"One of the rarest records in the world": NEIL YOUNG UNRELEASED TRANS TEST PRESSING w/ UNRELEASED EXTRA TRACK | ebay

"One of the rarest records in the world": NEIL YOUNG UNRELEASED TRANS TEST PRESSING w/ UNRELEASED EXTRA TRACK via ebay
(Click photo to enlarge)

 

From  ebay listing for NEIL YOUNG UNRELEASED TRANS TEST PRESSING w/ UNRELEASED EXTRA TRACK: (thanks johnny q!)

Neil Young's personal European test pressing of his 1982 album Trans, with the unreleased track “If You Got Love."  This is certainly one of the rarest records in the world.

This track was pulled from the album at the last minute, and has never been released. As Wikipedia notes, After a year of work, the album was mixed in a hurry because Young was eager to go out on tour, and a last-minute change in the running order is evident in the inclusion of a song called "If You Got Love" in the track listing and lyric sheet, even though it is not on the album.

The provenance is best explained by the included letter of authenticity from longtime Neil associate Joel Bernstein:

This letter is to authenticate one 12" vinyl LP test pressing made by German CBS of Neil Young’s 1982 album Trans, with the unreleased track “If You Got Love”. This was one of a few test pressings given to Neil by a European record company executive, while on the Trans tour in Europe in the fall of 1982.  I was the guitar tech on that tour and Neil gave this copy to me personally.

I photographed Neil Young for the first time at his first East Coast show with Crazy Horse, at the Bitter End in New York City, in February 1969. I went on to work with Neil extensively, as both his and CSNY’s tour photographer, and shooting him for eighteen of his album covers (including After The Gold Rush, Harvest, Time Fades Away, Tonight’s The Night, Decade, Rust Never Sleeps and Greatest Hits) plus numerous other official projects including publicity, advertising, songbooks, posters, et al. On various tours from 1973-1993, I also worked with Neil as his guitar technician; and served as his archivist for 20 years, researching and presenting him with every source for audio, artwork and text used in his massive box set Archives Vol. 1  1963-1972.

During the course of working for Neil, he gave me various acetates, test pressings, set lists and other memorabilia. Neil knew I was a collector and he wasn’t, so once he was done with things like this, instead of throwing it away, he often gave it to me. Sincerely, Joel Bernstein

As far as we can determine, the only surviving examples of Trans with “If You Got Love" are the test pressings given to Neil Young. In virtually mint condition and probably played no more than once or twice.

With Joel Bernstein’s letter of authenticity, and Recordmecca’s lifetime guarantee of authenticity.

Joel Bernstein’s letter of authenticity

 

For more on Neil Young's 1982 album TRANS, see TRANS: A Little Bit of Essential Neil Young.

Neil Young - TRANS (1982)

Cropped Album Cover

(See TRANS: A Little Bit of Essential Neil Young)

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