buys!): 

1-4: Chrome Dreams/ Dume/ Homegrown/ Hitchhiker: Three of these are albums that Young recorded in the 1970s and did not release until recently; the other, Dume, is an expanded session of Zuma, which was one of the high points of his 1970s output, released in 1975.  Some have songs I've never heard ("Star of Bethlehem" is on Homegrown and Chrome Dreams; I have yet to determine if it's the same recording on both albums, but it's a great song that I'd previously missed). There are also early versions of songs that would end up on later albums, which show that Neil did not always favour an off-the-cuff approach, re-working and re-envisioning some songs radically ("Hitchhiker" would ultimately become "Like an Inca," on Trans, but only one verse and a basic chord structure get ported over -- it's 95% different! The Chrome Dreams' version of "Sedan Delivery", meanwhile, has pretty much identical lyrics to the 1979 Rust Never Sleeps song, and the same basic melody, but it is much more plodding and unevenly paced, a staggering stomper that is kind of bizarre to hear, if you're familiar with the 1979 version). "Powderfinger" and "Pocahontas," two of the most timeless songs on Rust Never Sleeps, appear in a couple of different early versions, as does the slightly lesser - but still very enjoyable -- "Ride My Llama." At some point I'm going to sit down and try to sort out for myself what the actual progress of "Powderfinger" was; while the lyrics are more-or-less the same from 1975 to 1979, there's a repeated between-verse riff that seems to be crudely sketched out in the Dume sessions, that gets fully-fleshed out by 1979, but is almost entirely absent from the Hitchhiker version and the Chrome Dreams version, which are shorter, stripped-down acoustic takes (possibly the same one). So it looks like he had his early sketch, played around with guitar parts, decided to jettison them, then decided that there was still something missing and re-wrote and re-worked them, adding new, better guitar parts. "Powderfinger" is one of the very greatest of his songs -- I surprised myself, in reciting the lyrics to Erika, by breaking down weeping, I was so moved. It's really great to get a peek into its evolution, especially since each different take works, seems worthy and interesting in and of itself. 

 Another treat on more than one of these albums is different variants on "Captain Kennedy" and "Little Wing" off Hawks and Doves. There is a reason why that, along with the Shocking Pinks record, is one of the Neil Young albums you're most likely to find used for under $20: all the best material is clustered on one side of it, with the other being on the "Republican" side of Young's spectrum, with the high point ("Union Man") reading as a goofy throwaway. I'd rather hear "Captain Kennedy" on Chrome Dreams...  

The least essential of these four is probably also the greatest of them, Dume. That seems paradoxical, but if you already have Zuma, 75% of the album is exactly the same recordings you hear on Zuma, it's just been re-ordered and re-contextualized with other songs. Of course, if you don't know/ have Zuma, it's the best of the four to start with, as it's a really interesting reworking of the album (including an outtake that appears elsewise in this run of four, "Hawaii," which is another terrific Neil Young song I did not know before I plunged into the archives; it also pops up on Hitchhiker, but I think I like it better with Crazy Horse). It's a fresh look on one of the very best Crazy Horse records. If you already have Zuma, on the other hand, the must-hear/ must get of these four is Chrome Dreams. 

5. Toast. I've seen Neil Young twice, in fact, so another high point of enthusiasm for his music was in, I think, 2001, when I caught him with Crazy Horse at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, At that show, he did a live version of "Goin' Home" (there's footage from I guess the same tour, in Germany). It's got this deliberately cheesy, presumably ironic "Hollywood Indian" riff to it, but whatever you make of that, it's a great song, and is one of the high points of the subsequent studio album he put out, Are You Passionate?, but something goes wrong on Are You Passionate?; it starts strong, but somehow just runs out of energy, runs out of life. Toast is the Crazy Horse version of that material, most of which Neil scrapped, electing to use Booker T and the MGs as his backing band, I believe on all tracks except "Goin' Home," which is still with Crazy Horse. Why did Neil scrap this material? Why did he call the album Toast? Not sure, but it's a really solid Neil Young and Crazy Horse album, worth your time. 

6-8 Way Down In the Rust Bucket/ Fuckin' Up - I have not caught up with all the live albums that Neil has put out in recent years -- there are several, and many from the early 1970s, which is not my go-to window; but I can tell you my two favourites: Way Down in the Rust Bucket is up there with Weld and Live Rust as a truly essential document: four LPs (or I'd guess 3CDs?) of essential Crazy Horse performances with high points from Zuma, Rust Never Sleeps, Tonight's the Night and Ragged Glory as well as some uncommon gems (a version of "Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze" that has an alternate lyric about a couple fucking under a Ferris wheel (!); a live jam on "T-Bone," also off Re*Ac*Tor; a live take of the title track off Homegrown; and a song, "Bite the Bullet," that makes me think maybe I need to get American Stars n' Bars, one of those studio albums I have mostly ignored (it's probably third most common in the under-$20 used category after Hawks and Doves and Everybody's Rockin'). There's also a live take of "Like a Hurricane" off that album, too. It's the best all-round Neil Young live presentation, if you're into this period of his work, that you can find -- the material is as strong as Weld, but there's more of it, and while it's not cheap, the LP version is also not an out-of-print collectible yet, if you want physical media (you can get it on Amazon, still, for instance).  

Another really terrific live album is the recent Fuckin' Up, stylized with hashtags and such (Fu##in' Up or something like that), which is also being sent free in CD format to anyone who buys tickets to the current shows. It covers similar ground, presenting a fairly recent Rivoli performance of Ragged Glory material, all of which, except for the cover of Don and Dewey's  "Farmer John," has been re-titled (for reasons I'm not clear on) with lines from song lyrics. Songs like "Country Home" shine in a live setting (I don't see it on Youtube, but here's the Way Down in the Rust Bucket version). My one quibble is they didn't get particularly creative with these new titles, neglecting the most fun/ memorable images from the songs: "Fuckin' Up" should have been re-titled something like "Dogs That Howl" or maybe "Keys Left Hanging," for instance, which capture the Oops-I-Fucked-Up lyrics far better than the (perfectly workable, but not very evocative or relevant) "Heart of Steel;" while "Country Home" obviously should have been called "Someone Else's Potatoes" (vs the dull-as-dirt new title, "City Life"). Potatoes aren't important to the song, of course, but it's a memorable, catchy, weirdly pleasing line ("It's only someone else's potatoes/ if you're digging someone else's patch"). And it stands out way better than "City Life," which could be a song by anyone about anything (but probably not about a country home...). 

Quibbles, though: these are my two favourite recent Neil live albums I've checked out of late. Noise and Flowers has some interesting cuts, as well, but has a bit of auditorium echo to it that makes it sounds like a fan-recorded bootleg. And while Promise of the Real is definitely a worthy backing band, some of the tracks on it, like "Rockin' in the Free World," vary a bit from how Crazy Horse do them. If you crave variation, it might be interesting (their version of that song is also ten minutes long!). 

I'm very curious also to check out the soon-to-be-OOP Songs for Judy, too, for the somewhat jokier take on "Pocahontas," with a spoken intro by Neil about the writing of the song, and added lyrics that put Neil and Marlon in the company of Watergate lawyer John Ehrlichman, for godsake, and a couple of other celebs (Ann-Margaret, for instance). I've always delighted in the final verse of that song -- how Neil, after having fully identified with and gravely commented on the treatment of Indigenous peoples, takes the piss out of himself by positioning himself next to Brando, referencing the Sacheen Littlefeather moment on the Oscars; if you're unaware of that story, check out the documentary Reel Injun on Tubi, and note that there REMAINS lasting controversy about whether Littlefeather was actually Indigenous. The story of the song, the Oscars, and its moment in history is fascinating no matter what your take on Littlefeather is...  

It doesn't seem likely I'll ever interview Mr. Young, but it would be great to know -- especially since I gather that he shared a stage with (very political Lakota AIM-affiliated activist, actor, and songwriter) John Trudell at Farm Aid -- what responses he's gotten to the name Crazy Horse and songs like "Pocahontas" from First Nations peoples... My sense is that he generally gets a free pass, for being so authentic and respectful, but it's kinda interesting that Fu##in' Up is credited only to Neil and the Horse, and that the horse is now riderless... is someone getting sensitive about cultural appropriation, here? 

Also wouldn't mind knowing how people decide which songs get extended workouts, interview-wise: when the band did "Fuckin' Up" at Rogers Arena back in 2012, it was this epic, 12-minute long jam, with abundant lyrical improvisations near the end; the version on Fu##in' Up, by contrast, isn't much longer than the studio take, about half the length of the way they did it here. Why? Who decides, when, which songs get epic-length expansions? Is it a spur of the moment thing? Does it vary from show to show, or just tour to tour? 

Oh, and by the way, if you've missed it and crave vinyl from around the days of Ragged Glory, I see that there is an Official Release Series box set that includes an expanded, 3-LP take on Ragged Glory, plus Weld, Arc, and a 2-LP version of Freedom. It's not cheap, but it comes with nine records, and Ragged Glory alone is  a very pricy item outside the box. 

9-12: Peace Trail, The Visitor, Barn and World Record: So that's all great, but I should also mention four of my favourite recent studio albums by Neil Young. All of this you can stream on the Archives, note: paying the $24.99 membership fee -- I think that's the bottom tier -- is a superb way to preview this material (or consume it without a physical media commitment, if that's your thing). Peace Trail, recorded without Crazy Horse, is a quirky acoustic album from 2016 that feels very fresh. It also feels fairly off-the-cuff, but the songs are quirky enough (try "John Oaks" or "Terrorist Suicide Hang Gliders") and the delivery just strange enough that I, for one, am sucked in, find it rather haunting and moving -- my current favourite of his studio output since Psychedelic Pill. 2017's The Visitor is notable in that it doesn't feel much like a Crazy Horse record, because it's not; it's a studio album made with the Promise of the Real, his other main backing band in recent years, but you really feel the difference in approach. The songs still rock, but have a somewhat more jagged, more unpredictable, rawer aesthetic than the fluid feel of Crazy Horse (try the Latin-hued "Carnival" as an example). Barn is much more in Crazy Horse mode, and ranges from the gentle acoustic "Song of the Seasons" to the more overt Crazy Horse rumble of "Canerican." World Record has a similar range, from rockers that are very easy to listen to if you're a fan of "the Crazy Horse vibe," like  "Chevrolet" and "Break the Chain," to gentler items like "Love Earth," which inspired the title of his current tour. None of this is essential for a casual fan in the way Zuma or Rust Never Sleeps are essential, but those albums are part of your DNA and you want something fresh and enjoyable from Neil, they're very fun (and more interesting than, say Before + After, which turns some less famous Neil songs into a quiet album-length suite; I grabbed that for the acoustic take on "I'm the Ocean" and don't regret having done so, but I care about the album as a whole quite a bit less than these other four studio ventures. They're all keepers! (And even Colorado, which on first blush was the least impressive of these new albums, has a great song on it, "Shut It Down." Might be another one that I need to revisit...) 

There's lots else in Neil's output of the last eight-or-so years, lots I haven't heard yet, but the Neil Young Archives is a really fine way to play catchup. He's not kidding when he says that he "Can't Stop Workin'." (Blogger is behaving strangely so I can't properly add a tag to that title, but see here. Fun song, and I know what he means). Find me another artist in his age range who is as busy.  

Neil Young and Crazy Horse missed a couple of shows this past weekend due to illness (they have not said who or what), but let's pray that the July dates go as planned. I never figured I'd get to see him live again, you know? (Or that any 78 year old artist would have such a huge spurt of new releases for his fans, let alone such a huge spurt of really very GOOD new releases...!). 

We're truly blessed.