Neil Young: Official Release Series - "Mirror Ball" Review
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We're a bit late to the party on this one, but to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Neil Young's album "Tonight's The Night", an expanded reissue was released on November 28.
Also, another Neil Young: Official Release Series -- Volume 6, this time Discs 26, 27, 28 & 29, containing four ’90s albums -- Harvest Moon, Unplugged, Sleeps with Angels, and Mirror Ball.
So what’s new about the Mirror Ball in this vinyl box set?The four songs John Hanlon remixed are “I’m the Ocean,” “Big Green Country,” “Truth Be Known,” and “Throw Your Hatred Down,” and they sound very, very subtly different from the originals. Young’s vocals were famously buried on Mirror Ball, and Hanlon has extracted them for more legibility and nuance; the drums have a slightly different character, and the three-guitar morass of Young, Stone Gossard, and Mike McCready takes on a minutely different grain and luster. But surprisingly, there are noticeable differences beyond those four songs. “Song X” and “Act of Love” are presented in alternate mixes as well, with certain vocal refrains that are either absent (“Song X” is missing its first two choruses of “hey-ho, away we go”) or appear early (the titular refrain for “Act of Love” comes in one verse sooner than it used to).And “Peace of Love” now bears an extended ending, with more than a minute and a half of abstract guitar feedback that’s never been heard before. I think the rest of “Peace and Love” might be a different mix, too, but I can’t be positive about that, nor can I say for sure whether anything else in the remaining tracks has changed. “Downtown” sounds the same to my ears, but “Scenery” is such a thick, dense stew that subtle mix changes would be difficult to pinpoint. The two remaining songs, “What Happened Yesterday” and “Fallen Angel,” feature just Young’s voice and pump organ, so any minor mixing shifts to those would be negligible.In short, this Mirror Ball is not exactly the Mirror Ball you grew up with.The differences—in both the new Hanlon remixes and in the unadvertised alternate mixes, which if I had to guess were made by producer Brendan O’Brien during the 1995 sessions and left forgotten on the unused analog assembly reels—may jump out to the devoted who know this album back to front. But I think most people will either not notice them or be more than satisfied with their richness and fullness.Cutting from analog slightly softens the heavy electric tone of the three-guitar ensemble and marginally strips some of the power out of Jack Irons’s propulsive drums. After spending entirely too much time thinking about it, I’m currently of the mind that the original Mirror Ball’s thick, chewy sound has a bit more fire to it, but the difference is so small that I expect I could just as easily find things I like better about the 2025 version in a future listen.
Full review @ Neil Young: Official Release Series Discs 26, 27, 28 & 29 [Reprise] | Vinyl Cut by Ned Lannamann.
Labels: neil young, vinyl
by thrasher@PermaLink: 11/10/2025 12:22:00 PM
3 comments
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Compared to what was to come in future years the March 1976 Japan/Europe was quite a simple affair.
Neil would come on first and do a solo acoustic set of 8 or 9 songs, and then after a short intermission would come back with Crazy Horse for an electric set of 9 or 10 songs. The longest shows had only 19 songs and total running times of just under two hours. The entire tour was only a month long, visited only 16 cities and comprised 22 shows in total – 7 in Japan and 15 in the UK.
The performances were also very straightforward with none of the theatre that came with Rust Never Sleeps for example. For the acoustic set Neil would just walk on and sit on a chair and start playing with pretty much just a single spotlight. The electric set had a bit more lighting but was basically just four young guys playing their music for their and the audience’s enjoyment.
I was at the Glasgow show that was the last night of the tour. It wasn’t intended to be the last night, but demand for tickets in London was such that they added a 4th show there on the original Glasgow date, and bumped the Glasgow one to after the London shows. (We might not have got the film of Neil busking The Old Laughing Lady on the banjo at Glasgow Central station on the day of the show if this hadn’t happened – I think he had some time to kill).
My memories are of outstanding performances of old, recent and brand new songs, and very enthusiastic and positive audience reaction. At the time none of us knew what to expect – there was no internet then and we were dependent on musical newspapers like the NME for any information. Zuma had been released the year before, and the last time Neil had played in the UK was the Tonight’s The Night tour. I loved Zuma, and was also very fond of AFTG, Harvest and EKTIN so the acoustic/electric format and the setlist very much met with my approval. In fact if I was to go and see Neil perform today and it was the same setlist I would be delighted.
The electric set had the most impact on me at the time as I had never seen or heard performances like these before. It was very rare to get any rock music on TV at the time, but I had seen the BBC In Concert footage so the style of the acoustic set was no real surprise. What I hadn’t experienced before was the long electric jams and Neil’s extended guitar soloing. And of course the absolute highlight of this was when Neil casually said ‘Here’s another new song for you’ and launched into Like a Hurricane. This was a jaw-dropping performance, particularly when Neil was soloing in front of a giant electric fan, his long hair and clothes ‘blown away’ as he played.
It was over all too soon, but the memories have remained. A friend who was with me remarked he hadn’t expected Neil to play so many of his favorite ‘old songs’. None of us would ever have imagined Neil would still be playing old and new songs for us nearly 50 years later.
Just wanted to add that looking back and with the benefit of hindsight perhaps the most significant thing about the Japan/Europe tour was that it was the start of the Poncho era of live Crazy Horse performances. So much was yet to come...
Regarding the Odeon Budokan album I share Tomatron's thoughts on it's brevity. It is really only half a show, and some of the tracks were rarely performed on the tour, e.g. Stringman was only played once, The Old Laughing Lady twice, and even Cowgirl was only played 5 times.
If it had been released in 1976 though my biggest surprise would have been the omission of Like A Hurricane. It was played every night and was an absolute standout. Perhaps Neil and Briggs wanted to save it for a studio album i.e Stars and Bars or as we now know Chrome Dreams. Having said that I actually enjoy listening to Odeon Budokan now as a live sampler as Tomatron suggests.
I have also been enjoying listening to CD, as a collection of classic Neil tracks, and as many have said it is mind boggling to enter the world of what if regarding what the Neil Young catalogue of albums would have looked like if different choices had been made about what albums were actually released. I am reminded of a quote from Poncho where he said Neil would ring him up to tell them they were releasing album and Poncho would say 'Oh yeah - what's on it?'
Perhaps the NYA timeline is the best way to explore Neil's music now, with the ability to see what was recorded when in chronological order rather than album order.