New Performance Series Release: Neil Young Bluenote Café + "Crime In The City" (Official Audio)
October 9th, 2015 - (Burbank, CA.) - Neil Young has announced that the latest Performance Series release from the Neil Young Archives is Bluenote Café - which will be released on November 13th via Reprise Records. The album collects various performances captured during Neil's 1988 tour.
This superb live 2-CD, 4-vinyl LP set documents one of Young's most funky and heartfelt periods and features seven unreleased songs: "Soul of a Woman," "Bad News Comes to Town," Ain't it the Truth," "I'm Goin'," "Crime of the Heart," "Doghouse," "Fool for Your Love," and a searing 19+ minute version of the immortal "Tonight's the Night" from The Pier in New York City. The album is available for pre-order as of today at: www.NeilYoung.com and here.
Those who pre-order will receive and instant download of "Crime in the City". Other instant downloads will become available at regular intervals leading up to street date and will also be available through PonoMusic.com, iTunes and all participating digital retailers.
Please see below for the full track-listing:
Disc 1:
Welcome To The Big Room*
Don't Take Your Love Away From Me**
This Note's For You***
Ten Men Workin'****
Life In The City****
Hello Lonely Woman****
Soul Of A Woman****
Married Man+
Bad News Comes To Town++
Ain't It The Truth++
One Thing++
Twilight++
Disc 2:
I'm Goin'#
Ordinary People##
Crime In The City###
Crime Of The Heart####
Welcome Rap####
Doghouse####
Fool For Your Love####
Encore Rap####
On The Way Home+++
Sunny Inside####
Tonight's The Night####
Recorded on location at:
* Mt. View Theater, Mt. View, CA - 11/7/87
** The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA - 11/12/87
*** The Palace, Hollywood, CA - 4/13/88
**** The World, NY, NY - 4/18/88
+ The World, NY, NY - 4/21/88
++ Agoura Ballroom, Cleveland, OH - 4/23/88
+++ Poplar Creek Music Theatre, Hoffman Estates, IL - 8/16/88
# CNE, Toronto, Canada - 8/18/88
## Lake Compounce, Bristol, CT - 8/23/88
### Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY - 8/27/88
#### Pier 84, NY, NY - 8/30/88
Band:
Neil Young - guitar & vocals
Bluenote Café:
Rick Rosas - bass
Chad Cromwell - drums
Frank Sampedro - keyboards
Steve Lawrence - lead tenor saxophone
Ben Keith - alto saxophone
Larry Cragg - baritone saxophone
Claude Cailliet - trombone
Tom Bray - trumpet
John Fumo - trumpet
Billy Talbot - bass
Ralph Molina - drums
Neil Young - Crime In The City (Official Audio)
Labels: album, neil young
54 Comments:
News-of-the-decade as far as I am concerned. This has all the ingredients to be an extraordinary album.
Don't pre-judge the sound based on the Crime In The City sample (even though it sounds pretty good). The Jones Beach show was (as far as I can tell) only recorded as a basic soundboard, whereas the Club shows were properly recorded as multi-tracks, and therefore the songs from those shows should in theory sound substantially better.
Incidentally, this is the version of Crime In The City that Jimmy Mcdonough praises so much in his definitive biography, Shakey. There are some superb versions on this record.
Wow!
Scotsman.
My guess: Disc 1, all mutli-track recordings. Disc 2, all soundboards (still good sound, but not as polished as disc 1 due to the limitations of the original recordings).
Scotsman.
Awesome news, looking forward to it, the concerts used as sources leave me hope that maybe we'll get a complete version of "Sixty to Zero" on some future version of The Archives.
I'm in. Also, it gives hope that the Archives project is still ongoing. Somewhat.
Sixty To Zero from the 8/27/88 Jones Beach,Wantaugh,NY show is the complete Crime In The City. This performance is done electric. Most of the shows on this tour was done acoustic.A handful of the shows it was electric. So much looking forward to this release. Thanks Archives Guy if you're still out their???
The full version of Sixty To Zero was about 18 minutes (and about 300 verses), much longer than the fantastic electric Jones Beach version.
Archives Guy disappeared when people realised that everything he ever said turned out to be nonsense.
Scotsman.
Wow, Ordinary People? Sixty To Zero?! Did not expect to see Neil jump to this era, but it's great that the BlueNotes will finally receive a proper live documentation! Happy to see the archives are still rolling forward! Don't want to load coal into the speculation train, but could this mean that Vol. 2 may see release in the near future?
The version being released is only 7:21 in length. Why not give us the full 18 minute version from Jones Beach 8/27/88.This version is from jones beach but cut way too short.I listened to the Jones Beach show this week and its a superb performance.I attended the 8/19/88 Darien Lake,NY bluenotes show.Ordinary People from that show was spectacular.
Fool For Your Love is not unreleased, released on Road Rock Live Volume 1. Ain't It The Truth 4/23/88 Cleveland,Ohio this version I believe was released on Lucky13 ?
Soldier Steve: this version about to be released is definitely the complete Jones Beach version. No doubt about that. Maybe you have a mislabeled recording. Having said that, there is no 18-minute electric version of the complete full-length Sixty To Zero, so I think you are just getting confused in this instance.
Scotsman.
Steve: The crystal cat bootleg recording of Jones Beach includes as a bonus song the acoustic 18-minute Sixty To Zero, taken from Darien Lakes I believe. So maybe this is what you are thinking of.
Scotzman.
Scotzman you are correct. I just listened to my jones beach cdr copy and its the shorter version that is being released on this release. I thought the electric version was the 18 min version all these yes. I learned something today.
So I guess the acoustic versions are the 18 minute of sixty to zero.
Just compared the sound quality of the crystal cat bootleg version of Crime In The City with the new soundboard version.
While the drums and bass are much more powerful on the new version, and it sounds pretty good overall, the crystal cat remains the most thrilling way to hear this performance, simply because Neil and Poncho's guitars come through much clearer and with more presence/impact.
Like I said above, this is almost certainly due to the limitations of the original soundboard, and a lot of the other songs (particularly those on disc 1) will likely sound even better, due to being sourced from better quality recordings.
Can't wait to hear this album.
Scotsman.
I'm open to re-visiting the Bluenotes era, but it never held much appeal for me. To me, it's really only noteworthy because at the time it was his last sub-standard, stylistic approach playing a character.
Thankfully it led to Freedom and his return to form. I'd much rather listen to the album version of Crime in the City (Sixty to Zero), as it just holds together better lyrically and is more consistent overall (in my opinion).
As for the other songs about to be released, I've never gotten the appeal of Ordinary People, and the others are just so-so. But I'll admit I never listened to too much of the live stuff from this era. I had a bootleg or two, but tired of them very quickly...
I'm keeping an open mind, and hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised. I do find enjoyment in re-visiting/re-evaluating earlier forgotten Neil forays, and usually I find there's more to the picture than meets the eye.
Welcome to the big room--
and as always
Take my advice
Don't listen to me
And take it easy on Archives Guy. He's had the best intentions and has a big open heart and mind. He's contributed mightily in many ways, some heard, others not...
Not my favorite period but it lead to NY's resurrection. So okay I'm sort of happy.
So this is disc 11. Dreaming man is 12. So unless we get another ".5" release, nothing between 88 and 92?
As for the release, looks very good. Looking forward to it
The Bluenotes tour was my 1st time seeing Neil Young play live. 15 NY shows later, the 1988 gig holds a special place for me. I appreciate and enjoy the music made. I am thrilled to be getting these recordings. Welcome to the Big Room. Hello Lonely Woman. Bad News is coming to town. They rocked as the Gods of Power Swing. I'm Goin' is a cool song which I have on 7" vinyl. I am looking forward to Archives Vol 2 but I can't wait. I'm gonna need to acquire this soon. The Bluenotes was a high point in the 1980s for Neil and he revved up his Rock and Roll engine from there with 1989's return to Glory, not at all ragged. Alan in Seattle
This comment has been removed by the author.
When Neil wrote some decent songs - not slogans
TopangaDaze - This is a live performance album that is designed to showcase one of Neil's most enjoyable tours. Don't think about it too hard, just get swept up in the thrilling live sound and the barrage of imagery (in the case of CITC, Ordinary People, Bad News etc) that Neil pounds your head with. Some of these songs aren't that deep, but they are evocative, well-arranged and excitingly performed. And there are some real classics, too, like Bad News and Twilight.
(And re: your point about Archives Guy, I think he was just here to sell products without any concern for the truth whatsoever. Revisit his many claims and many of them turn out to be complete nonsense. Some may have been innocent mistakes, which is fair enough. Others were not. No question about that; regardless of whatever else he has contributed).
Tom Bray has mentioned on Facebook that it is a shame Steve Lawrence, Ben Keith, and Rick Rosas aren't around to hear this album. That is true, as the musicianship is superb on these songs. However, I'm just glad it is getting released at all. I thought this was destined to stay in the Archives forever.
I'm glad they included the electric Crime In The City and Tonight's The Night, as they demonstrate the transition from the powerful big-band Bluenotes sound through to the intense hard rock of the The Restless. I doubt there will be a dedicated Performance Series with The Restless, as I don't think there are enough usable recordings. Hopefully I'm wrong.
Scotsman.
Looking forward to this. I was lucky enough to be at the Pier show in NYC. That version of Tonight's the Night was something else.
Thanks to all for comments!
We think this is all very exciting. The Bluenotes era was definitely an exciting time for the concerts themselves. OP & full CITC live is truly epic and we can't wait to hear.
Also, regarding AG. We always felt he/she was doing their best at the time. Regarding accuracy, recall that the BluRay technology was brand new and so there was huge incentive for the manufacturers to put forth the most favorable spin. Clearly, the whole BR Live never lived up to the potential which is really unfortunate for NYA owners.
Which leads to the question of what format/ technology will NYA#2 utilize?
Scotsman: Good post as always.
I tend to be album-centric, but I'm sure I'll enjoy this release for what it is and will likely re-discover some hidden nuggets.
For the most part, I've been slightly underwhelmed with the Performance Series, but it's been good overall in that it gives us "historians" a good beginning context for comparison, discussion and most importantly enjoyment!!
So far, the only great release has been Massey Hall. I could talk about that one for days--his performance was brilliant in so many ways with creative clarity oozing from his pores. Hearing the original incarnation of A Man Needs a Maid/Heart of Gold is magical and it's a great example of how his words and music were so pliable. How would his career have been different if he didn't separate the songs? I wonder...
Re: the Bluenotes release, I understand the need to include songs from various shows, but personally, I'd much prefer hearing one complete show. Culling songs from various shows tends to take away from the overall vibe for me.
Take my advice
Don't listen to me
Cellar Door is painfully underrated in my opinion. The vocals and guitar playing (aided by the fact that it is tuned down a step) lend the record an incredibly somber tone.
Hell yeah !
The mention on these post of Archives Guy is extremely painful to me in more ways than one.Deception. Please don't mention that guy again.As for the '88 tour good memories there. Can't wait to hear it.
I was at the Palace show in Hollywood in '88 - treat to see a show in such a small venue. Looks like they are including "This Notes for You" from that show, I'll listen to hear my voice during the audience participation part. : ) I recall getting to the very front of the stage. (only time that ever happened to me at a Neil show). Joe Walsh introduced the band. I bought tickets for the early show, but they didn't kick anybody out so I got to see the late show as well. Several repeats in the late show, seem more like a rehearsal, which was fine with me. Songs like Ordinary People and Sixty to Zero hadn't been introduced yet...so it was mostly songs from the Bluenote record, and a few others. I like the Bluenote period, even though I rarely play the studio record. When it first came out, I was going through a major relationship breakup, and some of the songs really hit me back then - especially Coupe de Ville, One Thing, and I can't believe your lyin'. And I've always loved Ten Men Workin. So to summarize, I'll buy this.
I went to both the Darien Lake and Weedsport concerts. Very fond memory from Darien Lake concert. My late Wife asked Me to dance. I hadn't had a drink in 6 months. I told Her I didn't know if I could dance sober but I'd give it a try. We started dancing and the security guy came over and said " Sorry, no dancing allowed ". I laughed and said "Geez, Maybe there is a GOD". Doug S. Warsaw N.Y.
I was at the Lake Compounce concert. Exciting news. Will get this. On another note, for you hard core rusties how do rate Canterbury?
I enjoy Canterbury, it has a very laid back, unpretentious, unconfrontational, vulnerable atmosphere. It was one of (if not the first) his first shows, and you can tell. The performances are good, but while some songs truly shine in their stripped down, tuned down arrangements, others kind of drag on in my opinion. Ups and downs. The raps are great, they really make you feel like you're a part of the show. All in all, a very mellow and interesting document, but not without its flaws.
Hi everyone. Couple of questions concerning this release. Is this the Crime In The City that was slated for release on the unreleased Times Square album or was it always gonna be the acoustic version?
And does anyone know if this is the original track listing for Bluenote Cafe (or This Note's For You Too) if it had been released in 1988/1989?
Thanks
@Tuned4life: Thanks for sharing your memories from the Darien Lake show. I've never had a battle with the bottle, but something about your experience and your late wife, etc. touched me for some reason.
@Pocahantas: I like the Canterbury show, but have to be in a certain mood to really appreciate it fully--similar to the way Genghis feels. It's very good and at times mesmerizing, though there are a few moments where it's a little too meandering. Certainly understandable, as this was Neil when he was just starting to form his live presence while finding his own voice. It's a revealing show in many ways, and it's striking when you fast forward just a few years to Massey Hall and hear his voice brimming with attitude and confidence.
Take my Advice
Don't listen to me
Anyone else having a problem downloading Crime In The City? Just says pending on my account.
Am anxious for the Release of Blue Note cafe, but I've been burnt before. I bought Live at Massey Hall & Live at Canterbury, only to buy them in Archives, Volume 1 again, albeit on blu-ray. A person only has so much money. And Neil's seemed to have lost his interest in Blu-ray now that Pono is out.
Forest rph: If recent history is any indicator, put your fire retardant clothes on now--you will be burned. If and when another Archives is released, it very likely will include previously released individual performance series cd's.
Very frustrating indeed, though I don't think Neil is planning it that way for a money grab as some others believe. Somehow I feel he thinks it's fair and logical for everyone--buy individually, buy collectively or buy everything. I think he's wrong, and I've become very selective in what releases I purchase.
Take my advice
Don't listen to me
Great comments Topanga Dave: it amounts to willing to wait for the recording when it becomes available on Archives vol. 2 or buying stat. It depends on individual personal tastes of Neil's different types of music.
Anyone remember the interview with Poncho (crazy horse) in the last couple years and he mentioned a live bluenotes record that didn't see the light of day and he had a cassette tape copy and he had lost it. I wonder if this is the same release that is coming out? So much looking forward to this since I was at the Darien Lake,NY show when I was 14.An awesome,great show!
Just listened to the Crime In The City sample on iTunes, and it sounds more impressive than the good-but-slightly-underwhelming youtube clip that has deceived me up until now. More definition, more clarity. In fact, it sounds great, a real gem, and I'm certain we are in for a treat with this record. Any minor reservations about the sound quality are now dismissed.
Steve: this is the same record Poncho was talking about. Neil put this album together way back in 1988, but abandoned it before it could be released. You can read about it in Shakey. Rick Rosas told me he was also looking forward to hearing it.
Scotsman.
Thanks Scotsman, its really sad that Rick,Ben and Steve of the Bluenotes are no longer with us.This release will be a great tribute in memory of them.I've always loved the Steve Lawrence horn version of ATGR on the live recordings, but its not on this release,maybe Archives volume 2.
Purchasing it today or tomorrow through thrashers site directed to amazon.
The reason we haven't seen Archives Guy is probably because of some of the dumb ass comments / insults being thrown around ... Neil (and his team) is the gift that keep on giving, innovation doesn't happen in a straight line, everyone does the best they can, I bought the Blue Ray Archives set and never took it out of the box (although I do listen to the MP3), no matter it was MY decision and then things took a fork in the road -- anyone who is pissed should be pissed at themselves we've seen this same thing before Neil is predictable in his unpredictability any long time fan should not feign surprise about anything, caveat emptor
Archives Guy has always been hugely additive to this site, hoping he returns soon!
Dan1, I applaud your trusting nature, but you also come across as very naive.
Of course, Neil being "unpredictable" is the usual tired response, one that will excuse just about anything if you want it to. It's an easy place to retreat to. "That's just Neil being Neil". But I think most people here are intelligent enough to see the difference between artistic spontaneity and calculated, exploitative strategies devised by the marketing department.
Archives Guy contributed very little real information during his time here, and told at least one lie during the marketing of the blu-ray Archives. He made some claims about an analysis he had done on 24/192 audio that allowed him to hear the "extra sound" in isolation from the rest of the audio, thus proving 24/192 sounds better. Not convinced, I checked these claims with some audio experts. The reply was that he had just made this test up; it doesn't really exist.
So yes, even if he had good intentions, I'm glad he's gone. I don't need to hear more misinformation. I also think he has been very harmful to Neil's future sales, because many people here are now much more cautious before buying anything. Once bitten, twice shy.
Out of interest, would you be as tolerant of a corporation (e.g Monsanto) breaking their promises in such a way? I don't think Neil would approve.
Scotsman.
I miss Archives Guy. You can't expect everything from everyone. I appreciate what he added. He kept the excitement going for me.
I bought into Blu-Ray, and I have tin ears. I do not think he was trying to deceive anyone. I really think he was out there to help. The people that poo-poo high res audio focus on the Nyquist theorem and the upper frequency range of human hearing. They do not focus on the extra care in the analog domain (filters) that is taken when you design your mastering systems and playback systems to be optimized at the higher bitrate. It's the non-idealities and associated distortions that make the different formats sound different. And many seem to prefer 24/192. Personally, I can't tell the difference with my setup. But I CAN FEEL the difference between a CD and an MP3.
The Bluenotes disk is going to be really fun and will bring back great memories of my 2nd Neil show. I did not get to see one of the complete acoustic 60-to-zero shows.
I am banking on an NYA-PS 11.5 with the very aggressive Jones Beach acoustic material. DVD with the accompanying video. That would be an excellent release.
More likely is NYA-PS 10 which I am guessing will be a DVD of the 1986 Cow Palace Show with the Horse.
Anyone want to put money on NYA-PS 08 being Crazy Horse at the Catalyst????
....On balance, it's unlikely that any of those will be performance series releases, due to them all being widely bootlegged in good quality. There are better choices from those periods.
Hi-res audio is pseudo-scientific nonsense that has one redeeming feature: a healthy dose of placebo effect. This is why it seems to sound better than CD (or higher-res mp3), despite blind tests consistently (very consistently) showing that people can't really hear the difference.
Scotsman.
@ Lone Red Rider - good to hear from you, our friend. It's been awhile since those NYA days.
Thanks for dropping by. Of course, we agree with you regarding AG. The involvement of AG with TW during the NYA rollout was a real highwater mark for this little blog community of ours.
AG was an unprecedented move for both Neil and the industry in involving fans in the debut of new technology. So it was a real privilege to be part of that history.
Again, we always felt AG's motives were sincere and genuine in that it was a mutual education process.
We could probably say a lot more about this subject. But if you go back to that time in 2009, you can see that this blog was averaging over 200+ comments per day. There was a huge info exchange that we all were part of known today as "crowdsourcing".
The concept of crowdsourcing or sharing the best ideas in an open, transparent manner is the only way to solve large, complex problems.
hello, is anyone listening?!
peace
@Thrasher. Hey! Yes, it has been a while. I try to keep tabs on "all things Archives". :-).
@Scotsman. Double blind AB tests are great for things like drug trials. Maybe not so good for other things where the actual act of testing interferes with the result.
I have done a very interesting version of the a blind test. Note that it was not double-blind, not AB (in the traditional sense) and N was only 2. The results were consistent and interesting and warrant further study to draw a firm conclusion. 5 256khz MP3 tracks were randomly mixed with 5 HRA tracks. There were NO repeat tracks. The subject was asked to identify which was the MP3 and which was the HRA based on "feeling", using the rule: "if the track feels more natural then call it HRA". Again, there were no repeat tracks so this was NOT and AB. The test was designed to NOT tax the human brain with "test stress".
The result was that for the first 5 songs, the subject exactly identified the resolution correctly. After that, accuracy tailed off to randomness. My conclusion is, though test stress was minimized it was not completely eliminated and that there was some sort of "ear fatigue" which kicked in.
Note that this is obviously not a statistically significant result. No Higgs Boson found here. But it does suggest some interesting mechanisms.
RE: the placebo effect: it is great! I know many families who have benefited from homeopathy and faith in whatever. It seems to be a real thing and it should be embraced and tapped into for what it is (power of thoughts) rather than being confused with a cause-effect scenario.
have fun!
Lone Red Rider: I do agree with you on the benefits of the placebo effect; nice to find someone who sees it from that perspective.
I'd say that the main issue here is that this particular placebo creates far more problems than it solves. If we are to believe (to trust) that 24/192 is better, then suddenly all those great albums recorded in 44.1 resolution (such as the upcoming Bluenote Cafe) must seem inferior in comparison, despite the difference being solely in expectation. It's a shame that so much great music is being needlessly overshadowed in this way.
Your thoughts on blind-testing don't seem pertinent to me; we are listening for the clear "night and day", "not a subtle thing" difference that 24/192/Pono has been marketed as. At the very least, verified blind testing consistently shows that this dramatic difference doesn't exist. Any difference is so subtle that it is most likely just a product of the imagination, which takes us back to my mixed thoughts on the placebo effect above.
Thrasher: appreciate your thoughts and obviously I am glad your great blog benefited from AG, regardless of my reservations about him.
Scotsman.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Scotsman:
When Neil deployed the Revealer feature on PONO it kicked up a shitstorm on the PONO Forums. People were just not hearing a "day and night" difference. I could not either. Neil has since toned down his rhetoric and has admitted that the difference is subtle and something you feel.
I think my study is pertinent because it slices the data differently and posits a theory for why blind A-B test could be failing. And it suggests a fairer test which might actually support the utility of HRA. But, yes, I would agree that the difference between MP3 and HRA would need to be subtle for the signal to be lost in the noise of the testing itself and whatever stress or fatigue such testing induces. And if that difference is subtle then it must be miniscule comparing among the various HRA formats.
But I totally get what you are saying: Neil sold us on a bill of goods which really didn't deliver to the hype.
I actually have a related gripe. There is actually a penalty in getting 24/192 music. The files are too damn large. When you buy in to 24/96, sure you pay about twice for the music, but you consume the free space on your player at a 6x rate. That is huge opportunity cost. And for a "subtle" difference? Is it worth it? Maybe to some, but I have not purchased anything from the PONO store in a long time. For me the storage space requirements are really the show stopper.
Rock on Scotsman...
I don't think that NYAPS 9, 11, 12 will be re-sold as a part of Archives Volume3. Here is my argument. The Archives Box Sets are strictly chronological. 9,11,12 are not single shows, they are tour compilations which likely span periods of studio recordings. The NYA-PS which were a part of Archives Vol 1 were single shows.
The next point I'll make, and I hate to do it without Archives Guy here, but I believe he had mentioned at some point that not every future NYAPS will be a part of an Archives Box. Some will, but not all. If the Roxy/Rainbow TTN result in an NYAPS I would guess it would be a part of Vol2. There has been some talk of a TFA2. But we don't know whether that is a single show or a compilation. Either way it could possibly be Disk0, but how would it fit together with the small handful of recordings produced during the rehearsals for that tour. I would be surprised if those numbered enough for their own disk.
Odeon/Budokan? 17 days between those cities. Those could possibly be in the Archives Vol2 or not. I know nothing...
Thrasher and all you! Keep on rockin'!
I for one love. No, ABSOLUTELY LOVE this new release from the Neil Young Archives PS series. This absolutely exemplifies why I am a Neil Young fan. Neil is the only guitar player on this record. Listen to this and appreciate what this band brought to that era and what Neil brings to this music as the single guitar player on this. Whoa, what a record...
e2f
Thrasher and all you! Keep on rockin'!
I for one love. No, ABSOLUTELY LOVE this new release from the Neil Young Archives PS series. This absolutely exemplifies why I am a Neil Young fan. Neil is the only guitar player on this record. Listen to this and appreciate what this band brought to that era and what Neil brings to this music as the single guitar player on this. Whoa, what a record...
e2f
Just listening to the Bluenote recordings for the first time and love it. Superb.
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