Today's The Day! Neil Young Archives Volume #3 Drops
Ok, so we're finally at September 6 and today's the day!
The massive boxset of Neil Young Archives Volume #3 drops with a total of 22 discs with 17 CD’s and 5 Blu-Rays.
There are 198 Tracks, including 15 unreleased songs and 121 unreleased song versions; 11 Films of which 4 are previously unreleased, along with a 176-page book, a poster, and some exclusive merch.
As we often observe here @ TW: Are we lucky fans or what? Seriously, does it get any better as a music fan to have these riches delivered while the artist themself is not only alive, but thriving into new, uncharted waters.
More on Neil Young’s Archives Vol. III @
- Unboxing Neil Young Archives Vol. III (1976–1987)
- Neil Young Patron ZOOM Call Update: Discusses NYA#3 & More
- Exclusive First Look: Neil Young - Archives Vol. III | Qobuz
- TRACKLIST: Neil Young Archives Vol. III + Comment of the Moment
- Neil Young Archives Vol. III - 17 CD BOX SET - Pre-Order + Promo Video
- Neil Young Archives Volume #3: September Release Planned.
- WHAT IS NEIL YOUNG GOING TO PUT IN NEIL YOUNG ARCHIVES VOL. 4? | NYU
- Neil Young Archives Volume #4 Creation Begins
Labels: archives, boxset, neil young, neil young archives, neil young archives volume III, nya
by thrasher@PermaLink: 9/06/2024 04:30:00 PM
90 comments
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90 Comments:
per Robert @ NYU, thus far, only the 16 tracks from the "Takes" compilation album are streaming on NYA. Also, downloads are not yet available.
https://x.com/UnreleasedNeil/status/1832111264405057687
NYA 2 is $88 on Amazon now. I will not rush to buy NYA 3 ( must wait at least until payday anyway). Once the frenzy dies down a bit the price will drop. I would have liked to buy the limited edition version, it might have been, but the humble CD version gets me what I need. Then I can make my own version of Takes. Regular version of NYA3 does not come with “Takes” -Have I got that right?
I am very excited to listen to the Nicolette Larson session, among other things. What a great time for us long term NY fans as we receive the 3rd volume of the Archives series. It’s an embarrassment of riches even for those of us who run out of money from paycheck to paycheck with regularity. Even the poorest fan can afford NYA on line (I hope!) and I feel lucky to be contemplating the certain purchase this new 17 disc set. What a luxury! Even the discs which contain album songs we all have already will be interesting It’s “Neil’s take on what really matters from this album or that. What a large and generous body of music he has given us. Thanks Neil!
Please come visit us in the great PNW with your new band tour. We are jonesing here for your return!
Your Brother Alan in Seattle
Lemme just say, whilst I cannot afford the “cash grab” of a vol 3 arch on cd quality, I AM COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY BY THE TAKES D/L and cannot wait fer the vinyl. Today is a good day. Any day w/Neil is a good day. No matter what else transpires. Love it!
I'm a bit frustrated to be honest. I really feel like NYA has botched this roll-out.
I've subscribed and paid a membership fee for NYA since they first started charging. Happy to do it and happy to live with the quirks and tech issues, speed bumps along the way. Previously, albums would get dropped a day or two early on the site. I remember the big day Volume 2 dropped.
But on this one, they're just dropping the Takes album? The site is literally named after the Archives. Possibly it seems, that those that ordered through the Greedy Hand haven't gotten their physical sets and even the download codes are delayed. If that's the case, then I totally get it. But still, they had the time to roll this out correctly to those folks, so that's a swing and a miss.
Just a bit bummed out, was really looking forward to today. I've bought phsyical copies of Early Daze and other vinyl releases, but rely on the site for the full Archives releases. I don't feel like too much of a free-loader given the money I've pumped in.
The site used to have live concerts too.. but I think it's regressed a bit from that. I didn't mind when the streams of the CH Canadian shows crashed and burned. At least the effort was there. My all time favorite memory of the site will be the night the Crazy Horse show streamed in 2018. It meant a late night (being east coast myself), but seeing the Horse open with Big Time and play just a wonderful set was such a magic experience. I just miss that edge and magic. (A close second was when Running Dry popped up during the acoustic show being streamed live, just a stunning moment).
Sorry.... don't mean to be so negative today. The unboxing video was wonderful. And it's still a good day, just hope to see the full release on the Archives site. The stuff on the Takes release is great, so consider me excited and ready to take the plunge.
I still have that card from the first box set. The deal was that Vol II&III can be downloaded, right? Had anyone done that?
Although the download was delayed, it’s up now, but I only got 161 out of 222 songs. I’m not that knowledgeable about downloading, but everything looked good until it finished and I realized that only some of the songs actually downloaded. That and the fact that my computer scrambled the tracks out of order. There are several people on Steve Hoffman that are having the same issues I had.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter that much because I’ll be getting my physical box later in the week. So 161 songs will keep me going until then. What I’ve had time to listen to so far has been remarkable (no surprise).
The issues seem to be typical for NYA. This isn’t a complaint, just an observation. They’re doing their best I know, and I think we all need to understand that this site is only run by a small number of dedicated folks. It’s not like they have millions of dollars to work with This is an artist run business, so there will be issues to work through. Just remember that soon everything from Volume III will be available on NYA. We all just need to be patient.
Peace to all 🙏
Let It Shine streaming is fantastic, a real treat. I am sympathetic to those who are frustrated with Tech Issues. I am not in that group because I was too broke to buy NYA3 on presale. Sail Away sounds so good from Takes, probably a first take.
Lady Wingshot is a classic. How many artists (other than Dylan & Neil) have these kinds of Epic songs tucked away in a vault waiting to see the light of day after many decades? Not many. Their unreleased stuff is better than most Artists’ main body of work. We all chose well when we got on the Neil Young train. He is not a cutting edge Tech company but somehow he is getting the job done.
The alternate versions alone are fascinating and spellbinding. Looking forward to a small price drop on the CD set and a delivery of sonic masterpieces in a box on some day in a few weeks perhaps. Thanks Neil!
I am fumbling around in TW with a new format, trying to string words together that make some sense & resonate with you all. I so appreciate you all being along for this ride! Thanks Thrasher! TW is an oasis in this otherwise low nutrition cyberspace. Devo with Neil is a combo I have yet to appreciate from everything I have seen and heard, on Human Highway movie, for instance. This was the season of Nerd Meltdown. Can anyone change my mind?
Your Brother Alan in Seattle
I got the shipping notice for the box yesterday - 7.7 lbs. That's some heavy tuneage!
The downloads include many songs that are corrupted, and or are mislabeled. Not mention they don’t all download at all. I am not a big fan of streaming or downloading music. I prefer a physical release that I can simply insert in my player and enjoy. It seems that most everyone is dealing with problems with the downloads, with the exception of those with software that can resolve the issues. I will simply wait until Monday for my limited box set to arrive.
This is frustrating, but I don’t really care. Of all the artists that I am a completest, Neil has cost me the most money. But I don’t care about that either because his music soothes my heart and soul. Sometimes it can be so frustrating, but if nothing else, Neil has taught me patience. Regardless of the problems and inconveniences, his music is always worth it. I am convinced that this Archive will be one for the ages, and I will enjoy it for years to come.
Peace to all 🙏
Sorry to hear folks having troubles. Though their problems are meaningless, it doesn't make them go away.
Dan Swan i got 218 out of 222 songs on the hi-res download but i've only listened to a live version of Cortez from 1976 from Across the Water, it's great and i can't wait to get the box set, it has shipped, i will get it sometime next week then i'm gonna give it to wifey to wrap it up for me and i will open it on my 70th birthday which is 9/17 - thank you Uncle Neil!
@Shakeydave : My birthday is 9/25, I’ll be 68 so I’m a couple of years behind you. Have a great birthday, and keep on rocking’.
Peace to all 🙏
Just like most of you, I’m kind of waiting for the box to dive into all these treats but I couldn’t help my self and started downloading a portion of the tracks last night. I took a quick listen to so the snapshots tracks and WOW……. Just magical! Hearing Nicolette and Linda come up with harmonies on the fly with just Neil and his guitar. I’m guessing right now that’s gonna be my favorite disc. Looking Forwad…..cheers my friends!
There are a lot of problems with the NYAIII downloads, one of them being how expensive they are. But there are three in particular I wish Neil and company would fix: 1) They need to fix their store so when we download this many files, they reliably download 2) They need to make sure the files are never corrupted. As someone else mentioned, many of the files are (I downloaded "cowgirl in the sand (live and the boarding house)" twice and both times they had horrible noise in the track 3) they need to fix the metadata because right now, when I copy them to my phone, they appear as a single album. If I want to listen to Neil Young the Royal Pineapples, I have to dig through an entire folder of files to find it. For the money, this seems pretty slipshod.
I know the answer to all my problems might be to rip the CDs when they arrive, but I was hoping to not touch those at all. The downloaded files should be right, and we shouldn't have to put up with this crap.
I also thought maybe I could download an album's worth at a time, because when I download cowgirl in the sand (live and the boarding house) all by itself, it's fine. But the store download site doesn't provide check boxes, and when you click Download for a single file, you have to go through the entire process of it downloading and creating the zip file. Terrible, terrible interface.
I had no problems with the “Takes” d/l (only 16 tracks) other than the meta data. It wouldn’t be that difficult to label & order the sequence same as the album instead of Alpha. I used to be able to “customize” or manipulate the sequence but now files seem to be locked? My other gripe is although the presale album drop was Friday my est fedex del (which was not “Free”) will take a full week from the left coast. Third world probs, I know. Just chirping along w/ the choir…
One more thing re: d/l interface. I have never entered a d/l code and had it recognized on the first try. NEVER. I always have to enter, refresh, same for “ My Downloads”. After code is entered & accepted, refresh again for d/l to show. I can only imagine with many multiples of songs to d/l the frustration level also multiplies. Add to this slow or (no) broadband in less populous regions. Ouch.
Thing is, this is the only NYA I've been excited about. I didn't think I or II were that special, to me anyway, but 3 actually has since cool stuff on it. And they've been working on this for years. Didn't anyone in Neil's camp ask if their technology was sufficient? I guess not
Neil could have shipped the boxes in advance to get to us day one. Lots of other people do that.
I just downloaded all the songs again and this time my downloads.zip is bigger than before (29K) and the songs I've listened to so far aren't corrupted. So, if you had problems before, you might want to try again. I'm still miffed that the tags don't break the tracks down into individual albums with artwork specific for each, but if I can at least get all the files and they are in good condition that's something.
One more thing: I sent feedback to both the Greedy Hand Store and to the NYA site and they did reply that they are working on this stuff. If everyone would send them messages with your complaints, we might get some of these issues resolved.
As a person in Europe who will have to pay an additional customs charge of approximately 90 US$ (for the large package) and who will receive that one in between a week or two months later than the average American customer I am always stunned by the attitude of entitlement and poor self-management of expectations shown in these comments. Just as if the digital and analog delivery snags were something new and unheard of.
I recommend Neil Young's Bobfest version of Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues as an antidote.
Box arrived yesterday (I live pretty close to the distribution center in SoCal). Gonna try to pace myself with going through to really absorb it. Otherwise, I feel like it might just come across as "all one song.". One disc per week. So far, can report that Disc 1a (Across the Water) is a great live recording from Budokan. Mystery why he didn't include full set (CD length limitations?) and rearranged the song order from the original show. Still, it is glorious - a deeper immersion than Odeon/Budokan disc from V. II.
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Neil Young Archives Vol. III Takes has gone for three spins in my house, once via Apple Music and Skullcandy earbuds upon its 9/5/24 11PM CST release, and twice this weekend on the living room turntable. For the second go-around on vinyl, I opted for a reverse-order sides playback: 4-3-2-1. This is now my go-to track listing for the typically idiosyncratic compilation. For, while the Vol. III full set seeks to restore order to Neil’s fractured discography, placing album tracks back into their home session contexts, Takes does the complete opposite. It pits these different styles and eras against each other, rarely continuing a theme or even a production value from track to track. However, Takes does attempt to accomplish this chaos chronologically, and fails in doing so, as it cannot commit as fully to that conceit as the comprehensive Archives volumes successfully do. Approaching the teetering structure of the sampler with an aim of highlighting the chaos of Neil’s late 70s-80s output, I am taking advantage of vinyl’s flexibility in sides playback within the confines of its insistence on allowing a whole side to play before going over to the deck to switch or flip it.
Such a limited-selective technique affords the opportunity to start the album with (subjectively speaking, of course) an absolute high point: Razor Love. I love how Neil frames the concept of the Evolution disc: rockabilly, country, and “trans” (his description for the synclavier/Linn drum pruduction that might otherwise be labeled simply “electronic”), all within the same year. The cooled, synthetic instrumentation of Razor Love typifies the strangeness of that era’s work perfectly, and it’s a beautiful, haunting rendition where the spare arrangement casts a glow on the familiar words, taking us into a place more lonesome and lovelorn.
From there we get to bounce between two live styles, the International Harvesters’
tearjerkingly populist state fair country (This Old House), and the 70s throwback garage-based rock of Crazy Horse staple Barstool Blues, performed a year and a half earlier. Side 4 concludes with Last Of His Kind, a true hybrid of Volume III genres: a paean to the working man carried over from the Harvesters’ oeuvre, accentuated by overdubbed acoustics and synclavier touches derived from the digital era of Geffen releases. It’s great to hear the genius work of Summer Songs represented; should a full vinyl release of that project be announced, it would be a very welcome addition to the Special Release Series.
Continuing the backwards-ish journey through the Vol. III era brings us to Side 3, where the original Devo/Young rendition of Into The Black jolts us out of any hazy countrified reverie we might have slipped into. Simply having this absurd genesis of the NYCH classic pressed to vinyl is, as they say, worth the price of admission. It does whet the appetite for a fresh viewing of the undersung director’s cut of Human Highway though! There’s nothing in the world like seeing Neil wail away on Old Black while our old friend Booji Boy opines on the state of rock & roll from his crib synth pulpit. The cassette-grab rarity of Bright Sunny Day follows brilliantly, contrasted of course by the gloss of the Hawks & Doves band with Winter Winds, a fine example of that group’s twangy sound.
Now: taken in this preferred order, the halfway point is achieved with If You Got Love. I know this one has been floating around on the YouTubes and such for a long time, but I’ve been waiting for Vol. III’s release to hear it. My introduction to the song was at last year’s Coastal Tour, where its swirling pump organ and wizened melodies sent the Berkeley Greek Theatre into a zone of reverential bliss. Now: hearing the original studio version of If You Got Love is a true revelation. It’s one of his greatest songs of the 80s for sure, and would’ve been a bonafide hit if not for its 11th-hour removal from Trans.
The controversial side of this take will surely be that the early half of Takes (all 70s) is the one I find less impressive, although it’s still excellent overall. I’m moving onto Disc 1, Side 2, which is kicked off with Sail Away. Unfortunately, this is not the new-to-us original version of Sail Away as advertised on all versions of Vol. III Takes; it’s the one from the Ducks album that came out already as an entry in the Official Bootleg Series, mistakenly included in place of the earlier recording supposedly featured in the box set. Don’t get me wrong, this was a key slice of High Flyin’, the masterful 2023 debut 3xLP album by The Ducks. But such a slip-up is a permanent record of the cracks that show as a result of the marketing of the unwieldy behemoth that is Archives Vol. III. Sorry, but more on that in a minute. For now, let’s keep going with Side 2 because we get a sneak peek at the lost Oceanside Countryside album that begat the Comes A Time record. Overdubs were the name of the game at the Triiad Recording Studios sessions in Ft. Lauderdale Florida, and Neil’s solo stacked guitars sound lovely in this version of the eventual title track to the 1978 album. Next, he takes to the skies with the soaring Lady Wingshot, part of a rehearsal tape I really can’t wait to hear in full. Side 2 goes out with Thrasher, another performance from the Boarding House shows that gave us the definitive Rust Never Sleeps edition. This one is somehow just as gripping as that classic album track.
Our last batch of tunes comes from the oddly sequenced Side 1, jumping straight to 1977 (tomatron’s birth year) with Hey Babe. The American Stars ‘N’ Bars version of this song is one I had ignored for ages, with that easygoing half of the album so dwarfed by Like A Hurricane and Will To Love. But it’s really a sleeper hit, and Neil’s demoing of it here for the future Bullets (Linda Ronstadt & Nicolette Larson) shows off its undeniable hummability. Next up is a step back to Odeon Budokan and the blistering Drive Back, Crazy Horse at their ‘76 grimiest. The fast and loose chronology played with on Side 1 suggests that Takes, when enjoyed digitally, might actually benefit from the shuffle function, a move I usually avoid but which would make for one wild ride across 11 years of Neil Young music.
Hitchhiker (1976): its inclusion on this compilation is a head-scratcher. If Vol. III is a “just for the real fans” affair, then its Takes companion is no greatest hits package. But why throw the previously-released title track on there? We’ve all had the Hitchhiker album for 7 years now, where the song is perfectly placed. In the box set, it’s part of an abridged selection of tunes from Hitchhiker, along with picks from Songs For Judy, another recent Archives vinyl release that doesn’t need the Reader’s Digest treatment. Why not include on Takes one of the Last Waltz tracks? Maybe the original version of Lost In Space? Or skip that disc and throw on something from the end of Road Of Plenty? They got so close to putting out an album with no reruns, but in the end they just couldn’t do it.
More unnecessary limitations are now exposed. This pressing of Hitchhiker is tinnier and flatter than the 2017 LP’s. Missing is the robust resonance of the full-bodied acoustic guitar recording and the depth of reverb signature to Indigo Ranch studios. Does the team care about analog vinyl sources anymore? Or only when it’s convenient? Maybe analog wasn’t possible, with the variety of tracks, but was Takes even taken from a hi-res master? Probably not. The likelihood is, it was assembled to provide a CD sampler incentive to buy the overpriced CD box set, with vinyl as an afterthought, mastered from the 44.1/16 CD source. A shame, coming from the camp that touts “quality whether you want it or not.” Well, we want it. “Be great or be gone,” said Briggs. But is quality being sacrificed to move more units? This weekend we’ve seen NYA/Reprise unprepared to meet demand for downloads, a demand which could have been mitigated had they delivered streaming of the full set to subscribers upon release as promised. This access is an expectation we have when we become Rust- and Patron- level members. Shipping was lax, so people who shelled out $500 don’t even get to hear the music the day it was purported to have been released. We should not settle for lowered standards when the company already has our hard-earned dollars in hand. Since the download debacle, Neil has posted an apology and an explanation for the corrupted file transfer process (currently the only method to get full-quality sound, by the way). Instead of holding subscribing listeners hostage while Warner tries to sell out of box sets, NYA should have been streaming Vol. III on day one.
These gripes now aired, Hitchhiker is a great song, and that album/session has been mined thoroughly, over half its tracks making their way to releases that date from 1977 (Decade) to 2023 (Chrome Dreams), so I suppose it’s in keeping with tradition that its title track too should be recycled. Taken from back to front, Vol. III Takes nearly comes to a close with this Neil Young truism: any given song is just as likely to be found on some other album too, often from the very same take. Rounding out the compilation though is its earliest recording, Let It Shine from the Nippon Budokan Hall, which actually falls into the Archives Vol. II period as well. The ambience of this performance accentuates the high caliber of songwriting at its core, a quality perhaps distracted by the rollicking good times of Let It Shine as played by the big ol’ Stills-Young band a month sooner. Rolling generally backwards in time is a fun way to rock the catalog with plenty of unexpected treats as well as challenges. Ending with Let It Shine, almost the oldest take in the whole set, feels like a fitting way to go out and leave the decade-plus era on a wry and hopeful note back at the start. Having rewound through the chaos, I’m ready to start again with the full Neil Young Archives Vol. III set tomorrow and let its author bring his own particular brand of organization to this sprawling collection.
A most excellent Comment of the Moment on tomatron! You're heading to the TW Hall of Fame.
http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2024/09/comment-of-moment-neil-young-archives.html
Thanks for sharing all of the insights. Your love of vinyl and catching that perfect wave is enviable and palpable. Looking forward to more of your insights insights as physical delivery by humans on EARTH catches up with the digital bots in cyberspace.
"Though our problems are meaningless, it doesn't make them go away."
ps - Question: "Why not include on Takes one of the Last Waltz tracks? Maybe the original version of Lost In Space?" clarify please.
Thank you Thrasher! The Last Waltz tracks and Lost In Space original were alternatives (from the same Vol. III disc) to including Hitchhiker, which Neil had already released on vinyl. But now I see that The Last Waltz does actually have a deluxe vinyl release through Rhino. Still, one of those would have been a less redundant inclusion. My pick would’ve been the first edition of Lost In Space!
I live in the U.K. and received notification on Thursday that my Deluxe box had been shipped. I tracked it through DHL to find a label created on the same day, but now 4 days on no further tracking news. Has anybody in the U.K. any further news on their orders?
G-Man, I'm in exactly the same position as you, but the "Takes" cd and pin badge arrived incredibly quickly so here's hoping that it's not too far away.
Longtime lurker here. Just logged in to register my overall approval of the Archives project in general and also air my minor first world complaints.
First complaint goes all the way back to Volume 1. Seems Neil had long promised that the archives would have "everything." But then there were strange things like Vol. I having every previously released track from Harvest... except Out on the Weekend? Now to a degree the cabinet feature on the website fills in these holes, especially as new demos are added and some presumably legitimate new finds that were not available when the boxes were compiled.
When Vol. II was released there were some obvious omissions that I had been looking forward to that have circulated forever (Sedan Delivery and White Line from the Zuma sessions). One has since been released on Chrome Dreams, but not sure why it was left off Dume in the first place. And with all the surprises on Dume (to me; been a while since I've read Shakey) like Kansas, Hawaii, Ride My Llama, Pocahontas, Powderfinger I have to wonder: what else did we not get from those sessions that is amazing and hasn't circulated? Couple other issues w/Vol. II such as 3 versions of Love/Art Blues but no Sad Movies. And I hate to put it that way because I love having the 3 versions that show the song's evolution.
Now to Vol. III which has some glaring omissions like Leaving the Top 40 Behind, Your Love Again, Hillbilly Band, Silver and Gold from the Old Ways sessions. And we now have 3 versions of Cortez the killer from March 1976, along with 2 versions each of Stringman and No One Seems to know (which I would be hard pressed to tell apart) and still no Sad Movies! And I gotta put on the bluray to hear After Berlin.
Hate to invoke Donald Rumsfeld in a Neil Young thread, but based on the known unknowns I have to wonder what unknown unknowns there are? Long story short: I appreciate all the material being released and only wish it was more complete.
@G-Man and @Old Black.
Same thing for me. I've got the message "en route to DHL ecommerce distribution center or awaiting processing" on the order tracker.
I have contacted both DHL and Warner Music to get some understanding of what that means, though if there's several of us in the status it almost sounds like DHL are prepping a bulk shipment rather then send individually. I suppose we're so used to day by day tracking of parcels now this has seems all a bit odd and slow.
Will give an update if I hear anything more helpful.
I also got the Takes Cd & Pin pretty quickly too.
Tony "Hambone" UK
Mine has moved from label created to expected delivery this Friday. As far as the downloads go, I still have at least one corrupted track, but so far they sound find otherwise.
G-man and Hambone, mine now showing as "processed" at the DHL centre in Whittier, California. So they're going through the system. I think the fact that we can track the boxes via a reputable courier is great compared to the farce of volume 2, where as I recall the only point of contact was the UK greedy hand.
Same update for me.
I always like those more personal updates, like "your driver Alex is wearing a blue shirt and is 37 minutes away from your location"
Hambone
Mine has processed and is at the dhl centre. So guess we are all in the same boat. I think the thought of them being batched up together for UK delivery is probably correct as it will doubtless keep the costs lower. Now to see how long they take to reach us. My guess is probably Monday, more likely Tuesday next week, but I may be wrong.
I recommend you move closer to the source. Cheer up, buttercup. Fer a lotta folks, myself included, $90 s& h is a bridge too far. Btw, just ordered the 1/2 speed master of Robin Trowers “ Bridge of Sighs” from across the pond. Paid pretty much what I’d expect to pay stateside. Shipping was quicker than left coast to right coast. So. Yeah. Move.
i got the 2-vinyl LP of Takes today in the mail and i am tracking the box set it is in Ohio now and on the way, will get it Friday the13th, a lucky day, in time for my birthday on 9/17 - cheers! - shakeydave
Still no vinyl fer me? If you check your order on Greedy Hand, no tracking updates. Greedy Hand Suks.
Received my giant box today here in Ohio. No issues. Everything looks great. Diving in tonight.
We're starting to get reports that boxes have landed! Mainly western USA.
Received the $240, non-BluRay version of NYA. Very small box, but still excited. It upsets me that the downloadable tracks don't have tags and album art, so I get individual albums on my phone. This forces me to rip these CDs instead of being able to leave them in pristine condition. Anyway, I got the box, so that's good news.
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Ireland??
Listened to ‘Across The Water’ last night, and also watched the accompanying BluRay as well. All I can say is that these first two discs are not only filled to the brim with outstanding musical performances, but some of the best versions of said performances. The sound quality is top notch throughout both versions as well.
The BluRay played perfectly, and although the visuals aren’t up to today’s standards, the content It absolutely amazing. Definitely of its time, but extremely entertaining nonetheless.
The camera work in Japan is sometimes chaotic, but it kind of fits the vibe of the concert. Crazy Horse and Neil look so young, and they simply deliver excellence throughout the whole concert. My favorite part of the film was when they kicked into ‘Southern Man’, the entire audience just rushed to the front of the stage and went bananas. Up until then they seemed to be fairly laid back, but that song just shifted the energy of the whole show.
The London and Glasgow sequences were all shot in black and white, and includes a lot of material from the tour other than just the performances. Again the content is amazing, and entertaining. The performances are fantastic, with The Horse delivering some incredible moments along the way. In these segments Poncho is more up in the mix than the Japan show, so you have the opportunity to understand why he was so important to the overall sound of The Horse.
Overall the performance choices that were made are perfect. I was surprised more than once by the interesting changes made in some of these songs. I don’t wish to spoil the experience for everyone else, so I’ll simply let each person have their own moments of discovery.
Just started ‘Hitchhikin’ Judy’, so more observations coming’.
Peace🙏
@Ron : Typo. I reposted with the correction.
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Okay….. something new with Volume III. Neil occasionally gives an introduction for the upcoming performances included. Just a short story to as a preamble to the music you’re about to experience. I think its an interesting addition, as it adds a personal touch to the proceedings. I’ll be interested in hearing how others feel about this new addition to the Archives.
Hitchhikin’ Judy is excellent. This has some real gems scattered throughout the entire disc. I don’t want to be too specific, but I believe everyone is going to really enjoy this one.
A Snapshot in Time is an excellent ‘fly on the wall’ experience. I would love for this disc to receive a vinyl release. It was interesting to hear the ladies reaction to ’Bite The Bullet’, and Neil’s response. Again; I don’t want to ruin everyone’s discovery experience.
Peace🙏
The Ducks disc appears to be a compilation from the already released album with the addition of ’Cryin’ Eyes. I haven’t spent enough time with the previously released Ducks album, but I recognized most of the performances. Great stuff.
Oceanside / Contryside is another one that deserves a vinyl release. After all, it’s under 40 minutes long. Regardless of the previously released songs, the whole thing just floats along beautifully.
Peace 🙏
Union Hall is a remarkable example of musicians locking into a moment together. The energy is palpable, and the atmosphere is electric. I can understand why Neil added this rehearsal to the Archives. Especially since the chemistry between Neil and Nicolette has so much depth and beauty. The sound quality is really nice considering that it was a two track stereo recording.
No complaints here, because the performances are fantastic. The added highlight for me was the outtake of ‘Please Help me, I’m falling’. What a gorgeous song.
Peace 🙏
So I finally (a week after release?) What is the point of a pre-release (other than to give a label a gauge of sales. Certainly Not for a Fan’s benefit). Lemme just say, if the intent of “Tracks” was to whet my appetite it had EXACTLY the opposite effect. I heard the hi res release before hand. I was hoping for. More. Sonically, at least, w/vinyl. Neil vinyl has always been top shelf. The high watermark. Sadly, not in this case. Not interested in a vinyl mastered from a digital cd source which i suspect this is. Uneven, at best. After being conditioned by Neil himself to not accept cd quality, this is a kick in the face. Akin to an mp3 d/l card included in a bluray box (vol 1). But this is worse. Way. Mostly all Neil vinyl was guaranf’nteed by way of a source stamped on the back of vinyl. Quality. Whether you wanted it or not? Fuk that. It is expected @ this point.You suckers that are happy with cd’s and somehow justify the cost?well good fer you. I was expecting more. Sorry. This sounds like crap. Not Neil. Not Archives. Just a cash grab. My money is just too hard earned to “cough up the bucks”.
I'm ripping the 17 CDs that came with my "cheap" version of NYAIII, and even they are somewhat of a mess. Many have no album names other than "Neil Young Archives, Vol. 3" and all of the 2 CD sets have the same name, so if I didn't change the album names, they'd overwrite one another. Now I don't know if the NYA crew provides the metadata to the online sites or not, but whoever did it, didn't do a great job.
Still, I'm excited. I've been listening daily to the 222 tracks I had downloaded from the store download site, and have been enjoying them thoroughly, and I look forward even more to listening to this particular archives as individual albums instead of a giant playlist.
I even ordered a copy of NYA2 since I don't own it. Might as well catch up on my Neil while I have a chance.
Gary, I did the same (yes, I had to buy the set since the files weren’t ready to stream on release day), and had to modify the album names for 2-3 of the discs in iTunes. But this was far less laborious of a task than extracting all the downloads and completely redoing the metadata would have been. Will have to live with CD quality until the hi-res is up in full. It all sounds pretty good.
I also fixed the artist listed where it wasn’t quite on point, and repaired a couple of spelling typos. I downloaded all the individual disc artwork from the Times-Contrarian and added it to the albums as well, which looks great and helps keep it organized. What has been super helpful in exploring the set is that all the track titles are labeled with their location and date recorded. So you can keep track while listening without having to consult the booklet. I’ve listened to well over half of the volume so far and am having a blast with it.
Quality. Whether you want it or not?
The Boarding House recordings are real treat. Small venue and a fairly rowdy audience, make for great performances from Neil. Looking forward to seeing the BluRay. The second disc takes a left turn with Devo’s performance with Neil during the filming of Human Highway. I’m probably in the minority here but I absolutely love this version. Since the scene was edited down dramatically for the Director’s Cut of the film, I’m pleased that Neil included the entire performance here. We then we return to The Boarding House recordings. A real keeper….this two disc set!!
Peace🙏
Sedan Delivery is mostly the Rust Never Sleeps recordings, but began with Bright Sunny Day which was included in Takes. Not much unreleased material here, but it is chronologically accurate.
Same goes for Coastline, but I would love this sequencing on vinyl. Most of my favorites from American Stars & Bars, and Reactor. Coastline is also on Takes, but the disc ends with Get Up, which sounds like a precursor to Trans. It contains several elements that would be included on Trans. A really short track, but an interesting transition into the next disc.
Peace🙏
“Takes”
I would go for this IF IT ONLY CONTAINED UN-Released songs. Whether new, live, alternate takes, whatever. How many times are fans expected to happily repurchase existing or previously released versions?
(62) I am not Neil’s ATM (although i feel like one). Read the answer from the man himself to another fan: “Don’t Buy It”.
@herbsworld : I can see that you’re frustrated with things, but Neil and his team are working hard on fixing the download problem, so hopefully soon we’ll all be able to receive on the promise. And unfortunately in our current state, everything is costing more than anyone wishes. But economics aren’t really Neil’s fault.
As for all unreleased tracks; I think the original intention behind the Archive series was to document Neil’s entire career. So I don’t think the addition of previously released material is unreasonable. All the sets have included a large number of unreleased songs, and or performances. And now films. So it serves both intentions by providing both.
This whole series is Neil Young archiving his music to his personal satisfaction, so love it or hate it; it’s his project to do what he wants. Perhaps we can at least be grateful for the existence of this huge undertaking. It has required years of research and hard work by everyone involved.
As The Rolling Stones once sang…… “you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need”.
Peace 🙏
tomatron, which page of the Contrarion? I'm just finishing up my rips and didn't realize I'd have to put up with that same brown NYAIII album cover for every album! geez, it's like NYA is living in the dark ages of the Internet or something!
Found 'em! Thank you for mentioning that, and glad to see NYA provided all the covers.
@ Dan: I am trying, just not getting. To yer point Stones also sang, (as did Devo),
(I Can’t get no) Satisfaction.
Trans and Johnny’s Island are spread across a single disc. The Trans songs are simply six tracks from the original album, with a short introduction from Neil on the intention behind the story.
Johnny’s Island is another story altogether. It does contain one track from Trans, but the bulk of it is unreleased music from the recordings done in Hawaii. Followed by a live renditions of Soul of a Woman. The sound quality is a tad rough around the edges. Although the performance is awesome. Then Neil gives an introduction to Love Hotel which is a live recording which they only played twice.
These posts I’ve been sharing are first time listens, and so far I’ve enjoyed everything. These Johnny’s Island recordings are going to require repeated listening to completely digest properly. This is the first disc in the set that I will return to once I finish hearing everything.
Peace🙏
Evolution is a wonderful surprise (for me anyway), although not everyone is a fan of the eighties NY output. I absolutely love everything on this disc. It contains previously released material, and a large collection of unreleased material that I find remarkable. I will be very interested in what others say about this particular disc. But for me; it is a winner.
Peace🙏
But the 80s has since of Neil's best music! I love everything from that decade!
I couldn't afford the big NYAIII box, so I didn't get the Blu-ray discs. Does anyone know if those are going to be featured on archives site or available separately something? Sorry if this is answered elsewhere but I didn't much much time on NYA (I honestly can't stand the website)
@ Gary : I believe everything will be available on NYA sooner or later. And I’m glad I’m not the only one who loves Neil’s eighties output.
Touch The Night is tracks from The Catalyst February 7, 1984. Many people refer to Neil as the godfather of grunge, but this performance is more punk than grunge. Another excellent part of this mammoth set, and The Horse are spot on. I haven’t seen the BluRay yet, so that might have the entire late show.
Peace🙏
Just finished Grey Riders, and what really jumped out was the brilliant musicianship with this particular group. All these folks are exceptional players, and it is clearly on display on this disc. Sound quality fluctuates throughout the set, but the majority is excellent. Misfits (Dakota) is one of several standouts, as is Southern Pacific. Actually; everything here is a standout. So for those that love this era of Neil’s career, this one will certainly impress. It certainly impressed me. Just fantastic.
Road of Plenty is focused on ‘Landing on Water’ with one unreleased song, and two unreleased versions. I was always surprised so many people disparaged this album. It has held up extremely through the years (for me anyway), and this collection is just beautiful. Especially the three new tracks. Just amazing songwriting.
I remember reading in an interview where Neil said he thought that ‘Landing on Water’ would hold up well in the future, and I completely agree. The sequencing of this disc is exceptional.
Peace🙏
‘Summer Songs’ has been available to enjoy on NYA for quite some time now, but I must admit that I have always found it to be a true masterpiece. I know that term gets overused all the time, but in this case, I believe it’s appropriate. Neil alone doing what he does best, creating transcendence with his songs.
I know I keep saying some of these discs should be released on vinyl, but I can’t imagine anyone who would argue otherwise on ‘Summer Songs’. This is peak Neil Young.
So now that I’ve finished my first trip through the CD’s, it’s time to head towards the rest of the BluRays.
Peace 🙏
Reading Dan's comments is both heartening but rather sad for us still awaiting delivery. Here in the U,K, still no sign of my Deluxe box yet I can buy the 17 cd box on Amazon with delivery tomorrow. This saddens me as I and others forked out a large sum of money in July only to find that the delivery system is simply not fit for purpose. As far as I can ascertain my box is in Germany, quite why when I live in the U.K. is a tad baffling, and its been there since last Thursday with seemingly no movement. Who knows when we will receive our goods? Sadly the anticipation raised on 5th September when I was informed my box had shipped is diminishing by the day and 12 days on and still no hard and fast news. It's not the way to treat fans who paid for the Deluxe set.
@G-Man : I agree that our fellow rusties in Europe have fallen through the cracks somehow, and I wish there was some way to speed things up for you folks. When an expensive item like this gets released, and it’s only available through the official website, it should arrive on or before release day. You have every right to be disappointed, but I assure you that it is definitely worth the wait. Hang in there my friend.
Peace to all 🙏
@G-Man : You have every right to be disappointed. When an expensive item like this is only available to purchase through the official website, the customer should receive it either on, or before the release date. There really isn’t any reason why this shouldn’t be the case. I wish there was some way to prevent this from happening, but I can assure you that the set is definitely well worth the wait. Hang in there.
Peace to all 🙏
@G-man - update for my package this afternoon "Cleared customs" in the UK. It's in the country! Have a check on yours.
I am also minded that my partner has just had her first poetry book published in the UK, but Amazon will not sell it in the US as it is not considered commercially viable - this is for a print run of 500 from a small UK press. So she is working out postage will interested individuals outside of the mainstream.
Similarly as a science fiction book fan there are many US publications that I can't get delivered to the UK - they are US only distribution. So I have to rely on a UK bookseller that is presumably buying several titles in bulk through the wholesale market and can afford the postage. So I am a bit thankful that Warner did not go down that route and make it the deluxe set a US-only release and make the rest of us rely on import music suppliers.
So even though we consider Warner to be a big corporate, even they must have commercial and financial considerations for what is essentially a small run release (5,000) for hard core fans only rather than a mainstream release.
That, however, does not excuse them from failing to manage customer expectations properly. If they had said upfront that non-US delivery would take longer then at least we could know we'd have to rely on the download content in the first instance.
Tony Hambone
@G-Man, my box has arrived in the UK today and is going through customs. No info on when I'll get it but at least it's in the UK. To be honest, this amount of time is quite normal for items coming from the U.S. unless the customer is willing to pay a frightening amount of money for the privilege of getting an item here in 2-3 days. I once got a guitar flown over from Texas for a customer of mine and to get it here very rapidly added another £200 to the freight bill. When we bought the box the postage was included in the price so I guess the seller has chosen a cheaper, standard delivery price, and we had no option to pay extra for a faster service. That doesn't make this right though, I agree that we should be able to have our goods if not on release day then a day or so later at the very latest. They had our money early enough to ensure this. But, we're nearly there G-Man, fingers crossed!
Thursday 19th and I got the good news, my box is at the local delivery depot, the bad news, awaiting payment of the Customs charge. I called, paid said £94.10 ($122.20) and now await delivery tomorrow. All in all the box has now cost me $572. It would appear quite a few got through the delivery system without Customs charges, but across the numerous Neil Young fans facebook pages, quite a number like me got stung!!!!
Today I was notified that my deluxe box was at the local depot for delivery, however it was being held until the customs charge was paid. I duly forked out the £94.01 ($122.20) and the box will be with me tomorrow. In total Vol III has now cost me $577!!!!
One of the Bluray disks has an animated film (directed by Micah Nelson) to accompany Trans - well yhe 6 vocoder songs anyway. Its pretty great. Trans is best appreciated without the out of place "extra" songs anyway and when combined with the visuals really recontextualizes the whole thing and makes you get what he was going for. The visuals don't try to hide their modern origin (had he actually made the film he planned way back when it wouldn't have looked anything like this) but it still works perfectly I think.
Friday Volume III finally here. Just browsed the book and the discs, yet to delve in.
Volume III is in my hands. Browsed the book and the discs, but yet to delve into the contents.
Regarding the digital downloads, I hope things have improved for others since I downloaded mine closer to release date. I got it done but it was a pain - lots of corrupted/missing files, which I had to painstakingly track down what was broken and redownload. Made more difficult because the download organizes itself into folders by "artist" with no regard for disk/track order. And the download page on the website is just a dump of files with no track numbers, so scrolling through to identify and find the ones you were missing was a pain. Got it done though. Today I've been spending quite a bit of time resampling down to 96kHz. Why? Well 96kHz is already of debatable utility, but its a level of overkill I can get behind. Neil however insists on everything being 192kHz (quality whether you want it or not right) and not only is this double overkill, it brings with it a higher likelihood of playback issues. 24bit 96kHz has become something of a defacto standard, with even many cell phones able to play it back. 192kHz is much less commonly supported, and often when devices do recognize and play the files, they are really downsampling it in the process. For me personally I run a Plex server so I can stream to the various rooms in my house, and I find chromecast devices get stuttery at 192kHz and work fine at 96kHz. So I often downsample my Neil stuff so as to take up less space/bandwidth, and there is no way in the hell any human is hearing any difference. Something odd I noticed with Archives Vol. 3 specifically is on several songs I had to reduce the gain considerably to avoid clipping when resampling. Especially the Boarding House songs, had to drop down to 65%. I wonder what the deal is there? Lots of high frequency noise on those tracks maybe right in the peaky part of the anti-aliasing filter? Hard to say. I wonder though if this could be the root cause of some people's complaints about sound quality of the downloads. If you are trying to play back on a device that doesn't really do 192kHz and is downsampling on the fly, could be doing a bad job of this and leaving you with lots of clipping noise. Sorry for the small novel just random thoughts running through my brain.
My volume 3 box is sitting on my coffee table and I'm browsing the contents. I collected it today from Parcelforce's local depot. I could have picked it up 3 days ago but have been out of town. This looks like the best one yet!
So I realize I'm mostly talking to myself but hopefully someone gets some use from my ramblings - I stand corrected for what I said earlier, there isn't some esoteric resampling issue its way more simple than that. Rather the files that had clipping issues after resampling were because the original track also had bad clipping issues - as in nasty digital distortion from a corrupted file. So far been able to resolve the issues by re-downloading the offending file, but the detective work to find it has been a pain. I've ended up writing a batch file to run sox in stat mode on each file and manually investigate anything that looks suspect. So far the problems I've found haven't been subtle - whole sections of songs replaced by digital screeching. At this point would probably have been easier to just re-download the whole thing, but I don't suppose I would have trusted the results. I'm fortunate in that I'm tech savvy enough to deal with this stuff I feel bad for others. I downloaded as soon as they were available when demand was high hopefully issues are resolved now. Seems like the website could have provided a way to verify the integrity of the files though, checksums aren't rocket science... Took me a while to notice these issues because I was distracted by the shiny new thing of blu-rays to watch, so never got around to actually listening to all the music. And to end on a positive note, those blu-rays are pretty awesome...
NYA III finally arrived yesterday here in Spain with the very welcome surprise that no customs charge was levied, the box having gone to a German distribution centre and then received a new delivery label. Happily nobody seems to have noticed the customs declaration on the bottom of the box.
Question: The customs declaration mentions a "Greedy Hand Thank You Card White OS" as being a second item along with the Archives. Cannot find anything in the box. Am I missing something?
And now to start the journey....
Greying Rider, I noticed the Thank you card on the declaration of my box, but like with your box, there was nothing inside. The only thank you I got was from the guy at Parcelforce who took a further £90 from me in customs fees...........I have to say that so far it was worth every penny! Enjoy!
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