"Tuscaloosa" Album | NYA
In yesterday's Neil Young news, we attempted to summarize the latest flood of updates on outtakes, LincVolt Series, bootlegs, a major Amazon Deal announcement, plus new page sections coming to NYA Times-Contrarian.
One of the most significant new features since launching NYA, is the addition of outtakes to some albums like "Harvest" and "Tuscaloosa". The outtake song "The Loner" from "Tuscaloosa" album on NYA is particularly striking with Jack Nitzsche banging away on the piano backed by a driving Stray Gators backbeat with Ben Keith on slide guitar.
With the ever expanding and mind bending Neil Young Archives, comes the Comment of the Moment on the posting Neil Young Archives Updates: Outtakes, LincVolt Series, Bootlegs, Amazon Deal, New Pages + More from 
Lone Red Rider:
@Thrasher. Thanks for this post. Indeed, I see the outtakes as a major development.
One of the biggest surprises and disappointments of NYA for me since it started was the fact that it was just an online repository of released music. And an incomplete repository at that. Sure, there is all of the epherma, videos etc, but that portion was so slow to grow. And then NYA's focus shifted to the Hearse which was interesting, but not what I was wanting either. All of that rotating content, should have found a permanent and on-demand home in the archives proper to be enjoyed, library style as opposed to served up broadcast TV style. What I was hoping for was that NYA would have unreleased music: music not available any other way. Those choice cuts, like the hidden treasures on the NYA BD disks that you couldn't get any other way.
It turns out that NYA was simply unprepared in their licensing and contractual deals to work in this manner when it opened. Since late 2017, NYA had promised so many things that they ended up not being able to deliver upon. From the "massive drop of unreleased tracks" prior to Songs for Judy, to the promised outtakes for Tuscaloosa. Well, 2020 was the year the contract was updated which will now allow Neil to release everything. So they are no longer contract limited.Just limited by their own whims and resources.
Adding the unreleased music gives NYA the value it should have had from the start, in my mind. Sure, HRA [High Res Audio] streaming is great. But it's not the motivator for me. Now, I can relive the excitement of those monthly BD-LIve drops in the form of this new Outtakes mechanic on NYA.
It's a little odd that when a song becomes tagged as an outtake which might have been available on a disk, for example Wonderin from Topanga3, it then loses the link forward to that album on it's info card. A small price to pay for Neil to make the point that it was an outtake. In Letters To The Editor, Neil describes in some length what is an out take and what isn't. But there are always tradeoffs to be made in an artsy representation of an archive.Don't even get me started on the album organization on the timeline......
And then there is the PPV "Big TV" and the the new levels of membership upcoming. Both of those would be worth discussion on their own. Neil seems to think that these features will come out this fall. PPV is a bit annoying. We are already paying, right? But I get it. We are paying for the music.
The whole point of NYA was to show that HRA streaming could be done on the cheap. Point taken. But what I loved about the first BD set was being able to view all of the videos as reference materials. I think that is essential to the archives. If one of the tiers allows me unlimited access to all of the video content at any time without having to flash my credit card again, I just might go there.
Speculation:
NYA_UNLIMITED: Today's membership.
NYA_ULTRA_UNLIMITED:: Adds the PPV feature. (I made that up. It would be strange to have to pay for the rights to pay more!)
NYA_ULTRA_SECRET_UNLIMITED_PATRON: Jut get everything on demand and your name on the website.
"Tuscaloosa" Album Outtakes | NYA
Thanks so much LRR! Great points in your comments and much appreciated wheat.
We are curious as to your thoughts on the major Amazon Deal announcement on September 3. As we noted at the time of the impending news, this appeared to be a somewhat typical Neil move, to totally diss on Big Tech's Google & FaceBook and then turnaround and throw all in with the behemoth monstrosity of Amazon corporation.
Big Tech is Big Tech. If Neil is doing a deal with AMZ to keep NYA going, that's a really tough compromise to swallow. Risk the "family jewels" (high resolution song files) in order to save NYA? But maybe these new contractual label agreements that you cite in your comment above put all of this in a new light?
Your speculations on future membership options is intriguing to say the least. For us -- as has always been the case from Day#1 as concert going Neil fan is fair access to awesome seats. And after that, the wonderful concert live streams. The "Fireside Sessions" were unbelievably superlative in their timing, song selections and intimate delivery. Moments to be cherished for sure as the love of Neil & Daryl shines through so brightly and brilliantly like the sun, moon and stars combined into some new alchemy supernova of energy and light.
("when the sun burst through the sky")
While any terms are far from clear, Neil should do everything possible to maintain total control on all NYA assets. Any deal w/ AMZ will ultimately result in AMZ gobbling up and corporatizing the site.
As noted. the ever expanding NYA continues to blow minds. As we highlighted what Neil wrote on T-C, "We know NYA is just a niche and the complete audience is not even aware of us as of yet."
So true.
More on the posting Neil Young Archives Updates: Outtakes, LincVolt Series, Bootlegs, Amazon Deal, New Pages + More.
As they say: "Don't Be Denied"!, and thus is proof that -- indeed -- we aren't.
blessed
truly
First show of December 4, 1970 @ Carnegie Hall is to be the first release of the Bootleg Series according to Neil. Posted yesterday on the front page of the Contrarian. Apparently the second show which started at midnight was widely bootlegged, while the first show was not. Neil says he has master tapes from both, but has decided the first show is the better choice. Looking forward to hearing this one.
ReplyDeleteLove and only love will endure 🙏
Thanks Dan.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed previously that Neil was considering Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles - February 1st, 1971 aka "I’m So Happy That Y’all Came Down".
Now the switch from an official release of a bootleg to a brand new, never heard live recording release.
Not exactly sure how something that was never bootlegged becomes a "bootleg release".?
well, as always, sometimes no explaining neil logic. there's logic and then there's 'neil logic".
shakey for sure -- in all the best sense of the word. :)
In a general sense, speculation is always a dangerous pass time. But with Neil it’s even more futile. Until a product is actually in our hands, we must remain optimistically guarded with our expectations. And let’s face it..... would we really want Neil to be anything other than who he is? He is a unique and gifted animal, which is definitely just part of his charm really. It will always be a wait and see dilemma for us rusties. Given what the world has been through this year, dealing with Neil’s idiosyncratic nature seems fairly insignificant don’t you think?
ReplyDeletePeace to ALL 🙏
So close, yet so far... why not release BOTH Dec 4, 1970 shows? This is a crowd that would enjoy the compare-and-contrast exercise!
ReplyDeleteSent to NYA
ReplyDeleteNeil
Rumor has it Crazy Horse is reconvening in South Dakota at Billy's home studio for some socially distanced jams...
Will they be recorded and released on NYA?
Hope you are well!
Appreciate you, mi compadre
T
@T, are you referring to the recent comments Ralph made in an interview to a Norwegian gentleman? I took that more in the "wishful thinking possibility"vein rather than concrete plans. But you never do know. Right? I'd love it for Neil to get out and play with the boys again, but I think Neil is quite busy with NYA projects now and is trying to take real good care not to expose himself to COVID.
ReplyDelete