Comment of the Moment: Neil Young Archives Outtake - "White Line" w/ Crazy Horse - 1975

The Early Days of Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Palladium, New York City - 11/18/76 NYC
Photo by Andrew Jarmus 

(see The Unreleased Albums of Neil Young & Crazy Horse | Aquarium Drunkard )

 

 

A new outtake of "White Line" w/ Crazy Horse from 1975 was posted on Neil Young Archives last week.

Here is the Comment of the Moment on Neil Young Archives Outtake: "White Line" w/ Crazy Horse - 1975 | NYA  by Tomatron:

Often the best Neil Young versions are those caught at the moment the band has learned the song. 

Some of these outtakes give us a glimpse of one take before this moment. Here the Horse haven’t reached the 90s gallop they hit down that old White Line, satisfied for now to plod along while they feel it out. The take lacks the emotional drive of the earlier acoustic performances as well as the horsepower with which the band would later charge it, but the hazy post-Dume field is a fine place for a test run, and the lead guitar goes to a higher place than it would in future outings. These licks lend a wistfulness that would ultimately be replaced with Ragged Glory’s stubborn macho nickel-wound riffs.

To my ears, the first element to stand out from the new NYCH ‘75 mix was the backing vocals, which remind me a lot of Ben Keith’s harmonizings. To my surprise, these were not sung by Crazy Horse, according to the archives. Neil Young is credited with all the vocals. Turns out the same is the case for Like A Hurricane, recorded two days later. Apparently Neil was overdubbing all the vocal parts, which makes sense in an environment where they are focused on capturing the loud magic in the studio. Then he and Briggs, following a playback session, would drop in some additional harmony and doubling parts. 

All the guys would go on to sing on both of those tunes the next chance they got. 

Thanks Tomatron for the CotM.

Yeah, the goldrush continues with gems from the Archives.  How many more of these types of one off random takes could exist? The motherlode keeps on giving and the miners keep on mining.

More on Neil Young Archives Outtake: "White Line" w/ Crazy Horse - 1975 | NYA.

Outtake: White Line - 1975 | NYA image via Neil Young Unreleased - NYU (Click photo to enlarge) 

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