More "TOAST": Neil Young Unreleased 2001 Album w/ Crazy Horse Set for 8th July, 2022

"TOAST":  Neil Young Unreleased 2001 Album w/ Crazy Horse 

As mentioned here over the years, the elusive unreleased 2001 album by Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse "TOAST" may eventually see the light of day and the ears of rusties.

Per Warner Music, release date is now set for  8th July, 2022 

A 7-song unreleased album from Neil Young and Crazy Horse, recorded at Toast studio in San Francisco in late 2000 and early 2001. It was shelved at the time and Are You Passionate was the next album Neil released. Different versions of 4 songs appeared on Are You Passionate, but the other 3 songs are completely unreleased. This is one of the legendary “lost” albums in Neil’s catalog.

Toast Track Listing

01. Quit ...5:24
02. Standing in the Light of Love (previously unreleased)...4:18
03. Goin' Home ....7:52
04. Timberline  (previously unreleased and never played live)...4:10
05. Gateway of Love  (previously unreleased)...10:10
06 .How Ya Doin'? (aka "Mr. Disappointment")...7:00
07. Boom Boom Boom (aka "She's A Healer")...13:10

 

Neil Young with Crazy Horse - Standing in the Light of Love (Official Audio from Toast)

"TOAST": Neil Young Archives

 

Previously, Neil Young shared his deeply personal thoughts on the unreleased and most curious 2001 album "Toast" with Crazy Horse  -- one of the “great lost masterpieces”. (See  "Toast" - A Roadstory: Neil Young Shares Thoughts on Unreleased 2001 Album.)

This week, Neil Young posts on NYA:

The music of Toast is about a relationship. There is a time in many relationships that go bad, a time long before the break up, where it dawns on one of the people, maybe both, that it’s over. This was that time.

The sound is murky and dark, but not in a bad way. Fat. From the first notes of Toast, I can feel the sadness that permeates the recording. One song, with its refrain, ”Don’t say you love me”, is called ‘Quit’. The next one, sort of like a Deep Purple hit, is called ‘Standing in the Light of Love’. “I don’t wanna get personal, or have you put me on the spot” is the opening line. Then came ‘Goin Home’. A lady is lost in her car. The dark city surrounds her - past present and future. It’s a scary place. You be the judge.

Now the scene changes to a religious guy who just lost his job. He’s turning on Jesus. He can’t cut any more trees. He’s a logger. Finally, The ‘Gateway of Love’ beckons with “background noise on a changing sky”.

I had forgotten about these songs, put them out of my mind and went on living my life.

It must be said that here Crazy Horse shows a depth never seen or heard before on any other Horse recording. For the greatest group I have ever met - CRAZY HORSE, this is a pinnacle. Where they let me go, where they took me, was unbelievable. I couldn’t stay.

 

Poncho
Köln, Germany - July 12, 2013
Photo by Roel van Dijk's
(Click photo to enlarge) 

In addition, the recent interview with Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, Neil Young, Crazy Horse Guitarist | The Aquarium Drunkard contained further revelations on the album "Toast":

Frank “Poncho” Sampedro: Toast is whole ‘nother story. 

Here we are in the Mission District in San Francisco, where we open the back door to the studio and smoke a cigarette and we watch giant rats running all over the place. They’re so evolved. Not just black and brown. They’re pintos. They’re big. The whole neighborhoods is just crazy dilapidated. Usually, Neil would call us, and he’d have songs. [This time] we got to that place and he didn’t have that many songs. He was writing. We spent a lot of days just walking around the studio and watching TV. 

There was really nothing to do. There was a donut shop on one corner and a Mexican place about a block away. So, we’re in that environment and we’re watching Neil sit there with his legs crossed on the floor, holding a yellow pad of paper and a pen. And that’s not just for a couple of days. That’s for a couple of months. 

Then out of nowhere, we start playing the songs and we’re not really getting them great.

Then all of a sudden, Elliot says he’s got this tour for us. So, we take off and we go to South America and holy shit, man. That was a blast. We’re playing giant places. One hundred and eighty thousand people or two hundred thousand. In Buenos Aires, the whole crowd got so into it [they were] doing these soccer chants of the melodies and… I’d love to hear some of those tapes. Louder than us. It was really fun. Plus, Billy’s Italian, Ralph’s Puerto Rican, both my parents are from Spain. So, we have this Latin influence in the band. We were big into salsa music. When we got back from that, we went right back into Toast. It’s funny that all the songs kind of have a little Latin feel to them. Things were different. It was like a different session from the time we got back. 

And then those sessions ["Toast]  ended.

More on  recent interview with Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, Neil Young, Crazy Horse Guitarist | The Aquarium Drunkard. 

Are You Passionate? - 2002

by Neil Young w/ Booker T & M.G.’s

(See thoughts on would there have been a "Greendale" without "Are You Passionate?"?  And is there a linkage back to "Sleeps With Angels"?  on Comment of the Moment: "Toast" - A Roadstory: Neil Young Shares Thoughts on Unreleased 2001 Album by Meta Rocker)

 

Which brings us to the Comment of the Moment on "Toast" - A Roadstory: Neil Young Shares Thoughts on Unreleased 2001 Album by Tony "Hambone" Hammond in the UK.

 

So "Toast" is a long time coming while sitting on the sidelines always overtaken by other releases.

Also, see Whatever happened to... “Toast” by Neil Young & Crazy Horse? 

Also, see ‘Are You Passionate?’ Turns 10 Years Old and Neil Young's Album of the Week: 'Are You Passionate?' + Defending AYP?

'Are You Passionate?' by Neil Young w/ Booker T & M.G.’s
NYA Album of the Week - Friday, December 13, 2019

 

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