Comment of the Moment: PREVIEW: Neil Young Online Archives - December 1st

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The Comment of the Moment is on PREVIEW: Neil Young Online Archives - December 1st by Devin:

I am looking forward to this and hope the interface can be used properly on a phone.

For this to work well, people need to be able to easily listen to music in their car or on their headphones on the bus or walking or whatnot. I listen to a lot of Neil Young on Google Play already so I'm not sure if this will change that much or not. To make it really worthwhile, there has to be at least some stuff that was previously unreleased. I'm sure we will gradually get more of them (songs or albums) as time goes on.

I just listened to a bunch of Neil Young records this morning because of this, and am always amazed at how productive and still relevant Neil Young is, nearly 50 years after the demise of Buffalo Springfield. I know the newest stuff isn't as good as some of his all-time greats, but I still appreciate parts of Peace Trail, Monsanto Years, and almost all of Earth.

Hitchhiker was also a really pleasant surprise, and I'm surprised by how much I like some of the renditions of songs I had already heard in a different form. The stripped down version of Powderfinger is gorgeous and raw, and it's clear from listening to the album that Captain Kennedy is a sequel to Powderfinger, which is kind of cool when you think of the Lynyrd Skynyrd connections too. Later on Hitchhiker, he switches back into autobiographical mode with the title track, with some more fantasy leanings at the end as it shows the roots of Like an Inca. Of course, like I'm sure a lot of you on here, go through listening sessions like this where you jump around through Neil's discography from genre to genre and mood to mood. One thing I've noticed is that an album like Trans really works on a phone with headphones while at the gym, biking, running or walking. It's also pretty good driving music. I don't really like playing the record at home that often, but it's taken on new life in a new medium. I think I'll see more of this if this new online service is well-executed.

He has such a diverse catalogue to showcase in this new streaming service, so the release of these archives and a new album with Promise of the Real should only boost interest in him right now, which is kind of cool I guess? There was actually a post recently in /r/music on Reddit that had a lot of dialogue about why Neil is doing this and whatnot - it was interesting to read people's thoughts on his career and current music. I also don't have high hopes for The Visitor after hearing the two singles but who knows, the other 8 songs might be half decent or maybe we'll just get one or two standout tracks. One can hope!

And as for my biggest hope about these new archives on Dec. 1 - I think I'd most like to hear Toast, if it exists. I love the dark, brooding jamming jazzy stuff that Crazy Horse does best, such as the end of Walk like a Giant on Psychedelic Pill. It sounds like these Toast sessions would be similar to that maybe, at least from what I gathered from reading Special Deluxe and looking online a little bit. Anybody know if some of these are floating around from live performances of that time or anything?

First time posting here; love the site. Much love for running it!
- Devin

Thanks for commenting Devin and welcome. Good to see you.

Looks like much more in the days, weeks, months, years and decades ahead.

Step aside, open wide.

Neil Young Archives

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