Chrome Dreams by Neil Young - UPDATED

 Chrome Dreams by Neil Young Art by Ronnie Wood, Christmas '76  (Click photo to enlarge)

 

UPDATE June 30: This is now officially posted on NYA w/ "Sedan Delivery" preview stream.

Neil Young Archives

 

The May 22, 1975 version of “Sedan Delivery,” is a much slower, mellower take  with a lyric variation:  

"The full moon is in my shoulder

I’m feeling a better way

there’s no one to say goodbye to

there’s no one to make me stay"

1. Pocahontas.............(3:24)
2. Will to Love...........(7:11)
3. Star of Bethlehem......(2:42)
4. Like a Hurricane.......(8:14)
5. Too Far Gone...........(2:41)
6. Hold Back the Tears....(5:16)
7. Homegrown..............(2:20)
8. Captain Kennedy........(2:55)
9. Stringman..............(3:32)
10. Sedan Delivery.........(5:22)
11. Powderfinger...........(3:23)
12. Look Out for My Love...(4:06)

 

 Neil Young: Chrome Dreams Era c~1975

 

From Rusted Moon:

"Chrome Dreams" was supposed to be released in early 1977 as a follow-up to "Zuma".

Neil Young included song material from the Zuma sessions with "Crazy Horse" (1975), recordings at his ranch and the Indigo Ranch solo session for "Hitchiker" (1976). However, Neil Young dropped the already completed work, of which a test pressing already existed, and released "American Stars'n Bars" instead. Five of the twelve songs ended up on this album. More songs appeared - some in different versions - in the following two years on the albums "Comes A Time" and "Rust Never Sleeps". The versions intended for "Chrome Dreams" at the time have since appeared on other archive albums such as "Hitchhiker" or in "Archives Vol. 2".

Per PR:

"Powderfinger" is the early/first solo version, the original.

"Pocahontas" is the same version that first appeared on RUST NEVER SLEEPS, but without the overdubs.

"Sedan Delivery" and "Hold Back the Tears" are originals with lyrics that were not included in later released versions. Both are very different versions than previously released.

"Stringman," is another original performance, included on the ODEON/BUDOKAN disc in ARCHIVES VOL. II; prior to that the song had only appeared on Young's UNPLUGGED album in a later version, not the original.

UPDATE:  The album cover preview and advance track have been removed from Apple Music. We do not have any further info on why Apple Music apparently violated an embargo and/or shenanigans are at work here.  Any further details would be appreciated.  Drop a comment below.

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Here is a preview of the album cover for the upcoming  Chrome Dreams by Neil Young.

The release date is August 4, 2023 by Other Shoe Productions.  Artwork looks to be by Ronnie Wood, Christmas '76. (NOTE: Neil - "original cover (drawn by Briggs) was burned in my house fire in 78 - lost forever.")

Image courtesy of Mike "Road Dawg" who tells us that this is now posted on Apple Music with "Sedan Delivery" now streaming.

Recall a LTE on NYA in 2022,

"Chrome Dreams was mastered and I used to have a recording of it (test pressing) that burned in a fire with my house. It was a good record that I passed by, having written so many songs at the time."

 More background from Ward W on NYU | FB:

"Pocahontas, Powderfinger, and Captain Kennedy are the Hitchhiker versions. 

 

Bethlehem is the Homegrown/Stars Bars take. Homegrown, Hurricane, and Will To Live are the Stars Bars versions. Stringman and Too Far Gone are in Archives 2. Look Out For My Love is the Comes A Time version. So if not for Hitchhiker and Archives 2, this is a little repetitive. But Sedan Delivery is terrific, and Hold Back The Tears is a cool solo acoustic alternate."

And recall another LTE on NYA in 2022,

‘chrome Dreams’ from 77 is an acetate - a finished record - unreleased. NYA has that acetate. It will be released in its entirety as a “Special Release Series” offering. It’s from the Volume 2 period. I believe some songs on it are on Vol 2.
It will get made eventually. I hope you will like it. It was a finished record…until I changed my mind……

 

Chrome Dreams II (2007)

by Neil Young

 

And who can forget Chrome Dreams II? (see them critics sitting alone react in reviews from back in the day... after those days that used to be...) For example,

From  Uncut.co.uk 2007 review of Neil Young's "Chrome Dreams II":

"I’ve heard “Chrome Dreams II” now, and I’m broadly struggling to see its connection to the first mythical set.

In some ways, it’s a kind of reverse: if “Chrome Dreams” was a collection of great Neil songs that were subsequently dispersed across various disparate albums, “Chrome Dreams II” in part seems to be a collection of disparate, mainly great Neil songs that have been gathered together, somewhat belatedly."

The Neil Young album released in 2007 when the 1st version release never even occurred?  And here we are in 2023 - some 15 years later -- we are finally scheduled to get Chrome Dreams #1.

That Neil. Always throwing the curve balls. Because you have to throw curve balls in order to stay ahead of the curves.

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MEGA-REVIEW: COLORADO by Neil Young & Crazy Horse | Alan's Album Archives

COLORADO by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Release Date: October 25, 2019 - Pre-order now
(Please shop locally & independently. But if you can't, we appreciate your supporting Thrasher's Wheat by clicking this link. Thank you!!!)

Over the years, we have regarded reviews from Alan's Album Archives to be indispensable for in-depth analysis of classic or neglected albums.

We are highlighting this review because Alan's Album Archives has compiled probably the most extensive collection of Neil Young album critical analysis anywhere. So here's an interesting look at COLORADO by Neil Young & Crazy Horse on Alan's Album Archives:

Neil sounds happier than I would have expected him to given the sad events of a year that saw him move in with a new love and lose the mother of many of his children (which does sound like a Machiavellian pact).

Rather than the guilt of ‘Storytone’ though Neil feels free to write his new wife love songs quite openly for the first real time and as a result there’s a sense of contentment and domesticity that we haven’t heard since 1978’s ‘Comes A Time’. In the middle of this turbulent record made in a hugely turbulent era personally and politically Neil can sing of rainbows and love with an innocence seventy-four-year-olds don’t normally have. Neil pays Darryl her own tributes in the way he once did with wives Pegi, Carrie and Susan, with the line to sum up her take-no-prisoners righteous soul ‘She walked like she knew where she was going’ to match the stability-and-brooms of ‘Harvest Moon’, the lust and confusion of ‘A Man Needs A Maid’ and the awed love songs of ‘Neil Young’ respectively.

Darryl brings light to a world of darkness, a rainbow of colours to an Earth that seems to exist in black-and-white and hope to a life that thought it was over and done already. Darryl is painted here time and again as a fierce fighter who knows her own mind but brings Neil a peace and tranquillity he hasn’t felt for a long time and a fairytale as she waited all those years to be with him without being disappointed in him. This album is very much her album in the same way that ‘Neil Young’ was for Susan, ‘Harvest’ was for Carrie and ‘Comes A Time’ was for Pegi, but naturally for such a known eco-warrior who knows her politics, it’s a record that’s concerned with the outer world as well as the inner world.

One of the big announcements made during the press junket for ‘Colorado’ was that, after fifty years of being a dual citizen, Neil is now officially an American. This is, if he doesn’t mind me saying so, a weird time to do just that. The official line is that Neil ‘got tired of not having a say’ in American politics and fed up of lambasting critics who wondered why he cared so much about Trump if he was Canadian. It is, I fear, a sign of the times. Nobody questioned Neil’s right to write about whomever the hell he wanted when Nixon was in the White House and even as recently as 2008 George Bush Jnr was fair game; it’s only now the Trumpies are in the house that people are as likely to check stranger’s citizenship rights and birth certificate before they check out your record collection. It seems odd, too, that Neil of all people should stoop to caring what the public thought of him just two years after gleefully kicking off ‘The Visitor’ with the line ‘I’m Canadian by the way…’ The politics of what’s happening to the world runs through the veins of ‘Colorado’ in more ways than just the title, even if it’s softer than the Trump pot-shots of the last couple of CDs. For starters, Trump doesn’t get a specific mention this time around though that’s clearly who Neil is aiming at with his tales of biased television reports and angry unthinking supporters.

Full album review with track by track commentary of COLORADO by Neil Young & Crazy Horse on Alan's Album Archives.

See also FIRST IMPRESSIONS: 'Colorado' by Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

"I want it up as loud as it can go!" - Neil
Neil Young & Crazy Horse in the Studio
(Frame via film Mountaintop)

Also, see commentary on STREAMING PREVIEW: "Milky Way" on COLORADO, New Album by Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

Also,

INTERVIEW: Neil Young - The music icon on his 50 year career, making music and his new documentary | CBC

INTERVIEW: Nils Lofgren on Reconnecting With Neil Young & Crazy Horse | Variety

#CrazyHorse4HOF, @CrazyHorse4HoF

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TRACK LIST: Neil Young's "Hitchhiker" Due 14 July 2017

Neil Young | Hitchhiker
Album Cover by Gary Burden | rTwerk.com
(Click photo to enlarge)

Already, much excitement about the news we broke last week that Neil Young's newest album "Hitchhiker" is due for release on 14 July 2017.

At the time of our original posting, a track listing was unavailable which of course led to rampant speculation of the songs included with various arguments for against the selections. Now comes word of the track list via Lone Red Rider who shared a listing posted to Diverse Vinyl:

SIDE 1
1. Pocahontas
2. PowderFinger
3. Captain Kennedy
4. Hawaii
5. Give Me Strength

SIDE 2
1. Ride My Llama
2. Hitchhiker / Like An Inca V1
3. Campaigner
4. Human Highway
5. The Old Country Waltz

As Lone Red Rider notes, assuming this is track list is correct, blogger Kahunasunset is closest to the pin, from his speculation on the original topic.

Last month, we posted an intriguing image by Gary Burden | rTwerk.com of what appeared to be a cover for the unreleased album Neil Young | Hitchhiker. Gary Burden is Neil Young's long time art director and cover graphic artist. Also, credited is Jenice Heo, who is responsible for Art Direction, Design.

Hitchhiker includes solo, acoustic songs recorded in 1976 at the Indigo Ranch Studios in Malibu, California.

More on Neil Young's newest album "Hitchhiker", due for release on 14 July 2017.

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More Developments on New Album Americana by Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Geronimo in a 1905 Locomobile Model C
Photo Wikipedia
(Click photo to enlarge)

Well, much discussion, anticipation and speculation regarding the news on the album cover art and track listing for Americana, the upcoming release by Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

The album cover design has a fascinating back story.

The Americana cover is based on a photograph of Geronimo driving a car on June 11, 1905, near Ponca City, Okla. The car is a Locomobile, and the Indian in full headdress to Geronimo's left is Edward Le Clair Sr., a Ponca Indian. When Geronimo died in 1909, he was buried in the vest.

Apparently, according to album notes, the Americana cover was rescued from the 2010 warehouse fire from an earlier design in 1975. The faces of Neil Young, Billy Talbot (Geronimo), Ralph Molina, & Poncho Sampedro were pasted over the original photo for a cover that was never used.

Americana by Neil Young & Crazy Horse

More from Neil Young's official website:

AMERICANA is collection of classic, American folk songs. In their day, some of these may have been referred to as "protest songs", "murder ballads", or campfire-type songs passed down with universal, relatable tales for everyman.

But -- without so much as a note being heard by anyone outside the Ranch crowd -- the album already seems to be coming under criticism:

• unoriginal, uninspiring Americana covers
• using a children's choir
• songs with titles like "God Save The Queen" smacking of "pro imperialism"
• exploitation of the Native American

A comment by thezumaband:

Seems a bit premature and in some cases ideologically biased to be judging something that hasn't been heard yet.

Lighten up, folks.

And take a listen to the acoustic version of "Oh Susannah" from the Bridge concert. He's doing a dramatically different take on these iconic songs of his/my/our 50s childhood. They should be particularly heavy given the electric treatment.

"Oh! Susanna" (Live) - Dave Matthews / Neil Young - Mtn. View, Shoreline - October 23, 2011


Neil Young wearing Geronimo T-shirt - 2004
"Geronimo - My Heroes have always Killed Cowboys"
(Click photo to enlarge)

More on album cover art and track listing for Americana.

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Album Cover Art & Track Listing: Americana - Neil Young & Crazy Horse

From Neil Young's official website, comes the album cover art for Americana, the upcoming release by Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

Here is the complete track-listing for Americana:

Oh Susannah
Clementine
Tom Dula
Gallows Pole
Get A Job
Travel On
HIgh Flyin' Bird
Jesus' Chariot
This Land Is Your Land
Wayfarin' Stranger
God Save The Queen

From Neil Young And Crazy Horse to Release New Album 'Americana' on June 5th | Music News | Rolling Stone By Andy Greene, the release date is June 5.

"What ties these songs together is the fact that while they may represent an America that may no longer exist," says a press release announcing the new album."The emotions and scenarios behind these songs still resonate with what’s going on in the country today with equal, if not greater impact nearly 200 years later. The lyrics reflect the same concerns and are still remarkably meaningful to a society going through economic and cultural upheaval, especially during an election year. They are just as poignant and powerful today as the day they were written."

The newest album with Crazy Horse is eagerly anticipated by fans.

Based on the reception of Crazy Horse at the Musicares Honors Paul McCartney event in February.

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