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)

 

A new outtake of "White Line" w/ Crazy Horse from 1975 has been posted on Neil Young Archives.

Recorded in the studio at Broken Arrow Ranch on November 27, 1975, this is an early version of the song with Crazy Horse, which was previously unreleased.

 

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 )

 

More on recent outtakes from NYA:

• Outtakes from Neil Young's "Le Noise": "You Never Call"
• Unreleased 1971 Neil Young & Stray Gators Outtake: "See The Sky About To Rain" 
• Rare, Unreleased Outtake: Neil Young's "Your Love Again" - 1985
• HARVEST Outtakes by Neil Young: "Journey Through The Past"
• NEW OUTTAKES: "Natural Beauty" and "Inca Queen" | Neil Young Archives  

 

RUSTies @ Audiophiles Anonymous

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"Toast" - Neil Young on Unreleased 2001 Album w/ Crazy Horse

"Toast" by Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse
 “It's got everything that the best Crazy Horse albums have had.” - Neil

 

Back in 2021, we covered the news that Neil Young had shared some deeply personal feelings on the unreleased 2001 album "Toast" with Crazy Horse.  

Similar to the long unreleased  album "Homegrown" - which Neil felt was too personal to release back in the 1970's --  "Toast" it seems was also too personal to release. Neil writes:

The music of Toast is about a relationship. 

There is a time in many relationships that go bad, a time long before the break up, where it dawns on one of the people, maybe both, that it’s over. This was that time.

Which brings again to a previous the Comment of the Moment on  "Toast" - A Roadstory: Neil Young Shares Thoughts on Unreleased 2001 Album by Setz:

I frequent here often but comment seldom, cause it just doesn't flow out in type as it feels. 

But I can't get past the short time frame between two of Neil's albums that could maybe be the least received at release but maybe the most coherent stories he has told. It seems clear that AYP [ "Are You Passionate?"] came from deep places of love and changes within it. Tours with CSNY in between, which always has had ups and downs, then Greendale comes to light. If you're a forward person, who wouldn't want to turn up the light? Greendale shows happiness, love of family and community around the dark shadows we all deal with every day. So I wonder if there would be Greendale without AYP? 

Now that we've had twenty more years of our own light and shadows, does this art become more relevant? 

Thanks Setz for sharing your thoughts on "Toast". Very interesting, as others have noted.

So, would there have been a "Greendale" without "Are You Passionate?"?  Good question.  Of course, we'll never know and will only begin to conjecture once we do hear "Toast" someday.

We've always found "Greendale" to be very uplifting and inspiring. And maybe as you suggest, "Greendale" was a boomerang reaction to the downcast vibe of "Toast".

Are You Passionate? - 2002

by Neil Young w/ Booker T & M.G.’s

 

More on "Toast" - A Roadstory: Neil Young Shares Thoughts on Unreleased 2001 Album.

In February 2021, we attempted to calculate  Neil Young's upcoming releases (see on Expecting to Calculate Neil Young 2021: Numbers Add Up To Nothin') and mentioned the album "Toast" with Crazy Horse.

Back in 2008, we posted here on TW that:

 ""Toast" is named after a defunct recording studio. "Toast" is "perhaps one of the most under-estimated and deceptive Crazy Horse records of all time, with many songs originally discarded, and then re-recorded with Booker T. and the MGs."

On Roadstories | Contrarian-Times | NYA, Neil Young shared his thoughts on the unreleased album "Toast" with Crazy Horse.  As a comment by Dionys summarizes:

"Obviously this is not about some lost album of the 70’s a la "Homegrown". The Roadstory shines an unexpected and dazzling light on the difficulties to maintain one’s autonomy as an artist."

From Roadstories | Contrarian-Times | NYA by Neil Young:

Toast is an album that stands on its own in my collection. 

Unlike any other, Toast was so sad that I couldn’t put it out. I just skipped it and went on to do another album in its place. I couldn’t handle it at that time. 2001.

John Coltrane, one of my heroes, made some music at ‘Toast’ studio back in the day. It may have been called ‘Coast’ then, but maybe not. The name changed a few times back and forth. It was on Mission in SF. The back door opened onto an alley. It was so stuffy in there that we left the door open until one day we saw rats coming in and out. After that, we just went outside for a smoke.

The music of Toast is about a relationship. There is a time in many relationships that go bad, a time long before the break up, where it dawns on one of the people, maybe both, that it’s over. This was that time.

The sound is murky and dark, but not in a bad way. Fat. From the first note, you can feel the sadness that permeates the recording. That song, with its refrain, ”Don’t say you love me”, is called ‘Quit’. The next one, sort of like a Deep Purple hit, is called ‘Standing in the Light’. “I don’t wanna to get personal, or have you put me on the spot” is the opening line. Followed by ‘Goin Home’, these songs paint a landscape where time doesn’t matter - because everything is going south. A lady is lost in her car. The dark city surrounds her - past present and future. It’s a scary place. You be the judge.

Then the scene changes to a religious guy who just lost his job. He’s turning on Jesus. He can’t cut any more trees. He’s a logger. Finally, The ‘Gateway of Love’ beckons with “background noise on a changing sky”. I had forgotten about these songs, put them out of my mind and went on living my life.

It must be said that here Crazy Horse shows a depth never seen or heard before. The greatest group I have ever met. This is a pinnacle. Where they let me go, where they took me, was unbelievable. I couldn’t stay. Then, “I’d like to shake your hand, Mr. Disappointment.” I see you now eye to eye. Murky and dark. There’s no mistaking it. How can you be so real and intangible? 

So we continued on down on the path. “She’s a healer”. But not this time. 

It’s Toast.

 

GREENDALE by Neil Young & Crazy Horse (See  RETURN TO GREENDALE by Neil Young & Crazy Horse | NYA )

Recall, Neil Young discussed the release of the record with “Rolling Stone” in 2008:

“Toast is done. 

It's an amazing listening experience. It was recorded in 5.1. It's a mind blowing record, and I don't think it's a commercial record, but it's great rock and roll, very moody, kind of jazzy. It was recorded in the same place where Coltrane was recorded, so there's a lot of heavy stuff in there. All of the live ambience for everything was all recorded, so the whole thing has got a massive sound about it. I want to have a premier of it that's in a large art gallery with speakers in all four corners of the room, and huge speakers and really spend some time on the acoustics of the room, so you could have two or three hundred people in there that are in the middle of the sweet spot listening to this thing all around. 

So you came to a real listening experience that you wouldn't be able to get in any other location than right there.”

So "Toast" is a long time coming while sitting on the sidelines always overtaken by other releases.

Also, see Whatever happened to... “Toast” by Neil Young & Crazy Horse? 

Also, see ‘Are You Passionate?’ Turns 10 Years Old and Neil Young's Album of the Week: 'Are You Passionate?' + Defending AYP?

'Are You Passionate?' by Neil Young w/ Booker T & M.G.’s
NYA Album of the Week - Friday, December 13, 2019

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