PREVIEW TRACK: "Try" from Homegrown Album by Neil Young
As we have been covering for decades (literally), Neil Young's unreleased 1974/5 album Homegrown is coming ... someday. Today, the latest "someday" for Homegrown is now June 19 (more below).
Here's the latest on this oh-so elusive 45+ year old unreleased Neil Young album titled Homegrown. Neil Young Archives is now streaming the song "Try" as "Song of the Day", the first track on the 12 song archival album "Homegrown".
"Try" is one of the seven previously unreleased songs on the album. Background vocals are by Emmylou Harris with drummer Levon Helm, Tim Drummond on bass and Ben Keith on steel guitar. Per a comment below by Wardo:
The info card for Homegrown now has info cards for each track on the album. Star Of Bethlehem is listed as an alternate mix. The album artwork, with recording dates and performer credits, is up too.(Thanks wardo!)
"Homegrown: Never Known to Fail"
Unreleased Neil Young Album
The album "Homegrown" was recorded in 1974 and 1975 and is the "one that got away", Neil writes on NYA. At the time, Neil considered "Homegrown" to be "too personal and frank" to be released and chose to release the album "Tonight's The Night", instead. The Homegrown album has been described by Neil as “the missing link between Harvest, Comes A Time, Old Ways and Harvest Moon”.
"My first ever narration with Ben ‘Longgrain’ Keith and live sound effects. Some beautiful music and fun rockin’ songs as well. This is the one that got away. I am stoked to share this with you.”The official album release is now scheduled for June 19. Pre-orders for the versions on CD, vinyl and as a download start Friday, May 15th.
Neil Young wrote in 2019:
“I apologize.
This album Homegrown should have been there for you a couple of years after Harvest. It’s the sad side of a love affair. The damage done. The heartache. I just couldn’t listen to it. I wanted to move on.
“So I kept it to myself, hidden away in the vault, on the shelf, in the back of my mind.
But I should have shared it. It’s actually beautiful. That’s why I made it in the first place.
“Sometimes life hurts. You know what I mean."
In January 2020, an image of the test pressing of the album "Homegrown" by Neil Young was posted on Neil Young Archives. The test pressing included a note from Reprise Records saying "This album is incredible!".
Neil comments:
"this is the first time in our 50 years working together that I have ever received a test pressing with a message like this".
In April 2019, when answering a letter on NYA, Neil wrote that: "The real 'Homegrown' album is coming out after Tuscaloosa." (More on Homegrown and Other Unreleased Neil Young Albums.)
The track list posted earlier based on rust chatter and John Hanlon's mastering video is now confirmed as:
A-side
1. Separate Ways (unpublished)
2. Try (unpublished)
3. Mexico (unpublished)
4. Love Is a Rose
5. Homegrown
6. Florida (unpublished)
7. Kansas (unpublished)
B-side
1. We Don't Smoke It No More (unpublished)
2. White Line
3. Vacancy (unpublished)
4. Little Wing
5. Star of Bethlehem
Most excellent! “Try” is one of my favourite Neil Young piano songs. I had the pleasure of seeing him perform this song live at Massey Hall in Toronto in 2007. I think I heard Neil play a “Try” teaser when he first sat down at the piano during the Fireside Sessions IV.
— Sharry Wilson (@SharryWilson) May 13, 2020
More on Homegrown and Other Unreleased Neil Young Albums.
Labels: album, archives, neil young, song of the day
by thrasher@PermaLink: 5/13/2020 12:28:00 PM
14 comments
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14 Comments:
Had Neil released Homegrown instead of Tonight’s the Night, I wonder how it may have changed the trajectory of his career. Just from the sound of this first song Try, obviously the record company would have been much happier, and of course many of the fans who couldn’t wrap their heads around Tonight’s the Night would have been happy. Perhaps nothing would have been different but it begs speculation. That being said, speculation is usually a dangerous pastime.
Neil has always trusted his instincts and we are all the better for it. I really look forward to hearing the entire album, as it has been sitting in limbo for decades. This period in Neil’s career produced so many magical moments, I’m sure Homegrown holds many treasures to absorb. It’s wonderful to have something to look forward to right now.
Thanks Thrasher for providing us with a place to connect during our endless isolation.
Peace 🙏
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The info card for Homegrown now has info cards for each track on the album. Star Of Bethlehem is listed as an alternate mix. The album artwork, with recording dates and performer credits, is up too.
Yes Dan, how would it have changed Neil's career and our lives! I was 15 and thought Tonight's the Night was a joke when I first heard it, like Neil Young had become some sort of total weirdo, incoherent, lost in space. And then when I went to college the songs slowly built up in my mind, until it was a dangerous art. I grew up in naive opposition to the "counter-culture" and I recall thinking that "free love" was an oxymoron. For me at least, Tonight's the Night was a way of exposing the violent romanticism of those days.
@ Dan - hard to believe this has been in the vaults for 45 years and we've been begging for it almost ever since.
we also realize that some of our tone has been a bit cynical b/c of the # of times that HG has been discussed as being prepared for release. well it seems we're getting pretty close finally. but kind of like NYA Vol #1 ... until in our hands ...
So thanks for the positivity here Dan, as always. It is a magical moment treasure to look forward to.
and we are truly grateful to have these albums to look fwd to. maybe alla blessing in disguise. if ny had released everything back in the day, what would be doing now? complaining about the lack of new ny product?! poor us. we're the lucky ones.
glad to share the isolation w/ everyone.
but it's spring time and we'll be logging off soon and getting outdoors to enjoy the wonderful blue skies we're having these days.
@ wardo - thanks. just updated above.
@ Abner - thanks for the context through the ages. yes, we can understand the "free love" is an oxymoron. A hippie dream if you will.
It will be interesting playing Tonight's the Night back to back w/ Homegrown. Jarring in all probability and ripping "the violent romanticism of those days."
somehow the circle remains unbroken ...
Hoping the Homegrown release comes with an option to purchase a tshirt of the album cover.
I cant wait to hear this release. Wasn't the old homestead & deep forbidden lake part of the same sessions? I believe theres a mention in the decade liner notes.
Many early articles about the shelved "Homegrown" LP suggested that "Love Art Blues" and "Home Fires" were on it. They don't appear on this track list. What happened?
Trunk Show coming to Hearse Theatre this Sunday. Finally!!!! I will get it experience this elusive film. Thank you Neil.
Peace 🙏
Great news for Trunk show !
By the way, a lot of more or less precise information is provided by NY in letters to the editor or in different chapters of the "Times Contrarian" about future releases.
Does anyone compile them? To check the promises!
For example, I read that for Archive 2, there are ten records with number 3 being TTN, number 4 Roxy. He also says that Dume album will be on it...Like "Medditeranean", "Frozen Man", "Daughters", a studio version of "Push It Over The End",... Like "Medditeranean", "Frozen Man", "Daughters", a studio version of "Push It Over The End",...
Besides, I'm afraid that on these Archives 2, a part of the cd's are already existing...
Elsewhere, John Hanlon details Ragged Glory Extended... As for Return To Greendale it will be NYAP 16, what will be the 13, 14, 15 (Dreamin' Man is 12) ?
Phil
omg Trunk Show!!!
please - a DVD release!!!!
Well,who'd have thought we'd get to hear the original recording after so long. After the first listen I went back to the recording of the song in Manchester UK in 2008, that i was at, just to compare.
I remember being bowled over by the song in concert and love listening to it even now. So when the original recording became available, thank you Neil, I couldn't wait. I just loved his voice, so so young, oh my heart could melt!
I think I prefer the stripped back piano playing of the 2008 concert, but his voice in 1974! Shit, we were all still boys then! Amazing!
I was at a show in DC in the fall of 2007 when Neil broke out 'Try' for the 1st time ever live on the upright piano...if my memory is correct, he only played it a little bit & flubbed the lyrics...
Homegrown pre-order has begun. There's an indie exclusive version that you can get from independent record stores -- apparently comes with a litho pic of the cover as well as printed inner sleeves. Also, you support your local record store. Check Record Store Day website for a shop. https://recordstoreday.com/UPC/093624898689
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