INTERVIEW: Stephen Stills on CSNY - "We were all quite full of ourselves" | Uncut + Deja Vu 50th Anniversary Streaming Now | NYA

Stephen StillsPhoto by Michael Putland/Getty Images

 

In a recent interview, Graham Nash discussed the Deja Vu re-issue boxset and what it was like working with Neil Young. 

Today, another  interview on the Deja Vu re-issue boxset and working with Neil Young, this time with Stephen Stills. Also, the full Deja Vu 50th Anniversary edition is now streaming on NYA (more below).

From Stephen Stills on CSNY: "We were all quite full of ourselves"  | Uncut by Peter Watts:

Uncut: How did Neil change the dynamic?

Stephen Stills: Neil was one of those who wanted us to sing it and play it at the same time and be done, and the first time you get it right – that’s the take. I like a bit more polish so I’m not actually that fond of these extra tracks in the reissue. I was thinking about this last night and for me it’s like seeing the mannequins undressed in the shop window. Why do you want to put these out there even though they sound great?

Isn’t there a raw honesty to them?   

Yeah, if you say so. 

For me it sounds like we’d just got the words correctly in the right order. Some of it is good. It was odd. I had a knee replacement last year so I was flat on my back while these were being collected and a bit distracted. They sent me MP3 files that sounded like rancid shit, the worst car radio on an AM setting. That was very hard for me to listen so I didn’t realise they had taken such a deep dive into my vault. They went on this excursion, it was like this archaeological dig, so when the final set finally turned up I was, “Wait, what’s all this?” 

Neil has always been the smartest one of us, he gave us three songs and kept the rest. 

He’s now put together his own archive over the years, and I found that quite clever actually. It’s what I was supposed to be doing but with one thing or another it went out the way. So I have mixed feelings. I’ve often got my foot stuck in my mouth so I don’t want to make too much of it. 

But it’s nice to remember that time and this is very reflective of it.

Fans seem to always want more. 

Well, they think they do.

Neil seems to release everything. 

He releases everything in huge batches. I always thought it was excessive but he seems to do it very well. I’m happy for him and look forward to be playing with him now I am free to mix and mingle.

Full interview at  Stephen Stills on CSNY: "We were all quite full of ourselves"  | Uncut by Peter Watts.

Also, see INTERVIEW: Graham Nash On Deja Vu Re-Issue, Neil Young & More.

For more, see REVIEW: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Déjà Vu Debut Celebrates 50 Years With An Expansive 4-CD/1-LP Collection Featuring The Original Album Remastered on May 14th | Harvey Kubernik.

Deja Vu - 50th Anniversary (Deluxe Edition)

(1 LP/4 CD boxed set @ $99.98)

(Please shop locally & independently. But if you can't, we appreciate your supporting Thrasher's Wheat by clicking this link .Thank you!!) 

 

Deja Vu 50th Anniversary - Outtakes Disc #3 | NYA

 

Also, the full 4 disc Deja Vu 50th Anniversary edition is now streaming on NYA (more below).

Also, see ESSAY: 50th Anniversary of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Deja Vu" by Harvey Kubernik.

Deja Vu Photo Composites
via Susan Miller 

 

See 50th Anniversary of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Deja Vu" by Harvey Kubernik

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INTERVIEW: Graham Nash On Deja Vu Re-Issue, Neil Young & more

Graham Nash  

In a recent interview, Graham Nash discusses the Deja Vu re-issue boxset, Neil Young, and more in a BBC radio broadcast on May 09, 2021.

  

 

Graham Nash  also discusses Joni Mitchell,  Jerry Garcia and The Byrds.

Regarding Neil Young, Graham Nash says (thanks Rusted Moon !):

"Neil brought a darker facet to our music - not darker in a negative sense, but you know what I mean: it's Neil Young, everything is a little bit darker than ordinary sunshine."

For more, see REVIEW: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Déjà Vu Debut Celebrates 50 Years With An Expansive 4-CD/1-LP Collection Featuring The Original Album Remastered on May 14th | Harvey Kubernik.

Deja Vu - 50th Anniversary (Deluxe Edition)

(1 LP/4 CD boxed set @ $99.98)

(Please shop locally & independently. But if you can't, we appreciate your supporting Thrasher's Wheat by clicking this link .Thank you!!) 

 

Also, see ESSAY: 50th Anniversary of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Deja Vu" by Harvey Kubernik.

Deja Vu Photo Composites
via Susan Miller 

See 50th Anniversary of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Deja Vu" by Harvey Kubernik

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The Brothers Comatose Cover "Old Man" (by Neil Young) + The Story Behind the Song

The Brothers Comatose - "Old Man" (by Neil Young)

The Brothers Comatose cover the song "Old Man" by Neil Young.

 

 

 

enjoy.

Although some have serious reservations, the song "Old Man" is about a ranch hand at what would become known as "Broken Arrow".

The "Old Man" Louis Avala & Neil Young
1970 Dutch documentary film by Wim Van der Linden

Another possibility is that the song "Old Man" is really about Neil's own father, Scott Young being the real "old man" behind the song.

With Father's Day approaching ... from a not so young man to our old man...

The "Old Man" Louis Avala
YouTube - Neil Young - Old Man - Live at Massey Hall
From his 1972 album Harvest, "Old Man" is definitely one of Mr Young's most enduring songs of all time with brilliant banjo and steel guitar. James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt provide backing vocals.

The song was inspired by the caretaker of the Northern California Broken Arrow Ranch -- with over 1,000+ acres of prime land with views of both San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean -- which Young purchased for $350,000 in 1970 when he was just 25 years old young.

The song has themes of loneliness and lost love: "Live alone in a paradise that makes me think of two" recalled with a certain pain "love lost/such a cost/give me things that don't get lost."

Yet Neil searches on for that oh-so elusive heart of gold:

"I need someone to love me the whole day through
Oh one look in my eyes and you can tell that's true."

"Neil Young: Heart of Gold" Film
In the film "Heart of Gold", Young introduces the song as follows:

About that time when I wrote (Heart of Gold), and I was touring, I had also -- just, you know, being a rich hippie for the first time -- I had purchased a ranch, and I still live there today.

And there was a couple living on it that were the caretakers, an old gentleman named Louis Avala and his wife Clara. And there was this old blue Jeep there, and Louis took me for a ride in this blue Jeep. He gets me up there on the top side of the place, and there's this lake up there that fed all the pastures, and he says, 'Well, tell me, how does a young man like yourself have enough money to buy a place like this?'

And I said, 'Well, just lucky, Louie, just real lucky.' And he said, 'Well, that's the darndest thing I ever heard.'

And I wrote this song for him.

Neil Young at Broken Arrow Ranch - 1971
Photo by Henry Diltz

As we noted earlier this year, photographer Henry Diltz has taken many iconic photos of Neil Young, as well as, many other legendary musicians over the decades.

From Henry Diltz' blog on Morrison Hotel Gallery, here is the story about spending a day at Broken Arrow Ranch with Neil Young and the "Old Man".

"Old man look at my life..."

"Neil Young bought a ranch in Northern California which he named "Broken Arrow Ranch". I went up there a few times with Gary Burden in 1971 and stayed a couple days taking pictures. Gary was my art director/ partner and still works with Neil. We used to walk around the ranch in the morning, smoking a fatty and checking things out around the property.

The Ranch came with a foreman named Louis Avila who had been there for years. This particular morning we stopped by the foreman's bungalow and he and Neil had a talk on the porch. This was in 1971, a year before his album Harvest came out and as the story goes, this is the "Old Man" that Neil sings about.

We later went on to look in a barn where Neil had some guitars. He pulled out a little old Martin guitar, sat on a hay bale, and played a tune. How great it was to be a fly on the wall and document everything that happened. Lots of those pictures got used in Neil Young Songbooks in the 70's."

--Henry Diltz

Also, watch & listen to why Neil Young will never sing "Old Man" with a band again.

The Young Man Before Becoming An Old Man
Neil Young - 1967 (Age 22)
Photo by Linda Eastman McCartney

More on Neil Young, "Old Man" & The Story Behind The Song.

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Neil Young – Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide | Uncut

 

Neil Young – Deluxe Ultimate Music Guidevia Uncut Magazine

 

The Neil Young – Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide by Uncut Magazine is the definitive, fully updated 148-page guide to all things Neil Young. 

From Buffalo Springfield to Colorado: every album, by every band, is reviewed.

Includes "The Archives: A Deep Dive". 

Rust Never Sleeps - Review

 

To order a copy,  go to Neil Young – Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide | Amazon.com

(Thanks Thos The Boss for the generous share of this hefty addition to the TW reading rooms. Many thanks!)

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PLAYLIST: Neil Young's Unreleased Songs on NYA

Neil Young's Unreleased Songs:
The Unofficial Archive - UPDATE Version 7 (Abridged): 12 November 2019

Recently, we received a note from Jake Z. inquiring about whether there was a list of the songs that Neil Young has put on the Archives but were not released on CD.

Jake was asking because he would like to put together a playlist for his listening pleasure.

So we shared back the invaluable research which long time rustie Robert Broadfoot -- who hails from Germany -- produced as a PDF document that Thrasher's Wheat has been honored to serve as host when we first published the most comprehensive listing of Neil Young’s unreleased material: The Unofficial Archive - Neil Young's Unreleased Songs.

So Jake cross referenced  The Unofficial Archive - Neil Young's Unreleased Songs with the Neil Young Archives and produced the following playlist:

I Wonder     Squires, The     11/23/64
I Wonder     Squires, The     3/8/65
I Ain't Got the Blues     Neil Young     12/15/65
It's My Time     Mynah Birds, The     1/1/66
Go On and Cry     Mynah Birds, The     1/1/66
Flying on the Ground Is Wrong     Neil Young     6/10/66
Runaround Babe     Neil Young     6/10/66
Expecting to Fly     Neil Young     5/2/67
Whiskey Boot Hill     Neil Young     5/6/67
High School Graduation     Neil Young     8/15/67
Broken Arrow     Neil Young     8/15/67
This Is It!     Buffalo Springfield     5/5/68
Here We Are in the Years     Neil Young     10/2/68
Cinnamon Girl     Neil Young with Crazy Horse     3/20/69
Birds     Neil Young with Crazy Horse     8/3/69
I've Loved Her So Long     Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young     8/28/69
Cinnamon Girl     Neil Young with Crazy Horse     3/7/70
When You Dance, I Can Really Love     Neil Young with Crazy Horse     4/6/70
Dance Dance Dance     Neil Young with The Stray Gators     2/7/71
Loner, The     Neil Young with The Stray Gators     2/5/73
Human Highway     Neil Young     12/5/73
Ambulance Blues     Neil Young     12/5/73
Mellow My Mind     Neil Young     12/8/73
Tonight's the Night     Neil Young     3/4/74
Barefoot Floors     Neil Young     6/15/74
Dead Man Theme     Neil Young     3/27/95
Sign of Love     Neil Young with Dave Grohl     4/27/10
Shut It Down 2020     Neil Young with Crazy Horse     4/25/19

 

If you see any corrections or updates, please share a comment below.

Also, see Neil Young's Unreleased Songs: UNCLE EDDIE'S CUPBOARD + The Unofficial Archive - UPDATE Vers. 7 + COTM.

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The Unofficial Archive - Neil Young's Unreleased Songs by Robert Broadfoot
Version 7 (Abridged): 12 November 2019

DOWNLOAD FILE @ NY Unofficial Archive Version 7 (Abridged): 12 November 2019.pdf (right click to "Save As")

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