A new Neil Young with Crazy Horse album titled Early Daze, which is comprised of ten early studio recordings, will be released on June 28.
Early Daze features unreleased songs such as "Look At All the Things" and a studio version of "Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown". The album's 1st preview track, "Everybody's Alone" is streaming below as "Official Audio".
The album isn't likely to be considered essential since Early Daze mainly contains unreleased versions, alternative mixes, stereo mixes instead of mono.
"Early Daze" will be released as #1 in the "Neil Young Special Release Series" in CD, LP, limited clear vinyl edition with poster.
Here are track list notes via Rusted Moon:
1. Dance Dance Dance (released on Neil Young - Archives Vol. I.)
2. Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown (previously unreleased version)
3. Winterlong (previously unreleased version)
4. Everybody’s Alone (Different Mix, released on Archives Vol. I)
5. Wonderin’ (previously unreleased version)
6. Cinnamon Girl (Original 7” mono mix. Released on April 20, 1970. Includes guitar outro that is missing from the LP version.)
7. Look At All The Things (previously unreleased version)
8. Helpless (previously unreleased version)
9. Birds (previously unreleased stereo mix). Mono mix released as B-side of “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”)
10. Down By The River (previously unreleased version with alternate vocals)
"Look At All The Things" (Official Audio)
If they're truly different versions with noticeably different vocals or instruments, then yeah, could be good. I'll reserve full judgement until I hear "Look At All The Things". But I predict I'll spend more time with it than either Before & After or FU##in Up.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read Shakey, and these final sessions with the Danny Whitten Crazy Horse were discussed, I remember really wanting to hear this stuff. Looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteWill this be the I Believe In You with the sleigh bells?
Looking forward to Early Daze. The surreal part is, I remember reading about it in Waging Heavy Peace (A Hippie Dream)--about 12 years ago now.
ReplyDeleteI hope to keep some presence on TW, assuming I don't need to step away for sheer peace of mind. I understand the value of free speech. At the same time, people who aren't anti-social usually find a moderately pleasant environment incentivizing. (I offer this as food for thought to any computer cowboys looking to maintain a thriving cyber-forum.)
Yes, Peace of Mind is preferred. But Neil Young has a lot to say about injustice, War, and planet wrecking. So, the topics follow.
ReplyDeleteLet Love Reign. “Let them Love” as grandpa used to say.
Have a great day, all of you, and I do mean that sincerely.
I can’t wait for Early Daze. I need to read Shakey again.
Your Brother Alan in Seattle
Yes, part of the purpose of this forum may be for us to ask challenging questions and hammer out our not-so-modest proposals. I respect the conscience and passion that draws folks to use their voices. I just don’t want to get sucked into the vortex of polemics and cheap point-scoring. I partly blame corporate news and social media, spoon-feeding the unwary and the desperate sponsor-approved sensationalism in soundbites and nifty memes. Dime store punditry relies on a careful balance of doomsaying and pandering. Sometimes it’s deliberate mis/disinformation, sometimes short-sighted irresponsibility. The chronic effects of this can be summarized as “shit in, shit out.”
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, this must also represent shortcomings in the education system regarding critical thinking and media literacy. What’s a bit tragic is that who have well-founded, clearly articulated concerns will simultaneously believe anything that pops up on the internet or TV, as long as it reinforces the view they’ve already decided on, the narrative internalized. I strongly believe much of it comes from deeply rooted unhappiness, related to overwhelming systemic failures. Yet misery loves company. The attitude sometimes to be that life sucks, so we might as well tear everything down as violently as possible. This is at best reckless, at worst bordering on the nihilistic.
Moving fast and destroying stuff won’t create solutions. In the end, it won’t even vent your frustration. “If you go talking about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out.” Unless your goal is to seize power by keeping the populace in a constant state of anger and existential dread, I don’t see any utility or benefit in this approach.
Neil’s sound quality team are in a good place right now, where they can safely top the previously golden Archives Vol 1 mixes with new analog masters to be included alongside unheard 1969 Crazy Horse tracks. Revisiting Everybody’s Alone, for instance, seems indulgent at first but does make sense when we consider that it was last mastered for Blu-Ray audio and CD and has never seen a vinyl pressing. Early Daze will certainly prove a gem that sits easily between EKTIN and ATGR. New Danny Whitten version lands tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteAnd now that I've heard it I prefer the later album version, but it's still nice to hear Neil playing on it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alan… the reference to Rabelais feels like going out on a limb even for me. As the name may suggest, Francois Rabelais was French. In the English-speaking world (maybe more so in the US), there are probably many educated, well-read people who never come across Gargantua and Pantagruel. Even doing a literature degree, I only found that stuff on my own initiative. (People may be aware of the word “gargantuan”, meaning enormous or engorged. Whether they know it’s related to the name of a grotesque giant from Renaissance-era French satire is another story.)
ReplyDeleteI’m mentioning all this explicitly because I think the world could be a better, richer place if more people did know.
My take is that the “big shift” is always already happening. The world we live in is not static. Our home planet is constantly in motion, always rotating, and so are we in are our lives. Life is change. And impermanence, paradoxically, is permanent on earth. Steadiness comes from within—and from each other when we strive together. In other words, it comes from mutual recognition. If anyone’s asking “recognition of what?”, I’d rather let them come up with their own answers to that, in their own words.
*** I’ll have to listen to the Early Daze preview tracks soon. Winterlong has always been a favorite, so I’m especially interested in alternate takes of that one.
Also: rest in harmony, Johnny Barbata.
ReplyDeleteThe take of Look at All the Things with Neil was quite interesting, Neil providing that certain power that only he could bring back then. A little more sparse, but still with great emotion.
ReplyDeleteI will say that I do like the version from the Crazy Horse album more, though. You get that jangly piano part from Jack, a better lead vocal from Danny, and those magical backing vocals that really dominate the song. Might be time to give that first Crazy Horse album another listen. I'm sure all the fanatics here have heard it, but just in case anyone here hasn't, I can't recommend it enough. A truly underrated gem.
@ Richie
ReplyDeleteMy first impressions of the Early Daze version of Look At All The Things align with yours.
Got to admit I hadn't realised that it was a track from Crazy Horse's first album until I listened to it yesterday and wondered why it sounded so familiar! Bit embarrassing as I used to own that album until I had to sell it off with a bunch of others to raise some funds in my student days.
So I listened to the full Crazy Horse album again last night and again I am in agreement with your preference for the version on there. In addition to what you say I like the solo from Nils as well. It's great to hear Neil's voice on the Early Daze version though, and I'm glad we have it.
The Crazy Horse album also has Dance Dance Dance and Downtown on it, which are also coming with Early Daze. Will be interesting to compare those versions too.
And I'd also agree that if anyone hasn't heard the Crazy Horse album it's worth checking out. It's on NYA now along with a bunch of outtakes. Quite a variety of material and styles and of course it has the original I Don't Wanna Talk About It as well as Nils Lofren's Beggars Day.
I have the Crazy Horse LP somewhere—I may gift it a listen if I can unearth it. Got it used (I think…) and I’m certain what condition vinyl is in.
ReplyDeleteOne way to look at Early Daze may be as a tribute to, or celebration of, Danny Whitten. It may be way too early for such a sweeping assessment, but that specter is certainly present when thinking of the Rockets and early Horse recordings. I’m not imagining a “requiem” so much as a wake, maybe less harrowing than TtN but still plenty of emotional subtext.
The first two Crazy Horse albums (Danny, Jack, and Nils are only on the first) are streamable at Neil Young Archives.
ReplyDeleteCrazy Moon is on there too, with Poncho, Neil, and a bunch of guest performers. Great late 70s set, it would be cool to see some of these tunes on a Timeline Concert.
ReplyDeleteOn my first listen at NYA, and I'm not sure I agree with Jimmy McDonough that this is "some of the greatest rock 'n roll ever made", or words to that effect. Mostly I find it innaresting that he did a solo gig at the Canterbury House in Ann Arbor (per the recent Timeline Concert) and a day later he was in LA recording with these guys.
ReplyDeleteTotally worth the price of the vinyl just for Helpless and the album cover alone. It's like going back in time and hearing these songs for the first time. Birds and Down by the River sound so amazing. I'm in heaven.
ReplyDelete